Posted on 04/02/2013 10:00:23 AM PDT by DariusBane
I coach 11 U Baseball. My team, like most in this age group just can't hit. We do fine against pitchers that don't throw strikes. If they throw strikes we don't hit. Usually without even swinging. These guys hit in practice and in the cage. But in games they go down just looking. How to get them swinging in games?
Little help please?
Practice, practice, practice and in the words of Pete Rose “see the ball hit the ball”. The problem in LL is the kids don’t get a lot of swings. Enlist the aid of a few parents and help out at practice.
It’s still early in the season, you could probably trade most of them.....
Lol I have four lefties. I wish I could trade one of them for a right handed utility infielder!
I am jealous, I won’t get to see it. When he is on Dickey is awesome to watch. I saw the two back to back one hitters against the O’s and Rays last year, complete domination. Most of the time you don’t see the ball flutter and juke too much on TV but in both games it was visible, wiggling all over.
Here’s an awesome gif of the knuckler against tampa, I think this pitch was 81 mph. Yes, an 81mph knuckleball. The catcher closes his eyes and gets lucky catching it. It looks like something out of looney tunes, a true corkscrew.
Freegards, good luck with your team
Keep Mom & Dad away from your bench when the game starts.
Hubby used to torment our kid after every bad AB - took 2 seasons for Coach to ban him, but it worked like magic when it finally happened, not only for my kid, but on all the parents “checking on junior”.
Kids need to just play, parents need to shut up. The best will shine, but if they’re in it for the right reason, they will ALL have fun, learn about success and failure (and stay out of trouble, too)
My kiddie wound up getting 3 MVPs, two League Championships, and we’ve gotten calls and visits from scouts from two MLB organizations- and he’s only 14.
Make that five lefties.
I was a terrible batter as a little kid. I had terrible timing, and I was afraid of fastballs, worried I would get beaned.
Then one time I saw Rod Carew on TV talk about how he maintained such a high batting average over his career. It was a revelation for me.
1) He never took his eye off the ball. He ignored the pitcher, the other players, and the fans - ignored everything. Even when the ball was in the pitcher’s glove, he stared only at the ball
2) when the ball was thrown, he watched the laces on the baseball. I couldn’t believe that he could see the laces, but when I tried it, I found he was right - you can see the laces on the ball - especially when its coming at you at 60 mph (little league speeds) For me, as the batter, actually focusing on the laces slows the ball down, matrix-style. It is then easier to develop judgement on balls and strikes, as well as swing-timing. Confidence then builds on itself.
I found it is also easier to quickly judge when a mis-thrown ball is speeding towards my head! Made me much less afraid of being beaned, and kept me in the box.
Its difficult for young kids to focus on anything, so after giving this lesson, I have some exercises where I, as pitcher, hold the ball up. I tell the kids to follow it with their eyes, and LOOK FOR THE LACES - as I walk around the mound, or back and forth with the ball in my hand. It is training for them to focus, and watch the ball at all times. I then move from slower pitches up to faster, always emphasizing they look for the laces.
Worked for me as a kid, and I have had kids tell me it helps them as well.
Wow! That is a great experiance!
Dirll that the count is always 3-2.
In practice have them come up with count 3-2.
In a game play protect the plate.
Forget about all other batting stats, just keep:
hit, foul, strike out, walks.
Oh, and let me also add that getting some plastic golf balls, standing about 5 feet away and launching them at their chest from the SIDE (facing them in their stance in the batter’s box, not from a pitching mound) and letting them hit it to the field greatly increases their ability to track the ball. It also forces them to concentrate on the ball, not everything else.
I also had to teach my kids to watch the pitcher’s shoulder on his throwing arm for the delivery to be able to pick up the ball quicker. Most kids watch the pitcher’s head and then track over to his arm to try and get the ball, which puts them at a disadvantage with harder throwing pitchers.
One final thing I did that helped was to color in a big circle with different colors on several balls. I would see the color on the ball when I pitched it to them, but they had to tell me what color it was just by looking at the pitch. No hitting, just stand in the box and try to spot the colored circle as the ball was coming at them. If they got all the colors right, they were done. If not, they had to stand in there until they did.
!
Yep. Little leaguers aren't the only ones.The Arizona Diamondbacks had that same problem last year: every hitter wanted to hit a home run.
The kids need to understand that the important thing is to make contact. It's easier to make contact if you aren't swinging for the fences. JUST MAKE CONTACT. Meet the ball. When a hitter makes contact, good things happen. Especially at that age when their opponents' fielding skills haven't matured. An easy out can turn into an inside-the-park home run, LOL!
From a former little league coach.
1. Back elbow shoulder height. Kids tend to drop their elbow and as such cannot get around on the ball fast enough.
2. At this age, no one is throwing an effective curve ball. Have the player line up his front foot at the back of the plate. Kids tend to straddle the plate.
3. You can tell a scared batter by his swing. Instead of stepping into the ball, he will move his back leg further back. Swing will be weak at best.
