This is interesting. Did you allow the players to have gloves on at all during this drill? Any other restrictions, hands by their sides, hands can't touch the ball, etc.?
First time baseball coach
- Thread starter Saints Rest
- Start date
No gloves, and no hands on the ball. Just getting their heads underneath. Hands by sides probably isn't good because they had their arms out for balance when they were tracking the popup.
There was one girl who had a pretty dramatic improvement. She used to stick her glove out at some distance from the falling ball, parallel to the ground and with her arm fully extended. Like she was literally keeping it at arms length. Fear of the ball. I kept telling her to move her feet, but words don't mean much. After a couple of practices with the drill, she was then comfortable getting under the ball. She didn't always catch it, she had to learn the handwork, but at least she was getting to it and getting a glove on it.
That’s a cool idea. I’m keeping that in my back pocket for future years.
We’ve had a ton of rainouts with the U8 girls rec team. Finally got 4 games in including a double header Saturday. It’s going much better than I expected and it’s awesome how fast the girls are improving.
We’ve successfully learned force outs. The first game we just fielded and threw to first no matter what. At this age, it’s almost impossible to make an out at first on a ground ball. Now we’re paying attention to the runners and stepping on a base for a force. Our innings are 3 runs or 3 outs and we’ve had a handful of innings where we made 3 outs before the team scored 3.
Overall we seem middle of the pack skill wise. We played one team twice that was a very even matchup. One team that really struggled to hit the ball and had to use the tee at times, and one team that was all 3rd grade giants and clearly better than us. But each one of our girls can now hit within 5 or 6 coach pitches and we’re learning fundamentals along the way.
The sour patch kids hustle awards continue to be a big hit. I’ll put together some baseball cards too, @AlNipper49. Now that I’ve learned all of their names and strengths, I can give them cards of players they’re similar to.
Whelp I think that I’m done my coaching career. We just had our final travel tournament. Next year will be middle school focused and the school slotted in a paid coach. A blessing as I’ve found that I really liked working with the much younger kids. I’m also not an ‘expert’ and at 13 a lot of these kids have skills sets that are beyond what I ever had. I’ve never had a professional lesson in my life and a lot of the kids, my son included, get at least weekly lessons from folks who have played near or at the highest levels of baseball. It will be fun to watch the games again, though there are high odds of me at least becoming the Game Changer dad.
Coaching one's kid is a huge blessing but as they turn into raccoons with feet...er, adolescents it can become challenging as they naturally try to separate from their home life. The good news is as your kid goes through these seasons they will likely rely on you for guidance and advice about how to handle coach as well as team dynamics.
You are right to jump on GC if you are ok running the app. Moving from a coaching role to that of a spectator is an adjustment for you too. Even though you have no real control as a coach, you likely had some illusion of it. Now you are just a fan so maybe having a task will help you deal with it better.
Of course, GC scorers aren't without downsides either. Try telling a kid why the softly hit grounder that went under two gloves was an error when all they want to do is pad their stats...
I have been coaching 13U travel for a few years now, and there is one aspect of the game every kid needs work on: taking a lead. This is a perfect thing to work on indoors in the winter because it doesn't take a lot of space. Even the fast kids are not taking good leads because of the inherent fear of being picked off. It's psychological and it is embarrassing to get picked. I have seen more than one coach flip out during a game because someone gets picked.
I try to instill that even the slower kids can get AT LEAST 10 feet off the bag and be fine. One thing that I stole from a much more experienced coach was using cones and a tape measure to visually mark off how far the lead is. I also have the kids take their leads with their eyes closed until they can get to their lead from feeling alone. I also try to do this at the beginning of practice because I know that towards the end, they may not be as engaged. Everyone likes to hit so I save that for last.
Lastly, I make it very clear that I am not going to be mad if we get picked or thrown out when trying to be aggressive. If we don't get thrown out on the bases at all, it tells me we simply aren't being aggressive enough.
I try to instill that even the slower kids can get AT LEAST 10 feet off the bag and be fine. One thing that I stole from a much more experienced coach was using cones and a tape measure to visually mark off how far the lead is. I also have the kids take their leads with their eyes closed until they can get to their lead from feeling alone. I also try to do this at the beginning of practice because I know that towards the end, they may not be as engaged. Everyone likes to hit so I save that for last.
Lastly, I make it very clear that I am not going to be mad if we get picked or thrown out when trying to be aggressive. If we don't get thrown out on the bases at all, it tells me we simply aren't being aggressive enough.