Dear Coach
My 10 year old grandson has been playing baseball since he was five, with one year off last year.
Since t-ball he has had a fear of the ball. He has stepped back from catching, stepped out of the batter's box because of his fear of being hit How do we coach him to help him get over this fear?
Thank you
Granddad
Below is a stock answer for concentration and pitch recognition along with being confident at the plate.
Try it and I believe that the boy will start to hit and catch better.
For catching take way his glove and play catch with a foam ball or plastic ball then get a baseball and do the drill I talk about below. We have to get over any fear and use to the ball. Believe it or not when they first
start the glove just gets in the way so eliminate it most of the time.
As simple as this sound get a piece of plywood, prop it up at and angle, have him or us throw the ball up the board and then field it as it rolls back down.
The for fly balls or high throws, throw the ball onto a roof and catch it as it comes off, it is fun and teaches throwing and eye hand coordination. Use a rubber ball or tennis ball gives a safer aspect to it if you so
desire.
Coach Arnald Swift
Coach,
My son is a freshman in High School and played competitive baseball from March-October of last year. He will be playing JV basketball until JV Baseball starts in February. He needed the break; however, should he
be throwing before baseball practice starts in February? He’s a middle infielder and not an everyday pitcher.
Thanks,
Derek
Derek
This is a baseball and basket ball coaches answer, as I was both for a long time.
YES, only criteria is that he does not take time or effort away from his basketball ball team.
But yes he should start throwing, it is no different from running extra, weights, diet all the other things he may do out side of basketball.
I think he should play light catch from 30-40 foot for 5 days, move out to 50ft for 5 days, and so on with about 75 throws each day not don't worry about speed work on accuracy.
Then if time allow for him to get to the 110-120 ft mark then he should throw the last 10 throws of a session game speed. BUT be sure (if you are listening to me) that he has to work up to the 110 ft distance and
speed.
Let me know how it all works out.
Coach Arnald Swift
Coach
I have a left handed 6 year old. The coaches are having him bat right and throw right. They think he does better as a righty but I was wondering if this is a mistake because he is a lefty and sometimes it takes lefty's a little longer to figure stuff out. Should I encourage lefty or let it be righty?
Thank you, Ami
Dear Ami
Amy this is a simple answer if he's left-handed that he should do things left-handed in your coaches should be helpin him be a lefty in baseball being left-handed really can be an advantage. The question really don't make any sense. If he's truly a left-hander, eats, rights, points, all the normal things in life that he left-handed then you'll create big problems if you try to convert him to right-hander. I think there must be more to this story because I've never heard of a coach trying to turn a left-hander into a right-hander. Normally what happens is when they take a right-handed batter and try to teach him to let bat left-handed because of the advantage.
Therefore my advice is leaving left-handed and don't ever bring it up again tell your coaches that he's left-handed that's the way it is, unless there's more to this question that I see.
Coach Arnald Swift
Coach
I coach a 5th grade team and a 7th grade team. My assistant coach on the 7th grade team has instructed the boys to “see the throw” before yelling “cut or no cut”. This really has confused the boys on what they should do. Should we do this at these age levels?
Jeff
I think that is normal for the throw from the outfield. The words and coaching may be a little different but what I believe is he is asking the control guy to do is wait until he see the throw to tell if it is on line, has a chance to make the put out and at what base. The control player can't not say cut, hold, cut to ? until he sees the throw.
So the works "see the throw" is telling him to wait and look at the throw and make the decision of where to go with the throw.
It strikes me as decent point, with different words.
Coach Arnald Swift.
My son is 13 years old and started playing little league around 10 years old!! We played on a travel ball team for about 8 months, then try outs for the American Legion Ball team were last month and he made the first round picks. However, on the travel ball team and this one they keep telling him he’s raw, yet he can pitch around 75 miles and hour, RBI’s like crazy and fields better and better every time he gets out there…but one small problem, they don’t play him much!! How can they expect a child NOT be raw when he doesn’t get played? The Legion ball team now has had 7 games and he got to bat 4 times in 7 games and struck out all 4 times…..then they tell him he is going to pitch next game!! I don’t understand what is going on….he gets very down on himself because he thinks they don’t like his playing but they just keep telling him he’s raw… my son is very good at this and he has an extremely GOOD arm. He just wants to play like the others do and I feel if given the chance he will definitely prove that to them!! He is always there early, he helps clean up, what else is he lacking. We are afraid to talk to the coach about it because we don’t want to look like we are “crying in baseball”! thanks for the help,
Signed,
Seanda
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Dear Seanda
Your correct you're in a tough spot because what I think is the truth that your son is a between-er, which is a sports term that means he's better than the normal recreational league team buddies not quite good enough for the elite team to be a star. And therefore he's falling into that spot of being a utility player or being on the end of the bench and playing only when the situation occurs.
