Little League Coaching Tips

[stoutdude04]

23 hours ago, bobahunter said:

Second game last night and we faced a "fast" pitcher (a fourth grader and our team is all 3rd graders). The kids were watching him warm up and some were a bit negative about not being able to hit off him. We had to calm everyone down and tell them to be confident and take their swings. I think maybe 2 or three kids even hit the ball and we had two hits the whole game. There were so many kids who really didn't even swing the bat which was frustrating. We tell them to be aggressive all the time but when it comes to the game a lot of them are hesitant to swing. With the ones that did swing, the problem was because of the fast pitcher they wanted to be further off the plate. And instead of taking that initial step towards the mound they were opening up and stepping out to third. I'm sure with more reps they will get more confident and they will start to take more swings.

On a plus note, we kept the game pretty close and outside of one bad inning we held them to only 1 run. My son also pitched for the first time. He wasn't nervous at all but I certainly was. He came on in the second inning and struck out three and walked one. I have been really surprised by his accuracy and that he doesn't seem to get bothered by much. He told me after he was done with the inning, "I kinda like pitching, that was fun." That was an awesome feeling.

Love to hear that from your son, very cool.

Honestly, the kids just need to get hit by a pitch to realize it doesn't hurt as much as they think it will.

[nate82]

35 minutes ago, stoutdude04 said:

Love to hear that from your son, very cool.

Honestly, the kids just need to get hit by a pitch to realize it doesn't hurt as much as they think it will.

Hah I got hit by a lot of pitches and the only ones that didn’t hurt were the ones that hit your butt.

Everywhere else hurts for awhile especially the foot or leg areas.  Surprisingly the least hurtful are the more scary ones those go away quickly.  Hands, feet and leg area linger for awhile.  

[stoutdude04]

18 minutes ago, nate82 said:

Hah I got hit by a lot of pitches and the only ones that didn’t hurt were the ones that hit your butt.

Everywhere else hurts for awhile especially the foot or leg areas.  Surprisingly the least hurtful are the more scary ones those go away quickly.  Hands, feet and leg area linger for awhile.  

Yes - they hurt, but not as much as you think it is going to.  You always expect the worst most immense pain.  I say this as a kid that needed to be hit a few times before striding forward, and as the kid that had to learn to block shots in hockey.  Sure, it stings a bit, but like most injuries, the pain goes away.

[Samurai Bucky]

One drill that might help is to use tennis balls.  Throw it at them and teach them to turn their shoulder in instead of backing away.  Throw good pitches with the tennis ball and let them swing and then throw some inside or even hit them.  It will still hurt with a baseball, but it will, hopefully, teach them how to protect the hands / face, etc.

 

[RobDeer 45]

Yes I'm a big believer in teaching them to spin away.  Once they learn that they will have more time to stride and then react.  Also it will cause the ball to typically glance off vs getting hit directly.  I did this with my son and it took awhile. Now he's got it down.  I also told him that if he steps towards third he's opening his whole front side to getting hit so it's actually better to step to the pitcher because it's easier to spin out.  He still has some worries here and there on certain pitches/pitchers but for the most part is stepping towards the pitcher and attacking on most pitches.  He's gotten hit the last two games but both did glance off and only one hurt for a little bit.  Hoping that helps him mentally.

[Samurai Bucky]

On 6/2/2023 at 9:06 AM, RobDeer 45 said:

He's gotten hit the last two games but both did glance off and only one hurt for a little bit.  Hoping that helps him mentally.

Now you just need to teach him the art of "rubbing a little dirt on it."  😁