Baseball dad thread
- Thread starter Kingseve1
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It depends on how much your kid likes the game. I always wanted to play WAY more than the other kids, so I got tennis balls and would throw them against the rock wall of our house so I could practice infield play. You can do it by yourself while practicing catching the ball, judging hops, a quick transfer from glove to throwing hand for a quick release and an accurate throw. If you keep at it quickly, it's also aerobic. You can throw the ball at angles to practice going left or right. Eventually I switched to golf balls because the tennis balls would crack open after a while. The golf balls come at you hard so it teaches you soft hands and not to be scared of the ball.
- On ALL infield practice when catching non-force out throws, have the infielders ALWAYS place their glove with the ball right in front of the bag where the runner will slide into it. It becomes a habit for the kids vs. trying to tag the runner up on the body. Will save you several outs over the season. Will look dumb/excessive to other teams watching you practice, but who cares.
- Have outfielders turn sideways and always first start back on fly balls vs. back peddling.
- Have all fielders always use both hands to field ground balls. It will save you on bad hops & glove hand misfields plus reduce the time to get ball away on throws.
- Have outfielders turn sideways and always first start back on fly balls vs. back peddling.
- Have all fielders always use both hands to field ground balls. It will save you on bad hops & glove hand misfields plus reduce the time to get ball away on throws.
The most important thing is to teach your kid the proper way to flip his bat. Little Devynn shows how it's done...
Tee work forever...learn to hit correctly on a tee though, most want to line up with the ball at the center of their body - keep it out front unless working oppo.
Short toss for most hitting work. 3 ball soft toss for speed.
For your boy - I'd work more on loading with the lower half and less upper body and hand movement on the load...could be a recipe to get gassed as people get better.
Find a mirror and work on the load - make sure the head isn't moving during it...his doesnt yet, but if he uses more lower half, it might need watching.
I like Arenados load...hands hardly move, lower half does the work. Dudes that have all the hand and arm movement are freaks.
Short toss for most hitting work. 3 ball soft toss for speed.
For your boy - I'd work more on loading with the lower half and less upper body and hand movement on the load...could be a recipe to get gassed as people get better.
Find a mirror and work on the load - make sure the head isn't moving during it...his doesnt yet, but if he uses more lower half, it might need watching.
I like Arenados load...hands hardly move, lower half does the work. Dudes that have all the hand and arm movement are freaks.
Tip? Don't listen to any "tips" on here unless you know their qualifications first. Otherwise, watch Bad News Bears and show your son how Kelly Leak did it....on and off the field.
I loved being a baseball dad. The trouble was I loved it more than he did. He quit before his last season. Still miss it. He’s moved on to golf and has done very well but I really don’t care for it and don’t play myself so it’s not the same. We used to hit off the tee mostly working on footwork (load/stride) he had a good arm so when the kids started pitching we did more work on that. Damn I haven’t played catch in awhile.
I’m a basketball guy (played baseball for a long time growing up, though, just never had any real coaching/training on proper techniques) but my oldest, 14, has always been a great baseball player (we could tell he was gonna be pretty good when he was 3 or 4).
Honestly, I’ve relied on a lot of luck with him having some great coaching from very early on all the way up until now.
Biggest thing is practice, practice, practice. And not some high intensity 2+ hour workouts either, but rather do the simple stuff that several posters have already suggested (Tee work, throwing tennis balls off the walls, playing catch, soft toss, etc…).
For hitting, really concentrate on making sure he gets loaded and uses that lower body. For pitching, well that’s a whole other story. Lots of good arm care and velo programs out there. Arm care is EXTREMELY important. Velo will come with increasing proper technique and strength/training.
Like I said, my oldest is 14 and is touching 80MPH right now and will be pitching *some* at the varsity level this year. I’ve had very little to do with any of that other than simply being there anytime he wanted to go outside and practice.
He started a velo and arm care program when he was 12. I had to stay on top of him to make sure he did it at first, but once he got in the routine it became habit.
Just be there for him and provide a little push/encouragement when needed (it will be needed at times). Good luck and enjoy watching him grow, man. It goes fast.
Honestly, I’ve relied on a lot of luck with him having some great coaching from very early on all the way up until now.
Biggest thing is practice, practice, practice. And not some high intensity 2+ hour workouts either, but rather do the simple stuff that several posters have already suggested (Tee work, throwing tennis balls off the walls, playing catch, soft toss, etc…).
For hitting, really concentrate on making sure he gets loaded and uses that lower body. For pitching, well that’s a whole other story. Lots of good arm care and velo programs out there. Arm care is EXTREMELY important. Velo will come with increasing proper technique and strength/training.
Like I said, my oldest is 14 and is touching 80MPH right now and will be pitching *some* at the varsity level this year. I’ve had very little to do with any of that other than simply being there anytime he wanted to go outside and practice.
