i finally got through to a "difficult" boy tonight at baseball practice.
he has obvious attention problems, and while he coyld be a great athlete, he dogs it during our workouts, gets distracted all the time, and pays no attention to our instruction doing whatever he likes.
but i found a couple of keys to him tonight that i hope i can develop.
during warmups, i told him to throw the ball at me as hard as he could've (with proper form, looking dead red into my mitt, stepping straight at me, and firing the ball as hard as he could as if he was pointing at me) and he was great. i told him i could catch anything he throws so not to be afraid to let it go, and he did. crack, right into my mitt. time after time.
woohoo, i complimented him on every throw that was perfect, and corrected his minor flaws, and he got better, and faster, and we both really enjoyed it.
then, noticing that he craves attention but gets lost easily or simply rebels, i squatted down (no cup
) and worked a bit with him on focusing in on nothing else but throwing strikes crack went my mitt, time after time.
so i dangled the carrot in front of him that he could be one of our pitchers.
you shoulda seen his face.
if i can but teach a little focus and technique, and of course he has just a little success, we all win. with failure and continued support, he wins even more. he needs both.
it's going to be tough as he's a very moody kid, but i'm willing to try. he can really benefit from this in so many ways.
