My 11 year old son just started practice with his little league team. This is his first year. Has never really been into baseball, so he has a lot to learn, (as do I!) He does have some natural ability and I know he can get much better if I knew more and how to instruct him. The coach is great but practice is limited to 2 days a week and I would like to practice with him and teach him but I need some teaching first! LOL
I remember some instructional DVD's that showed proper catching, batting, fielding techniques, etc. that were advertised on TV and were suppposed to of been used by some top little league teams in the country and were even used by a few championship teams.
Anybody know or remember what these were called or were to get them? Any other tips?
Thanks,
Sal
Full Version: Need Help With Little League
Where do you live? Get him a personal coach. I know a GREAT one in Montclair. This is the best way to accelerate his learning. He's probably never gonna catch up as these days they play year round so the other kids have a 10 season head start on him. Find a way to just have fun with it.
some pretty good ones on youtube.com
personal coach = X2
personal coach = X2
11 is not to late to start..
He might only have 2 days with the coach, but there is also game time..
Batting cages and playing catch are the start.. You can get those covered as much and as often as you want.. Getting him comfortable infront of the ball is the first step.
Catching is done with both hands to start (glove and other hand). Grounders - On a knee infront of the ball.. Scoop (both hands) and go..
Catch and throw.. Pick up the pace.. Turn the ball over.. Exaggerate the forward step keeping an eye on where the ball will end up.
Batting - Athletic stance (primary is almost all sports) is the start position. Bat held high over/at rear shoulder. rear elbow exaggerated up and out towards the rear from where the pitcher is. Feet shoulder width apart. Rear foot is the plant (Cannot slip out). Forward foot at about a 45 towards the pitcher. Before the arrival of the ball - the swing starts with a HUGE up and step forward with the forward step.. Rotate the hips forward and the bat will follow.. The eyes never leave the ball.. They need to follow it all the way into the bat.
Most important besides hitting the ball - FOLLOW all the way through and around to end the swing.
Those are the basics I worked on my 5 year old daughter.. The down side, was the team she got on was all at the level of learning to put a glove on.. Kind of jumped the gun so to speak..
Those basic mechanics would be a great start.. Talk alot about them and how they feel.. Video him in each and play it back.. then watch the pros on TV.. Compair the two. Visual training when you can see yourself is HUGE and helps take the learning curve out.. Watch the youtube coaching vids like someone else said - but Visualize yourself (himself) doing the same..
Remember dad.. Its his game and his time to play and have fun.. Support it 100% and both of you will have a great time..
He might only have 2 days with the coach, but there is also game time..
Batting cages and playing catch are the start.. You can get those covered as much and as often as you want.. Getting him comfortable infront of the ball is the first step.
Catching is done with both hands to start (glove and other hand). Grounders - On a knee infront of the ball.. Scoop (both hands) and go..
Catch and throw.. Pick up the pace.. Turn the ball over.. Exaggerate the forward step keeping an eye on where the ball will end up.
Batting - Athletic stance (primary is almost all sports) is the start position. Bat held high over/at rear shoulder. rear elbow exaggerated up and out towards the rear from where the pitcher is. Feet shoulder width apart. Rear foot is the plant (Cannot slip out). Forward foot at about a 45 towards the pitcher. Before the arrival of the ball - the swing starts with a HUGE up and step forward with the forward step.. Rotate the hips forward and the bat will follow.. The eyes never leave the ball.. They need to follow it all the way into the bat.
Most important besides hitting the ball - FOLLOW all the way through and around to end the swing.
Those are the basics I worked on my 5 year old daughter.. The down side, was the team she got on was all at the level of learning to put a glove on.. Kind of jumped the gun so to speak..
Those basic mechanics would be a great start.. Talk alot about them and how they feel.. Video him in each and play it back.. then watch the pros on TV.. Compair the two. Visual training when you can see yourself is HUGE and helps take the learning curve out.. Watch the youtube coaching vids like someone else said - but Visualize yourself (himself) doing the same..
Remember dad.. Its his game and his time to play and have fun.. Support it 100% and both of you will have a great time..
OH.. and how about getting him to go play catch etc with the other kids on the team on the weekends??
I have been glancing around the web as well. Been trying to find some good team drills since I'm coaching my sons team... 
He just turned 6 and this is his 2nd year of ball. So far so good.
If anyone knows of a good personal coach in my area let me know. Whittier, La Habra, Santa Fe Springs, ...
There are some batting cages in La Habra that have some hitting instructors I might try.
La Habra - Hitting Zone
He just turned 6 and this is his 2nd year of ball. So far so good.
