To fulfill my volunteer requirement, I knew I wanted to do something that would interest me and also help give back to the community. Playing baseball for the last 15 years, I knew this would be the perfect opportunity to share some insight and knowledge with the next generation of ballplayers. I wanted to create an environment where I not only taught the kids about baseball, but also about life and how learning to accept failure is a huge benefit later on in life. In baseball, failure occurs in the best case scenario 70% of the time, so it’s easy for a kid to get down on themselves and want to give up. During my volunteering, I tried my best to implement my thoughts that these games or practices aren’t life or death and no one was earning a scholarship today. All I wanted is to give the kids a safe environment to hangout with their friends, be active and enjoy their time outdoors. Looking back on my commitment, I can say I’m satisfied with the job I did and I think the kids also appreciated that I didn’t really care about winning, at that age it’s more about letting the kids have fun and teaching them life skills that can make them productive members of society in the future.
Portland Baseball Club
I chose this work for the simple reason that I love baseball, and I wanted to give back to the community and pay it forward. Throughout my playing career, I had dozens and dozens of coaches and volunteers that gave their time and effort to help me improve. Throughout that time I was exposed to many different styles of coaching, the win at all costs coach, the coach who doesn’t care, and the coach who cares about his players and wants us all to succeed in life. Taking this into consideration, I thought it would be best to take the approach of the last coach because I knew how much I appreciated a coach who only wants the best for his players. It’s youth baseball, not the world series, and should be treated as such.
The responsibilities of my work was to show up for practice on specific days, which for me changed every week with my busy schedule, to help facilitate a practice if it were a weeknight or participate as a coach on weekend mornings and help hit practice fly balls to the kids, teach them the proper way to run bases, to hold a bat, and any teachable moment that came up. A big thing for me was no pouting if any errors were made, the only thing sulking is going to do is allow the mistake to happen again the next time. Brush it off, and move on to the next play.
Diversity, Equity and Social Justice: In this goal setting, in my experience most of the children were from different backgrounds. The program does cost a few hundred dollars a month and more for private instruction, which weeds out the kids from low income families unfortunately. Overall, I would say it was a decent mixture of kids from different races and background groups. Baseball is definitely primarily a male dominated sport, there were a couple girls here and there but the majority were boys. I suppose that speaks to the social stigma, most girls who want to play join softball instead or are discouraged by their parents from joining a baseball team.
Inquiry and Critical Thinking: For me, I had been on at least 20 different teams throughout my career. There are coaches, then assistant coaches, then dads who think they know everything, so there were a ton of people I interacted with throughout my playing days. Doing so resulted in me getting more than my fair share of different methods in coaching. I was able to take what I thought were the best attributes of what a player wants from a coach, and apply it to this scenario. I knew as a player I didn’t want to be yelled at or ridiculed for making an error (not that I was considering that but it happened to myself and my teammates numerous times). Being able to be supportive and encouraging is a tough skill to master and I do say I have a new respect for coaches who give their time to develop youth athletes.
Communication: Going into my work I already knew I struggled with saying how I was feeling. It’s much easier for me to write something down before saying it, I struggle putting my thoughts into words. With this gig there is no optional non verbal communication, and usually it has to happen instantaneously for the child to understand. Being able to articulate my words beyond telling a kid a different way to hold a bat is important to achieve the main goal I wanted, which was to impact the development of their character. Teaching that treating their teammates, opponents, and umpires with respect would lead to better relationships off the field as well. A quote, as cheesy as it is, that I tried to implement is “treat others how you want to be treated”.
Ethics, Agency, and Community: For me, I knew just committing to this was going to be difficult for me. But I knew to have the impact I wanted I had to make the time even if I were tired after working all day. I knew when I was a kid, I never thought about the coach doing anything other than being a coach, I just expected him or one of the coaches to be there. All the kids see is the coach that’s not there, not what other obligations they have in life. So just being able to show up and at the very least hangout with the kids while they’re taking batting practice and engaging in chit chat whether it’s about baseball or not is very easing on the mind. It definitely helps doing something I enjoy doing as well, I like being around the game and sharing my knowledge if possible.
