Coaching and Youth Sports

"Sir, you do realize we had open coaching positions to fill, right? You should have signed up."

/walk away from him

 

amazing. i've run into a bit of this. the problem is a lot of these older guys don't realize that the thinking for some of this stuff has changed. especially having the elbow up is something i get a lot.

 

This is what he got yelled at over. Coach told him to keep elbow down.

 

The greatest hitter of all time had his back elbow about chest high or would drop lower. As a lefty at least. Having trouble picturing his righty swing. I assume similar.

 

Did the elbow thing change when the game went from slapping singles to more of an uppercut swing?

Serious question, because I was always taught to have my back elbow up.

 

what i've been told is having it up lengthens the swinging motion since you end up dropping it when you swing. current thinking, especially for young kids, is to let them do whatever makes them the most comfortable as long as the hands are up and bat is back.

i explain that to them and say the thought process has changed and that's what i've been taught recently, but if they want to teach their kid to do it that way i'm not going to object. rarely have i had much push back. and i'm not a hitting coach either and I make that clear. i'm an amateur at best.

 

as for the uppercut thing, in my league we still teach kids to hit down and that grounders are hits and fly balls are outs more often than not in youth baseball. lots of young kids want to have the uppercut swing because it looks cool off the bat, but i've been taught that's the worst possible thing for them long term. just recently in coach pitch one of the coaches was lofting the ball up and these kids were hitting it at their shoulders. looked great for that game when the kids can't catch fly balls, but they are going to suck once it gets to kid pitch. i did have parents after the game ask me why i wasn't doing that since it looked impressive.

 

You are doing it right. Bat back, use your legs and hit the ball hard at that age. Plenty of tinkering with elbow, stance, etc down the road for kids that choose travel ball.

 

good to hear. thanks.

 

Square to the plate, drive off back foot and turn at the waist. If I can get my kids (mainly mine) doing that consistently I'm thrilled.

 

Biggest thing I find myself fighting with are kids whose swing goes back first instead of A to B. I'm fighting that battle with about 4 kids on my team.

 

Huge problem for me are kids dropping their hands at the beggining of the swing. One of my boys does this too. I have him put his bat back almost to his shoulder so he basically can’t do it. If anyone has a better idea I’m all ears

 

Duct tape and bailing wire?

 

Hey, the way I see it, when it comes time for tryouts, coaches will take the ping over a pretty swing, if they know what they are doing.

 

Put a cast on their right arm.

No joke. Broke my arm once and kept playing with a forearm cast. It was a habit I couldn’t totally break even into high school travel ball and I raked with that cast on.

 

Put a ball on a tee. Have them at the tee like they are about to swing. The golf alignment sticks are great for baseball with hitters and pitchers. Stay a safe distance behind and put the stick below their hands with you holding it. Stick should be parallel to the ground right below their hands or slightly towards their back hip. If they hit the stick the path has been altered.

The easiest technique to teach hitting to a young player... and i even do at HS level... is teach them to control the knob. Take the knob of the bat to the ball. No matter where the ball is. The common misconception is to control the barrel and that’s where the dips and coming too steep come in. Once they realize the barrel will always follow the knob, hitting becomes much simpler to do and coach.

 

I thought "control the knob" was our private special game.

I am saddened.

 

I’m all knob. No barrel.

 

I will do this. Thanks much