Starting up a new thread since the last one was for the 2023/2024 season.

Oldest had a follow up and some functional testing with the surgeon this morning. He said he's doing great and a little ahead of schedule. Range-of-motion & strength are great. Still needs to build up strength but he's a little ahead of where they expect athletes to be for 14 weeks after surgery.

Cleared to jog on the track but not on grass yet. Can start throwing on flat ground and hitting in the cage. No live/game ABs yet. Can also start fielding drills but has to be stuff hit or thrown straight to him. He should be able to sprint and do all the agility drills (lateral, plyos, box jumps, etc) again in 6 weeks or so. "Return-to-play" testing in 6-8 more weeks. Said that he should be cleared to throw off the bump around Thanksgiving.

So hopefully he'll be able to play at least a little bit before the 15U teams shut it down this fall but will be 100% ready for HS playoffs in late-January.

Younger son joined a new team because we were driving 45-50 minutes to his practices and they moved even farther away. Bummer because we liked the team. 10U by age playing up with a new 11AAA team that needs some work but the coach is really good with a long-established reputation in the Houston select baseball world. Doing due diligence on the guy who's been around the scene for 20 years and pretty much everybody said, "he can be a bit of an a-hole but he absolutely knows baseball and is a great instructor who will have your kid ready to play in HS" so we'll take some lumps losing games for a while in exchange for development.

I can't really think of a time when it doesn't make sense to prioritize development always until HS Varsity.

10andBOUNCE said:

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I can't really think of a time when it doesn't make sense to prioritize development always until HS Varsity.

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For sure. But it's also hard to keep kids motivated and on a team if they don't at least win some of the time.

Had our first tournament with our 4th team in 4 seasons...

Taking a step down and playing AAA vs. Major last season. First tournament is AA though for warm up. Played well so far and won 2. My son led off pitching the first game and did well. Ump was calling it tight for him but later innings opened it up (the zone). Little frustrating to see another pitcher on our team throwing strikes that your kid threw and was called a ball.

But he threw 26 pitches, 5 batters, 2 LOB and 2 SO. This was 11U.

~egon

TarponChaser said:

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10andBOUNCE said:

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I can't really think of a time when it doesn't make sense to prioritize development always until HS Varsity.

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For sure. But it's also hard to keep kids motivated and on a team if they don't at least win some of the time.

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If said coach knows baseball and is a great instructor like everyone claims, I would think there should be some wins sprinkled in there somewhere.

But yes absolutely, do not disagree there is somewhat of a balance.

10andBOUNCE said:

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TarponChaser said:

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10andBOUNCE said:

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I can't really think of a time when it doesn't make sense to prioritize development always until HS Varsity.

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For sure. But it's also hard to keep kids motivated and on a team if they don't at least win some of the time.

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If said coach knows baseball and is a great instructor like everyone claims, I would think there should be some wins sprinkled in there somewhere.

But yes absolutely, do not disagree there is somewhat of a balance.

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I'm more referring to the folks who put a lot of stock in winning a $4 ring.

But, in my book if a team can average playing 4 games per weekend tournament (ie- don't lose your first bracket game on Sunday and go home early) then you're doing pretty well.

When I coached our high school summer league teams that played in tournaments against other travel and select teams, I always prioritized guaranteed games over just about anything else when choosing which tournaments to play in.

Just curious what yall think a good practice schedule is like for an 8U coach pitch team. My son's team is made up of mainly 1st graders and so far have been practicing on average once or twice a week with games on every other sunday(2 games). I don't have a problem playing two games once every other weekend, however I think it's pretty stupid the amount of time they've been having practice on Saturday mornings. Last one had them starting at 8am and lasting until 10:30am.

I can see it in my boy and others that they pretty much have checked out after about an hour and it turns into a complete waste of time IMO. Curious what yall boys schedule was/is at that age? The normal weeknight practice is usually an 1 1/2 or so at most.

In my experience it's really tough to keep kids that age engaged for more than 90 minutes at a time. Sometimes even a 60 minute practice is tough.

I think the key is to have multiple coaches/dads running different stations so the kids don't spend too much time at any one spot.

Like split them up into groups and spend 45 minutes rotating between:
- tee & soft-toss
- infield work
- OF work

Then maybe 30 minutes doing situations. We'd have kids rotate through positions and if you have an 11-man roster you can have 2 kids running the bases while the coaches hit fungo and do situational work, like runner on first with no outs and a fly ball to RF- what is everyone's responsibility, where do the throw go, and so forth.

Add in stretching, warm-ups, water breaks, and some base-running/conditioning at the end and you can fill an hour and a half pretty easily. Maybe even 2 hours.

But I also think at that age it's better to have more practice sessions that are shorter in time length.

Here is how our 2ish Hour 8U practices go.