If anyone knows of a good personal coach in my area let me know. Whittier, La Habra, Santa Fe Springs, ...
There are some batting cages in La Habra that have some hitting instructors I might try.
La Habra - Hitting Zone
I got started years ago when my youngest began T-Ball. Coached all her teams (She had to play Little League with the boys!) up until High School when she was forced to switch to softball if she wanted to play.
Made Varsity right off the bat and has been playing on travelling teams summer and fall ever since.
Check out:
http://www.eteamz.com/baseball/instruction/tips/
among other sites, there are a ton of resources on the good ol' interweb!
Have fun!
Made Varsity right off the bat and has been playing on travelling teams summer and fall ever since.
Check out:
http://www.eteamz.com/baseball/instruction/tips/
among other sites, there are a ton of resources on the good ol' interweb!
Have fun!
QUOTE (ahipara 55 @ Feb 9 2010, 08:46 PM) 
Where do you live? Get him a personal coach. I know a GREAT one in Montclair. This is the best way to accelerate his learning. He's probably never gonna catch up as these days they play year round so the other kids have a 10 season head start on him. Find a way to just have fun with it.
We live in Indio, Montclair is a wee bit too far. Most of the kids on his team are at his level and 2 or 3 have obvious experience from prior years. They evualated every player before assigning them to a team o a scale of 1-100 (100 being best possible skill level) and then distributed players so that each team has about an equal amount of low, medium, and high skill level players.
I guess more than anything, I would like to learn as much as possible so that I can work with him one on one. Will look into the personal coach idea. All great tips from everybody.
Going out to Ocotillo for 4 days, gotta go clean, prep the toyhauler!
Thanks all!
Sal
I played little league for 10 years. I remember one practice in particular that made me a WAY better player (both a catcher and other positions). My coach dragged me aside one practice. He said "Grab your gear (I was the catcher that season)". I put all my gear on and grabber my glove "You can leave your glove here.....you dont need it". He took me to the next diamond over and told me to stop every baseball he threw at me while my hands were behind my back....dive in front it, stop it with my chest, body, anything, just stop it without using my hands. It only took about 10 minutes but I was never scared of the ball again.
Make sure you warm up your and her arm before you start passing like a major leaguer..
I have been coaching for 8 years and am currently the President of our league, I will say the best thing you can do is play catch, even in the desert. Bring your gloves and play catch for 30 minutes. People get in a hurry to learn tons of other things, and don't work on this. Since he is 11 yr old and never played before, they probably won't lean on him to play SS, Pitcher, or Catcher, so don't spend time on those positions unless he is super talented. He will probably play lots of OF and maybe 2nd base, so after he can throw back and forth to you for like 25 throws without dropping the ball or making a bad throw to you, start doing fly balls, this will help him with being scared of the ball and judging it.
As for hitting, get a tee, net, and a bucket of balls. My two sons before every batting practice hit 25 balls off the tee, then another 25 balls soft toss, once that is done, I will pitch to them. The most important thing is balance, make sure they are balanced at every part of the swing, not on thier toes or heels, you can't do anything without balance. Also when using the tee, I put it up as high as it can go, most kids have a hard time swinging flat or down, so whenit is at the waist, they drop their hands, the batters hands always need to be above the ball when making contact. Also, if he is fast, work on bunting........
My advice, pay for a coach to teach hitting, and stand by and listen yourself and learn, because you can do tee and softtoss in your backyard or even in the desert, so you can reinforce what the coach is telling him.
I will say this, there are many parents that just drop off their kids at the ballfield and expect some volunteer coach/Parent to be able to teach 12 kids how to do everything on the field, there just isn't enough time to do so, so in most cases, the best players end up being the kids of Parents that are more involved, good job reaching out for more coaching and help. Do a search on the internet, there are tons of clinics and videos that can help.
As for hitting, get a tee, net, and a bucket of balls. My two sons before every batting practice hit 25 balls off the tee, then another 25 balls soft toss, once that is done, I will pitch to them. The most important thing is balance, make sure they are balanced at every part of the swing, not on thier toes or heels, you can't do anything without balance. Also when using the tee, I put it up as high as it can go, most kids have a hard time swinging flat or down, so whenit is at the waist, they drop their hands, the batters hands always need to be above the ball when making contact. Also, if he is fast, work on bunting........
My advice, pay for a coach to teach hitting, and stand by and listen yourself and learn, because you can do tee and softtoss in your backyard or even in the desert, so you can reinforce what the coach is telling him.
