Question for Bear & friends

Perhaps the root cause is the American (human?) tendency toward short term goals. This problem has been thoroughly discussed in regard to corporate America. Yet it also pervades youth sports, most notably related to young (i.e., nine to twelve year old) pitchers.

For most managers and parents (at least from my observation), the goal is winning games - today, not next year. Too often there is a "win at all costs" attitude. More worthy goals would be developing players, building good fundamentals and fostering a love for the game. The latter implies making the experience as enjoyable as possible (not, however, that every moment will be "sweetness and light").

The pressure to win takes its toll on managers and parents. Both can fall prey to the its effects. This leads them to allow, pursue, or encourage practices not in the player's long term interest. Thus we have: ten year old boys working on curve balls, throwing them half the time; coaches telling a small, weak hitter to crouch down in their stance (e.g., even smaller strike zone) and keep their bat on their shoulder (better a walk than a strike-out?); nine year old's who parents are pushing them to reach a pitch count of 80; and too many kids with serious elbow damage seeing orthopedic surgeons.

From the parent's perspective, this is a particularly strong problem when their son wants to pitch. Who does the manager normally select to pitch? The kid who gets the strike outs. And, being honest, some of the pitchers (ages nine to twelve) who get the strike outs are the ones who are throwing "junk" or are throwing hard because of their size and in spite of poor mechanics.

What often happens to the nine or ten year old child with good mechanics but not overwhelming velocity, who sticks to fastballs? He finds the plate consistently and his pitches get hit. Typically, the manager then becomes wary to put the kid in at pitcher. Why? Because he wants to win games and this kid, while he may have good mechanics and great long term potential, is "just giving up too many hits."

So, the young pitcher with good potential and good mechanics no longer gets game experience. This can reduce his enthusiasm for working on his pitching. He is denied the irreplaceable game experience that pitchers need. If he continues to develop, it will be because he and his parents have incredible drive and discipline.

Other parents, after seeing their son miss out on pitching, will allow (or encourage) their son to pursue the junk pitches. The coach, perhaps with seemingly good intentions (e.g., "I want to be able to pitch the boy, if he just had a curve...") may do likewise.

The orthopedic surgeon can thus feel comfortable buying his new car, as another young patient is in the making.

How do we break this vicious cycle? Too often the managers who are encouraged to return (or are the ones allowed to return) are those who pursued the win at all costs strategy and had the best records. {Note: I acknowledge that there good, winning managers who do not adhere to the win at all costs strategy do exist. In my part of the world, however, they seem to be the minority.} Too often the parents fail to persevere.

Your thoughts, my esteemed colleagues?