"I adore simple pleasures.  They are the last refuge in a complex world."  Oscar Wilde

Take baseball...baseball is a simple game, and almost everyone knows how to play baseball: 1) you throw the ball; 2) you catch the ball; 3) you hit the ball with a bat;  Pretty simply, right?  But, there are people who can make the game of baseball so complicated and technical, that it will make your head spin!  Case in point;

Many years ago, I coached a Little League baseball team, and I got my brother-in-law to help me as a coach.  I had never done anything like this before, so I didn't know what to expect from a bunch of 9-12 year olds, etc.  I had no idea how much a nine, ten, or twelve year old knew about the game of baseball or what he could learn, etc. To see 15 of those little faces sitting around the back stop, didn't sit well with me at first.  And, I began to wonder if I should have volunteered in the first place.  But, we would do the best we could with the team.

Fifteen kids...ages from nine to twelve and from every walk of life, were sitting there around the backstop waiting for me to get started, and I really didn't know what to do or where to start!  How was I going to mold these kids into a team that could win?  Opening day to the season, was about a month away, and we had to get started with practice right away.  After a few comments about the generalities of the game, and our own team rules, I got the boys out on the field so they could loosen up a bit and throw the ball around.  My brother in law, hit a little in-field practice to get things started.

While they were doing this, I went over to another part of the school grounds at the elementary school where we practiced, to watch another team in our league practice.  I thought it would be good for me to get some ideas and tips on how they were doing things and go from there, etc.  I thought it would help me too, with my own coaching as well.

As it turned out...as I watched this team practice, I learned quite a bit in a short time, about what NOT to do with the kids!  You see, these fathers (coaches) were out there confusing the kids...getting so technical with the kids, and it was a little irritating for me to watch!  They were doing things that a 9-12 years olds that I could never do.  For example:

The fathers were teaching these kids everything that a Major League team would do from practicing double-plays; to run-downs between bases; to bunting practice; taking signs from the dug-out; various batting stances; one bounce from the outfield to the plate to get the lead runner; hitting the ball to the opposite field...the whole nine yards!  I had seen enough!

"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." Leonardo de Vinci

Because we were just getting started, I really didn't know how I was going to proceed with these kids, but I knew one thing after watching this team practice.  I was NOT going to do all the things they were doing...never! 

What the two coaches were doing, was confusing the kids...and they were being too technical with the kids, in my view.  Theses kids were only 9-12 years old...they're just starting out, and they can't possibly absorbe all that stuff!  This type of thing was not going to happen on our team! 

Kids at this age, don't have the kind of co-ordination, speed and reflexes to do some of the things that the two coaches were expecting of them!  They don't!  In the two years I coached Little League, I saw no douple plays; I saw nobody steal a base; I saw few run-downs; and you were lucky of a kid could hit the ball....much less to the opposite field!  Practicing all this stuff was a waste of time, in my view, and time could be better spent practicing other things, etc. By practicing these things, I thought this team would get worse as the season went on...and in the end...I was right!

So, none of this stuff was ever done on our team.  So, if these things were never done by a 9-12 years old...why practice it?  It didn't make any sense to me, and was a waste of time, and it would be the kids that would be hurt by all of it.  The only reason I could think of why the coaches would teach the kids all this "technical" stuff was an ego trip...to show how much they knew about baseball.  A big mistake on the part of the fathers as to what they were doing with these kids, and it would be the kids who would suffer later on, in my view. 

Our approch to the game would be simplicity!  Keep It Simple, Stupid!  We would not have any of the following: no double-plays; no run-downs; no bunting practice; no signals of any kind; no get the lead runner; no hitting to the opposite field; stances would be relaxed and simple; and we would approach the game as simply as we could.

"Nothing is a simple as we hope it will be." French proverb

Two other things were important to us; discipline and praise for the kids when they did good!  There were only a few thing to remember on our team...get the easy out...was our cry!  Throw the ball (hopefully straight); catch the ball; hit the ball...that's it...pretty simple! 

The kids would learn to throw the ball straight over and over and over again until they got it right!  They were going to learn to catch the ball over and over and over until they got it right!  Repetition...until they were blue in the face!  They didn't have to remember all that gibberish like the other team...they could execute a play because of repetition...they got better and better as practice went on. 

Practice; practice; practice and now they were starting to look like a baseball team!  We would keep the game as simple as we could, and I wanted the kids to do it right everytime!  

There were five keys to winning, in my view.  keep it simple; discipine; repetition; good pitching and lots of praise for the kids...they ate it up!  I was lucky...I had two very good pitchers, and I worked with them whenever I could.  If we were going to have a winning team...it would be the pitching that would lead the way! 

In Little League baseball, there are six innings, and 18 outs; My pitchers were so good, that they struck out an average of 13 batters per game!  So, If the kids on the opposite team didn't ever get on base...why would we need to practice all that defense and gibberish like the other team?  We didn't!  Instead, we practiced hitting...and winning!

As they say...the proof is in the pudding, and practice was over, and the regular season began.  And now, we would find out if we had a disciplined team, that could go out and win.  When the season opened, I was so pleased with how much progress the kids made during practice and in such a short time.  I felt that we would win more games than we would lose, but that was yet to be seen.

"Making the simple complicated is a commonplace...but making the complicated simple...that's creativity."  Jim Horning

We won our first eight games in a row starting out...and we won them on simplicity...the kids knew what they had to do to win, and playing error-free as much as we could.  And, then we lost two in a row, and it had me worried for a while.  To make a long story and season short...we won 17 games and lost only three...and two of those games we lost to the eventual champions!  They had better pitchers than we did, but we gave them all they wanted.

Sadly...the team that I watched at the beginning of the practice season, only won 2 games and lost 18 games!  That's terrible!  In Little League, there's a "ten run rule" in which, if a team is ten runs behind...the game is stopped, as to not humiliate the losing team, and I think it's a good rule.  When we played this team that won 2 games and lost 18 we beat them by more than ten runs and both games were stopped and we won them both!  That team looked confused and didn't look like they knew what they were doing! 

I felt so sorry for the kids!  The fathers were to blame and nowhere to be seen, and by the end of the season, the team was being coached by a couple of 14 years olds!  Pretty sad!  This was a shame, because these two men, poured all this "technical" stuff on the kids and confusion was a big part of their losses.

"In character; in manner; in style; in all things...the supreme excellence is simplicity!"  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

In that first year, I enjoyed working with the kids so much, that I decided to come back the following year!  Surprisingly, we duplicated the first year and won 17 and lost only 3 games the second year as well for a 34-6 record over two years!  And, if somebody asks me for advice in any endeavor or project that they may have...my advice is always to...keep it simple, stupid! 

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