Archive for Teaching Baseball
Mavericks Outdoor Practice Plan
Posted by: | CommentsMavericks 1st Outdoor Practice
Well, it’s getting warmer so we took the team outdoors on Sunday for a full practice. Upon arrival I learned that dirt had been added to the field and it was very soft from some snow early last week so I got the workout of my life raking and dragging the field. Besides that everything went great and the players really enjoyed being outside.
For those of you following us on this blog, I’ll outline the practice plan below but before I do I’ll lets talk about my observations of the team so far.
- We are struggling to hit right now and yesterday was no exception.
- Our throwing needs to improve but is mainly due to arm strength. Looks like a lot of long-toss coming up.
- Fielding the baseball in the infield was actually very good and quite surprising for this age group.
- Disipline and hustle was outstanding and the boys are learning at each practice. Everyone is having fun as well.
Practice Plan:
1:00 – 1:10:
Partner Throwing with game. We added a game of 21 to their throwing which is having them count out 21 successful throws without a drop. We had a winner each round and then moved the boys back from each other and did it again.
1:10 – 2:00:
We broke into 4 groups. Group 1 worked on fielding ground balls at shortstop with throws to first base. Group 2 was stationed at first base working on receiving the ball from shortstop and moving off the base when needed to stop the ball from going behind them to the fence. Group 3 worked on a crossover drill in the outfield to learn how to move to the baseball on hits to their right and/or left. Group 4 took fly ball practice which included coach thrown balls.
2:00 – 2:30:
We broker into 3 hitting groups. Group 1 took live batting practice. Group 2 worked soft toss in the cage and group 3 shagged balls in the infield.
2:30 – 3:00:
Baserunning as a team. We worked on balls hit in the infield with running throw 1B. We taught the boys to break out of the box with 2 quick steps, peak to see if the ball got throw the infield and then run to the front of 1B and through it. Once through the bag we taught them to chop step quickly looking over the right shoulder toward fence and turn in that direction. We then worked on making your turn at first on balls hit to the outfield. We taught them to break the box with two hard steps, peak again and move slightly out to their right and touch the grass just to the right of the base path. This gives them a good angle to make a turn off the inside corner of the base.
3:00 – 3:05:
We concluded with a quick team meeting and prayer.
Summary: Our first outdoor practice of the season when very well considering. We didn’t hit well but everything else is on track with our preseason conditioning program. Great start to a very good season.
Hope you get some use out of these quick practice plans. Remember to break your team up into groups or stations as they really stay more engaged and get more repetitions. I’ve always broke into groups regardless of the age of the players. Trust me, it works.
Baseball Pitching Drill – Balance Point
Posted by: | CommentsBEHIND THE DRILL: Balance plays a key role in a pitcher’s accuracy and how effective he can be. When a pitcher completes the leg lift it’s important for him to remain balanced before pressing the foot and entering the stride..
SKILL LEVEL: All Levels
DRILL TYPE: Throwing/Pitching
PURPOSE: This drill is designed to help a pitcher develop good balance during the leg lift.
EQUIPMENT: Nothing specifically required
PLAYERS: Any number of players
TIME: 10 minutes
SETUP PROCEDURE:
- Either use the pitching rubber or drop down pitchers mound. You could also line the players up on a foul line.
- Have your players set up from the stretch.
- On coaches command the player is to begin his “leg lift”.
- The knee should go straight up and once raised the toes should be pointing downward toward the ground.
- The pitcher should make what is called the power-turn by rotating slightly away from the target as the knee comes up.
- Have them hold that position for 10 seconds.
- Then press the foot back down to starting position.
- Repeat this for 15-20 repetitions.
KEY COACHING POINTS:
- This is about developing balance so work the drill very slowly.
- If you have players that cannot hold the position for 10 seconds you will need to have a coach or parent hold them up in the correct position.
- This is about developing muscle memory in the players. It requires a lot of repetitions.
- Most young players will not point the toes toward the ground so make sure you move their toes to the correct position so they can feel it.
- You also must make sure they are completing the power turn by rotating slightly away from the target. This is crucial for developing good velocity when the player moves toward the plate with the ball.
Mavericks Practice Plan January 22, 2011
Posted by: | CommentsFor those of you that are following our practices here is our latest practice plan from this Saturday.
