This is my first attempt at blogging. Though I write a local column, I still have more to say - I'm probably lucky I don't have a radio show - I wouldn't want to join Don Imus.
Thank God for the internet ... people need a venue to speak, the world is becoming so politically correct that anything that challenges the "progressive" view is destroyed. Teachers and professors will fail students with the "wrong" views ... and the media and its sponsers will turn on "outspoken" people with a vengenance.
So, I think you know what I want to do with this blog - I want opinions! They don't have to be well-thought-out or even based on fact .... I want to hear what people know in their gut. Usually our gut has it figured out, then we try to rationalize what we know. Sort of like listening to music - we like the song, then later on we put into words why we like it.
Does it have to be about golf? No. Have to be about sports? No. Just take a swing at any subject.
I'll start it, but it can go anywhere ... and change topics if you want - just take a swing.
So this is about swings - not golf swings, but baseball swings. Years ago, I helped coach one of my son's Little League teams. It was the first year after Coach Pitch, so the kids had to bat against someone trying to get them out. Well, they didn't want to screw up - they just wanted to walk. So I had to make them swing. In fact, if they walked, I pulled them out of the game. The first few games they were swinging at everything and striking out - the parents went crazy. But we kept at it, and by the middle of the season, the kids could hit. So we won the second half of the season and played the winner of the first half for the championship. The first half winners never learned how to hit - they always hoped to get a walk, and it worked for them for a while, but they never got aggressive and/or learned how to hit. Obviously, we killed them in that final game - but what was really sad is that they never really played baseball. Life is about swinging the bat.
4 comments:
Great Start ATOM! Perhaps in coach pitch, the kids should only get 7 pitches to hit the ball - 6 right down the middle. If they reach the seventh without having taken a swing at any of them, they get one more pitch that's thrown right at them. If they dodge that one, they earn the walk.
Winning is not everything. Even if the kids struck out all the time and never won, it would still be better to actually "go out swinging" then stand around, walk everytime, and win.
I remember having to compete against the coach's son for a spot in the lineup. The team served as a daycare for his kids and ultimatley the demise of the squad. I wanted to win baby. Some folks are natural born winners and they will do anything to win.
I agree 100%. My high school basketball experience is a perfect example of this. As a freshman, I was devastated to find out that I had made the "B" team. However, it turned out to be the best possible thing that could have happened for me as a person and for my basketball career. The coach of the "A" team ran a very strict and structured offense that did not allow for the players to play the game and react to what was happening. He even banned a few kids from shooting the ball, ever! My coach, on the "B" team, encouraged my teammates and me to shoot the ball at every oppurtunity; he wasn't worried about the result as long as it was a good shot. Under this freedom my game flourished, I developed a deadly outside shot and my confidence as a player soared. The next year, while playing on the sophmore team, I playing ahead of many of the kids that spent the previous year on the "A" team. Although I was disappointed initially, playing on that team and having the freedom to "swing the bat" changed my game completely. I doubt my game would have improved half as much on the "A" team, where kids were afraid to shoot the ball.
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