Little League World Series

This time of year is generally slow for sports. Baseball is dogging through August. Football is just getting into full-swing with pre-season games. There's no basketball to be spoken of. And hockey...well for all I know they may be in the middle of the Stanley Cup but I wouldn't know anyway.

One exciting sporting event taking place right now is the Little League World Series. We get the chance to see 12 and 13 year olds compete on the biggest stage for the right to be called "World Champions." We see the radar gun on the TV screen telling us how fast each pitch is if converted to Major League distance. We see home runs-a-plenty over 200 foot fences. We see kids elated, and on the other side dejected.

And the managers, parents, and fans all accept this as OK. But let me play devil's advocate here.
First off...I am all for competition. It is a fun way to get great effort out of people without just yelling and screaming at them (and if that sounds like your coaching style with kids, get a clue). We can teach lessons in competition about how to be proud in defeat and, more importantly, humble in victory. But at what expense are we exposing these kids at such a young age?

One major flaw (which may not be any one's fault, but it still exists) is with the cutoff date. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about this in Outliers, which I highly recommend reading. Essentially, kids at a young age are singled out as being "elite" because they are so much bigger, stronger and faster than the rest. Well with a little digging Gladwell noted, in elite Canadian hockey leagues, that the vast majority of these "elite" players were born very close to the cutoff date (soon after). Why was this? Because at these young ages, a few months of extra growth time is a HUGE difference. These kids were physically older than their peers of seemingly the same age.




What was the result? These kids received special coaching, extra games, more practice and many eventually went on to be great players down the road.

But what happens to the kids who were left out at age 10, who may have been unlucky enough to be born at the end of the year? How many of these kids were turned off to the game at a young age? What if they had the same coaching and opportunities until they were able to hit their growth spurts and catch up with the rest?

I think the same problem exists with the Little League World Series. I haven't checked the birth dates, but I would guess a similar trend exists with these "All-Star" teams from each community.

My second problem with this competition is the lessons that are, or aren't, being taught to these young kids. There was a story the other day about a game where the pitcher on one team was instructed to intentionally walk an opposing batter. Well, on a 3-0 count the batter swung at a pitch feet outside the zone at his coaches demand. Why? Apparently to get the pitcher closer to his pitch limit and be forced to come out of the game.

Really?

This is what we want to teach our kids? Not that giving your best effort and having fun is OK...but rather trying to take advantage or rules, or lack there-of, in order to win is right.

Isn't that how we got into this whole steroids mess to begin with...You hear that argument all the time-"Well, it wasn't against the rules at the time." Now, most of the coaches I'm sure do a great job. But we don't hear about them as often.

I am personally over the Little League World Series. I am happy for the kids, and just hope they come through unscathed by some of the misguided coaches that are put in charge of them.

Jon