Former Colorado Rockies Pitcher Jason Hirsh, radio personality Andy Lindahl on youth baseball coaching, sport specialization

For those that don’t know, I have a 9-year-old son and an 11-year-old daughter. So as you can see I have not dealt with the high school athletic culture since I graduated in 2004. That is why this quote by Andy Lindahl hit me so hard “I coached for a guy that if you did not do all his camps or do these certain tournaments, you were not in consideration for varsity playing time.”

My only response to this was “Are you kidding me?” This is supposed to be the person that is the reason in the chaos, calm within the storm.

Yet, he is just exacerbating the undue pressure put on so many young athletes to give up so much of their time to a single sport. We end up with stats like 57% of Tommy John surgeries are done on high-school athletes (ages 15-19).

A lot of people attribute these stats to advents of things like 9 year-olds throwing curveballs. But as was pointed out by Jason Hirsh when asked about this, “[t]he studies show that the curveball is no more damaging than the fastball.”

This study confirms that fact, surprisingly it actually shows that throwing a fastball is actually worse than either a curveball or change-up. This actually confirms that the volume of pitches thrown, not the type, is the biggest culprit in injuries to youth athletes.

Even USA Baseball agrees with the benefits of playing multiple sports, such as avoiding burnout and reducing the risk of overuse injuries. Now, that being said with a caveat as stated by Hirsh. “Once you get into high school, you need to start honing your skills,” said Hirsh.

He went on to expand by stating if you’re wanting to focus on baseball, for instance, you need to play other sports that are more an extension of your training program than one that has no correlation to your sport of choice, such as track for conditioning and flexibility that correlates to speed, reaction time and leaping ability if you are an outfielder/middle infielder (see Dexter Fowler).

Or football for core/arm/lower body strength, speed, and toughness for really any position on the field, bonus of arm strength without the overuse of pitching/throwing year-round if you are a QB (e.g. Ryan McMahon).

A lot of other people I have heard arguments that you MUST specialize your child in a sport if you ever want them to get that full-ride scholarship.

Jason Hirsh warned when asked if there was any validity to that, he flat-panned “[n]ot at all.” He continued, “[u]nless you are a freak of nature, you are not getting a full ride. If you are looking for a full-ride scholarship, and you’re not a freak of nature, like a Mike Trout, you chose the wrong sport.”

He went on to explain that in today’s college landscape, academics are as important, if not more important than athletics. As Hirsh noted, “Tommy Try Hard” is going to need to either have academic scholarships to offset the cost, or a family that can foot the bill as they work through college.

Sports have long been used and touted as a universal unifier. We can all find a common thread with a stranger through some nuance in one of the many leisure sports we enjoy today. It has also been touted that sports have a major impact on academic success.

It is hard to believe that in a time of analytics, one in which so many “coaching savants” tout they are the master of, we can’t compute that funneling these kids down the assembly line like cattle with no regard for their enjoyment and sometimes safety, leads to the 70% drop-out rate I touched on in this article.

That means we only get to see what 30% of our possible next great athletes actually reach their peak for our enjoyment.

The reason, as you can see all signs leading to, is again, the coaching.

As stated in practically every study I cited, they all concur bad/ill-informed coaching is at the nucleus of all things wrong in youth sports when you separate money. That truly stings me, personally, as a volunteer coach for my son’s teams since he became old enough to play. I know it settled just as poorly with Jason and Andy for the same reason.

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In all cases, information, education, and training were the common themes for remedies to what ails what should be a safe space within the eye of the storm these children call lives.

I want to take a second to remind you to say these 5 words as much as possible to your young athlete, “I love to watch you play”.

Make sure when you are headed home from the game this is a time of fun, win or lose, not a time of coaching. We all need to ensure we are informed on how informed our child’s coach is, what is their level of expertise?

We, as parents, are the controlling factor, we make the drives, we pay the dues(literal and figurative). I would like to apply an old bit of wisdom: “Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws!” -Amschel Mayor James Rothschild.

In other words, whoever controls the purse-strings, controls everything. Remember to wield all power with respect, but stand firm in your convictions that are backed by facts and realism so you can best arm your athlete to navigate this world of distractions while making it enjoyable.

In closing, I will leave you with this pot-o-gold: “With great power, comes great responsibility.”