Playing vs Practice – Which is Better?

I recently had a conversation with a friend of mine about her son who plays baseball, and has been one of the better players on his teams for many years. She was talking about how he was a “really smart player” who knew a lot about baseball, but that he was starting to fall behind the rest of his team because he was smaller and not as strong as some of the other players. She expressed some disappointment that his knowledge of the game was not helping him to stand out when it came to coaching decisions, playing time, lineup placement, etc. Our discussion illustrated an important point about athletics at any level. “Smart” can be trained fairly quickly, and is accessible to almost everybody. I can take almost any ballplayer, and drill them enough in a short period of time to hit the cutoff man, take an extra base, throw the right pitch in the right count. Developing an athlete is different. Building the arm strength, the running speed, and the power with the bat is a longer process that takes time. Regardless of how big or small the athlete is, athleticism has to be the focus for development in order to standout at the next level, whatever that level is. How does this manifest itself in the way we set up our children’s sport schedule? Well, for one, it means playing less games in order to prioritize training – whether that training is power development, throwing, or defensive footwork, there is far more to be achieved in the development of sport specific, or even general athleticism, than there is to playing another game wherein the kid sees a few more ground balls or takes a few more at bats. Playing in games may make you smarter. But dedicated training will make you better. And I’ll take better any day, because I can train you to be smarter once I have you at practice every day.