Hall of Famers & MLB All-Stars warn parents who hire the ‘personal coach’ for their kids

Andre Dawson and Jennie Finch both have bad news for well-meaning parents who are pouring money into their kids’ athletic careers by hiring personal instructors in the hopes of them being an All-Star, or playing in college.

Save your money.

Current Major League Baseball All-Stars say the same thing.

Take it from people who lived it, or live it currently. Dawson is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, and Finch is one of the best softball players ever.

On Monday morning at the Texas Rangers youth practice facility in West Dallas, they worked with youth softball and baseball teams through a program sponsored by Gatorade. A few hours later in Arlington at Globe Life Field, the 2024 MLB All-Stars met with the media.

They all come from different backgrounds, and yet their answer to the question if all of these expensive personal lessons and pricey 1-on-1 instructors for kids are worth it is unanimous.

“I have two perspectives on this, and one is as a parent of a 16-year-old son. So, no,” Oakland A’s manager Mark Kotsay said Monday. He played in the majors from 1997 to 2013.

“But saying that statement, as a parent trying to provide your child every avenue if you have those means, then you are going to argue that it is.”

At a minimum, hiring the personal coach is another way to keep the kid playing a game on a field, which is better than just watching them playing a game on their phone.

There is a hard truth to “making it” in sports that is as easy as swallowing a rock; that no amount of money can “fix it.”

If the player can play, they can just play. Some additional instruction can never hurt, but ultimately a teacher can only do so much.

“You can’t teach athleticism,” Dawson said. “It’s something where talent and ability comes out. That (personal instruction) is not going to make that much of a difference. It is acquired knowledge, and it’s going to be in the back of your mind, but it’s different when it’s game action and it’s live.

“It has it’s place, but it’s not going to be a deal breaker. It’s not going to take you from ‘here to here.’”

In the last 20 years, the price to play sports as a kid in America has gone from affordable, to semi-affordable to its current state of, “Gross.” Travel ball. Select teams. All-Star teams. Multiple uniforms. Bats. Gloves.

“I think the amount of money being shelled out for youth baseball is not worth it, for your average family,” said Baltimore Orioles third baseman Jordan Westburg, who grew up in New Braunfels.

“It hurts me to look at travel ball teams of 6, 7 or 9 year olds. Even in that 10 to 12 group; is it really that important to spend thousands of dollars to take up a full summer of just baseball at that age? I think the parents are wanting it more than their kids at that age.”

Westburg said he didn’t come from a family who had “the means” to take this route if he wanted to; he did say he’s happy it wasn’t even an option. It gave him the chance to have a more “normal” summer routine.

“When parents start to compare their kid and what they are doing compared to other kids, it robs the kids’ joy,” he said. “You don’t want this to feel like a job; if their parents are pushing to keep up with John Doe’s kids next door, that’s a dangerous game to play.”

This has been a common criticism for years, and most people who want to change it are powerless to do so. Parents get caught in a vortex of spending and don’t know how to get out of it without feeling like a terrible mom or dad.

There is big a market for the professionalization for youth sports, and moms and dads are willing to pay even if that means the kids’ career ends at 18.

In this evolution has sprouted the “personal coach.’ The swing coach. The hitting coach. Goalie coach. Fielding coach. Throwing coach. The mental coach. They charge an hourly rate, and they are not cheap.

“I never took a private lesson. I didn’t play travel ball until I was 15,” New York Yankees All-Star pitcher Clay Holmes said. “It’s probably engaging in some regards, but as far as pure athletic skill development, no. There’s a middle ground. It’s going overboard. Just seeing people playing travel ball at 8 is crazy, in my opinion.

“There is the talent component. The game you play when you are fully developed is different than early on. You don’t even know what your body can do yet.”

These are all accomplished players who made it to the highest level, and they know. They know you can take a talented shortstop and give him the most expensive instruction, and that won’t make him Elly De La Cruz.

They know that no 1-on-1 tutor can make a pitcher Paul Skenes.

They also know despite their credentials, and their thoughts, the trend of youth sports madness is not apt to stop.

The swing guru will find a client. The personal goalie coach will have their customer. The private pitching coach will be busy.

“I coach my daughter’s team, and we have two boys are in the circuit, so I see all of it,” Finch said. “Some kids benefit greatly from (the extra, personal instruction), and some kids don’t need that.”

You’ll notice the overwhelming the majority of those who “made it” are the ones who don’t need it.