Friday, November 21, 2014

Superb Fundamentals -- Start Early and Start Often


One of the best lines I read about the SF Giants, on their path to the World Series, summed up how they dominated the St. Louis Cardinals:

"The Giants are in command of the NLCS because they are playing superb fundamental baseball and the Cardinals are not. St. Louis is making critical mistakes on the most basic plays." (from article on SFGate)

Superb fundamental baseball vs. mistakes on basic plays.

This mentality of laser-focus on the fundamentals should start at the earliest stages of a player's baseball development.  A good coach understands that fundamentals are like the foundation of a house.  You can't build a house starting at the top, you have to start with a strong, rock-solid foundation. The notion of winning, at the youth baseball level, should be secondary to learning how to do things correctly.   It boggles my mind when I see other club players out there, on supposedly "elite" teams, make consistent mistakes on their fundamentals because they're trying to make "hot dogging" plays.  What on earth are their coaches teaching them?  Certainly not how to be a team player, because some of these kids are more concerned with making a flashy play than doing it correctly.

Bottom line, with our Cardinals, we PROUDLY emphasize three simple things: play hard, execute the fundamentals we've learned, and have fun.   We are more concerned about the kids learning the proper fundamentals than the final win-loss record.  After all, these are just kids, not major leaguers.