First time baseball coach

[AlNipper49]

Any suggestions for baseball bags? My kiddo is a small 10 year old but has quickly outgrown in bag in terms of storage space. In an ideal world I’m thinking of one of the rolling ones that can convert to a backpack. That was he can use it as a backpack on normal days but also roll it when he needs to bring extra gear.

it’s crazy how much crap we need to put in there. Helmet, two gloves, batting gloves, two bats, two water bottles, snacks, extra clothes, non-cleat sneakers, etc

 

[tonyandpals]

Any suggestions for baseball bags? My kiddo is a small 10 year old but has quickly outgrown in bag in terms of storage space. In an ideal world I’m thinking of one of the rolling ones that can convert to a backpack. That was he can use it as a backpack on normal days but also roll it when he needs to bring extra gear.

it’s crazy how much crap we need to put in there. Helmet, two gloves, batting gloves, two bats, two water bottles, snacks, extra clothes, non-cleat sneakers, etc

We just got my 8yo this one to grow into, so I think it would be good for a 10yo as well. Holds his helmet, glove and water bottle + gatorade w/ room to spare in main compartment. His previous one we had to shove the glove in the helmet to get it to fit. Bats go on the side. Can throw it on his back and lug it around. We had a tourney this weekend and I threw my catchers mitt in there for me and it fit on top of his stuff just fine.

We got it at a local shop but I'm 99% sure this is it:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/EASTON-2022-GAME-READY-Bat-Equipment-Backpack-Baseball-Softball-Bag-Charcoal-White/359253090

 

[AlNipper49]

I just picked him up from camp and paid attention to what the 13 year olds had. This more than I figured a silly bad would be but there were enough of them that I figure it would be worth it

https://amzn.to/3IBKpSb

(TP that’s actually the one that we have now! It’s really awesome but now that we have extra gear that I never would have previously planned on. It’s last four years without a single rip!)

 

[jayhoz]

I just picked him up from camp and paid attention to what the 13 year olds had. This more than I figured a silly bad would be but there were enough of them that I figure it would be worth it

https://amzn.to/3IBKpSb

(TP that’s actually the one that we have now! It’s really awesome but now that we have extra gear that I never would have previously planned on. It’s last four years without a single rip!)

I bought both my son's this Demarini backpack. This model seems to be discontinued, but there are newer models from Demarini that look very similar. I can't imagine my soon to be 10 year old needing much more space.

shorturl.at/gmopv

That being said, my older son's club team "gives" them these Easton bags. The helmet on the outside, plus the exterior cleat clips frees up a ton of room. I highly recommend.

https://easton.rawlings.com/product/A159059.html

 

[OCST]

I bought both my son's this Demarini backpack. This model seems to be discontinued, but there are newer models from Demarini that look very similar. I can't imagine my soon to be 10 year old needing much more space.

shorturl.at/gmopv

That being said, my older son's club team "gives" them these Easton bags. The helmet on the outside, plus the exterior cleat clips frees up a ton of room. I highly recommend.

https://easton.rawlings.com/product/A159059.html

this is what my daughter uses ,it’s great. and 100% on the helmet thing.

She’s a catcher though, so that’s another bag. Does anyone have a good catchers gear carrier recommendation? Helmet, chest protector, shin guards. The set came with a plain old duffel bag which lasted one season. Would love a backpack if there’s a good one.

 

[jayhoz]

this is what my daughter uses ,it’s great. and 100% on the helmet thing.

She’s a catcher though, so that’s another bag. Does anyone have a good catchers gear carrier recommendation? Helmet, chest protector, shin guards. The set came with a plain old duffel bag which lasted one season. Would love a backpack if there’s a good one.

All the catchers I know have a roller bag. My son used this one for one season. Got the job done.

Easton | Dugout | Baseball & Fastpitch Softball | Wheeled Bag | Multiple Colors https://a.co/d/aEu5I0M

 

[DeJesus Built My Hotrod]

In my experience, bags are a baseball product people should avoid paying up for along with Evo shields (when the kid wants it as a baseball fashion statement - they are legit a protection for injured areas), Phitens etc. The obvious answer is whatever bag will minimize lost or forgotten gear. There can be trauma from such an outcome...