4. Don’t swing at the ball. Swing through the ball.
5. You will love this one. Double Dutch. Teaches players to roll their wrists and gives them better footwork.
I don’t understand “double Dutch”
Husband coached our 4 sons at baseball (daughter softball): and all five basketball and soccer (til he had a heart attack 3 years ago—now he “keeps the book.”)
For baseball, over the years I have heard (and heard, and then heard some more) “fear of the ball” and ALWAYS keep your eye on the ball. Always. Step two helps over come fear one...afraid of getting hit keeps the kids backing off the plate and makes them develop all kinda of bad batting habits. Mid they learn to NEVER lose sight of the ball, they gain the confidence that they can get out of the way.
Don’t use a pitching machine and don’t YOU (or any warm up coach) throw at the kid’s bat during practice or warm up. Lollipop pitching doesn’t do 11 year old any good. Getting a HS player (pitcher preferably) to pitch a BP would be pretty useful too!
Good luck...and remember, “there’s no crying in baseball.” (Until you look for titanium bats’ price tags. Ouch!)
Cal Ripken’s books are the best when it comes to simplifying things for kids. I coached Little League for quite a while, from T-Ball with 5 year olds, right through to the 15 year olds and did it for two sons. For hitting, check their hands. Far too many kids grip the bat incorrectly, causing them to roll their wrists before or at the time of impact. Their “knocking knuckles” should be lined up when they have the bat in their hands. Stops you from gripping the bat too tightly and allows a free swing through the zone. Also helps keep your elbow up. “Knocking knuckles” (the ones you knock on a door with) along with the best advice you can ever give a hitter. “See the ball, hit the ball”.
I think it’s fear of striking out, which in reality is just another way to make an out but kids get all worked up about that. I’d have little guy crying on the bench after striking out and I would ask if they have rather hit into a double play.
Sometimes too umpires can incentivize not swinging if they call a really tight strike zone.
I was an assistant coach to a youth league manager who said he would rather see kids strike out swinging than walk on four straight pitches. He also never mentioned walks after the game but did talk about kids who hit the ball hard even if they made outs.
I know it goes against every FR precept where winning at all costs must be mandated at all ages, but it did get the kids to swing the bat.
And the boys did win more than they lost.
And his kid was an all-county third baseman last year.
A real good skill to acquire that isn't emphasized enough, is the ability to intentionally foul off good pitches with two strikes. If nothing else, it makes the pitcher work harder,
When I was a little leaguer our coach brought in a high schooler to pitch to us but, our catcher couldn’t handle his pitches. The coach came in but had a hard time with the crouch position so he pulled a cinder block behind the plate to sit on. Well, a foul tip and a pop hop caught his family jewels, “between a brick and a hard place”. He was taken away in an ambulance and didn’t return till midseason.
Oh yes. It was taught to me when I was a kid in my last year of little league. I went from a 0.0xx hitter to 0.200 over night. Had the family not moved to the boonies, I might have actually done something with baseball.
Later, I have coached the neighbor’s kid and he has the same issue. First he was too late with his swing. Then after getting yelled at, he just started taking pitches. Took him a little to un-learn the “keep your eye on the ball” but after about the 5th batting practice, he started to pick it up. I also had to untrain some other bad habits such as foot placement, stance and not crossing his hands but now he is a solid .275, sometimes .300 hitter. Now if I could just get his swing speed up.
I set the training up in different sessions. In all the sessions there was a cone at the short top position. In session one, they stood just outside the batting box and watched the cone. Another coach (parent) would watch the batter’s face to make sure they were keeping their eyes on the cone. Throw about 10 and then give the kid a break, repeat about 3 times each kid.
Session two is the same but this time just standing in the batters box in the hitting position - no swinging
Session three is the “bump” session. The idea is to bump the ball if they think it is in the strike zone. A bump is to swing but hold the bat at the plate and contact with the ball is not needed. Feed back on the ball being a strike or not is important on this step. Don’t use the term strike or ball. Tell the batter “in” or “out”. Don’t yell or say things like you should have or other words... just tell them “in” or “out”.
Session four is a full swing actually trying to hit. This is where they are actually trying to hit the ball. they don’t need speed or power in the swing, just make contact with the ball.
All the pitches up to this point should try to be strikes. Session five starts to add some outside / inside / high / low pitches to help train when NOT to swing.
I know it is scary from the coaching perspective as it goes against all that we have been taught. But it works. It will take a non-hitter and give them the speed of decision making to swing or not .... without them having to think about their hitting.
For the little ones, we even taught them to sing a ditty “Just a little Apple I’m going to splat. Here is the handle here is the bat”. Sing it to I’m a little tea pot. This will help them develop the rhythm of their swing. It also helps them to focus and ignore distractions.
One thing you could try, take your worst two or three hitters and work with them to see if it helps.
Only one disclaimer. It does not work for everyone. It does seem to work for those that do not respond to classic batting training methods.
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