15min Warm-Up (jogging, stretching, throwing)

20min of hitting drills (groups of 3-4)

• Tee
• Soft Toss
• Weighted Balls
• Live

2 Min Water Break

8 Min "Dailies"

• Line Up short quick rollers where they have to step R-L-field-R-L-throw
• Backhand
• Forehand
• Small Pops Up - work on calling it, running with glove down, etc
• 2 Pop Ups - going out then coming in consecutively

5 Min Move to the field and water Break (we share the field with another team)

20 Infield/Outfield Situational

• INF works on ground balls and throwing to 1st & Turning Two
• OF Pop Ups, Cutoff/Relays

2 Min Water Break

20 Min of Intersquad

• Live Hitting, Only take 1-2 bases at a time, Whoever gets more outs wins.

10 Min Conditioning

End with a brief team meeting, turn in homework, talk to parents, etc

great feedback and I agree with you. What is interesting at 8U is the range of developed fielding skills.

Have all the below average kids essentially been thrown in the outfield? So in this practice layout - are these OFs actually getting better / getting good reps in?

where do you hide in a game the kid who isn't confident with his glove??

AM09 said:

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great feedback and I agree with you. What is interesting at 8U is the range of developed fielding skills.

Have all the below average kids essentially been thrown in the outfield? So in this practice layout - are these OFs actually getting better / getting good reps in?

where do you hide in a game the kid who isn't confident with his glove??

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At this age, everyone is getting reps in the INF & OUT. That 20 min section means the team splits in two and they get 10 min of INF and 10 min of OF. Everyone has 2 positions they're mainly working at. More would be better, but they're having enough trouble learning all the ins and outs of 2. The majority of them have 1 INF and 1 OF. The 1B/RF rotate. The SS/CF Rotate. The 3B/LF Rotate. The 2B & P/ Rover rotate. The catchers are the expectation. In pool play, we continue this rotation - 2 Innings in the INF, 2 Innings in the OF, 2 Inning on the bench (only 1 to 2 at a time). In bracket play, we play them at their best positions.

At 7/8U the OF is key. They don't have to catch everything in the air but if they can just stop it from getting past them it will be huge. Because pretty much every time I've seen a ball roll to the wall at that age it's an inside-the-park home run.

edit: I mean, OF is always key but sometimes you have to explain that repeatedly. Parents don't want their kid stuck in the OF because they think that's where the kids with less talent are always played and kids want to play IF because they reflect their parents ideas.

Bassmaster said:

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AM09 said:

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great feedback and I agree with you. What is interesting at 8U is the range of developed fielding skills.

Have all the below average kids essentially been thrown in the outfield? So in this practice layout - are these OFs actually getting better / getting good reps in?

where do you hide in a game the kid who isn't confident with his glove??

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It doesn't matter, the ball will find him wherever he plays. It's a baseball tale as old as time.

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Usually hide kids at catcher. The pitcher can cover most plays at the plate.

hiding a kid is easy, but takes planning. you need to always have a good player next to that kid. If he is playing RF you need to have good kids at 1b 2b and CF.

if that kid is playing 3rd ... have a very intelligent player behind him in lf.

evestor1 said:

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hiding a kid is easy, but takes planning. you need to always have a good player next to that kid. If he is playing RF you need to have good kids at 1b 2b and CF.

if that kid is playing 3rd ... have a very intelligent player behind him in lf.

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And remember that in 8U coach-pitch you get to have 4 kids playing OF so make sure to put a better player next to the weaker kid. Like put the good player in LC or RC while the weaker kid is in RF or LF. Or something like that.

My 7 year old son is playing 8U coach this season and the practices are 2 hours long twice a week. Honestly they should be 1.5 hours tops. The attention span just isn't there for most of the kids. We hit the cages for the first hour and then hit the field to work on situational baseball and fielding mechanics for the remainder.

I honestly don't think 7/8 year old kids needs to warm up. They aren't pulling muscles at these ages. Save this for when they get a bit older.

I have to say there very little mechanics taught in my opinion. Some of the kids have natural swings that are well suited but a decent amount of them are just hacking. I help with the team and find myself providing a decent amount of feedback to their swings. Some of the kids seem interested some are clearly there just to get reps in and don't really understand what is going on and that's fine.

I agree on the outfield. Just keeping the ball in front of you and preventing it from going to the fence Is a big deal. I don't think this sets them up later in baseball for being aggressive in the outfield but I get it as far as preventing runs.

The most beneficial work we get done is hitting the cages on other nights so we can really get some of the more challenging hitting concepts down that are hard to approach in a group practice setting.

Warming up at 7/8 isn't about getting loose to not get injured it's about focusing in on a routine and working on mechanics.

Just being able to play catch at that age where they can consistently make good throws and catch those throws is huge.