The non playing gear may be cool when you are 10 or even 12 but its all but in my experience its all but obsolete by time kids hit middle school. Its gathering dust by Freshman year.

Maybe its Bay Area baseball culture but most HS players I see used a standard one shoulder strap athletic bag like the one Nike produces for basketball or soccer - they zip the bat(s) in as far as they can go and that's it.

Most non catchers with roller bags were quickly shamed into adopting the bare aesthetic, including losing all their unnecessary Evos, bracelets etc etc. In HS baseball, most players want to look like they belong.

Maybe this isn't the case where you live but unless you get a team discount on those nice Boomba bags or something similar, go as cheap as the kid will let you. I have several hundred dollars of baseball equipment in my garage that only gets use because I needed something to do and coaching baseball is more fun than golf for me. This sport will drain anyone dry if you let it - don't get me started on the slimy business of youth bats. What a scam...

 

[jayhoz]

don't get me started on the slimy business of youth bats. What a scam...

This has been a rough year bat-wise for us. Older son graduated to the big diamond this past fall. Town league allows 13U players to use USA or BBCOR bats. We bought my son a drop 5 USA bat to help transition to the drop 3 BBCOR which would be required when he hit 14. His club league then decided to allow USSSA bats for the 13U season to help with the lack of offense typical for the first year on the big diamond. So we bought a USSSA. He then had a tournament this summer which was wood bats only. So we bought him a wood bat. He's now heading into his 14U season so we are in the market for a BBCOR. The two USA bats and USSSA will now collect dust in the garage. Ugh!!

 

[DeJesus Built My Hotrod]

This has been a rough year bat-wise for us. Older son graduated to the big diamond this past fall. Town league allows 13U players to use USA or BBCOR bats. We bought my son a drop 5 USA bat to help transition to the drop 3 BBCOR which would be required when he hit 14. His club league then decided to allow USSSA bats for the 13U season to help with the lack of offense typical for the first year on the big diamond. So we bought a USSSA. He then had a tournament this summer which was wood bats only. So we bought him a wood bat. He's now heading into his 14U season so we are in the market for a BBCOR. The two USA bats and USSSA will now collect dust in the garage. Ugh!!

See if he can find buyers. The secondary market for still legal bats is decent. But the overall market is terrible for consumers especially with the repeated "updating" of standards (which I am pretty sure most bat makers love).

Shelling out ~$500+ for a bat that may be used for just 40-60 PAs per season seems suboptimal, especially since baseball isn't typically a rich sport. And how many kids below HS are seeing good pitching to hit? In our middle school league (LL Juniors) we had 104 kids play. Only a handful of those could pitch consistently and even fewer had control. A lot of the time, those expensive bats are not even swung. We had so many bad hitters missing meatballs with their fancy DeMarinis and Makos. Of course I happen to live in an affluent place so they can afford it. But why?

That said, I feel your pain. So much gear laying around...

 

[OCST]

In Brooklyn we don’t have a car and the fields are a 5-10 minute walk into Prospect Park, so it’s a subway ride up and down stairs* and then a long walk. I’m concerned that a rolling bag would hold up so if there’s a good catcher gear backpack it really would help even if we needed a second bag/pack for the other helmet.

-*in theory. More often I say screw it and get an Uber although with practice 2x/wk And a game that adds up quick, the good pack would help.

otherwise yes, the $ I’ve spent on training stuff that’s gathering dust…

 

[DeJesus Built My Hotrod]

In Brooklyn we don’t have a car and the fields are a 5-10 minute walk into Prospect Park, so it’s a subway ride up and down stairs* and then a long walk. I’m concerned that a rolling bag would hold up so if there’s a good catcher gear backpack it really would help even if we needed a second bag/pack for the other helmet.

