Subscribe to SportsWorxWhile working a baseball showcase in the Cincinnati area I had the opportunity to listen to an interesting presentation given by Coach Jim Zerilla, a former Division 1 baseball coach.
Coach Zerilla was doing a great job covering many of the aspects of the recruiting process. He touched upon the importance of grades, how to interview coaches, what to look for in a college baseball program and self evaluation to find the right program for the athlete.
However, what got my attention was his discussion of how a player needs to continuously work at improving his skill. Coach Z stated that in his opinion this is the area where most athletes fall short in their high school career. Practice and individual skill development have taken a back seat to the number of games that a player plays in his off season.
Think about the AAU basketball circuit or select baseball during the summer and how focused the clubs/teams are in participating in the right tournaments or playing in the right leagues. Playing games has replaced practice and skill development.
If you asked the typical parent what type of summer their kids had the answer would have been, ”Great summer, we played in the best tournaments against the best competition!” No one ever mentions how much time was spent on the field or in the gym working on their game.
How much thought is being given to developing the skills necessary to compete at the collegiate level or to work on weaknesses in the athlete’s game?
Coach Z makes a great point that the young athlete does not reach his full potential if he doesn’t work on his skills outside of the game environment. There is a small percentage of kids that continue to improve in the “game after game” mentality but too many times college coaches are looking at prospective student athletes g that haven’t progressed since they were 15-16 years old.
While I don’t anticipate a major shift in the current mentality of game oriented select sports we need to make sure we are counseling the athletes within our program to look for a balance between game participation and individual skill development. We need to make sure that our athletes understand the need to continue to improve in the classroom and on the field.