viperinkorea

Quantity versus Quality

On my way home from the gym today, I stopped in again to watch the boys hit in the batting cage. It really struck me how much better the kids in America are at baseball than the Korean kids. There are several things to consider here though, not just America has more people, etc. These boys practice from 9-6 everyday, yet their skill level is nowhere near kids of the same age in the U.S. The kids in the U.S. practice, I would guess on average from 1.5-2 hours 3 times a week, and that is during the good weather months/baseball season. Here, they are doing it year round, and when school starts up again, they will still be practicing for 5 hours I am guessing. So, is the quality of instruction that much better in the U.S. than it is in Korea? Does it have to do with genetics? We have much more muscle structure than Koreans do as well as bigger and longer bones. This is due to their diet versus ours as well as genetics. Meat is not a "main course" as it is in the U.S., which no doubt contributes to our kids' size. Back on topic though. The coach at my school has been doing this for 7 years I believe, but he does not have a college degree and he started doing it when he was 19 (he's 26 now). Does his knowledge or lack of knowledge come into play? How much does it have to do with the fact that he is teaching the kids whatever his coach taught him rather than possibly exploring other options. Their hitting is very weak because they do not use their legs very well. They hit with their hands, then their hips, resulting in weak hitters. In the U.S. several different styles are taught depending on the coach, but the constant tends to be hips first, then hands, resulting in more power. Maybe it is just the differing cultural styles, such as his coach did it this way, this is how he was taught, this is how it has always been done, so we will do it this way. Overall, the kids here have a lot higher quantity of baseball, but I think the quality of baseball, both practice and instruction, are not as high as in the U.S. I am sure there are some kids that practice baseball for 4 hours everyday and they also get good instruction in the U.S., but the numbers of kids doing it for more than 4 hours a day in Korea probably far exceeds the number of kids doing it in the U.S. I also wonder how many of these boys here would be playing baseball on their own with their friends if they weren't on the school team. I am sure that my brother and I had a lot more fun than these boys are having now. We loved going to practice after school and after our paper routes, well, I guess I will only speak for myself, hahahaha, but I also loved playing it with my friends in our yards or in a neighbors yard. Would it have been the same for us if we would have been forced to practice all the time? Who knows. Thankfully, we never had to find out. These kids I don't believe have much choice in the matter, which is unfortunate.

posted by viperinkorea @ 7:46 PM