You really held have a couple of choices, continue to work with him and have him continue doing what he doing because eventually that will pay off but he has to get better. Travel team in the elite teams tend to want to win and they will coach and use players to that end. I would consider talking to the boy and asking him if he would rather play on a recreational or neighborhood type team over this elite team so that he can play have more success. I'm going to almost bet the answer is yes. Don't leave your travel team until you've talked to the coach and don't blame you for not playing him you're right that won't accomplish anything one way or the other but tell him that your boys decided to play next year with another team so that he can get more experience and come back at some point in time could be getting player that the elite team needs. What you're really saying is that I'm trying to create a situation that my boy enjoys baseball again from just playing and at the same time get good enough to get on a travel team. Probably won't be the same team that you left but somebody will be around once he gets good enough and is willing to do it. If you decide to stay with that team and you need your boy to work hard, keep on doing the things he's doing and if talent is really there he will get his chance.
Let me know how it all turns out.
Coach Arnald Swift
I have a 9 year old that has been playing ball for 4 years and has been hitting balls pretty good. In the last two months he has moved to travel ball, and has not been hitting very well. Out of a bucket of balls thrown from 30’ he could not hit but one. He has been going to batting cages and is batting at 45 to 55 mph. ok. His swing is complete and straight with no head turning and not stepping out of box. I don’t know what to tell him any more I know he can see the ball and follow to plate. What do you thinks is the problem? Using a 29 x 19oz bat.
Thanks
Richard
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Richard
Do some of or all of the following things.
1. Throw him balls (plastic or soft) underhand from out in front. Under hand is important and from in front is important. The drills is called front toss.
2. You throw to him after the front toss drill live so he can hit it do not worry about speed.
3. Some where along the line do a drill of taking the bat away and having him just stand there and watch the ball so he can tell if it is a ball or strike and get use to the ball coming at him and judging it.
4. Work off a stationary tee
5. Limit the pitching machine for a couple of weeks while doing the drill above then reintroduce the machine.
6. Then in about 3 weeks you hitting routine should be TEE WORK- FRONT TOSS- WATCH 10 PITCHES-15 LIVE PITCHES- THEN THE MACHINE THE REST OF THE TIME.
When you do this he sill start to hit the ball when it is pitched live/machine but you have to work on hand eye coordination first and foremost.
Coach Arnald Swift
What would you do to motivate a player that has all the opportunity to be a good player. He has a manual for pitching and doesn't even look at the workouts, has a batting cage and doesn't spend much time grooving his swing. He is going to be 15yrs. Please advise.
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Dear Anthony
If what you describe is true that you have a real problem it you that wants to have the boy be the player. But if he's 15 years old he's got his mind made up of what you would really like to get out of the game so my advice is to sit down with him and have him tell you what he wants and then you do it. It is always been my philosophy of my own boys and players and I've coached for them to tell me what they're willing to do and then hold them to that standard. If they tell me they don't want to play then I say okay what do you want to do, because if it isn't baseball and we need to do something else is my patent answer because we're not going to do nothing. What we do do were going to do to the best of your ability and do it right. It sounds to me like your boy only plays when you wanting to and not because he wants to.
The truth is your raising the boy not to baseball player so be willing to work with him in what he wants to do, is just my advice don't let him do nothing.
Coach Arnald Swift
Good morning Coach,
I was selected to manage a tournament/travel team of 12 year old players who are now training for our Big week long tourney and experience at Cooperstown in July. Starting this Sat nite for the next 10 weeks I landed an indoor facility for which we can have indoor workouts for 90 minutes each week....I was hoping that you could provide me with some guidance in regards to how to best utilize the 90 minutes each week or provide a possible "game plan" as to what drills, how many kids in a group and how many stations I should setup.
