By Brian Gotta, President of CoachDeck

I walked by a youth baseball baseball practice today at my local Little League. After pausing at the field for several minutes, I felt compelled to write something I hope is helpful to the league's coaches. It is regarding my biggest pet peeve. Parents who wear gloves instead of players:

"I hope all is well and the season is getting started smoothly. I wanted to mention something I observed at the field today, which might help some of your coaches.

A team was running a practice; hitting ground balls to players at short and at second base. First, let me point out the positives: There were five dads on the field; it's great that so many are willing to help out. The man who I assume was the manager was knowledgeable. He moved around, helping individual players, he talked loudly and authoritavely, he knew his baseball, had enthusiasm, demonstrated proper technique and, best of all, he was very encouraging and made the kids all feel like they were doing a great job. He's a good coach.

The issues I had were these: First and most importantly, dads were playing first base and third base, not kids. So, when players fielded a ball, they threw to a parent, not one of their teammates. I'm pretty sure the coach would say he was doing this to keep the drill moving but it is a huge mistake, in my opinion. This is a missed opportunity to have players in those positions learning to catch thrown balls, learning to properly cover those bases. (I saw the same thing at evaluations - a dad playing first. If that was a kid, you'd have one extra look at every player to see if they could catch a thrown ball and you'd have a better sense of your fielders' arms if they were throwing to another player). There should also have been a player or two players at home, wearing a mask and a catcher's glove, retrieving the throws in. Again, they had a parent there. Humorously, the parent at home repeatedly said, "nice pick" or "nice scoop" to the dad at third. So I guess they were having fun and getting better at baseball, but that isn't the purpose of the practice. 

If the argument is that having kids at the bases will lead to many errant throws, who cares? They had a full bucket of balls. The parents who were playing the bases could be chasing after any balls that got away. Frankly, you could even put a couple players behind those bases as well, learning to back up throws. And don't you want your fielders learning to throw to another four-foot tall kid instead of a 6'3" dad? There is a very good reason that for years, Little League International had a rule that no dads could wear gloves at practices. Little League, (weakly, in my opinion), buckled to the pressure of all the dads who complained about this rule, but this is exactly the reason for it. Kids should be catching every throw, not dads. And, on a related note, kids should be warming up the pitcher between innings during the games, not dads or umpires. Everything we do on the field should be geared toward making players better at baseball, and having a dad wearing a glove does not accomplish this. 

Next, the players at second stayed at second for the entire drill, and the players at short stayed there. Why not tell them after they field and throw, to sprint over to the other line? This way, they get practice at both positions and you add a little conditioning to the drill. 

Even though the drill was reasonably fast-paced there were still full minutes where kids stood around waiting for a turn. I saw them out there talking to each other, not paying attention. In my scenario, almost every kid would have been involved in every play, and they would be actively running around, learning multiple aspects of fielding, not just one.

And, finally, I don't really care for a drill that does not simulate what might happen in a real game. This coach had his players at second throwing to third, which is not something that ever happens in baseball."

Here is the article I wrote about parents warming-up pitchers. 

I know I may catch a lot of flack for these articles, because dads love wearing a glove and playing. There is no other true rationale. Please feel free to tell my why I'm wrong and parents should be on the field taking reps from players.