Jacob Newell ENGL 1201

Jacob Newell Rebecca Agosta ENG 1101-25 September 20, 2013 Title My Brother Observing me Me Play Back when I used to play baseball, my family would be at every game to cheer me on and watch me play. Every game I had I would look into the stands and I would see my brother watching me play. He always was paying attention to everything that was going on no matter what was going on around him. He watched the entire game in awe every time he was there to watch. When I went up to bat, my brother would go up to the fence, grab on, and cheer me on. He would yell at the top of his lungs, "go Jacob!!!!" It was always a huge motivation for me because he was looking up to me. I also knew that my baseball career was coming to an end because I was getting too old to play and I just didn't have the love to play as much as I used to. After each game he would tell me how well he thought I did and how awesome he thinks thought baseball is. He started telling me how he wanted to play baseball just like me and how he wanted to be as good as he believed I was. I would then take him to the t-ball field where he became even more amazed due to the fact it was full of kids that were around his age and size playing baseball. He always asked to be held up, so he can could see each kid playing and everything that was going on at each moment of the game. Also, it was almost impossible to get him to leave and go home if there was still a game going on. He would fight as much as he could
Comment [t6]: This makes it obvious that he is very young. Comment [t4]: So even though he loved it a lot as a spectator, you knew your time being involved with the sport was ending. I think that focus is obvious here. Youre not worried here about how you were playing in the game. The focus is on your brother and how he made you feel. Comment [t5]: Stay in past tense Comment [t2]: Not sure if the every time goes with the awe or he was there to watch. This should be two sentences. Comment [t3]: Great visual Comment [t1]: As you revise for your portfolio, come up with a creative title that binds your snapshots together. Formatted: Centered Formatted: Font: Not Bold, No underline

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to stay no matter what we told him to get him to leave. I realized how much he loved the game and how badly he wanted to participate in it. Right then and there I knew that I would love to teach him everything that I knew and make him better than I ever was or could be. Preparation for the New Season When Fall fall of 2012 came around, my dad asked my brother if he wanted to sign up for t-ball. My brother said ecstatically that he really wanted to play t-ball. My dad then asked me if I was going to help him take a team on and be there at every practice and game. I answered back quickly and surely that I would love to help him coach. So wWe signed my brother up, and then my dad and I both had to get certified for coaching on a Cal Ripken Certification website where we had to take tests and do little information sessions online. This would be easier for my dad due to the fact that he coached me in t-ball and helped assistant coach me through my years during baseball. I believed that due to my background in baseball and me playing it all my life that I would make a pretty good coach. since I knew what was going on at all times, and I knew drills that many coaches used in order to get kids better at certain abilities in the game. After my dad called all of the parents of the kids, we had to come up with some basic rules for the parents to follow. Most of them had to do with basic rules of the park like no smoking, acting right, and not acting obnoxiously during games. Other rules included bringing your kid to games and practices fifteen minutes early, no arguing with the umpire, and no coaching from the sidelines due to the fact that it confuses the kids. The First Practice I was really nervous due to the fact that this first time that I would be coaching a team. I had no idea what to expect due tobecause all the kids being were four, five, or six and also with
Comment [t10]: You and your dad developed the system together for participants to know what not to do and what to do. I think this showed that beyond teaching your brother baseball, it asked you to take on a different perspective on baseball. You may already know these rules, but you are not asked to enforce them and give them to others. How old were you at this point? Comment [t11]: You say this phrase a lot (its in the next 2 sentences too). I would switch it up sometimes with because or something like that. Repeating phrases can sometimes make the reader think they are accidentally reading the line above, which is why you want to keep using different phrases. Comment [t9]: Was the test easy to pass? Did it make you think about baseball from a different perspective? Comment [t8]: Ah, your dad was going to start up a team. Was this with an optimist club? Comment [t7]: I think this is a good set up to see that you had a literacy that your younger brother longed to have, and his passion for the game made you want to sponsor that literacy.

Jacob Newell ENGL 1201

some kids that had played before while others haven'thadn't. Also, each kid had different levels of potential. due to Kkids that were five and played before were better than the six year olds who have never played before. We started the practice off by splitting the kids up in pairs and giving them a soft ball which was really squishy. We did this to see which kids could throw and which kids could catch. We watched the kids as they did this and helped point out what was wrong and helped them correct it. We got to learned all of the kids names as we walked along talking to them and helping them become more accurate in their throws. At the end of that drill we told them to get a drink of water and meet us by home plate. When all of the team got there, we walked them around the bases. We showed them how you are supposed to run them and which direction they are supposed to go while running the bases. Also we told them what to do when the coaches said "stick the bag" or when we yelled "go to second" or "come to third." After we told them all of that, we told them that when a coach yells "go through the bag" that you keep running as fast as you can and touch first base with your right foot. We brought them to home plate and let them go one at a time while one coach stayed at first and told them what to do. In another part of the drill, we had one coach on first and one coach on third telling them what to do. tThen we let them get water again. We then separated them between the positions of second and short stop based on who we though had better arms and could throw farther. I stood on first as my dad hit balls to them and caught the ball after they fielded the ball and threw it to first. At the end of that, we ended practice and recapped what we did with the kids. Teaching Pitcher
Comment [t15]: How did your brother feel about doing all of this? Comment [t13]: Hm! I learned something new here. Comment [t14]: Oh cool, so you immediately put that lesson into practice. Comment [t12]: Whats interesting her as your literacy in coaching grows is your understanding that teaching skills is as important as learning the individuals that you are coaching: their names, their experience levels, and their skills.

