What’s wrong with hitting like a girl?
Posted by Jonathan Grantham on January 24, 2011
I had to go to school today (on a Sunday) for a short time to get some work done. As I pulled into the staff parking lot, I was impressed by the number of kids that were on the softball and baseball fields for what appeared to be the start of “spring training” for the upcoming Little League seasons.
The acre or so of grass was filled with dozens of young kids, adult coaches and a fair number of parents. It was fun to walk the length of the service drive on the way to my classroom and see the excitement and energy of this new beginning. I overhead some truly fine adult males guiding a group of about 30 pre-teen girls on the merits of teamwork, maintaining the infield and practice procedures. A smile moved across my face as I watched the girls take off on their warm-up lap.
A few steps later, I walked by some pre-teen boys running a series of lunge/sprint exercises. And at 9:10 in the morning, the adult males guiding this group of boys, apparently not satisfied with the effort of these kids, thought it appropriate to encourage them with:
“Come on guys, if you don’t start moving faster, I’m gonna send you over to the softball field to work with the girls!”
Hmmm. Really?
As a marching band director of 220 kids I know a little bit about the need for a coach mentality in motivating your team to work harder, dig deeper and go beyond what they think they are capable of doing.
But this example of adult leadership was just stupid. And to think that many of these little boys go to school with some of the very girls that were training just 100 yards away. And this was the message they were receiving. For a practice session for Little League Baseball training.
Anything about that seem asinine?
How about all of it.
Nothing like a good dose of fury to get your Sunday started!