I will say this, there are many parents that just drop off their kids at the ballfield and expect some volunteer coach/Parent to be able to teach 12 kids how to do everything on the field, there just isn't enough time to do so, so in most cases, the best players end up being the kids of Parents that are more involved, good job reaching out for more coaching and help. Do a search on the internet, there are tons of clinics and videos that can help.
QUOTE (alxcook @ Feb 11 2010, 09:12 AM)
I have been coaching for 8 years and am currently the President of our league, I will say the best thing you can do is play catch, even in the desert. Bring your gloves and play catch for 30 minutes. People get in a hurry to learn tons of other things, and don't work on this. Since he is 11 yr old and never played before, they probably won't lean on him to play SS, Pitcher, or Catcher, so don't spend time on those positions unless he is super talented. He will probably play lots of OF and maybe 2nd base, so after he can throw back and forth to you for like 25 throws without dropping the ball or making a bad throw to you, start doing fly balls, this will help him with being scared of the ball and judging it.
As for hitting, get a tee, net, and a bucket of balls. My two sons before every batting practice hit 25 balls off the tee, then another 25 balls soft toss, once that is done, I will pitch to them. The most important thing is balance, make sure they are balanced at every part of the swing, not on thier toes or heels, you can't do anything without balance. Also when using the tee, I put it up as high as it can go, most kids have a hard time swinging flat or down, so whenit is at the waist, they drop their hands, the batters hands always need to be above the ball when making contact. Also, if he is fast, work on bunting........
My advice, pay for a coach to teach hitting, and stand by and listen yourself and learn, because you can do tee and softtoss in your backyard or even in the desert, so you can reinforce what the coach is telling him.
I will say this, there are many parents that just drop off their kids at the ballfield and expect some volunteer coach/Parent to be able to teach 12 kids how to do everything on the field, there just isn't enough time to do so, so in most cases, the best players end up being the kids of Parents that are more involved, good job reaching out for more coaching and help. Do a search on the internet, there are tons of clinics and videos that can help.
As for hitting, get a tee, net, and a bucket of balls. My two sons before every batting practice hit 25 balls off the tee, then another 25 balls soft toss, once that is done, I will pitch to them. The most important thing is balance, make sure they are balanced at every part of the swing, not on thier toes or heels, you can't do anything without balance. Also when using the tee, I put it up as high as it can go, most kids have a hard time swinging flat or down, so whenit is at the waist, they drop their hands, the batters hands always need to be above the ball when making contact. Also, if he is fast, work on bunting........
My advice, pay for a coach to teach hitting, and stand by and listen yourself and learn, because you can do tee and softtoss in your backyard or even in the desert, so you can reinforce what the coach is telling him.
I will say this, there are many parents that just drop off their kids at the ballfield and expect some volunteer coach/Parent to be able to teach 12 kids how to do everything on the field, there just isn't enough time to do so, so in most cases, the best players end up being the kids of Parents that are more involved, good job reaching out for more coaching and help. Do a search on the internet, there are tons of clinics and videos that can help.
Thanks for the tips, realy like the tee, net, and bucket of balls idea. Will get that on Monday after we get back from Ocotillo. My son can actually throw, catch, and hit pretty good most of the time, but just seems to have a hard time hitting during practice when his coach is pitching 'em kinda fast.
I have learned a ton from internet searches and will work with him as soon as we get back.
Thanks,
Sal
A personal coach is the trick. True story: son of a guy I know gets cut as a freshman. I told him about a personal coach I knew that helped my kid out. He took his boy to this guy. He made the team the next year and by senior year was an all star. Now he has a full ride to college and a free education. Well worth the price of the personal coach...
If anyone is near Simi Valley, Dave Zall of Zallball is outstanding!
If anyone is near Simi Valley, Dave Zall of Zallball is outstanding!
QUOTE (Mongo @ Feb 11 2010, 07:49 PM)
A personal coach is the trick. True story: son of a guy I know gets cut as a freshman. I told him about a personal coach I knew that helped my kid out. He took his boy to this guy. He made the team the next year and by senior year was an all star. Now he has a full ride to college and a free education. Well worth the price of the personal coach...
If anyone is near Simi Valley, Dave Zall of Zallball is outstanding!
If anyone is near Simi Valley, Dave Zall of Zallball is outstanding!
I agree, just make sure the kid is committed to it first................currently I have my 12 yr old taking pitching lessons. He has been an all star every year, but if he really wants to be better, time to get someone that can take it to the next step. 11-12 yrs old is really the time to work on everything, before that just make sure they are having fun and can compete.
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