fbpx

menu

365 Days to Better Baseball - How to Avoid the Pushing Syndrome Trap

HomeBlogsJack Perconte's blog365 Days to Better Baseball - How to Avoid the Pushing Syndrome Trap
HomeBlogsJack Perconte's blog365 Days to Better Baseball - How to Avoid the Pushing Syndrome Trap
365 Days to Better Baseball - How to Avoid the Pushing Syndrome Trap
Author: 
Jack Perconte

Motivational Monday Tip of the Day Definition of Pushing

I hear this statement from parents and coaches often, "He/she never wants to practice."

Motivating baseball players, especially talented ones, who seem uninterested in working hard, can be frustrating for parents and coaches. Pleading for kids to practice more and pushing them to do what parents and coaches want them to do, usually turn kids off even more. No absolute solutions exist to motivating players, but pushing leads to the end of kids wanting to keep playing baseball for very long.

The good news is that most every adult agrees with this. The bad news is that adults do not notice the difference between pushing and motivating because pushing is hard to define, so many adults fall into the pushing syndrome trap.

Johnny Evers (1881 1947), Major League Baseb... Johnny Evers (1881 1947), Major League Baseball player and manager (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Definition of pushing when adults put more emphasis on a certain area of a child's life (baseball), to the point where success is more important for the adult than for the child.

What to do?

Treat every aspect of kids' life, where effort is important, with the same emphasis. Being casual about youth working hard in school, but being adamant they practice baseball more, is the start of the "pushing "syndrome.

Keep things in perspective - realize that when kids display a good work ethic with other activities (schoolwork included) but not with baseball, everything is OK.

Remain Positive - parents and coaches, who remain positive and optimistic with "lazy" players, have the best chance of seeing unmotivated players turn into motivated ones in the future.

Nudge them with realistic but non-judgmental words, as "long term success only comes with practice" is better than the common pushing words of "You have to practice more."

About Jack Perconte

After playing major league baseball, Jack Perconte has taught baseball and softball since 1988 and offered valuable coaching training too. He has helped numerous youth players reach their potential, as well as having helped parents and coaches navigate their way through the challenging world of youth sports. Jack is one of the leading authorities in the areas of youth baseball training and coaching training advice.

All Jack Perconte articles are used with copyright permission.

Get Jack's Books on Amazon

latest comments

There are 0 comments on "365 Days to Better Baseball - How to Avoid the Pushing Syndrome Trap"

 

 

 

post a comment

(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.
(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.
(If you're a human, don't change the following field)
Your first name.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.