My grandson Myles is eight. He loves baseball. He currently is in Double-A Little League. This league is heavy on teaching the game to the kids. Basic skills are developed. Catching. Fielding. Throwing. Throwing to the correct base. Running bases. Sliding. Batting.
Early in the season the coach will pitch the first two innings. After that a kid takes the mound. Myles is an excellent coach hitter. When the coaches pitch he swings well. He typically will get a base hit. He always puts the ball into play.
A kid pitching is a different matter. Part of the reason is that many of the kids are learning to pitch. Some are a bit erratic. Unlike when the coach pitches, and the ball is more true to form, a kid pitcher is not as predictable.
Myles, unlike me (his Pappy) when I played baseball, is not afraid of the ball. He hangs in. What he is, is a bit reluctant to swing the bat. Coach pitch…he swings. Kid pitch…seldom swings. Often the result is a walk. Not that he is overly selective. It’s just that most kid pitches will not be consistently close to the plate. Although there is a generous strike zone.
His daddy has been imploring him to swing the bat. He tells him before every game, “When a kid pitches swing the bat. I don’t care if you strike out. Swing the bat.” Why? You miss 100% of the balls you don’t swing at. A swing and a miss is the first step to a swing and a hit.
His third game of the year I was out of town. I was unable to be at his game. I received a text from him asking me to call. I did. His very first words, “I got a hit off a kid!”
I was ecstatic for him! I told him how proud I was of him. I asked him to explain it to me. Where he hit the ball? How many bases did he run? I wanted to hear it all.
This was a BIG deal. I told him he should be proud of himself (which he was). I let him know I could hardly wait to be there when he got another ‘hit off a kid.’
We all have situations and challenges in our lives that tend to reduce our confidence. There are those areas of our life that are our versions of a ‘kid pitch.’ We know we can swing the bat. We have been effective in other areas. It’s just that in some situations we are less proactive.
Somewhere in our minds there is a sense we may fail. We keep ourselves from making the same effort we have in other places at other times. It is true that we find confidence in some areas (coach pitch) more than others (kid pitch). What we need to do is simply understand that the try (swing) is the same.
What is the ‘kid pitch’ in your life? Make a point to swing. If you do. You will discover you CAN get a ‘hit off of a kid!’