My response was to the poster about stretching and jogging as part of the warmup. I dont think it is necessary for those ages. And when i watch these kids throw for getting "warmed up" there is very little instruction on mechanics. It often feels like a thing to eat up time which we can mostly agree these practices are too long.

Curious how some of you may have experienced your kids not being able to transfer how they practice into the games. Granted my son is only 10 and has only a year under his belt, we (mostly he) have worked hard on hitting. When we work out back or rent a cage for me to throw to him, he's really hitting the ball well with authority. I'm very big on repetition being one of the biggest keys to naturally performing well when it matters.

Fast forward to games, and it just seems like everything goes out the window (His load changes, weight shifts too much onto his front side, swing is longer and slower, often dropping his hands). I don't think it's a confidence thing, which is generally the cause of this, so I am kind of at a loss. We've recently talked through some visualization exercises, and I encourage him that once he's in that batters box to not think and just depend on what he's worked on.

And neither he nor I are "frustrated" by this, but I know he knows he should be performing better. Just trying to help him get over this hump since he really does push himself during the week and it doesn't seem to be transferring over to live action.

Maybe he's too used to perfect BP from an adult. The speed, angle, timing of their pitcher's motion, etc. could throw him off.

If you think it is more mental / feeling pressure kind of thing, maybe read a book like the one below. I did (the softball version) with my daughter. She developed a pre-pitch routine to help her focus and block everything else out. Basically what Aggie baseball started doing under Schloss.

Thanks for the book recommendation. Son loves to read, so anything baseball related he will soak up.

I do think the batting practice theory has some legs to it, since so much of hitting in a game environment comes down to timing. I tend to probably add some velo and flatten out pitches versus what he is seeing in a game, so perhaps I need to mix it up a bit more. In reality what he is seeing in games is more like this compared to what I am throwing him:

Try throwing from your knees or butt.

10andBOUNCE said:

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Thanks for the book recommendation. Son loves to read, so anything baseball related he will soak up.

I do think the batting practice theory has some legs to it, since so much of hitting in a game environment comes down to timing. I tend to probably add some velo and flatten out pitches versus what he is seeing in a game, so perhaps I need to mix it up a bit more. In reality what he is seeing in games is more like this compared to what I am throwing him:

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Unfortunately that can be an issue depending on level of competition. It's somewhat counter-intuitive but at youth levels kids can often hit good pitchers better than they do poor pitchers.

The better pitchers generally throw a little harder which is more likely to be similar to what they see in BP from their coaches. There's a point where velo can be overpowering but the machine or coach is steadily grooving pitches at a moderate velocity many kids will struggle to hit the kid throwing really slow. I don't know velocity from my younger son in 10U last season (and I forget when my oldest was at that level) but he definitely hit harder pitching better than the kids lobbing an eephus up there. And with my oldest in 14U this past year he definitely hit better on the kids throwing 70-80mph than he did vs. the kids throwing 60.

The better pitchers are also in the zone a lot more often and will catch more of the plate so they're throwing good pitches to hit. Especially at 10U. Bad pitchers aren't throwing a lot of strikes or stuff to hit but umps will often call a really big zone to keep the game from being a walk-fest. I mean, how often do you see a 10-year old rung up on a pitch at his chin? Or practically in the other batter's box? The answer is, A LOT.

Yep, I agree with what you're saying. I have even messed around with him and told him I'm gonna start really throwing hard and it takes half a dozen balls or so and then he gets his timing down and really squares it up well. I suppose the same is needed for the opposite which I have been mostly ignoring. He often slows his swing up in correlation with the speed of the pitch, which will then give way to bad mechanics.

As we used to say, "you hang it, we bang it" - maybe I will bring that que out over the next few days

10andBOUNCE said:

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Yep, I agree with what you're saying. I have even messed around with him and told him I'm gonna start really throwing hard and it takes half a dozen balls or so and then he gets his timing down and really squares it up well. I suppose the same is needed for the opposite which I have been mostly ignoring. He often slows his swing up in correlation with the speed of the pitch, which will then give way to bad mechanics.

As we used to say, "you hang it, we bang it" - maybe I will bring that que out over the next few days

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One cue that seemed to help both boys was, when facing really slow pitching, is go up there with the intent of hitting it down the RF line. The would still usually pull it but focusing on that goal helps them wait and stay connected so they don't roll over.

That's another good one. Last time we worked out at Dbat I had him trying to let the ball travel deep and go the other way. Opposite field always seems to be the tried and true mindset to help guys get out of slumps.

I coach a 9u team. We have a hack attack junior that we use for speed and helping groove a swing but we also use kids for live batting and coaches for BP. When I'm throwing BP I always end it with a "live at bat". I basically throw 2/6 strikes and they have to hit it or they start the entire batting session over. Pressure and live pitching helps a lot.

