Coaching Resource
1st Year Player Pitch & Coach/Machine Pitch
Additional Info
The content on the Tee-Ball page has solid fundamental Baseball Info, you might find useful; give it a look
Each page has different info (with the exception of the first video: ‘Batting Swing & Drills’. Much of the information is applicable across all levels of play
Batting Swing & Drills
Kid Learning Process
Day 1 - the kids have no clue; Coaching Mindset is you are simply exposing them to the material. Many will not show much of a grasp of what is being taught.
Day 2 - the kids are thinking, "Oh I remember doing this". They will begin to grasp to some extent, because they recall having done the activity before.
Day 3 - kids are thinking, "I know this stuff" ...we must get on them to stay focused because they 'think they already know it'. We remind them, if necessary, that 'knowing in their brain' does not mean they can DO the action.
Their muscles need to 'know'. Muscles are Dumb ; muscles need a lot of repetitions to get it right, and to be able to Do It naturally/instinctively (Muscle Memory).
Day 4 and beyond they are reinforcing their Muscle Memory. (dumb muscles forget; they need constant 'Reminding').
Question From a Coach
The email below is from a Coach/Machine Pitch coach. The batting drills might require a bit more time for kids at this level to learn to execute.
Kids at the First Year Player Pitch level should be able to adapt these batting points to their swings pretty quickly.
Hi Mark,
1) Question, for batting stance, do you teach “back elbow up”? Many of the kids on our team aren’t ready for a lot on swing mechanics but at least we should get the stance right! Maybe we’ll do the Karate chop as well!
2) We are going to do some Fast, Slow, Fast (Fielding Footwork/Rhythm) drills today.
3) In the games, when they try to pick up a dropped ball, they mostly struggle with grabbing the ball and throwing to base because they are trying to watch the runner,
Reply:
Try the suggestions below; update me on progress.
Stance: work with the kids on using a wider stance; this eliminates the stride, which is a major cause of problems in the swing. Eliminates unnecessary movement; eliminates opportunities for messing up the swing before it starts.
Below are some points addressing the topics you mentioned; not sure if your comments are based on these, or if this info is new:
Elbow Up: Batting
1) Elbow Up.....I’m not a fan of this teaching, primarily because the real focus needs to be on Driving the Back Elbow ahead of the hands in the swing - Sideways Karate Chop. Then you can try teaching (first your stronger kids, individually; see how they respond): Elbow to Belt.
See where they are at after 4-5 days of drill work...ideally they are the type of kids who are motivated to do the Elbow to Belt drill at home. Just need to do it 10-15x/day; takes less than a minute of time investment. If you try this with a few kids, talk to their parents about having their kids do the drill at home. (It is critical that this action is powered by the Switch Heels action).
Fielding Footwork
2) Fast, Slow, Fast ...the 20' Ground Balls drill is maybe the simplest drill to run; easy to set up and you can get a lot of reps in 4-5 minutes. A fun drill where 'Fast, Slow, Fast' is applied, also easy to set up and gets the kids a lot of reps in just a couple minutes: 21 Ground Ball Weave.
Replaying the Ball
3) Picking the Ball up: This is a huge issue at all kids levels. Replaying The Ball drill. Again, easy to set up and run (the kids won't look great doing this the first day; second and third days they show quick improvement).
...drilling the habits of centering the ball between the feet and 'Pick up Both Sides of the Ball' prevents them from looking up at the runner(s) until after they secure the ball.
This action develops a lot of confidence in young players. Mastering the skill of picking the ball up off the ground creates a sense of Control of the Moment when playing. We eliminate the sense of panic that accompanies this situation in the heat of a game.
The cool thing is you can address all the above activities in 10-15 mins. These can be worked into each practice, and prior to games after the kids arrive at the park.
Turn Glove Side
There are plays in a game when a player fields the ball, or receives a throw, with their back to their target.
In these circumstances, we want the player to ‘Turn Glove Side’ in preparation for making a throw.
