Tanking is bad. Winning is good. Winning Culture is best.

Losing games at the professional level is bad. You’d think we’d all know that given the severity with which we treat the outcome of every youth game we watch. But, as sports fans, we’ve got this all upside-down.

I was at the Giants-Bears game this past weekend. It was probably the most exciting, albeit bizarre, Giants games I’ve ever attended. The G-Men pulled out an overtime win over a near-definite playoff team after blowing a 10-point 4^th quarter lead. Each team had a passing touchdown from a non-quarterback, Chicago had a defensive lineman rush for a touchdown a la The Fridge. The Giants had a defensive touchdown. The Giants kicker set a franchise record for longest field goal. Saquan Barkley hurdled a guy. It was big play after big play all day long.

During the 4^th quarter of the game, I heard the fans in front of me talking about how much better it would have been if the Giants lost. The same two fans had a conversation earlier in the game about their kid’s youth football team being terrible because of a 3-6 record. So, to make sure we have this straight, they paid to attend a professional game that they wanted their favorite team to lose so they could potentially get a better draft pick who could potentially help their team in the future, yet they’re fed up with the local Pop Warner coach because his team was 3-6.

At the professional level, sports fans crave the opportunity to develop. At the youth level, we want results. I know this might sound crazy to some of you who want to trust the process, but I think it you had some patience to allow the youth coach to develop skills in younger players, you’d be less likely to have professional players who still need to “develop.”

Tanking is wrong. It’s against everything we should be teaching kids. Losing does not lead to winning. Learning winning habit and reinforcing winning behaviors leads to winning. Sure, some of the best players of all time were first overall picks like LeBron James, Peyton Manning and Alex Rodriguez, but how about guys like Eric Fisher, Anthony Bennett and Mark Appel? Those three were first overall picks in the past decade, and I bet most sports fans don’t even recognize their names.

The 76ers told us tanking and unloading talent to be a champion some day in the future is the “process.” Let’s take a quick look at what the process has accomplished now that Philly says the process is complete.  The 76ers currently sit in 3^rd place in the Eastern Conference, which is the NBA’s version of junior varsity. They finished 3^rd in the east last year after four seasons of being one of the worst teams in basketball including a 2015-16 season that was one of the worst seasons in the history of the game. Upper deck seats were selling for $0.11 on the secondary market that year. Eleven Cents!

So that’s the current result of tanking: third place in a sub-par conference. Is that really the goal? Let’s go through 4-5 abysmal seasons so you can be better-than-average for a few years?

Maybe I’m the idiot here, but I want my pro teams to try to win every damn game and I want to get rid of every player who’s not on board with winning culture.  If that guy was coached well as a kid and his development was nurtured back when improvement meant everything and final scores meant nothing, He’d know exactly how to play like a winner. Unfortunately, some guys grow up in a backwards sports culture.

What is winning culture? Simply defined, it's doing your job well. It's doing exactly what's asked of you to the best of your ability, then finding out how you can do it even better next time. That's how teams like the Patriots contend for a title every year. The players are not required to be All-World talent. They're required to do exactly what's asked of them to the best of their ability, and continue to improve on that. That will never go out of favor with coaches, and that will never not be the best path to athletic success.

Winning is contagious. So is losing. Lose on purpose and you are a loser. Attempt to win by instilling winning habits and committing to winning efforts and you’re a winner. Simple as that.

What's the Biggest Factor in the Recruiting Timeline? The Calendar

Your kid is a high school student-athlete. It’s their senior year and, despite a strong season, you still haven’t heard from very many college coaches. You’ve heard other kids from other sports around school talk about the coaches with whom they are talking, and some have already made their collegiate decision.

So why have coaches not been active in recruiting your kid? There could be a million different reasons why, but you might be overlooking the most obvious and overlooked reason. Maybe it’s the calendar.

                College coaches are creatures of habit. Those who have been at it for years like to stick to a calendar. If they’ve been successful, they’ve probably found a recruiting timetable that works for their sport at their school and they generally stick to it.

                I spoke last week to a parent of a potential division 3 football player who had this exact concern. His son is a solid player and an above-average student, and the family was frustrated than they’d only heard from one or two coaches. I told him to be patient.

                Although the process is becoming somewhat expedited at a lot of colleges looking for early decision candidates, the calendar for small college football has always been that coaches do the bulk of their recruiting visits to high schools after their season ends. There are exceptions to this rule, but talk to any small college football coach and he will tell you that mid-November through mid-January are reserved for two things; Recruiting visits and the annual football coaches’ convention.

