I find algorithms to be a funny thing in social media. I started “consuming” baseball media lately with starting to coach baseball I need to know everything I can get my eyes on from how to throw, batting instruction, and all the way to dos and do nots of game play. No matter what it is I watch or read it because I need more things to think about when I am working on how I want my team to look.

The one thing I see so much of is Daddy ball complaints. Daddy ball is the concept of dad coaching his kid and usually giving his kid special treatment. Their are two schools of thought on this. One being so what the dad is coaching and giving his time guess who gets to play the position they want. The other is that I’m going to be harder on my child and make him earn every stripe. I guess I fall more towards the first, but only because I think my time is valuable, and I am teaching other kids just to be his teammates, or I wouldn’t be coaching at all.

Now I don’t give my son special treatment on the field as far as a special position. I chose his position based on his skills and the skills of others around him. My son isn’t a ShortStop he is a third or first Baseman. Purely based on build and talent. He learned today to take a ball to the face and keep going it was awesome to watch as a dad. Mom was upset when she saw the bump on his cheek later, but his just let’s go attitude after it was awesome.

I have been watching all this stuff lately on how to play Daddy Ball correctly and how to take it home. I want my son to enjoy baseball because it’s a game and it’s fun. At the same time, I want him to take it seriously when he practices. I was questioning myself on how to tell him he did great in his first game, but how to also show him his mistakes to work on. 

I decided to ask him what he did good and what he did that could get better. The good news is I didn’t have to tell him anything. He knew what was good and what was bad at 5 years old he understood enough to know what he messed up. Then he asked me to show him later how to make him better at what he messed up.

I have seen my son put 3 goals in one game, and he was never as happy as his first hit today. I selfishly hope he loves baseball and wants to play this game for years. I love baseball, and coaching baseball has already been my favorite one to coach thus far. I love soccer, but their is something different in having 9 kids just chilling on a dugout having fun and throwing balls around.

I guess I’ll continue playing Daddy Ball for as many years as he lets me, too. I don’t know if I’ll change my tactics with him over time but I just want him to have fun and at the same time I get to help and affect a bunch of other awesome kids each week.