He started a velo and arm care program when he was 12. I had to stay on top of him to make sure he did it at first, but once he got in the routine it became habit.
Just be there for him and provide a little push/encouragement when needed (it will be needed at times). Good luck and enjoy watching him grow, man. It goes fast.
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Based on my two years coaching instructional level t-ball for 5 and 6-year olds:
*Don't stress when your 2B/SS combo decide to build a dirt pyramid behind the second base bag, during play.
*When your right fielder has to piss, he’s going to piss. In right field.
*When your catcher is waiting to tag out an incoming runner at the plate, but he hears his mommy’s voice, that runner scores easily.
*On team photo day, no matter how many times you tell your team to show up in full game day uniform, you might get 2/10. My son was one of the 2.
*Despite what we hear in movies, there IS crying in baseball.
*5-year olds care more about the postgame snack. Snack questions start just before the first inning begins.
*Most importantly — and this starts before the first practice — throat punch every parent who claims they won’t be keeping score, or tracking little Brooks’ OBP and RBI’s. Because they’re all lying.
Who is supposed to play Ray Fosse when 5-year old Pete Rose is barreling home?
- You wanna teach him to hit the ball BEFORE it reaches the catcher's mitt.
- The faster a ball is thrown, or the greater of a break that the ball takes, it will be harder to hit.
- Try not to get out. A lot of kids fail because they get out a lot. Try to avoid it.
- What is the kid's braided necklace game look like? Is the mini mullet coming in well. It's important to have as much hair as humanly possible under the hat.
- Hat should be worn on the head.
- If his bat bag does not have AT LEAST two >$500 bats, then he might as well just go play Upward Soccer.
- This is the most important one. Make sure you align yourself with dads of kids with similar or greater skill as/than your son. That way you can stack the team next year and recruit more dads to be coaches, thereby insuring that your team never loses and the kids will never be emotionally able to deal with a loss.
- The faster a ball is thrown, or the greater of a break that the ball takes, it will be harder to hit.
- Try not to get out. A lot of kids fail because they get out a lot. Try to avoid it.
- What is the kid's braided necklace game look like? Is the mini mullet coming in well. It's important to have as much hair as humanly possible under the hat.
- Hat should be worn on the head.
- If his bat bag does not have AT LEAST two >$500 bats, then he might as well just go play Upward Soccer.
- This is the most important one. Make sure you align yourself with dads of kids with similar or greater skill as/than your son. That way you can stack the team next year and recruit more dads to be coaches, thereby insuring that your team never loses and the kids will never be emotionally able to deal with a loss.
hey. shut up.
Don’t have kids yet so never been a coach, but I’ll add the perspective of the player. Make sure he’s having fun and enjoying it first and foremost. Don’t burn him out by putting too much pressure on him or overworking him.
Basically nobody. A team of 5-6 year olds may have a few players who can catch throws at best…and they ain’t getting stuck as a catcher.
The success rate of fielding clean, making a good throw, a teammate catching it at that age is like 5%…if you’re one of the kids who can do that, again, you ain’t getting stuck as a catcher.
might have a stud playing frontline run kids down or cover up home, but catcher as a position - nah
yall not been around teeball or coach pitch recently?
The success rate of fielding clean, making a good throw, a teammate catching it at that age is like 5%…if you’re one of the kids who can do that, again, you ain’t getting stuck as a catcher.
might have a stud playing frontline run kids down or cover up home, but catcher as a position - nah
yall not been around teeball or coach pitch recently?
Our league went from tee ball to instructional with a machine so no coach pitch. So leave a kid on the bench? Two SS’s?
Teeball? Play a zillion defenders...doesnt matter.
A catcher in teeball is a safety issue as well...any teeball I have seen doesnt have traditional defensive alignment anyways.
Very nice info! Questions
-how do you know when you’re hitting it off the tee correctly?
-3 ball soft toss?
-please explain loading with LB. I’ve never heard that one before.
-hand/arm loading is a high difficulty move? Even if you rep it out a ton?
thanks. You must work in baseball
Where did you get the velo arm care program? My 10 and 11 are both decent pitchers. Both top out at 55mph with a high 40s change up and low 40s Knuck.
80 at 14 is legit. He will be sniffing D1
Infield work is good enough. Fly balls over the head are tough. Like he doesn’t react or anticipate quickly enough.
Most people want to work the middle to middle oppo off the tee. Repeated line drives. If you were in a standard net batting cage, you'd want the ball hitting the back net, without hitting the top. See the Freeman vid - he even works inside pitches up the middle, keeps hands inside the ball.
- soft toss...grab 3 balls and basically toss them in rapid succession - boom boom boom...get the hands going to the ball immediately, have to be fast to the ball...there is a fine line with this one to where you could go too fast or slow as the toss guy.