When throwing, a player wants the glove side of their body pointing towards their target. When Turning Glove Side, a player only makes a quarter turn to position themselves to throw.
Three common situations a player finds their back to their target:
Relay Throws
A ball hit back to the Pitcher, with a runner on First Base
Bunts, or other hit balls, that do not travel far from home plate
Base Running Turns & Touches
Catcher Runs The Game
The email below is from a coach at the First Year Player Pitch level:
A couple questions that I was hoping you could help me with:
1) Pitching/throwing strikes - We've got about 3-4 kids who can dependably throw strikes, and EVERYONE wants to pitch. I'm trying to balance getting everyone a shot at time on the mound with actually getting outs (and trying to stay calm about walking in runs).
2) What are some coaching methodologies that I can use with the kids who really want to pitch but are struggling with pitching accuracy?
3) Hitting/Strike Zone awareness - We can hit, but we're taking a lot of strikes. Sure, the zones are huge at this age, but some of the kids are getting discouraged when they strike out. What can I tell them that's a good verbal cue to think about swinging at a pitch they can it? This is more on the mental side, I think? I've been saying "swing at a strike" but I imagine you have some better ideas here as well.
Today I'm going to run BP with a "5 strike" system where instead of 5 'hits' each - they get 5 strikes to hit and then their rotation is over. I'm thinking that will start to cue more of a 'hit strikes' urgency on their part. Let me know what other drills you'd recommend here, too.
Thanks!
Reply
Pitching: Power & Accuracy
Team batting practice often drags on too long, cutting into time needed to train other skills.
The culprit is often the practice of, “OK, one more”, often turns into ‘Seven More’ …and with more than one player.
Question From a Coach
Drill Descriptions
When the Ball is put into play the Catcher becomes the ‘Fourth Baseman’
They move to the Fourth Baseman’s Position, which is in front of Home Plate (4th Base).
From their position, The Fourth Baseman leads the defense by shouting out instructions: Where to throw the ball; when to hold the ball.
Finally, when the play ends, reminds the defense to get the ball back to the middle of the infield as quickly as possible.
As the next batter is stepping up to the plate, the Fourth Baseman hollers out two pieces of information to the players in the field: 1) Number of Outs 2) Location of Runners.
My apologies for the background noise; still learning how to use Apple Ear Pods with my phone. I tried different settings from the earlier videos (which also have rough spots in the audio) and the audio is worse. Please contact me if you have any insight on which settings to use with Apple Ear Pods, I would greatly appreciate it.
Base Running Rule (Mindset) 0:00 - 0:35
3 Teaching Points 1:20 - 1:45
Touch Point on the Base 2:52 - 3:32
Drill Set-up 4:10 - 5:30
Drill Demo 6:54 - 9:34
Coach Follow-up
Thanks for all this.
The “replaying the ball” drill was very helpful and “karate chop” no bat. I came up with a combination drill of your 20’ grounders and replaying the ball, throwing to first, with base runners trying to beat the throw. I wanted the base runner to make the replaying real.
2) As we get further along in the season, we want to give some of the less experienced players a chance to pitch in a game. How do we approach putting a kid on the mound for the first time?
Often a coach will give a kid a chance to Pitch One Inning. Let’s change that to having them pitch to Three Batters.
Batting – Increase Confidence & Aggressiveness
1) Key Points discussed: Both Arms are used when pitching; The glove elbow pulls to the Belt; Anchoring the glove arm stabilizes the body, keeping energy going towards the catcher.
0:15-0:30 Power Position
1:25-1:35 DRILL: Drive & Pull
2:05-2:15 DRILL: Wrist Action
3:00-3:10 Power & Accuracy
3:10-3:50 Straight Lines
Pitching in a Game for the First Time
3) Batting for young players can be an experience filled with anxiety and uncertainty.
This video includes three things to help our players.
0:35-1:10 DRILL: “Pitch - Hit”
1:10-2:25 Batting Isn’t Fair: 9 against 1
2:55-4:30 Yes, Yes, Yes …No