10:40 Player’s arrive, partner throwing
10:45 – 10:55 Stretch
11:00 – 11:15 Footwork / Speed and Agility Drills. Agility ladder with runs to base with breakdown after running through the base.
11:15 – 11:45 Hitting Groups: 1 group front toss, 1 group dry swings breaking down the swing mechanics, 1 group tee-work.
11:45 – 12:00 Defense – 2 groups, flyball drill and ground ball drill. Worked on getting the player’s nose behind the ball on fly balls and worked on getting them to catch on the run. Ground ball drill was fielding balls with flat paddles teaching correct fielding and throwing technique.
12:00 Post practice talk and prayer
BASEBALL DRILL – Front Toss
Posted by: | CommentsBEHIND THE DRILL: Front toss still provides a controlled situation where the hitting can work on fundamental swing develop without worrying about the speed of the pitch but it does add a moving element to improve hand eye coordination. The difference here as compared to soft toss is the ball is coming directly at the player.
SKILL LEVEL: All Levels
DRILL TYPE: Hitting
PURPOSE: This drill helps progress the hitter to a moving pitch while still allowing for focus on the fundamental development of correct swing mechanics without the concern for the speed of the pitch.
EQUIPMENT: Bat, baseball, L Screen or other protection
PLAYERS: Any number of players, but one at a time for safety concerns.
TIME: 10 minutes
SETUP PROCEDURE:
- Set up an L screen 15 feet directly in front of the hitter with the straight edge of the screen on the right side assuming you will be throwing the balls with the right hand.
- The coach will toss baseballs to the hitter in an underhand manner from a position directly in front of him. Once the pitch is thrown the coach ducks behind the L screen for protection.
- Throw the player 25 pitches at various locations within the strike zone. Middle, inside, outside, high and low.
- The player should load to position of power when the coaches arm goes back prior to throwing the ball.
KEY COACHING POINTS:
- Make sure they have good swing mechanics throughout the entire swing.
- Teach them to visualize hitting the ball back up the middle.
- Pay close attention to which areas the player can hit the best. If they are having trouble with a pitch say to the outside of the strike zone then you need to concentrate on this. Keep a note pad on each kid to keep track of things like this. Have another coach or parent help you.
- As a coach you must be able to throw the ball to a spot you are trying to work on. Practice this by yourself if you can’t do it. Having the ball go all over the place will not help the player develop.
- Make sure the player remains balanced upon completing each swing.
- Have them visualize hitting the ball back up the middle of the field.
Helpful tips in coaching tee ball
Posted by: | CommentsWith the advent of tee ball baseball leagues in recent years, many coaches are now tasked with teaching the most basic of baseball fundamentals to a much younger population.
Typically tee ball leagues can start for kids as young as four years old, and many of them have never swung a bat or have even learned to properly throw and catch. As a tee ball coach, it’s extremely important to adhere to a few basic principles to use during tee ball practice.
Tee ball practices should be carefully planned and organized, much like a grade school curriculum. Generally, each team will consist of at least ten children, all with very short attention spans at varying levels. Planning out a tee ball practice will help in not only keeping children focused during practice, but also in keeping them busy.
Tee ball is not only meant to be an introduction into the sport of baseball, but it’s also meant to be a fun experience for the kids. Practices should not be scheduled for longer than an hour, so that you won’t lose their attention. Specific skills should be taught within each practice as well, rather than trying to execute several different drills within the hour. If kids are focusing on one particular skill, they are much likely to get a good feeling of accomplishment at the end of the practice.
Coaching a tee ball team is nothing like coaching any other sport at higher levels. Hoping that you’re going to have a team that executes in all facets of the game perfectly by the end of the season is probably a bit too unrealistic. If half of your kids understand the basics of the game by the end of the season, you can count yourself proud.
Be prepared to have to explain every minute detail to your tee ball team. At that age, they may not understand where right field is, or which direction they should go in running the bases. Going back to teaching specific skills within each hour of practice will help in children’s overall retention, and understanding that patience will be your biggest ally will go a long way toward having a fun season for both coaches and kids.
Finally, if deciding to coach a tee ball team, take stock into why you are doing it in the first place. If wanting to just be around your own son as he embarks upon learning the sport of baseball, that’s fine, but understand that you’ll have the responsibility of teaching and coaching every single tee ball player on that team.