                Spring sports like lacrosse, baseball and softball generally take the opposite seasonal approach. They want all of their recruiting done before their spring season starts. They’re more accustomed to watching summer showcases and tournaments so they can get their on-campus visits wrapped up during the fall semester. Most of them would love to have a verbal commitment from their recruits before their teams start practices in January.

                The other major factor in the calendar is the quality or prestige of institution. If the college at which your kid is looking to play is routinely ranked highly nationally, those seats tend to fill up earlier in the process, especially for great schools with a small student body. However, if your child’s top choices are large state schools with high acceptance rates and plenty of beds on campus, you can usually make that decision after graduating high school and still be relatively confident that you won’t be excluded from that school’s fall semester.

                Thirdly, the quality of program often factors in to the recruiting calendar. Nationally-ranked teams often want to know early and can help you expedite the admissions and financial aid process so they can wrap up their recruiting class early and get a jump on recruiting juniors while lower-level competitors are only left with the kids that the big dogs didn’t want.

                So, if your kid plays a spring sport, wants to attend an elite institution and has not heard from that school’s coach by the fall of their senior year, they either need to initiate the contact with the coach, re-evaluate what they want to do for college, or both. But, if your kid is a fall athlete, believes they would fit in best athletically on a mid-level division 3 team, and has decent enough grades to get into and receive some academic scholarship money at those schools, they don’t need to worry about hearing from coaches until December of their senior year or so.

                Most colleges don’t treat student-athletes like general population students. They know that those student-athletes graduate at a greater rate, give back at a greater rate, and do more to promote the school off campus than those who are not as heavily involved on campus. As a parent of a prospective collegiate student-athlete, you should not be trying to equal the timeline of a non-athlete-family who has already made their college decision.

Your timeline is different. Knowing that timeline can help you make a decision at the right time and for the right reasons. If you’re not sure about your sport’s recruiting timeline, check with your high school coach and the parents of older children in the same sport.

What really matters when determining HS football playoff teams

 The New Jersey High School Football playoff system is a mess. We’ve got teams playing in the playoffs with one or two wins and teams sitting home with 6 wins. We’ve got teams with one loss traveling to teams with 3 losses. And we’ve got teams that have beaten top seeds in higher divisions that don’t get a home game in the playoffs.

The system doesn’t need to be fixed. It needs to be rewinded. What was happening in the mid 2000’s was about as perfect at a playoff system can be without head-to-head results to determine who's in and who's out.

In all of the talk that’s happening about playoff seeding, I’ve heard a few things to don’t matter at all when it comes to playoffs. Plus, I’ve got a few things that definitely matter when judging a team’s potential to win a championship.

These four focal points are good indicators of a team’s quality.

1.       Record for the last 4 games: It can take a while for a good team to come together. Not every team hits the ground running in August. In some communities, that’s easier than it is in others. Financial issues, transportation issues and distance from home to school are all factors in whether a team gets good attendance at summer workouts. Don’t punish the kids for where they live. Give them time to gel as a team during the fall. That’s why I believe the games leading up to the playoffs should carry more weight than the first month of the season.

2.       Dominant victories. Any team that wins a game by 24 points, or the equivelant of the most points a team can score in three possessions, has earned a dominant victory. Winning 28-3 and 77-7 is the same in my book. If you’ve beaten a game by 24 or more, you’ve shown dominance. And if you’ve done that to a winning team, now you’ve really accomplished something.  

3.       Prime time wins. This one might be tough to define, but rivalry wins, beating an undefeated team, and beating defending state or conference champs are statements of proof for high school teams. I’m sure this one would be easy for decision-makers to screw up, but if you’re a team that’s done all of these things, you’re definitely a playoff team in my book.

4. Defending your home turf. If a team goes undefeated at home, they're a playoff team. Period. Nobody walked into their house and stole a game. If your home fans never saw you lose, they should get another chance to see you play, even if that means going on the road. 

These three popular talking points are of no consequence and should never play a factor

1.       History. The only thing that matters is this season. Kids get, at most, a 4-year window to play high school sports. In many districts and larger schools, that window is cut down to two years because of the talent that's already there when kids are freshman and sophomores. What happened over the years is a non-factor. Unless most of those successful players are still on the team and the coaching staff remains the same, this year is this year and the past is over.