Inquiry and Critical Thinking: For me, I had been on at least 20 different teams throughout my career. There are coaches, then assistant coaches, then dads who think they know everything, so there were a ton of people I interacted with throughout my playing days. Doing so resulted in me getting more than my fair share of different methods in coaching. I was able to take what I thought were the best attributes of what a player wants from a coach, and apply it to this scenario. I knew as a player I didn’t want to be yelled at or ridiculed for making an error (not that I was considering that but it happened to myself and my teammates numerous times). Being able to be supportive and encouraging is a tough skill to master and I do say I have a new respect for coaches who give their time to develop youth athletes.
Communication: Going into my work I already knew I struggled with saying how I was feeling. It’s much easier for me to write something down before saying it, I struggle putting my thoughts into words. With this gig there is no optional non verbal communication, and usually it has to happen instantaneously for the child to understand. Being able to articulate my words beyond telling a kid a different way to hold a bat is important to achieve the main goal I wanted, which was to impact the development of their character. Teaching that treating their teammates, opponents, and umpires with respect would lead to better relationships off the field as well. A quote, as cheesy as it is, that I tried to implement is “treat others how you want to be treated”.
Ethics, Agency, and Community: For me, I knew just committing to this was going to be difficult for me. But I knew to have the impact I wanted I had to make the time even if I were tired after working all day. I knew when I was a kid, I never thought about the coach doing anything other than being a coach, I just expected him or one of the coaches to be there. All the kids see is the coach that’s not there, not what other obligations they have in life. So just being able to show up and at the very least hangout with the kids while they’re taking batting practice and engaging in chit chat whether it’s about baseball or not is very easing on the mind. It definitely helps doing something I enjoy doing as well, I like being around the game and sharing my knowledge if possible.
For me, I never wanted to have a set schedule and way of doing things. I’m a very go with the flow type of guy, so not putting that type of pressure on myself or the kids was beneficial in my perspective. I didn’t plan out the practices, it was more of an open discussion what the kids wanted to do. If a situation arose that needed my attention or fixing then I would address it, but I wouldn’t go seeking out specific action/ reaction situations. Just by making a casual comment to a kid, it can get them thinking about it and what they could change or continue doing that’s occurring.
I would say my first real coaching experience was a success. After continuing to show up and learning the kids names, being able to help them perform better on and off the field was very rewarding. I would say one of the most gratifying moments are when I can help a kid with their swing and they hit the next one a lot better. The smile that comes on their face and the self- esteem levels are oozing off of them, so it makes me feel really good to know I helped them feel good about themselves. I wouldn’t say w didn’t have our challenges, sometimes getting 10-12 year old kids to listen to you is worse than pulling teeth without amnesia. But I learned if the kids respect you and think you know what you’re talking about then they’re 10 times more likely to listen.
I did really enjoy my experience overall. I want to continue doing what I’m doing, but now with having a second job and being a part time parent of a hamster my time is really just limited. I wish money weren’t a driving force, but that’s the world we live in and the game we all play. I could try to continue with this club as a paid coach, but that comes with more of a set schedule and the pay wouldn’t be worth it to stop what I’m doing now. I am hopeful though at some point I can open my own baseball facility, I’d be able to run my own clinic and bring in coaches that are preaching the same methods that I preach. I would want to keep the costs down to attract kids and families from all ages and social classes, and maybe even expand into softball or other sports down the road. Youth sports are a great way for children to build character, learn teamwork, respect, and many other life skills that can hopefully one day lead to them being a productive member of society.
I did really enjoy my experience overall. I want to continue doing what I’m doing, but now with having a second job and being a part time parent of a hamster my time is really just limited. I wish money weren’t a driving force, but that’s the world we live in and the game we all play. I could try to continue with this club as a paid coach, but that comes with more of a set schedule and the pay wouldn’t be worth it to stop what I’m doing now. I am hopeful though at some point I can open my own baseball facility, I’d be able to run my own clinic and bring in coaches that are preaching the same methods that I preach. I would want to keep the costs down to attract kids and families from all ages and social classes, and maybe even expand into softball or other sports down the road. Youth sports are a great way for children to build character, learn teamwork, respect, and many other life skills that can hopefully one day lead to them being a productive member of society.