Coaching and Youth Sports

I’ll say this about hitting...

Give every hitter a very vague swing thought. A la swinging the knob or if it’s a guy that struggles with an arm bar “quiet hands” and not over extending pre-pitch away from their ear.

The reason why is the best hitters at any levels are sons of [itch bay]es that are confident. A confident mindset can overcome the most of swing flaws. And the ones that realize they are going to fail more than they are successful but still go to the plate every at bat thinking they’re going to win the battle against the pitcher generally are the toughest outs and the ones that usually end up being damn good.

 

Preach.

I can usually tell what a kid is going to do by how he walks to the plate.

 

True story...

In college that’s the only thing I looked at. I could tell you by how the guy got in the box and where he stood in the box as to what type he hitter he was and what he liked or disliked.

 

Also, speaking of tee work. My daughter and I go hit 4 or 5 days a week at a local place and I see all of these girls doing tee work with it set up for a mid-thigh pitch down the middle. How many of those pitches do you ever see in an at bat? Then why the hell do you hit three buckets of those pitches? Makes no sense. Better set that tee up on the corners and at the bottom of the zone and learn to hit those.

 

On my son's team, there's one boy who told me "When I bat, those guys back up to the grass". The little shit won't ever have confidence issues. He's also really good.

 

I bought a big ass yellow tee two years ago for my guys. Been one of the best investments i have ever made. It has pegs in different parts of the plate so you can adjust to where the ball should be hit in relation to the plate.

I’ve always said you can’t expect kids to perform in a game things they’ve never practiced. Ever.

 

There are probably some coaches who won't admit it publicly but every coach alive knows you need a couple of arrogant bastards on the team who don't mind cutting some throats out there.

 

Oh yeah.

 

There was a guy in college that had my number. Keep in mind I threw a conference record 6 consecutive shutouts. So it wasn’t like I didn’t have success against the lot of the guys. This dude was a big donkey and had the ugliest damn swing you’ve ever seen in your life. In 14 career at bats against me, he had 9 hits.

He was just a cocky sum[itch bay]. His last ever at bat against me I threw him a knuckleball first pitch. First one I ever threw in a competitive game. He steps out after the called strike and said “you gotta eventually throw me something else” and laughed his fat little ass off. Next pitch was under his chin. Third pitch landed 18 rows deep in RF. He laughed all the way around the bases. But by God I respected it and he was only sum[itch bay] on their team that could sniff it.

 

Oh I’ll scream it from the rooftops. I can go to battle with those bastards everyday. I’d much rather pull the reigns than spur.

 

I would have walked him.

 

Solo home runs are rally killers.

 

It really is amazing though, that there are guys out there the for whatever reason can just read the spin on your ball, or the placement of your arm, or just naturally swing the bat that causes it to come into the line of your pitch angle.

I guess you just have to hope they don't hit it too hard and pray they break a bat or something.

EDIT: Though I guess the professionals are the only places they still use wooden bats, so the breaking of the bat is probably a rarity in aluminum.

 

Most fun I've ever had was a 11/12 year old basketball team I coached. By midseason, there was no convincing them they were good, it was convincing them they could be great. When they walked in the gym, everyone in there knew who was going to win. They totally oozed confidence, borderline arrogance, and it was a blast.

 

I played in a couple leagues after college that were semi-pro. Throwing to wood bats were tons of fun.

The aluminum bats these days are not aluminum. I remember the chuck and duck days.

 

I wonder what scores would be like in MLB with aluminum/whatever bats. Not to mention the bodies littering the infield.

 

I was hitting over .400 my senior year till my baseball coach thought he'd fix my swing during the middle of the year, and it missed me up the rest of the year.

I think give a few general pointers on hitting and let them find their swing.

 

Depends on if it’s the new bats that are BBCOR. If so, not a big difference. If it’s the bats from late 80s to early 2000s it’s a bloodbath.

 

One of the hardest things about coaching in any sport is learning when to keep your [uck fay]ing mouth shut.

 

Coached girls tee ball tonight.

Tried a couple of position switches in the second inning to see how the girls would do.

Didn't work.

We lost 9-8.

And I just shrugged my shoulders, told the girls good game, this one was on the coaches, and am going about my night as if no big deal.

Is this how normal people operate?