Patience and planning will be the two biggest keys in the success of any tee ball coach, and keeping kids focused on the task at hand while also making it a fun experience will go a long way in retaining the interest of children who want to continue playing.
Throwing a Baseball, Setup to Finish
Posted by: | CommentsIn our last article we discussed how to set up correctly to give you a good chance to make a solid accurate throw. Today we will discuss how we get from that set up to the finish. Remember to walk through these fundamentals slowly with your players or child to ensure they develop the muscle memory needed to repeat the movements under a stressful game situation. Throwing a baseball has to come naturally and the only way to do that is practice, practice, practice.
To pick up where we left off yesterday, you should be in throwing position now with the ball back and up with the body turned sideways ready to throw.
If you have not seen the article on throwing set up click here to review it prior to continuing on.
http://www.youthbaseballinsider.com/throwing-a-baseball-the-setup/
The Stride:
After getting set up to throw the ball correctly the next step is to take a small stride directly toward your target. Your lead foot should land at about a 45 degree angle but still pointing in the direction of your target. You really don’t want your toes turned so much they are pointing right at it as that’s just too much rotation.
Your lead arm should be pulled down towards your lower back to create a pulling effect to help with velocity of the throw. You don’t want to leave your lead arm and glove out in front of the body as that will cause you to bind up and make you throw the ball with only the arm. Not only will that create stress on the elbow and shoulder it will also keep you from being accurate or have much velocity on the ball.
Ball and Release:
Your natural motion should now bring the ball forward over the top of the shoulder with your fingers on top of the ball as discussed in the last article. Remember the arm motion must be over the top of the shoulder and not at a ¾ or side arm motion.
There are a couple of reasons for this:
- ¾ or side arm throwing will but a lot of stress on the elbow and shoulder. I promise you the children you coach will develop arm problems at some point if you allow them to do this, especially at a young age. Make them learn how to throw over the top with the fingers on top of the ball.
- Throwing a baseball over the top of the shoulder will also create less side spin and give it move back spin. You might say what does that have to do with anything? Well, side spin is not good when making throws in the field. This is what is known as tail. If you have heard player say the ball tailed off on me. That’s because they had too much side spin on the ball and it moved left, right or down on them. Coming over the top of the shoulder with the throw will allow your players to create back spin on the ball and this spin will keep the ball stable in the air and make them more successful at throwing a baseball.
You should now be at the release point with your body leaning toward the target slightly. Your natural movement should create momentum for the throw and the ball should be flicked out of the hand out in front of your body.
Follow Through:
Now that you have released the ball out in front of your body the momentum should cause your throwing arm and hand to move down toward the opposite knee level or just above it.
One issue that seems to develop in younger players and will cause lots of throwing problems is what we call “short arming” the throw. It basically means the player has no follow-through and is throwing with just the arms. It’s like the player gets ready to throw, winds up and moves forward but stops the arm around the head level as the ball is released. There will be no velocity on the ball not to mention the throw will most likely not be very accurate.
In addition, it will create a ton of stress on the arm and shoulder so make sure the players are completing the entire throwing motion.
The Best National Youth Baseball Organization is?
Posted by: | CommentsPoll results are in!
Lasts weeks poll was about which National Youth Baseball Organization you felt was the best and the results might surprise you.
My personal opinion is the Little League Baseball Organization has always been a top notch organization and it’s what most people think about when they think youth baseball. It’s what you see on TV at the youth level so I really thought it would run away with it.
To my surprise USSSA won the voting and it clearly sends a message that parents and coaches of today’s youth want to be involved with a competitive brand of baseball and USSSA is a leader for select and travel tournaments in all 50 states. There is clearly a shift from the standard recreational leagues games to more travel or select based.
Parents want their kids playing against the most competitive players and in games that are played like baseball was meant to be played.
Here are the results:
USSSA received 38% of the votes
Little League Baseball received 35% of the votes
Cal Ripken Baseball received 12% of the votes
Babe Ruth Baseball received 8% of the votes
Pony League Baseball received 7% of the votes
As you can see the winner is USSSA with Little League Baseball coming in a close second.
Every organization listed here is great in its own right. You could not go wrong with being involved with any of them; however I do personally like USSSA and Little League Baseball the best.
Good luck and look for a new poll later this week.