2.       Star recruits. There’s no doubt that New Jersey has cranked out some outstanding college and professional football talent over the years. Some programs seem to have a Division I recruit every year. But for every big time recruit, there are a dozen kids who have no plans to play college football that can flat-out win at the high school level. This is a team game.

3.       Total point differential: The great teams are the ones that can win blowouts, close games, defensive battles and shootouts. Winning a game against a quality opponent 7-3 has a greater value than just +4 in this silly stat line. And, in congruence with the "quality win" idea  77-7 is no better than 28-3. Total point differential screams for a high-powered offensive team to schedule a few small schools and run up the score.

               

A Walk's as Good as a Hit? I Don't Think So

Whoever came up with the baseball saying “a walk is as good as a hit” should be banned from the ballpark for life.

                I was umpiring a 10u baseball game last week when I saw that mentality cost a team the chance to win a game, cost a kid a chance to do something special, and cost an entire field-full of kids and parents the chance to do baseball the right way.

                After trading leads throughout the game, mostly by trading no-swing walks or no-swing strikeouts, the score was 11-10 in the last inning. The bases were loaded (three walks) and there were two outs. The kid at bat had a chance to be a genuine little league hero for a day. Just about any ball smacked into play would have won the game for his team. Each of the 7 balls put in play throughout the game resulted in at least a single for the hitter, and most were extra bases. Remember, we’re not dealing with a group of future hall-of-famers. We’re talking about little boys having fun eating grass in the outfield and dancing in the infield.

                I was excited for this boy when he came up to bat with the sack’s packed. I know the umpire isn’t supposed to be partial, but I was. I wanted to see a hard-hit ball and I wanted to either see a kid in the field make a play to seal the win, or a kid from second base round third with a gleam in his eye and a smile on his face on his way to score the winning run.

                What I saw instead was the unbearable product of that awful saying: “A walk is as good as a hit.” I saw a little boy hoping I didn’t call three strikes before I called four balls. I saw a societally groomed non-participant in full uniform at home plate. I saw a 9-year-old boy playing the percentages instead of playing the game. I watched the boy take six pitches. Three balls and three strikes.

But what I heard after that was the disappointing byproduct of the “Walk is as good as a hit” mentality.

                I heard 8 and 9-year-old boys saying that the game was unfair because the opponent brought in their hardest thrower to close out the game. I heard a mother say “there should be a weight limit in this league” so her little boy didn’t have to play baseball against another 9-year-old boy who happened to throw a baseball harder than her kid. And I heard the kids saying they would have “won the game if the umpire wasn’t so stupid.”

                The last one carries some validity. I’ve been watching that ump do stupid things my whole life. But the mentality is what’s wrong with baseball.

                A walk is not as good as a hit. Hits are better. No doubt about it. And at 8 and 9 years old, just about anything is better than a walk. Well, except maybe a strikeout looking without a single swing during the at bat.

                Ground-outs are better. That’s contact by the hitter, a fielded ball by the infielder and a caught ball by the first baseman.

                Fly-outs are better. That’s contact by the hitter with a launch angle that sabermetricians would encourage, and a caught ball by a young fielder.

                Strikeouts while swinging are better. That’s a well-thrown ball by the pitcher with pitch recognition and an attempt to succeed by a young hitter.  

                Even a hit-by-pitch is better than a walk, presuming that the hitter doesn’t get hurt badly enough to leave the game. In some ways, you can view a hit-by-pitch as an expeditious walk. And the “make a man out of ‘em” dad’s out there will be happy that their boy took a lickin’ and kept on tickin’.

                So, for the sake of baseball, let’s get a few things straight.

1.       Nobody cares about the score of your youth rec baseball game. Those games are about fun, learning, trying your butt off, and getting some exercise (running, not walking). 

2.       Striking out swinging isn’t so bad. Every ballplayer has done it. Safe to say that the potential reward outweighs the risk.

3.       A walk is most certainly not as good as a hit. But if the pitcher is afraid to throw you a strike after you’ve clobbered the ball all game, take your free trip to first base as badge of honor…and get ready to steal second.

The Doctor Isn't Always Right

     Doctors are experts. The level, field, and breath of expertise varies from doctor to doctor. Out of respect for their level of education, their practice and their experience in the field, the healthiest stance is to say that every doctor is a medical authority on something.

