Before Eric Barnes was drafted into Major League Baseball in 1994, he was just a kid from California who loved sports.
Barnes was clearly a star baseball player, studied karate, and also played soccer, tennis, and basketball. When I look back on my favorite baseball memories as a child, I remember my relationships with my friends, eating Jack in the Box tacos with my mom before games, and the first time the station wagon window broke. I remember hitting a home run.
“I don’t know if we won a particular game or won a particular championship,” Burns told FOX News Digital. “I was selected to the All-Star team, but I can’t tell you what happened during the All-Star Tournament. I remember having a pool party at a friend’s house afterward.”
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Former MLB outfielder Eric Burns is the author of Let Them Play: A Parenting and Coaching Guide to Youth Sports. (Eric Burns)
The former MLB outfielder currently serves as a youth baseball coach for a travel team. As a coach, he bases his sports memories on emotions that influence them. “Let the kids play ball. And just play ball.”
Burns recently wrote a book titled “Let Them Play: A Parenting and Coaching Guide to Youth Sports.” The premise of this book is to encourage an environment of fearlessness and freedom for the next generation of elite youth athletes.
“‘Let Them Play’ was a song that me and three other guys that I played with at UCLA or in the big leagues came up with,” Burns said. “We were all at a stage with our kids where no one had coached them before, and we all had the same opinion: They were being overcoached.”
The four decide that this is harmful to the children and decide to form a team of their own and operate in a “let’s play” spirit. This philosophy gives the kids the freedom to run the team and make mistakes, allowing the coaching staff to make corrections as needed.
“It’s very refreshing to see them have the freedom to call the plays themselves,” Burns said. “It creates an atmosphere and mindset that children are given freedom.”
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Eric Burns believes that his approach to autonomous coaching allows youth athletes to make their own choices and learn great lessons from their experiences. (Eric Burns)
Burns said that from pillar to post, players are given the autonomy to overcome adversity, make choices for their actions, and take ownership and responsibility. And while they may make mistakes along the way, Burns says the kids are happy.
“This isn’t about producing major league players,” Burns said. “The aim is to develop young men and women who know how to confidently make their own decisions and take responsibility for their actions.”
Burns’ book is divided into 22 codes of conduct for parents, coaches, and players. Burns uses this code in his own coaching method. He shares this in his book, encouraging parents and coaches to take a self-directed approach to youth sports.
“There’s nothing worse than a father standing behind the fence and a child looking back at him every time he pitches for approval,” Burns said.
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The book also includes beliefs that Burns claims are loosely based on those of Navy SEALs.
“When I played in the big leagues, I had it in my locker as a good memory,” he said.
Burns also found good fortune in the philosophy of letting them play while managing the Savannah Bananas, an unconventional but shamelessly entertaining baseball team.
“I told the players, ‘Be free and fearless,'” he said of the Bananas. “When you play the style of baseball that they play, you have to have that approach. They’re doing backflips in the outfield. There’s a guy somewhere playing on stilts.”
Even though Burns currently uses the “let them play” philosophy, he appreciated the ethos long before he gave it a name.
During MLB’s “Moneyball” era, Barnes was called up by the Oakland Athletics. There he was managed under a coaching staff that avoided sacrifice outs on the basepaths. During his career in Oakland, Barnes managed to steal a formidable 17-20 bases.
Let Them Play is a guide for parents and coaches written by former MLB outfielder Eric Burns. A youth sports coaching and parenting approach encourages adults to allow children to play, fail, and succeed on their own. (Eric Burns)
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“I felt like I could steal a base a lot of times, but I didn’t want to take that chance away,” he said. “They just focused on seeing a lot of pitches and really encouraged walking and getting on base. So if you swing on the first pitch and get an out, the coaches and general managers are very You’ll be angry.” That. “
It wasn’t until Barnes signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks that he felt he could definitely test his base-stealing skills.
“I had a manager named Bob Melvin,” he said. “As soon as I got to Arizona, he said, ‘Barnesy, every time you get on base, I want you to steal a base.’ So that year, I hit a career high. I got a steal. I think it was 25-26.”
The next season with the Diamondbacks, Barnes showed up with a glove in hand and received a shocking statement from Melvin.
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“He said, ‘I don’t think you understood me last season. Your success rate was too high. I want you to push the limits,'” Burns said. “That year, I had 50-57 stolen bases.”
Burns said having someone like that in his career “meant everything” and “liberated” him. He says it made him think about what kind of MLB career he might have had if he had been introduced to Melvin’s coaching style sooner.
“The same philosophy applies to diving for balls in the outfield,” he said. “The way I see it, you never know what you’re going to catch unless you dive in.”
Now Burns is encouraging his youth team, dubbed ‘Let Them Play’, to embrace failure rather than fear it.
“In youth sports, kids fail all the time, but the question is how they react to that failure,” he said. “It’s a live or die mentality on this sword. It’s not always easy and it’s not always pretty.”
