Baseball: Fundamentals Skills for Young Players

TeeBall Baseball: Fundamentals Skills for Young Players Coaching Tips from WeCoachKids.com

Baseball is all about technique, execution and precision and it starts with fundamentals. Some of the fundamentals will be too hard for young players to master but there are many that they can achieve and should be introduced from the beginning. A perfect example of this would be how to hold a bat correctly. Can you think of anything more fundamental? Most coaches however never teach this. Maybe it gets over looked because it seems so simple. Check your kids, you’ll be surprised at how many are doing it fundamentally incorrect. Below are some baseball fundamentals that can taught from the beginning to any age player.

Batting

Gripping the bat- The bat should be held in the fingers (like a golf grip) versus back deep in the palms. Have the player pick up the bat and “chop” with it like they are chopping wood. When the bat is gripped correctly the knuckles on your hand that you knock with (not the ones you punch with), should be lined up from one hand to the other.

Batting stance- The feet should be slightly more than shoulder width apart with the front foot set slightly pigeon-toed in order to make sure the front knee points to the plate not to the first base.

Ball contact- Are you a t-ball coach? Please put the tee in the proper place. Too many tees are manufactured with a home plate attached to the base to help them stand upright. And too often the young player steps up to the plate and the ball is right inline with the batters bell button. If you use a tee like this, spray paint a strip right inline with the tee and have your player place their front foot across from that line when setting up at the tee. This will have them making contact with the ball at the proper place in the swing and avoid all sorts of other problems.

Hand position on contact- Holding the bat correctly will help with this but it is a good thing to show the kids from the start as it is not intuitive for many of them. Assuming we have a right-handed batter, on contact with the ball, the left hand should have the palm facing down and the right hand should be facing up; not palms pointing to catcher and pitcher.

Throwing

Gripping the ball- The size of a child’s hand may effect their ability to do this, but it is still important that the player knows what the fundamentally correct way is to hold a ball. The thumb goes under the ball (inline with the first finger), the first 2 fingers on top and the last 2 fingers and curled and on the side of the ball. Most important is that the ball is not sitting back deep in the palm, but is being held in the fingers. Smaller hands may need to use 3 or maybe all fingers on top, but still try to keep the ball of the palm.

Stance- Jump on your skateboard is all you have to say and most kids these days knows what that stance looks and feels like.

Ball position- The ball needs to be held in the proper position in the back before the forward motion can begin. To get the ball in the proper position, have the child hold it down by their body so their thumb is to their thigh and then with a full extend arm take it back with the knuckles to the sky. Starting knuckles to the sky will create the right forward motion. Try it. Teach yourself to throw with your opposite hand and feel the difference in your motion when you start knuckles to the sky versus knuckles facing down.

Catching

Square up to the ball- Get their shoulders square to the incoming ball from the first day of practice. Fingers up/Fingers down- balls below the waist should be caught with the fingers facing down, while balls above; fingers up.

Two handed catch- Teach them to follow the ball into the glove with their throwing hand right from the start.

Base running

Crossover step- Are you coaching baseball, not softball? Then have them run like a baseball player. Teach the crossover step not a sprinters take off that is used in softball but often seen on the baseball diamond if leads off are not allowed. If your player is on first, facing the batter, on contact their first step should be with the left foot crossing over the right. On a fly ball, teach shuffle, shuffle, cross-over to go and cross-over to come back.

This is just a short list of fundamentals that all kids should be introduce to from the start. Do you have others you would like to add? Send them to info@wecoachkids.com

Source: WeCoachKids.com http://wecoachkids.com/baseballfundamentals.html