How to Know If Your Son Still Wants to Play Baseball

A lot of kids keep playing because they were always a little better than the kids around them and the parents kept signing them up. Then they get older and realize it was never really their dream. It was just the next season on the calendar. That’s how you get burnout, and a player who doesn’t want to play anymore, and a family that thinks the answer is a better team.

How to know if your son still wants to play baseball is not a personality quiz. Watch the week. Is he the one asking to hit, or are you dragging him to the cage? Is the car ride a recap of everything he did wrong, or does he still talk about the game on his own? When he says he doesn’t want to go, do you treat it like a character flaw, or like a kid who might need a day in a decade-long process?

Questions that actually tell you something

Do you ever ask him if he had fun? Do you tell him how much you love watching him play — on a normal Tuesday, not only after a good game? I have found with my sons that those questions put a little smirk on his face. The fire gets a little brighter when he knows you are there for him, not just for the player, and that is a lot of what “wanting it” actually looks like at 10 or 14.

Ensuring he loves the game is the first goal, because without that he will not put in the effort the big goals require. If he wants to be great, be his support system. Talk about goals. Match the work to those goals. Motivate him when he needs it. Sometimes tough love is the right medicine. The bottom line is be there on a daily basis, not just on the weekends you paid for.

If he doesn’t want it, don’t buy another showcase to convince him. You have to help him keep the love of baseball kindled until it is burning, and that is a balancing act. You are the main person who can help the fire grow. The time will go by fast.

Taking an off day will not ruin a decade. A calendar with no rest and no backyard time will. Whose dream is this? is the full version of that conversation. If he still wants it, go outside. Twenty minutes. Sometimes it turns into two hours because he’s enjoying it. Sometimes 20 is all you get. That’s still a great day. Stack the days.