by Coach Kevin | Nov 16, 2016 | Uncategorized
We recently had an excellent training for our team from professional coach Brett Manning. He gave us some excellent tips for how to adjust what you’re doing as a batter, when you already have two strikes, to avoid getting a third strike. Now, this is an advanced training, and it assumes your batters already have some basic and intermediate batting skills. First, change your stance in the following three ways: Step closer to the plate. Most young pitchers are afraid to pitch close to the batter, so this will effectively shrink the strike zone a few inches, while making it easier to hit the ones outside the plate. Widen your stance. This way your knees are more inside your feet, so if you get fooled by an off-speed pitch, your knees should still be positioned properly to hit with at least some power. Bring in your hands, maybe just a couple inches closer to the center of your body from how it is in your normal stance, so your bat will get to the ball quicker. It’s called “shortening up” or “shortening your swing”. This gives up some power, and increases your bat control, to make it more likely you’ll make contact. Second, you have to expand the strike zone that you’re going to swing at, depending on the umpire you have that day. If the umpire has a tight, consistent strike zone, then you don’t need to expand the strike zone very much. In youth sports, much of the time, the umpire has a wider or less consistent strike zone. So you’ll need to expand your strike zone...
by Coach Kevin | Nov 5, 2016 | Uncategorized
How about those Cubs! If you were as captivated as I was with this year’s World Series–and the entire post-season–this can be a good time to think about what this post-season can teach our players. I’ve got a few lessons below, and feel free to add in the Comments section. Always respect the umpires. You might occasionally see from their body language that a major league player disagrees with an umpire’s call, but they don’t get in the umpire’s face and they don’t argue with the umpire. They tend to keep their disagreement subtle. This is good. There was even a time when Anthony Rizzo had started toward first base, because he had thought he had gotten a walk, but he hadn’t. He came back and apologized to the umpire for heading toward first base before being sure of the umpire’s call. Never give up. The Cubs were down in the World Series three games to one, and they did not give up. They played their hardest and came back to win the series. So no matter how many games you’ve lost, or what else may have happened, don’t let it get you down. Just keep playing your hardest. (The Indians did not give up either. They made the Cubs work very hard for it.) I had a rec team once that lost the first game of a double-elimination playoff series, and they rallied and got fired up and came back to win. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Remember when the Cubs were playing in the World Series in Wrigley Field for the first time in 71 years, and the eyes...
by Coach Kevin | May 20, 2016 | Uncategorized
Right now, I’ve got one of my star pitchers on the DL because he’s got Little League Elbow. For four weeks, he is not allowed to do any over-hand throwing, so he isn’t even playing on the field right now. He is allowed to bat, and that’s it. (Treatment plans vary by the individual.) What is Little League Elbow and how does it happen? Little League Elbow is a repetitive throwing injury to the growth plate of the bone at the elbow. It can happen to any player whose bones are still growing who does a lot of throwing, especially pitchers, catchers, shortstops, and outfielders. Usually this condition effects players ages 8-15, although it just depends on how long the bones keep growing. If a player notices a pain or soreness in the elbow joint, it’s a good idea to get it checked out. This is a different injury from the one that leads to Tommy John surgery. However, Little League Elbow can also lead to permanent damage, so it is important to prevent and/or treat this injury. Repetitive throwing and hard throws–such as fastballs, pick-off throws, and long throws from the outfield–are stressful on the growth plate. According to our Team Physical Therapist, the arm motion for a standard curve ball would put even more stress on the growth plate. (Yes, our team has a Physical Therapist, in a manner of speaking. She’s actually the mom of one of our players.) To prevent Little League Elbow, it is wise to teach good pitching mechanics, avoid the standard curve ball, and maintain reasonable pitch counts. However, if a player...
by Coach Kevin | May 18, 2016 | Uncategorized
For me as a coach, there is always so much to work on, and so little time. I hate having kids just standing around, waiting for their turn at a station. So this is a solution I came up with, and it works great! One of my more popular and productive practices utilizes this 11-station batting and pitching practice structure. This particular format will give your kids lots and lots of batting reps, while also giving you time to work with pitching and throwing mechanics on an individual basis. This practice is an invigorating, non-stop, high-energy plan. It’s best, in my opinion, to follow this with a kid-pitch scrimmage, so they put it into action. Boy, were our kids hitting the heck out of the baseball when we did this! The upside of this practice structure is that the kids are busy constantly, with no one waiting for a station. The downside is: for best results, it takes 5 coaches and/or parent helpers. However, most of it could be implemented with fewer helpers. It will be essential for batting helmets to be worn throughout, and it’s up to you to evaluate your own situation, and modify as necessary to ensure safety is maintained. It takes about 5-7 minutes per player per station, so altogether it takes about 60-90 minutes. Here are the stations: Station 1. Bunting drill. Coach teaches proper bunting mechanics to the player and pitches to him, having him execute what he’s learned. You can have them practice bunting to the left, to the right, and slash/bunt. Stations 2-5. Batting Tee stations. Here we have four tees,...
by Coach Kevin | Jul 14, 2015 | Uncategorized
Can losing be a good thing for you? Well, I think so. If you can learn something from your loss and make the necessary corrections, then sometimes losing can be just what your team needs. Going into our league championship this year, my 11/12 yr old team had come off the season with a 9-3 record, and we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. As the top seeded team, we faced the team that had only 4 wins and 8 losses. While I was not feeling like anything was a sure thing, the players didn’t seem to feel the urgency. They were remembering early wins against that team, but had forgotten how much that team had improved over the course of the season. They also conveniently seemed to forget that the last time we faced this team, we lost. So, we lost the first playoff game, dropping us into the loser’s bracket. The other team dominated the game. We had only one hit for the entire game. One lousy hit! We did get on base with some walks, but we also had too many strike-outs, not to mention a slew of defensive errors. In our team talk after the game, we talked about how we didn’t have our heads in the game, how we took winning for granted, and how much effort it would now take to end up in the top slot. For our next game, I re-instituted my tried and true pre-game batting warm up regimen, which I go into here. For a variety of reasons, I hadn’t been using these consistently this season, even though I...
