Coach Pitch Baseball in Crandall

[Denny]

Well, you could've pitched, but you probably threw like a girl.

Good velocity, shitty movement. Actually, I just couldn't put both velocity and movement together.

[juiceweezl]

My 9yr old has played select ball since he was 6...he was always too big and hit the ball too hard for kids his own age in Little League. I started working with him using a tennis ball for grounders and pop flies. He wasnt as scared of getting hit with the tennis ball as he was the baseball. With a little time and effort, your boy will be catching the tennis ball almost every time. At this level, it is all about confidence building. Try not to overwhelm him or he may regress and want to quit. In no time he will be making those catches routinely.

I am amazed every day that I watch my kid play. He has come so far...he is a young 9 and plays tourneys with 10U Elite kids. He is pitching in the upper 50s and at almost 5'2 135lbs, he must look like a grown man on the mound throwing to some of these kids that are very small.

Here is a link with some detailed info...
http://www.baseball-excellence.com/s...um=1&topic=737

Dave's got it spot on. I've been on a ball field in some shape or form for 30 years. I've coached select teams of kids from 9 different high schools and then tee ball. My oldest boy is 7 right now and plays on 2 different teams that I'm coaching. We are constantly on the field. He's a lefty (4'9" + and just over 87 pounds right now), so I can give you some tips.

1. Find a new coach. If the coach wants him to keep hitting righty and he's a left, get a new one. Also, don't turn him around to "switch" hit. You do that with right handers, but never with lefties. Let them be as good as they can be left handed. They'll have a huge advantage that way against what they'll mostly see -- right handed pitchers.

2. Have fun with it. If you're practicing on something and he gets frustrated or wants to quit, take a break. If you make it a beating and like a job, he'll get tired of it. Push just hard enough and take breaks. Make sure both of you have fun.

3. Use tennis balls and a tennis racquet to hit pop ups. They won't hurt if he gets hit, and you can easily hit lots of them with the racquet. When he's ready, move to baseballs.

4. Play lots of soft toss, but do it correctly. He need to take fast (not hard -- emphasize swinging the bat fast as hard leads to mistakes), aggressive swings as you toss the balls up correctly to him. We use these:

http://www.sportsauthority.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4286360&cp=3052500.3053437.2273511&fbc=1&f=Taxonomy%2FTSA%2F2273513&fbn=Taxonomy|Practice+Golf+Balls&lmdn=Category&parentPage=family

They're flight limited and obviously smaller, so it helps with hand/eye. You can even get one of those light weight, broom handle bats to use. They're perfect.

5. Google Ripken Baseball Drills and follow along. They put out a lot of good stuff.