- lower body load is basically the weight transfer to the back leg - see Arenado video of slow mo swing...his weight transfers with his lower half, yet his hands hardly move
- a lot of arm/hand movement introduces more variables to the swing...if this movement is part or all of your load during the pitch, timing will end up late more often than not. Most high level guys have their hands start right around where they end up at the very end of the load - right before the forward motion of the swing.
I liked to tell guys to gear up and load like they wanted to bomb and stop right before they swung...where they stop is a good point for where their hands should start in the stance.
I played some and coach a couple years HS outta college. Couple of my guys now coach in college, so I follow them on twitter and keep up with some new stuff.
I was more of a glove than a bat, but another glove tip. Ozzie Smith is currently working with Cards SS Paul DeJong on this. BTW some say Ozzie is the best defensive player in the history of baseball). He's trying to teach him to be moving BEFORE the ball is hit (forward if possible). If you study the hitters enough, they and the location of the pitch will tell you where the ball will be hit. For instance on an inside pitch to a RH batter, the ball if it's hit to you will probably be to your left. There's a combination of things though that will determine where the ball is hit, you just have to study it. You cover a lot more ground that way. Even MLB players don't do this well.
Also re getting your lower body into the swing: Think of it this way. Your lower body and waist area has the biggest strongest muscles. Wave your finger. Next wave that finger starting at the wrist. Next start at the elbow. Next the shoulder. See the pattern. The bigger muscle makes the finger wave quicker and more powerfully. In any physical endeavor, movement should start from the center of your body.
Also re getting your lower body into the swing: Think of it this way. Your lower body and waist area has the biggest strongest muscles. Wave your finger. Next wave that finger starting at the wrist. Next start at the elbow. Next the shoulder. See the pattern. The bigger muscle makes the finger wave quicker and more powerfully. In any physical endeavor, movement should start from the center of your body.
He uses a program called Throw Smart, developed by a guy named Joe Newton (he’s close to where we live). There are lots of other programs out there, though. I’d try talking with some of your league coaches to see if they know anyone or have any connections. A pitching coach would also be beneficial and probably a better starting point than jumping into a velo program.
My kid is a 6’4 180lbs lefty who absolutely loves being on the mound. Sounds like your kids are firing it in there too. Very good speed for that age.
Just know ARM CARE is much more important than velo at that age.
I grew up watching the wizard. Those cardinal teams were blazing fast.
I felt like I anticipated, when I played based on where the ball was pitched like your saying. Don’t think I passed that gene on down the line
Yep. My kid plays teeball here in Lexington. If you have 12 kids there, seven of them are standing in the outfield. No catcher and no one on the bench.
I squeezed them all into the infield last year. They were tiny though, so it wasnt bad. 5 or 6 on the front line, 4 at traditional INF spots and a couple deep infielders in between.
I saw a great drill where the coach was tired of players not hitting the inside of the bag. He piled up the kids phones on the outside of the bag and then had them run it.
I follow “Coach Ballgame” on Instagram and show my kids his videos whenever a good one comes up.
Coach Ballgame
I follow “Coach Ballgame” on Instagram and show my kids his videos whenever a good one comes up.
Coach Ballgame
I hear ya but they'd never go for that at South Lexington. It's a fun, competitive league but they are too serious at too young of an age. No extra infielders, infielders can't go to the outfield to retrieve a ball, and you damn sure keep score. That said, for safety reasons there typically aren't more than five on a team that should even be playing in the infield at all given how hard some of those kids are already hitting the ball.
Our teeball is 3-4-5 and coed...there were probably a couple per team that could hurt front line, but yeah, you have to protect some from themselves and never play them close. No score kept and if you got out, you were allowed to run bases. When I played tball it was 5-7, score/competitive and kids were big enough to rake and record plenty of outs.
Even our coach pitch is a modified defensive lineup...limited to 10 defenders, but you can basically align how you want.
Coach pitch is a wild deal too...the pressure on you as you pitch the final ball that can be put into play is enormous. LOL
Also, i know I piss a ton of people off - get on a knee and underhand a short toss pitch to my players from about 12-15 feet. I refuse to throw overhand from 20 ft, height of a 6'1 frame to a 3'7 6 year old. On the other hand, I also dont try to hit bats like some of these other fellas do...area yeah, peg that bat? nah
Also, i know I piss a ton of people off - get on a knee and underhand a short toss pitch to my players from about 12-15 feet. I refuse to throw overhand from 20 ft, height of a 6'1 frame to a 3'7 6 year old. On the other hand, I also dont try to hit bats like some of these other fellas do...area yeah, peg that bat? nah
Too much pressure on a dad. Too hard to enjoy the game when you have to throw perfect darts
This reminds me of Mac O Grady in the 80s, when he brought the golfing machine to the pga tour
I read a story about Sandy Koufax who was having the arm trouble that caused him to retire early. The dodgers were concerned about whether they could count on him and wanted to find out. They made him throw 160 something pitches in a spring training game.
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