Download Building Players One Day at a Time

Building Players One Day at a Time
By Bill Ripken
I used to hear Dad say, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” in reference to a lot of different things.
He might say it on the first day of spring training if a young player was trying to do too much too fast in
hopes of impressing the organization and making the team. Or he might say it after the team had a bad
day of practice during spring training.
He meant to be calming - the old saying offers a sense of perspective.
Really, when you think about it, accomplishing anything worthwhile takes a certain amount of hard
work and patience.
There is a process involved in completing almost every task we are faced with and trying to do too
much or looking for shortcuts to speed up that process generally doesn’t help very much.
Walking our complex in Aberdeen, MD during tournaments or camps, I talk to a lot of parents who
think that their kids are the next Derek Jeter or A-Rod or Cal Ripken.
I’m not talking about parents of 15-year-olds. I’m talking about parents of 8-, 9-, and 10-year-olds.
These particular parents have their kids playing on travel teams and attending every camp possible in
hopes of ensuring that they one day will make it to the big leagues.
Well, for these parents I have one bit of advice: “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
It is important for players, parents and coaches to not lose sight of the particulars – the process – that
leads up to someone becoming a big league ballplayer.
Nobody is born to be a major league baseball player. Every player who has made it that far has
followed the same progression. They enjoyed and grew to love the game, practiced, played and had a
lot of fun along the way.
In my mind, the kids who have too much thrown at them too fast are the ones who are most likely not
to make it. They lose their love for the game and the desire to get better on their own.
Call it burnout if you like. For a kid to make it to the big leagues, the dream has to be his own. It can’t
be someone else’s dream, or the passion and desire that at some point separate the good players from
the great ones will never surface.
We must always remember that kids mature at different rates physically, emotionally and in terms of
their motor skills.
If we both have 8-year-olds and mine is a little bit behind yours on the baseball field,
it’s not going to help jumpstart him if I force him to practice more. At that age it is
important that the time spent on the field is enjoyable. If he develops a true love and passion
for the game, and at some point his body and motor skills catch up (which usually happens), then we
might have the formula for success.
If your child or a player on your team has an off day at practice or doesn’t perform well in one single
game, big deal. Forget about the negatives. Pick out one or two positive things, even if they are just
little things, and really get excited about them. Make the player feel good about himself and try to get
him excited to go back on the field and try again.
If that kid can continue to improve at doing a lot of the little things, one day it all might add up to him
being a big league ballplayer. And, like Rome, big league ballplayers aren’t built in a day.
Good luck and have fun!