GatewayRedbirds.com

Here's a few videos from a tournament this weekend. My wife took these, I didn't take any because I was coaching. We had a little league tournament (very different than USSSA tournaments which is the travel team). I guess it was all-star teams from each league that wanted to participate around the state and was the Arkansas 7&8 year old coach pitch state tournament. I think.

Anyway, here's a few vids of little AW
This one is my favorite. Even though little aw was out, you can see the kids at the end celebrate the 3Bman 'diving' catch lol.
One thing that's different between USSSA and Little League is the age cutoff. So, little AW is the youngest on his USSSA team and was the oldest on this team. It's amazing what a difference a couple months makes among 8 year olds.

And, here's some pictures. I knew the coach and told him I'd be willing to help coach if he wanted. He said only 3 coaches were allowed and they had already filled up but he'd like help at practices and what not which was perfectly fine by me. Then he said they needed another coach and they were allowed 4 which is pretty obvious becaus eyou need a 1/3B coach and a pitcher....plus someone to babysit the dugout and remind kids when they're on deck. All that to say, I got jobbed out of a sweet shirt/hat but oh well.

[SHOW]

sparks wrote: ↑

July 5 21, 12:42 pm

I have a 6 year old grandson in Houston that Mrs. Sparks and I send to private baseball lessons. We send him for about a month before the season, through the season and also for about a month halfway between seasons. We don't really have any expectations for long term we just want to him to have something that gets him out of the house and keep him active.

He loves it.

The instructor basically teaches him base running, basic hitting off the tee, footwork and basic rules of baseball. He just finished his second year of T-ball and you can tell that he uses what he has been taught. It also seems to have made him more aggressive on the field in a good way. I coached my daughters when they were growing up and teaching a kid to be aggressive is one of the hardest things to do (IMO). His instructor said he doesn't normally take kids that young but my grandson has the ability to stay focused and listen so he enjoys working with him (and I am sure the $$ plays in to it).

His parents (my daughter and her husband) are getting caught up in the excitement as well. Unfortunately my wife and I only get to see some short videos of him playing unless we can catch him on one of out visits.

That's awesome. One thing that Covid helped with was getting our local little league to install a camera at each field back when players were only allowed one adult to come with them and they've kept them active since then. It would be awesome for you all if the league in Houston could find a way to do something similar.