     

     This week, I met with an optometrist who was furious that sports organizations are allowing kids to participate in sports wearing eye wear that is not explicitly recommended by her professional organization. I understand her point. She and her colleagues are eye care experts.  Chances are, the local high school field hockey coach isn’t a medical expert of any kind. But, as a coach and league administrator, I don’t care what her group recommends and there’s little to no chance that I’d support a blanket rule requiring a specific type of eye wear.

     

     Sports organizations don’t jump to make changes with every medical recommendation they here. But why? These people are medical experts.

     

     One factor is money. Most medical visits and recommended equipment cost money. Some expenses are cost-prohibitive for many families. Athletics rule-makers tend to shy away from rules that add an expense to the cost of participation. It’s not that the recommendation isn’t good. It’s that the cost of the recommendation often eliminates participants.

     

     But more simply than the money answer is that fact that if organization’s followed every recommendation made by every doctor, nobody would ever play sports again.

     Think about how many fields of medicine are out there. In addition to the optometrist’s recommendations, I’ve heard all of the following recommendations from medical experts in the past year.

-               - Nobody who has ever suffered a concussion should ever play contact sports again.

-               - Those who are suffering from depression should not participate in sports.

-               - If you’ve had an ear, nose and/or throat infection in the past month, you should not play sports.

-               - Athletes who have not been tested for sickle cell trait should not participate in athletics.

-               - Kids with orthodontic braces and/or appliances should limit physical contact.

     These are just a few of them. I’m sure athletic trainers and team physicians hear way more than the coach ever hears.

     I’ve made no effort to learn whether these recommendations are congruent with the professional organization of each medical field’s official stance. But it coaches followed just these recommendations across the board, without checking in with any other medical expert, who’s left to participate?

     I can imagine the flier in the hallway of the local middle school. “Basketball tryouts this Friday. Everyone welcome…Unless you wear glasses, go to the orthodontist, have a runny nose, have ever been hit in the head, have any form of anxiety, and/or are unaware of your sickle cell trait.”

I know this. I coach a collegiate team of 28 student-athletes. If I had a match today and used only the players who pass through all of these criterion, I’d have 2 players…I think. I’m sure if I checked in with a chiropractor, an OB/GYN, a podiatrist and an orthopedic expert, they could find a way to rule our everyone on my team.

     As a rules committee member, I’ve learned that valuing the opinion of one set of doctors over another can be a slippery slope. Unless a committee believes there’s an inherent an avoidable risk for the sport’s participants that can be easily avoided or corrected with a rule change that will be easily implemented, it’s unlikely that a rule with change based on a medical expert’s recommendation. And, while it’s not true of all medical recommendations, expert’s opinion’s change with more time and more research. 

     Remember, it wasn’t more than a century ago that doctors were treating drowsiness and body aches with cocaine. It wasn’t a half-century ago that we were rubbing whisky on the gums of teething babies. It was just a few years ago that equipment manufacturers were producing helmets based on recommendations to avoid skull fractures with no regard for concussions.

     So, what should we do as parents of athletes? Find a physician that you trust that was active as a kid. Even better if they're still active and add a double bonus if the children in their family are active. Take their recommendations into consideration, and do what you believe is best for your child. Rules or no rules, that’s a parent’s job. It’s no different for sports parents.

     You won't always be right. But if we follow the recommendations and warnings of every doctor we meet, our kids might never play sports again.

There can be only one National Champ, Right?

Winning a national championship means that you’re part of the best team in the country, right? It’s a once-a-year thing with an entire season of recruiting, and try-outs, and cuts, and eliminations, and earning your way by winning tournament after tournament as assigned by a national governing body. That’s how you win a national championship, right?

                Well, according to dozens upon dozens of organizations that host national championships in every sport imaginable, that’s not how it works anymore. I mean, in some cases, that’s still how it works. But that’s hard.

It’s easier just to sign up for nationals. No invitation necessary. Just pay the fee and you’re competing for a national championship. Sounds a little fishy, doesn’t it? Tell that to the thousands of teams across the sporting landscape that are participating in this garbage.

I saw one baseball organization offering national championships 6 different times this summer in 8 different age groups at 6 different locations. And for each event, they’re crowning a different “national champion” in each age group.

And it gets worse. Now in many sports including baseball, soccer, lacrosse, basketball and cheerleading, you can win a national championship among teams that chose not to compete against the best teams. Some sports break it down into gold, silver and bronze divisions. Some use the letter system. Others have a maximum level of experience per participant in each division.