-*in theory. More often I say screw it and get an Uber although with practice 2x/wk And a game that adds up quick, the good pack would help.

otherwise yes, the $ I’ve spent on training stuff that’s gathering dust…

Once again, if your kid isn't too worried about what they carry their stuff in (I realize that many kids care very deeply about this) , this is what my kid and all his knuckleheaded HS teammates used from freshman year on. The beauty of it is that if anyone has had the privilege of forking over their money for a sports camp or a club team, you likely got one of these as part of your swag. But if not, they are relatively inexpensive and can be reused for a wealth of other things including by others.

Again, glove, cleats, half empty old water bottles, dirty balled up old socks, wrappers, change, seeds, wads of chewed gum, copious amounts of infield dirt and missing howework goes inside and then you slide the bats inside the top and zip it up.

 

[AlNipper49]

We got that bag I listed above and honestly it’s really, really nice. My main concern was getting something huge - we are forever checking and double checking things. Since I coach as well if we don’t have it I can’t turn around and go home to grab it. The separate compartments in the main area are clutch. It’s nice to be able to throw a bunch of balls, heavy balls, tennis balls, etc in there without having to root around for them when we need them. That area has mesh over it so you are visibly assured that it’s in there.

Having it on rollers is great too. We play in a complex of 4 fields that also has a big recreational area attached and there are times the little guy has to carry a heavy bag 800 meters or so. Not the end of the world but the rollers are an appreciated luxury.

The bat storage is great - we can put 4 bats in there but has a cinch on it so you can go down to 1 per side. It’s good to be able to bring more bats - there are always kids of different sizes and swing types who appreciate someone bringing them a few options to test / borrow

 

[Archer1979]

I wish that you had asked this in the winter.

Way back when, we had made it to the State's Finals in Hudson. Our town's organization was in its relative infancy so our uniforms were basically whatever we could pull together from the tops that had been returned at that point. Team bags were all ratty and holdovers from the previous organization. Only half the team had individual bat bags.

The teams that we were playing were decked out. Unis, coaches, team bags, individual bags were all same style and color. We were able to find out that these orgs were able to get customized bags, embroidered with the names of the player on the for about the same cost as if you picked up a similar bag at Dick's.

If I remember correctly, we got league/team bags in the same style. Got enough orders from the parents to be able to place the order. Also ordered individual bags without the embroidering for those kids that missed the order. Sold those out during our opening day ceremonies.

Worked out great for everyone.

 

[Cumberland Blues]

My kid uses the Easton wheel bag for his catcher's gear. 4 seasons in, it smells terrible but has otherwise held up well, will likely need to be replaced next summer but I am hoping it can survive one more year. Agree on the insanity of gear prices...I have probably spent two semesters college tuition on gear and travel ball fees. I'd do it all again cuz the kid absolutely loves playing, but damn, he better be nice to me when I'm old.

 

[AlNipper49]

Does anyone have suggestions for taking and retaining video of the players? Ideally I'd love an online database. I've found a few for-pay ones but I'd rather just buy something and use it for ever. The for-pay ones seem to have a lot of hidden charges, drastic differences in functionality and upsells for things like specialized equipment. CoachNow for mobile seems to be the leader at the moment.

 

[Trapaholic]

Does anyone have suggestions for taking and retaining video of the players? Ideally I'd love an online database. I've found a few for-pay ones but I'd rather just buy something and use it for ever. The for-pay ones seem to have a lot of hidden charges, drastic differences in functionality and upsells for things like specialized equipment. CoachNow for mobile seems to be the leader at the moment.

There is an app I use called Visual Eyes. I coach 13U travel, and I usually try to take video of swings during practice. The app is free. You can edit the video and slow it down to about 1/8 speed. I use my iPhone and bought a small adjustable phone tripod from Amazon for less than $20.

Parents also like Using Gamechanger for the video. You can record entire games and save them. We had one parent who would attach their phone to to the backstop and record the entire game. You can clip individual plays as well.

 

[DeJesus Built My Hotrod]

There is an app I use called Visual Eyes. I coach 13U travel, and I usually try to take video of swings during practice. The app is free. You can edit the video and slow it down to about 1/8 speed. I use my iPhone and bought a small adjustable phone tripod from Amazon for less than $20.