Jacob Newell ENGL 1201

Even though the pitcher in t-ball does not pitch the ball, it is still a very important and tough position to play. You have to be able to listen to all of the coaches yelling at you and being able to know what to do with the ball. The pitcher must have a good glove and be able to throw accurately towards first base to get outs and be able to tag someone out at home plate if they ran towards it. Also, they would have to be able to run the kid down in the baseline and tag them out,out; this required the kids to be quick and able to make decisions quickly. For our pitcher we used three different kids so that there would be a variety of kids that could play the position and so that everyone had a chance to play different positions. Those three kids were my brother Justin, Cameron, and Nathaniel. We chose those kids because they all had good gloves and, were able to field the ball, were able to knock the ball down when necessary, and had good arms. We had little drills to help the kids learn to move to the ball while being able to stop it in their glove and make the throw. I would demonstrate how to get my butt down and pick the ball up, charging the ball if it is hit softly, and also moving to the ball and getting it if it was possible. They started to do it well. and sSince Cameron was older, had played t-ball before, and was the most well rounded kid on the team, we put him at pitcher for the majority of the time. Backyard Practice Ever since my brother started to play t-ball, he always asked me to go in the backyard with him and go play baseball with himto play baseball. We always worked on his batting because that was his favorite thing to do. He always wanted to see how far he was able to hit the ball and if he could hit it over my head or not. When he was done hitting, I went up to the tee to
Comment [t19]: Ah, so he had a skill that he liked best. Comment [t18]: Was your brother disappointed at this or did he have another cool position to play? I keep bringing back your brother because he was such a big part of your first one. Comment [t17]: What does this mean? It might not be necessary to clarify, but it is something I dont know. Comment [t16]: Im glad you clarified here what a pitcher does in the world of t-ball.

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hit the ball around him so that he can work on his fielding skills. I began to see he was doing a good job, so I started to hit it a little harder to him so that he would have more of a challenge. I got my sister out of the house and, gave her a glove, and told her to get on first base because we had little bases set up around the yard. She did so and I told my brother that I would hit it, and then I was going to run to first, and he would have to try to get me out. I started by hitting the ball straight to him, getting him to pick up the ball quick, and throwing it as fast as he could while I was running as fast as I could to the base. After he got good of getting rid of it quickly, I began hitting it to his sides and hitting it short. I would jog so that he had enough time to get the ball and throw it to first to get me out. I would do this with him every day or every other day so that he would get better. The Kids Improvements Starting the year off many of the kids were new to the game of baseball and did not know how to play it that well. One kid I remember that improved a lot was Bryson. He was six, and he was overly hyper and has had not played baseball before. He started off running by ground balls, not throwing on target, and had mediocre hitting skills. During practices I would always work with him on catching the ball, and after he threw the ball, I got him to point his finger where he was throwing which made him more accurate than he was before. During one of our last games, the ball was hit between Bryson and second base, and Bryson picked the ball up and turned a double play by tagging the runner and then tagging second base. For a t-ball kid this is a huge deal because not many double plays are made in t-ball. After that, when it was his turn to bat he hit the ball into the outfield in the air, which is not expected from kids that are playing their first year of baseball.
Comment [t21]: Kind of goes back to my notes before that these kids were doing some complex things. Comment [t20]: So you two had very specific things that you worked on to improve his game. And he was only 5-6 at the time? This seems like very complex things to be working on for that age, but maybe its because I only played t-ball as a kid and just remember batting.

Jacob Newell ENGL 1201

Another kid who improved tremendously was Nathaniel. He was a four year old who was not taller than three foot five inches tall. He started off the season barley hitting the ball to the pitcher and not being able to get in front of the ball to stop it. Back when I used to play, I was always told to keep my butt down and glove on the ground while keeping the ball between my legs when I field it. So I demonstrated this to Nathaniel by getting my dad to hit the ball to me a few times so he could see how to do it. After tha,t my dad started to hit balls to him, and I helped move him side to side until he got it down pat. Also when we had batting practice I would go up to Nathaniel and tell him when he goes to hit the ball not to use just his arms. I showed him how to step into the ball and twist my hips when I swing the bat. He began to do this and got pretty good at it. In the middle of the season he became a decent hitter, ; he would hit the ball in the gap between second and short stop where most kids would not be able to run to it in time.
Comment [t23]: You mentioned in the snapshot above how your brother improved. Im wondering a bit about how you see yourself and baseball after becoming a coach? Are there things that you notice and value because of who you were as a player? How did those kids and their abilities and needs shape your skills at coaching? Overall, strong essay that showed your baseball literacy and your active coaching literacy. I would like to hear more about how you saw yourself as a coach, and maybe that would make a really solid ending since the first one was about your baseball skills.. Comment [t22]: Oh wow!