The TeeBall Coaching Clinic provides t-ball coaches and parents with free t-ball tips, teeball drills, and tee ball articles for teaching youngsters how to play baseball. You will find simple and easy explanations on how to hit a baseball, how to throw a baseball, and how to teach baseball skills to a child. Use our search feature to type in your desired topic to find articles covering it in our archive.
Showing posts with label Baseball Practice Drills. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Baseball Practice Drills. Show all posts
We have heard it through the ages-"Get the bat off your shoulder!" It is a common phrase used by fans, coaches, parents, and players. The question is "Why is that so bad?"
Here is what happens when a player moves his bat away from his body in his hitting stance. As he does this, he separates his hands from his body, and ends up more often than not with his hands out over the plate on contact. This technique will produce only an arm swing, with no body support.
So why is that a problem? Let's look at it this way.
If you had to arm wrestle an opponent, would you want your hands away from your body? Or would you want your hands close to the body for support? If you had to throw the best punch you could, would you hold your hands away from the body? No, you would not. Your hands would be in a fist right at the back shoulder. If you had to push an automobile, would you want your hands at your side, or would you want them in front of you? Your body gives thrust to your hands. So naturally, you would want your hands in front of you.
Now, stand up like you're at home plate with your bat out over the plate like it is in contact with the ball. What's behind your hands? Nothing! When this happens, your body gives your hands no support.
You might say..."I've seen major leaguers start with their hands away from their bodies. So it must be good." Yes, they do. But major leaguers make an adjustment: before they direct the bat towards the pitch, they pull their hands back to their bodies in the shoulder area. We usually don't see this, because it happens so quickly. But research shows that is exactly what they do.
Therefore, let us be clear. You will always be in a better position to hit for good contact and distance if you keep your hands up and close to the back shoulder in your stance. Now allow your hips to rotate, keeping your hands at the shoulder until they move to contact the ball. Now your hands are in front as they enter the contact zone, not over the plate.
So if you want to learn how to hit better in baseball, remember this rule: The only time separation of the hands from the body occurs is when they move forward to hit the ball.
Hi. I'm Coach Joe Brockoff, a Division I Head Baseball Coach for Tulane University for more than 19 years, and former minor league player for the New York Yankees. Over the years, I've taught thousands of baseball players how to increase batting speed and improve their overall performance on the field. In fact, my proven training system has sent 45 baseball players to the pros.
As a coach committed to continuous improvement, I share my baseball drills, tips, and techniques here so that you will, in turn, inspire and motivate young players to improve their game. I hope you'll visit my web site, the Super 8 Baseball Hitting System at http://www.learnbaseballhitting.com to watch some of my free instructional videos.
Planning an Effective Youth Sports Practice By Guest Author: Scott L. Sanders
It's no coincidence that the most organized coaches are also the most successful with their youth and high school sports teams. Below, you'll find specific strategies for Seasonal, Monthly, Weekly, and Daily practice planning that will help you stay organized and goal-focused throughout the year.
Implementing just a few of these tips will reduce your practice planning stress, give you loads of credibility, and dramatically improve the flow of your practices and the performance of your athletes.
Season Plans
Begin by dividing your year into 4 coaching phases: Off-Season, Pre-Season, Early Season, and Peak Season. Next develop a high-level "at a glance" view of what you want to accomplish during each one of those periods.
Make sure you consider:
Technical, Tactical, Physical Training Skills: What general skills are you wanting your athletes to focus on during different portions of the year? For example, you might want to improve your team's free throw shooting, or work on swimming flip turns, or practice penalty shots, etc.
Team Goals: Is your team looking to develop speed in the off-season? Are you fine-tuning your routines prior to a big cheerleading competition? Are you learning a new offense before the season begins?
Fundraising Goals: How much cash does the team need to raise to cover the costs of the season. When does that money to be raised by? What types of fundraising events
Coaching Emphasis: Are you focused on recruiting during the off-season? Are you focused on improving your coaching knowledge by attending conferences and clinics during pre-season?
Tournaments, Seminars, Clinics: Make note of any upcoming events you or your team will be participating in. Is there an out-of-state tournament that you would like your team to participate in? Is there a coaching clinic about a topic you're interested in?
Workout Schedule: Is your team practicing 6 days a week during the early season? Do you expect your athletes to train 3 days a week during the off-season when there aren't regularly schedules practices?
Monthly Plans
Once your season plan is in place, consider creating a month by month planner on the office bulletin board to serve as a useful reminder about the year's objectives, goals, and events. This is the time to get a little more specific about the objectives you and your team would like to accomplish, and the exact timing for individual events.
For example, what's the date and location for the first tryout? Are you planning a car wash on March 15th that will raise $500 to pay for your summer tournament? When does the first round of the playoffs begin?
Weekly Plans
At the beginning of each week, it's wise to take 10 minutes to plan out a rough outline of your practices. What time does practice start and end? What gym will it be held in? Will players arrange their own transportation to the field, or will a school bus be provided?
You'll also want to consider some more specific practice and team objectives you'd like to accomplish. Are you preparing to face a particular opponent? Are you working on developing speed or strength? Are you trying to improve your team's communication skills?
Do you have a meeting with a parent or administrator? Do you need to check in with a particular teacher about an athletes performance in the classroom, etc? These are all items appropriate for your weekly plan.
