04/09/2026
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✨Wednesday Wisdom✨
This is not a post about bad coaches. Most coaches out there are showing up for your kids out of nothing but passion for this game. This is a post about a gap in the system that nobody is talking about and it is costing players years of development they will never get back.
I have played and watched a lot of games and something keeps showing up on every single field I visit.
The disconnect between coaches and players.
Here is what I keep seeing. A play breaks down. A coverage gets missed. A player is in the wrong spot. And the response from the dugout is almost always the same.
"Catch the ball!"
"You've got to be there!"
"Where are you at?!"
And I get it. In the moment that frustration is real. But here is the honest truth about those responses — they teach absolutely nothing.
Most coaches who have been around this game for a long time carry an assumption with them that is costing their players more than they realize. They assume that baseball and softball IQ is something kids either have or they don't. That game smarts are instinctive. That players should just know where to be.
But that is not how it works.
And I know this firsthand because I was one of those players who almost never got taught it either.
When I was 12 years old I got recommended to a 16u team by a family friend because they believed this coach could teach me things most coaches at my age level never would. These were older, more advanced players and from day one I was in over my head. But what happened in that environment changed the future of my career.
Our team was made up of players from all over TN, AL, KY... We had one practice a week. Sunday afternoons. Minimum four hours.
I know that sounds extreme. But that was the only time we had together as a team and that coach was not going to waste a single minute of it.
We would spend entire halves of practice on situations alone. And not just with live reps, half of that time we did not even have a ball in play. Just players in their positions. Coach walking through every coverage, every backup, every primary, secondary and tertiary responsibility if everything went wrong. Then we would purposely throw the ball away just to see if the backups were where they were supposed to be.
We did it over and over until it was not a thought anymore. Until our bodies just went there automatically.
Now, I was fortunate enough to have a dad who knew this game well and gave me a strong foundation from the very beginning. That foundation is a big part of why I was even recommended to that team in the first place.
But what that coach gave me was the next layer. The layer that most players at 12 years old never get access to. He took everything I already had and added the game IQ, the defensive coverage, the situational awareness that turns a good player into a complete one. He did not build me from the ground up. He built me up to the next level.
That experience did not save my career. It elevated it.
And here is what breaks my heart now watching ball in 2026.
Coaches think they can run a 30 minute defensive session and expect players to know their coverages by game day. And then when they don't it is "catch the ball" and "where are you at" from the dugout.
Those kids are not failing because they are not trying. They are failing because nobody ever gave them enough time, enough reps or enough teaching to actually develop the skill during the years when the scoreboard did not matter.
And then it compounds. They get to middle school without the foundation. The cycle repeats. By the time they reach high school they are not behind because of talent, they are behind because of years of skipped development that nobody went back to fix.
Game IQ is not instinctive. It is not something kids either have or they don't. It is built. Rep after rep. Through teaching, mistakes and redos until the body stops thinking and just does.
If this resonated with you and you have a team that needs real defensive development, not just reps but actual teaching, coverage work and game IQ building, that is exactly what my team training is built for. I work with teams at every level to build the defensive foundation that most players never get during the years it matters most. If you are a coach, a parent or an organization ready to do it the right way reach out and let's talk about what that looks like for your team.
**If you have thoughts on this or have seen it firsthand drop them in the comments below. I would love to hear from coaches and parents on both sides of this conversation.
— Coach G
