And today was the first day of school after our wonderful week long break. Unfortunately, I was sick, and so I was unable to attend school on this most joyous occasion. I think my week will be much better because I kinda skipped Monday. Monday's are always the worst day of the week because you've just had a whole weekend of break. Mondays after breaks are even worse.

I went to the TAC dance on Saturday night, and it was very enjoyable. I was there for quite some time before the Dance because a) it started late, and b) my ride had "business" up there before the dance, so I wandered around campus for about an hour before hand.
The dance itself was quite long, and I didn't even stay for all of it. I left at around 1 am, but I hear that it went 'till around 3ish. The only unfortunate thing was that I had to get up and cantor for 7:30 mass the next morning, which was definitely *not* pleasant. And then I went to the Clark's and worked with Jack a bit on Fielding and Hitting, and then ran Mr. Clark's Baseball practice.
At the beginning of the practice it looked like only two players actually could field a ground ball, so we worked extensively on the proper form and technique, and by the end of the day, most of them looked a lot better than a lot of players their age. I think one of the big problems with youth Baseball is that coaches either a) don't know what the heck they're talking about when it comes to the fundamentals of hitting and fielding, or they don't think that 8, 9, and ten year old kids can grasp them. I've been working one on one with Jack Clark (I think he's 9) for about a month now, and he's improved drastically in both areas. It's not so much that he's hitting the ball farther (although he is) or throwing harder (although he is), his form is so much better then when I first saw him. And he's recovering from a broken leg! If kids were just consistently taught fundamentals by people who know what they're talking about, the level of play would go up at a young age, the kids would enjoy themselves much more, and more kids would continue on to play highschool ball. Unfortunately, even if a team gets lucky and has a really good coach on year, the next year 90 percent of them won't have the same coach, and, unless they get another coach who is willing to continue the constant, constant work on those same fundamentals, they'll lose it all. It takes more than a season to really get it all down. And really, it's all repetition. You can't just take 10 grounders and have that form and skill ingrained in your mind. You can't just take 100 or a thousand grounders. You have to continually take grounder after grounder, hit pitch after pitch, chase down fly after fly for multiple years until you really get it. And then, once it becomes second nature, you've got to maintain that second nature through more repetition. Of course, once it becomes second nature, it becomes so much fun to do. On Friday I got my coaches to hit my grounders and pop ups for over half an hour...straight, by myself. It was quite possibly the best practice I've had in High school so far. It was exhausting, but once you're not trying to think about 15 things at once, including "oh my gosh it's going to hit me!", every grounder becomes a new challenge to be enjoyed. I heard some of the players at the practice complaining about grounders that were "too easy". While it's true that some grounders aren't hit as hard as others, or they take Sunday Hops, that doesn't detract anything from the pleasure at fielding, transferring and throwing all in one beautiful motion. I still believe that one of the most beautiful things in the world is a perfect fielded and thrown grounder. You don't see them very often in High School, but it's very common in the pros. I could sit and watch Derek Jeter field grounders for ages...(actually, I'd probably get restless because I'd want to field some to :-P) Baseball is a sport which is made up of a whole bunch of different arts. Hitting is an art, Pitching is an art, and fielding is an art. Of the three, the most exciting to see for a lay-person (so to speak :-P), it seems, is hitting, but I'm in love with fielding.

Anyway, I just figured I'd get that out of my system. I think I've discovered (well, I kinda decided this a long time ago :-P) that I'd like (actually, love) to coach Baseball after I finish playing. I think I'd like to be able to teach younger kids (that is, 7-10 ish) the basic basics, and really hammer them into their heads, and watch the ones with the desire and talent, who were just waiting for the proper instruction, achieve beyond all the others. That would be really cool, to know that you were the one who was able to make that difference, and teach them the proper way to play. I mean, it's painful for me to see bad coaching. I helped out at a couple of my sister's practices last year (or was it the year before?) and it was awful. They really had no clue what they were doing! How is it useful to chuck balls at kids and say "hit it!" if they don't know how to hit it correctly? And how does it help to give the same stereotypical advice in every situation: "Keep your eye on the ball!". That is absolutely not help to a kid if they don't know what they need to do to keep their eye one the ball. I encountered that yesterday. One of the guys would swing and miss by a mile. Then, I'd ask them why they'd missed, and they would mumble something about not keeping their eye on the ball. But they'd have no idea what that really meant. Once I'd explained to them about keeping they're shoulder in and not dipping they're back shoulder, even if they didn't get it right away, they started to improve. And all they need is repetition. Repetition. If could coach my own team, I'd be able to give them that repetition! It would be so satisfying to see them at the end of the year, and compare them to the beginning!
Anyway, I need to go finish dinner, so I'll talk to y'alls later.