Daily Plans
This is the nitty gritty portion of your practice planning sequence. You'll want to make note of the EXACT activities and drills you want to perform, how long to do them for, and what order to do them in. It's best to get all of this down in an easy-to-read template that you can keep on your clipboard and refer to throughout practice.
Before each practice, sit down and outline your top three primary goals for the day. Do you want to master a play that you will run in an upcoming game, do you want to work on building speed or strength, do you want to help your athletes improve a technical skill critical to your sport?
Next, make note of any equipment that might be required for the day's practice. Do you need pylons, jump ropes, extra balls, etc?
When you're ready to plan your drills and activities, start with the team warm-up. Structure your warm-up into 3 phases: Aerobic Warm-up, Stretching, and Technical Skills Warm-Up. Many coaches find that three 5-minute phases work well. During the aerobic warm-up you may decide to have you athletes complete a light jog, jumprope, or perform some other kind of gentle aerobic activity to increase their heart rate and warm up their body.
Once your athletes are sufficiently warm, you can transition into the stretching phase of your warm-up. Focus on stretching the muscles that are used most often in your sport.
We recommend completing your warm-up with a technical skills tune-up where athletes practice specific athletic skills required by their sport (i.e.- basketball free-throw shooting, volleyball serves, etc).
Now you can move onto the "core" of your practice, first list the skills you would like to work on with your team (place this in the first column under "skills to improve"). Next, assign a drill to each skill that specifically targets the area you are seeking to improve.
Finally, note any coaching points you'd like to remember during the practice (i.e. keep head up, make sure players bend their knees, make sure Andy keeps his elbow back, etc.)
Complete your practice with a cool down that lasts at least 10 minutes. Slowly bring your athletes' heart rates down with gentle aerobic activity (do not abruptly stop practice or aerobic activity as this may cause injury). Once your athletes are breathing normally, lead your team in a thorough stretching session.
Make sure you allow athletes water breaks every 15 minutes to ensure they remain hydrated throughout your practice. It's best to schedule these into your planner so that you don't forget.
After practice, make notes on how the day went at the bottom of the practice planner. Are there any areas you'd like to focus on for the next practice? Did a particular drill work well (or not work well)?
Follow this simple formula and your practices will run much smoother, you'll get more accomplished in each practice and you'll see an exponential increase in your athlete's performance!
If you'd like to put your practice planning system on the "fast track", we highly recommend the sports team website builder at Sportata.com. Even if you know nothing about computers, you can create a dazzling website for your basketball, football, softball, baseball, volleyball, hockey (or any other) team in just 3 easy steps. With just a few clicks, you can post practice schedules, send broadcast emails, and deliver workout plans to your athletes. Go to Sportata.com to learn more.
Scott Sanders is Director of Business Development at Sportata.com, the fastest, easiest team website builder online. If you can spare 15 minutes, you can create a dazzling sports team website in just 3 easy steps with Sportata. This incredible tool is extremely simple to use, and allows coaches and team managers to organize their schedules, communicate with players and parents, and manage their team (without wasting time on administrative chores). Here's what our users are saying:
"Easy to build, especially for someone that doesn't know much about computers."
Coach Meyer SCS Baseball St Clair Shores, MI
"Very easy. My 7 year old could have done it!"
Mark Sweetman Metro Basketball Association Sixers Dearborn, Michigan
To test drive our site building wizard, go to http://www.Sportata.com
I've never tried to hit a pitch from a seriously good baseball pitcher, but what I do know, is that it's one of the hardest things to do in all of professional sports. The combination of timing, and reflexes is pretty demanding.
Just look at how many players have a batting average over 400 in the history of professional. Only 8 players have ever done it (13 times amongst them), and no one has done it since 1941. So, any help you can give your little slugger in their early baseball years will be a definite advantage down the road.
While, you can read all day long, on the pros and cons of various hitting styles and swings, there is nothing better for a future hall of fame hitter, than just going out and hitting. The more hours they spend trying to knock one over the fence the better. Its also a great way to spend quality time with your kids, but grabbing a bunch of balls, heading over to the field, and pitch them a few to whack.
If your little ball player, really enjoys the game, then it shouldn't be hard to get them to put a little extra time in. If all they want to do is hit, that's fine, but they're probably bored to death at practice. Most kids just don't get much hitting practice with the team.
While, any hitting is better than not hitting at all, it could also be said that an effective hitting practice is better than just swinging willy nilly at whatever. There are a few pointers to keep in mind.
The Bat Has To Fit The Player
You wouldn't try to catch with a glove that was two sizes too small, or too large. So why would you do the same thing with a bat. Choosing a bat that is both weight and length appropriate for your son or daughter can make all the difference in their batting average.
Try having your little leaguer hold their bat out from their body, but parallel to the ground. If they can't do it for at least 15 seconds, then the bat is too heavy. If they can barely do it, or their arms start to wobble, then it's probably better to try a small bat.
Best Place For A Batter
As in any sports, where you put your feet is crucial to being successful. Hitting a baseball is no different. Too close, or too far from home plate can make it difficult to hit a lot of pitches. Make sure your kids understand the difference, and know where to swing from.
The lesson here is don't just head over to the park across the street for some informal batting practice, with only a bat, a glove, and some balls. Remember to bring home plate with you. Even if you don't have an official home plate, any old thing will work as a place holder.
