As I have several kids playing both baseball and softball, and I also coach, I figured I would reach out to see if there are any "gurus" here who would like to chitty-chat about the finer points of the swing, defense, hitting, pitching, etc., especially as they pertain to instructing youth players. I know a fair bit myself, both from my days as an amateur school and travel ballplayer, but mostly from the professionals that have worked with my kids.

Right now, I have a kid who gets all over fast pitching, but seems to mis-hit the ball when facing slow pitching. It is like a complete power outage. I am considering making him wear a patch on his front eye (he is rear-eye-dominant and swings lefty), as I was thinking that maybe he is hitting off of that eye as a guide, but anyone who has a tip or suggestion, please chime in.

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I used to talk to my son about facing a junk ball or slower pitcher about looking to go the opposite way. So many times as hitters we want to pull off the ball swinging at it so hard, especially younger hitters. If you work with them to take the ball the other way it forces them to keep the front side in and stay on the ball longer.

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2018
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That is another thing, staying closed. I am finding that if you can keep the hands fused to a spot about two fists from the rear shoulder, for as long as you can, you will have great, great leverage and swing whipping velocity, but it is hard to do, as those hands just keep trying to cast.

I don't trust that gizmo the SwingRail, though, as I have demo'd it and it seemed like junk.

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We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

Never used any gizmo other than a hitting tee, there are all kinds of drills that you don't need any of that stuff.

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2018
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10 More Wins

Nuggitt went to "amateur school"?

Sounds right.

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Throw us out a drill then!

_________________
We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

Putting a patch over one of his eyes will take away his depth perception.

Great idea, Panther.

_________________
Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Let me talk to my son later when he is done with class, and I will try and remember to put something together. I will ask him some of the things they do in college also, as he is a pitcher.

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2018
#ExtendLafleur
10 More Wins

Shows you how exasperated I am and how I will try just about anything to fix this problem!

_________________
We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

Understand. I speak from experience in that area and switched from baseball to soccer once I could no longer pick up the speed/spin.

Aren't there youth baseball-centric boards that cover best practices and such? Drums and golf are my interests and message boards specific to those activities are great to ask questions to help kids along.

_________________
Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

This is it. You want to stay back and go the other way. Even with faster pitchers you need to be patient in that the change up becomes a key pitch in high school. By learning to wait back, you end up being able to hit both the fastball and change up.

I was always amazed at how slower pitchers would mess up the better hitters.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

Yes, but I'm already here, so why wander?

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We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

Move him up in the box and make him lean back for her than normal on his back leg

Also throw him some low speed bp

I would never move a kid up in the box. They need to stay consistent in where they stand in the box and learn to adjust to the pitch speed. Eventually the kids will see pitchers that throw hard with the fastball and slow with a change up. They have to be able to hit slow and fast in the same at bat.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

I wasn't trying to get rid of you.

_________________
Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Disagree that it's never a good idea but agree that ideally you are able to hit from the same spot.

This situation sounds like it's at the point where it's worth a try.

There are MLB MVPs that move up in the box when guessing off speed and college coaches that swear by it (not to mention moving laterally in the box based on an umpire giving a few inches off the plate) so it's not nearly as crazy or cut and dry as you make it sound

Also the guy with the most hits in MLB history is a big proponent of moving up/back in the box at times.

So, lets not bury the lede - do you rock an swashbuckling eye patch, or what?

_________________
We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

I'm on both sides of this issue. I can't say I never told a kid to move up/back, but I do definitely prefer an individual adjustment of timing.

_________________
We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

Of course.



I was born with a lazy eye (not the wandering type ) that was misdiagnosed as a damaged retina around age 5 and not properly diagnosed until I was 12. Found out later the eye doctor was a raging alcoholic. Went and covered his ass by "updating" the handwritten chart with a blurb about a possible lazy eye.

Anyway, by that time it was too late to patch the good eye, so the vision in my right eye is like 30/2000. Legally blind and I have no real depth perception, but it's all I've ever known. I was a pretty good left-handed shortstop as a kid, but of course they moved me to 1st base. The ball gets to you much quicker there and I couldn't judge speed/spin that quickly vs. shortstop. Batting became a real struggle as the MPH increased, so I switched to soccer.

I could never be a great jump-shooter in basketball because I don't sense the distance, I basically had to "learn" the distances all over each time I played through more muscle memory than anything else, since you don't have time to think about the distance during a jump shot compared to something like golf.

Except for hitting a baseball, I was never really aware of these things as a kid or young adult for some reason.

_________________
Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Excellent backstory, Sir!

Enjoy this. A dad from the team groupme'd it out and its damn good:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHe3USYb_sE

_________________
We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

plenty of pros move forward and back in the batters box

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

And then good catchers make pitching changes

_________________
There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

What is the best pitching strategy for attacking batters at the back of the box? I was thinking to have catcher move up as far as they could without interfering. Otherwise, you are adding 2-3 feet to the distance of the Pitcher's target.

_________________
We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

Change up

First pitch strike is always strategy #1.

aren't you talking about youth baseball

Strategy with pitching? Throw strikes. Almost none of them can spot their pitches, like less than a fraction of a percent.

I coached against some hump coach calling pitches and location. None of those kids were hitting spots and, at best they had 1.5 pitches they could throw. I don't know for sure but I'd bet it was one of those programs that charge $5K so he had to give the parents a show

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

There are two kids on my team who take lessons and work with their dad a LOT and can hit spots about 40-50% of the time, which basically makes them terminators at this age group. When they pitch, the rest of the team starts making designs in the dirt because unless there is a walk, they have nothing to do. My kid is not one of those, as I am still trying to build his power and mechanics before worrying about honing accuracy.

_________________
We Now Know That JOE BIDEN has been COMPROMISED by CHINA! (let that sink in)

Election 2020-The Largest Fraud in the History of Mankind.

*If you believe that Biden won, you also believe that Epstein killed himself*

You guys clearly aren't talking about high level travel baseball. Every really good team I remember had at least 3-4 kids who were polished and could hit their spots.

There's a massive difference between travel and elite travel.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

I ran across at least half a dozen elite teams at 12 years old including Wisconsin's top and never saw a kid who, if you called one of nine sectors was hitting it on purpose. Some kids throw very hard. Some consistently are in the strike zone. None were hitting spots.

_________________
O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

There was one dominant program in Wisconsin and none worthy of respect from the north side or northern suburbs from 2010 through 2016. My oldest played with and against teams that would fly kids in if needed. Several are actually in the majors or dialing it up in high minors/practice squads now. Btw, if you're paying for anything in season, it's not really elite travel.

_________________
There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.