So, to clarify, you can be a brand new team full of brand new players and chose to play against only other teams made of brand new players, and you can be crowned national champions.

I don’t blame the tournament organizers. This is capitalism at its finest. They’ve found enough youth organizations that want that type of tournament and are willing to pay for it. These tournaments are fantastic money-making opportunities for the organizers, and all they have to do is lie to organizations and call their tournament or event “The National Championship” to get their business.

It’s not to say that these tournaments are not quality or that they’re not fun. In many cases, these tournaments are very well run and have a great environment. These host organizations often pair with apparel companies, restaurants and amusement parks to provide the best experience for each team. Sounds like most of these kids are having the time of their lives. The "experience" part of all of this is awesome.

But isn’t that the point of a vacation?

What’s next? Applying to be your school’s valedictorian? Signing up to be your company’s CEO? Registering to be your state’s next Governor? Volunteering to win an Oscar?

These things are major accomplishments. They take a tremendous amount of work, time, sacrifice and commitment. Most people who set out to achieve these things fail. They end up succeeding on a lower level, but they don’t win the top prize.

Why? They’re not good enough. They tried really had and failed to be the best. But, for their efforts, they’re still pretty good. And, more importantly, their effort and commitment is valued.

A national championship in any sport is no different. If you didn’t have to work tremendously hard to get there, sacrifice a ton of time doing what doesn’t come natural to you, you’re not a national champ. If you didn’t beat the 2^nd-best team in the country, you’re not a national champ. If multiple “national championships” in your age group are held by the same organization each year and you don’t get to play the other winners, you’re not a national champ.

I hope you had fun at your pay-to-play tournament at a really pretty facility far away. Enjoy your huge plastic trophy. But please don’t call it a national championship. The real national champ may take offense to that.

New to tennis? Start at the net!

Show up for your tennis lesson on your first day or your first day of high school tennis practice or your first private lesson and most often, you’ll start at the baseline. It’s where points start. It’s where most strokes at the professional and competitive level happen. But it’s not the place to start.

     In one aspect, tennis is about as simple as it gets. Fuzzy ball, white lines, ball’s gotta bounce on the other side twice. Any player with the ability to whack a ball can play. That’s the beauty of tennis. It’s why hundreds of people play their whole life. But if you’re looking to develop long term skills that will translate for a player’s tennis life, start at the net. Here’s why.

     Net play, or more commonly known as “volleys” within the tennis community, happen with a continental grip. Sometimes called the handshake grip or the hammer grip, the continental grip is the most versatile grip in tennis. Unfortunately, may private instructors and coaches don’t bother teaching grip at all. After all, it can be a daunting task. There are at least 5 different forehand grips, and I’ve seen a zillion different ways to hit a backhand. But I’ve never heard a coach encourage anything other than a continental grip to hit a volley.

    Starting at the net can result in early success for every player. A good coach can basically hit a player’s racquet with the ball and get it to go where they want it to go. That’s tougher to do at the baseline and leads to plenty of players giving up before they’ve even done one thing right.

     While the volley stroke is simple (some would argue that the “stroke” is almost non-existent), the footwork can be a little tougher. Good volleys require a player to be in a solid ready position, and two steps in the right pattern. This helps reinforce the importance of footwork in tennis. Those who learn to hit groundstrokes first often feel confident in their playing ability without even knowing that the game requires solid footwork to be an all-court player.

     But what about the serve? Isn’t that where points really start?

     Of course. And if you’re using proper service technique, you’re using a continental grip. I’ve been coaching college tennis for over 20 seasons (men and women combined) and I get at least one freshman every year who can’t serve or volley with a continental grip. Almost all of them have a terrible second serve and a backhand volley that’s even worse. That’s because while you can hit from the baseline with just about any grip, the only grip that every player absolutely must have to be an all-court player is the continental grip.

     So, essentially, these players have been lied to. A coach told them they were ready for match play without ever teaching the most essential part of the game. That’s like a baseball player not being told about having to catch a batted ball or soccer player who can only kick with one foot.

     Bottom line is this. Tennis begins and ends with the continental grip. Learning to get your opponent out of position and taking advantage of their position is more important than cracking forehands. If you can move your feet well, you can win with JUST a continental grip. When you get on the courts, make sure continental grip is your first focus. Once you master that, all the other strokes will come easy.