Jen and I allow A to be involved in two activities at a time. We want him to be able to experience and tryout different sports and activities without being over committed. Karate has been one of those activities for the past 3 years. Little League baseball is the other activity for the spring this year. He has played baseball every year since he was old enough for tee-ball. A had the same coach for three seasons of little league. We got to know the coach well and we liked the way he interacted with the kids. However, the coach's son was not promoting to the next level, so we were going to have to move on to a different coach. This made us a little nervous since we had seen the coaches of a few of the other teams treat their players in ways that we did not think was appropriate for 7-8 year olds. It turned out that our trepidations were partially realized. Last year we realized that the little league in our town is a little cliquish and political. It was very evident that the kids that got the majority of the playing time and practice time were kids that were on the all-start team from the prior season. A had been invited to try out for that particular all-star team. We decided that the time commitment was too great for us. The all-star team practices 4-5 days a week and has tournaments every weekend for 6 weeks. That seemed a little extreme. During the practices, the all-star kids got to play the infield positions where the vast majority of the balls were hit. During the games, the all-stars stayed in the game while the non all-stars sat on the bench. The coach went so far as to tell the parents that the kids that were put in the outfield were put there for their own safety. Those kids were deemed unworthy of playing in the infield since the ball might be hit at them at a high rate of speed. How did the coach know if those kids could catch the ball in the infield since they spent the entire time at practice in the outfield? During the season there were some minor confrontations between the coaches and a few of the parents over playing time. It was not a great situation and there was quite a bit of tension around the team. Flash forward to this year. I talked with A and asked him if he was serious about baseball and wanted to get better. He said that he was so I enrolled him in lessons. He goes once a week and the lesson focuses on hitting and throwing. So far, the lessons are going very well. He is throwing the ball much better and his swing looks much better than last year. Last year he was a contact hitter. He did not strike out very often, but the ball did not get out of the infield very often either. The instructor is working on harnessing some power in his swing. So far, it seems to be working, at least at the lessons. At tryouts, A had a tough time with the bat. It was the first time he had seen balls from a pitching machine in almost a year. That was my fault, I should have at least taken him to a cage to get him ready for that. He was very discouraged after the batting portion of the tryout. I tried to build him up, but it did not appear to work. Then he went to fielding and did a great job. Each ball that was hit to him he fielded cleanly and then strongly and accurately to first base. I was very pleased with his fielding. I know that the hitting will come. A week after the tryouts, they held the draft. The following day, the coaches email all of the players letting them know which team they are on. This season, A is a Hotrod. He has a few friends on the team, which he is excited about. The coach is one of the assistant coaches from least year. I am a little nervous about how this season will go. I hope that A gets a fair chance for playing time. I hope that he gets a chance to play in the infield. But, most importantly, I hope that A has fun and enjoys the season. That would be a vast improvement from last year.
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