The theory of good pitchers getting hit in 9/10i is 100% and we encourage it for our pitchers. I'd rather lose because our pitcher was getting smoked than walking in 5 runs an inning.

Yesterday said:

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I coach a 9u team. We have a hack attack junior that we use for speed and helping groove a swing but we also use kids for live batting and coaches for BP. When I'm throwing BP I always end it with a "live at bat". I basically throw 2/6 strikes and they have to hit it or they start the entire batting session over. Pressure and live pitching helps a lot.

The theory of good pitchers getting hit in 9/10i is 100% and we encourage it for our pitchers. I'd rather lose because our pitcher was getting smoked than walking in 5 runs an inning.

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that should be preached at all levels.

My son was on the phone with a friend yesterday explaining his latest pitching outing and was excited that the other team only scored 4 runs and not 5 in his inning of work and that most of the runs were scored on hits and not walks.

Good story but leaves out a lot of info regarding arm injuries in youth baseball around Houston:

Houston's youth baseball scene is booming. It also has an ugly secret.

I would also argue that there's nothing "secret" about arm issues. It's well known and there's a lot which can be done to address the problems but parents are either ignorant or delusional.

TarponChaser said:

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10andBOUNCE said:

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Thanks for the book recommendation. Son loves to read, so anything baseball related he will soak up.

I do think the batting practice theory has some legs to it, since so much of hitting in a game environment comes down to timing. I tend to probably add some velo and flatten out pitches versus what he is seeing in a game, so perhaps I need to mix it up a bit more. In reality what he is seeing in games is more like this compared to what I am throwing him:

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Unfortunately that can be an issue depending on level of competition. It's somewhat counter-intuitive but at youth levels kids can often hit good pitchers better than they do poor pitchers.

The better pitchers generally throw a little harder which is more likely to be similar to what they see in BP from their coaches. There's a point where velo can be overpowering but the machine or coach is steadily grooving pitches at a moderate velocity many kids will struggle to hit the kid throwing really slow. I don't know velocity from my younger son in 10U last season (and I forget when my oldest was at that level) but he definitely hit harder pitching better than the kids lobbing an eephus up there. And with my oldest in 14U this past year he definitely hit better on the kids throwing 70-80mph than he did vs. the kids throwing 60.

The better pitchers are also in the zone a lot more often and will catch more of the plate so they're throwing good pitches to hit. Especially at 10U. Bad pitchers aren't throwing a lot of strikes or stuff to hit but umps will often call a really big zone to keep the game from being a walk-fest. I mean, how often do you see a 10-year old rung up on a pitch at his chin? Or practically in the other batter's box? The answer is, A LOT.

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To expand a little on this as well:

a pitcher that throws slower will have a ball come off the bat slower. That will cause an in-field hit vs. faster ball going to the outfield. Unless the kid is jacked, then this can be changed. So a weaker pitcher, throwing slower, can cause more ground balls or infield plays.

Another bit is that the ball 'arcing' more (like the gif), unless the hitter is trained to adjust, they'll just end up popping up. Again, should be another 'easy' play. So if you are playing lower levels, unless you can teach the kids to keep the bat in the ball-plane when swinging, the slower pitcher can usually get out of the inning with less pitches, because of pop up plays. And again, slower speeds make the ball not go out of the field.

But once the kids get to 13-14 and get upper body strength, then the above somewhat goes out the window.

~egon

I wish I could say this surprised me but so little does and this is so much about what's wrong with youth baseball.

Playing Saturday, the kid who started on the bump for my younger son's 11U team wasn't throwing with his normal velo or control. And after every pitch (top of the first) he'd grab his arm. After about 3-4 pitches he gives up a pop fly to left that should have been routine but the LF misplayed it for a 2-base error. Kid walks the next hitter on 4 pitches and again is grabbing his arm. Coach calls time and goes out to talk to him and asks if his arm is hurting and kid says "yes." So coach pulls him, tells him he's still going to hit but won't play in the field.

Parents get pissed. They're chirping at the coach for a couple innings and going to the dugout fence telling the kid to tell the coach his arm is fine. They tell the kid to stop being a "pu**y" and finally the coach says he's had enough that he's not putting the kid back in the field because he says his arm hurts and he's going to protect the kid's arm.

Kid's dad loses his sht, goes into the dugout, packs up the kid's gear, and forces the kid to leave the dugout and team in the middle of a game when we're tied 2-2 in 3rd inning. So we go from 10 to 9 kids for the weekend and have to take an automatic out when his spot comes up in the lineup the rest of that game.

Maybe the kid was sort of faking it because he had a guy reach because of an error but holy crap it's major league BS for the parents to do this and I'm 100% on the coach's side for trying to protect the kid's arm.

even if he is faking it, it sounds like dad is an idiot. He's either hurt, or he hates baseball/his dad. Maybe all 3