Parents also like Using Gamechanger for the video. You can record entire games and save them. We had one parent who would attach their phone to to the backstop and record the entire game. You can clip individual plays as well.

Thank you for this.

Question about logistics - is it simply that your travel practice schedule affords you the time to go over videos with each player or do you do it via email/text etc?

We effectively coach the kids you left behind - little league juniors division which are 13-14 year olds - and we are only supposed to practice two times a week though given that this is little league, we don't have much demand for more than that. We also deal with heavy demand for field and cage time so using that for video in lieu of drills seems inefficient.

Finally, how effective is video review for kids of that age? Given their ages as well as the media they consume, my experience is that these kids aren't devoid of attention spans but you lose them quickly. In recent years, we have adopted being less verbose in our instruction and it seems to work. I can see some kids studying a swing video obsessively while others might not even bother to look - and the latter might even include talented travel kids.

 

[Trapaholic]

We have 2 practices a week. One hour during the week night and 2 hours on the weekend. Usually I will set up my phone during BP and take video of several swings. During the week, when I have downtime in my day job, I will clip the video and chop it up a bit. During the weekend practice, there is usually some down time in between rounds and drills. I like to approach each guy and go over 1 or 2 good swings and ask what they felt, what their focus was, and what they would like to work on this week. To be clear, I dont set aside a formal time with each player, I do it kind of ad-hoc based on time and who shows up.

Were lucky to have a good indoor facility - nothing huge but a great space to work. Going over 1 or 2 swings is useful because it gets a conversation started with the kid and you can understand what they felt v. what really happened.

The kids like reviewing the video. Sometimes I bring my laptop so I can share it on a bigger screen. I take a good swing and slow it down as much as I can to focus on what we did well. Personally I focus more on "external" cues - like I will say, I want you to try and hit this one over the 2nd basemens' head. I do my best to keep it simple and focus on the good. Even a 1 minute conversation is a good way to build some rapport when we do not have time to build those relationships.

I also bought a small Coachs' Radar (pocket sized radar gun) and just see how hard the kids can hit it off a tee. They like the "gamification" of putting up a high number and seeing a result. Video is handy but the most productive thing that I have done is try to make as many "mini games" throughout practice as possible. We want them to compete against each other and have some fun when were stuck inside.

 

[DeJesus Built My Hotrod]

Thank you for the color.

 

[AlNipper49]

Thank you for this.

Question about logistics - is it simply that your travel practice schedule affords you the time to go over videos with each player or do you do it via email/text etc?

We effectively coach the kids you left behind - little league juniors division which are 13-14 year olds - and we are only supposed to practice two times a week though given that this is little league, we don't have much demand for more than that. We also deal with heavy demand for field and cage time so using that for video in lieu of drills seems inefficient.

Finally, how effective is video review for kids of that age? Given their ages as well as the media they consume, my experience is that these kids aren't devoid of attention spans but you lose them quickly. In recent years, we have adopted being less verbose in our instruction and it seems to work. I can see some kids studying a swing video obsessively while others might not even bother to look - and the latter might even include talented travel kids.

We recently started going to a new trainer for my son. He is Venezuelan and English is very much not his first language. My son absorbs what he says by orders of magnitude versus "verbose" coaching. For example, he was hitting down into the ball so Coach Sammy started started saying "like airplane" and moving his hand like a whoosh. I must admit it beats "you need to drive the ball". Like I barely understand what that translates into mechanically.

 

[Saints Rest]

We recently started going to a new trainer for my son. He is Venezuelan and English is very much not his first language. My son absorbs what he says by orders of magnitude versus "verbose" coaching. For example, he was hitting down into the ball so Coach Sammy started started saying "like airplane" and moving his hand like a whoosh. I must admit it beats "you need to drive the ball". Like I barely understand what that translates into mechanically.

My son's goalie coach is a recent immigrant from Brazil. He speaks very little English, so the verbal part of his coaching is mostly "Good!" or "C'mon!" Sometimes I think it might be a better approach than all the words.