Your expert knowledge is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Coach Steve
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Dear Steve
I understand your question very much. The answer is really too long to go through here but you already have the concept of what we need to do is set up stations for hitting (soft toss, front toss, tee work, live plastic ball, live or machine pitch hitting. Hopefully you can created of hitting drills have the first half hour to 45 minutes be the hitting. Then we need to move on to fielding drills (take away the gloves and do soft grounders, put a net at first base put everybody at shortstop take grounders to have them throw into the net like it was the first baseman, spread out all over the field have them take grounders from each other and/or their coaches, learn to throw through the target and not to it- this throwing to a target in set up short hopping everybody you have to learn to throw through it). Then about 15 minutes spent some time on middle work how to approach the batter's box (think about your last bat think about the battered front of you think about the situation all those kinds of things before you reenter the batter's box, if your picture how you going to take to this guy that you faced take a look at how he stands, take a look at his first couple swings, make sure you know the situation with your batter and people on base. Did physically work on situations with runners on base when you do this you can accomplish two things in a time coaching the defense against runners and then coaching the runners to be aware of the situation. This is a big deal to have runners understand- runner on third what I do, runners at first and second what do I do runners at second only what do I do, -- they have to make a decision when the balls hit in the air, when the balls it on the ground, the line drives, past balls, anything else you can think of.
This will get them ready to go to Cooperstown, which by the way is a good experience I had the privilege of umpiring their and found it quite satisfying.
Best of luck and let me know how that all works out.
Coach Arnald Swift
Good morning Coach,
I was selected to manage a tournament/travel team of 12 year old players who are now training for our Big week long tourney and experience at Cooperstown in July 2015. Starting this Sat nite for the next 10 weeks I landed an indoor facility for which we can have indoor workouts for 90 minutes each week....I was hoping that you could provide me with some guidance in regards to how to best utilize the 90 minutes each week or provide a possible "game plan" as to what drills, how many kids in a group and how many stations I should setup.
You expert knowledge is greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Coach Steve
========================================================
Dear Steve
I understand your question very much. The answer is really too long to go through here but you already have the concept of what we need to do is set up stations for hitting (soft toss, front toss, tee work, live plastic ball, live or machine pitch hitting. Hopefully you can created of hitting drills have the first half hour to 45 minutes be the hitting. Then we need to move on to fielding drills (take away the gloves and do soft grounders, put a net at first base put everybody at shortstop take grounders to have them throw into the net like it was the first baseman, spread out all over the field have them take grounders from each other and/or their coaches, learn to throw through the target and not to it- this throwing to a target in set up short hopping everybody you have to learn to throw through it). Then about 15 minutes spent some time on middle work how to approach the batter's box (think about your last bat think about the battered front of you think about the situation all those kinds of things before you reenter the batter's box, if your picture how you going to take to this guy that you faced take a look at how he stands, take a look at his first couple swings, make sure you know the situation with your batter and people on base. Did physically work on situations with runners on base when you do this you can accomplish two things in a time coaching the defense against runners and then coaching the runners to be aware of the situation. This is a big deal to have runners understand- runner on third what I do, runners at first and second what do I do runners at second only what do I do, -- they have to make a decision when the balls hit in the air, when the balls it on the ground, the line drives, past balls, anything else you can think of.
This will get them ready to go to Cooperstown, which by the way is a good experience I had the privilege of umpiring there and found it quite satisfying.
Best of luck and let me know how that all works out.
Coach Arnald Swift
Coach
At what age is a good time to start investing in a personal trainer for ur son in baseball? I'm asking because I have a dad that's so into I "have to have" training for my 11year old son so he can get better... So am I not helping my son get better by being out there throwing the ball around, working on T work and ground work my self? My son has a passion for baseball that he gave up all other sports just to have that ball and mitt in his hand everyday.. Take note also that these two boys average about 80-90 games a year with there travel team... Please help!!!
Dear dad
First and foremost I'm not a big fan of personal trainers, I would rather see you get some good objective advice from somebody that knows what's going on. Then at that point you and your boy and start to make a plan how to continue on with his passion of baseball as you state. 11 year old's just want to play first and foremost. I can tell you right now that it's more important to get in a lot of swings, a lot of drill work, and learn to throw and hit than to get all wrapped up into personal trainers. Granted they might know the correction technique but the reality of it is that they're going to do the same thing that your coaches or you would do. The truth of the matter is I would rather see an 11-year-old play the game enjoy himself and work on drill work with dad or brother on the side than get involved with a personal trainer costing a lot of money and doing the same things that you could do.
Now don't get me wrong I understand the concept of an expert, but most of the time an expert is somebody that just lives 50 miles away.
I know this may sound a little different than your question was asking me but my advice is get a pattern and work on it between yourself and your boy so both of you will enjoy it and it will come out as a good ending.
Coach Arnald Swift
