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Hurricane
351 Posts |
 Posted - 05/30/2008 : 11:30:44
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| For kids ages 12 and under what are your opinons on hitting ground balls? I hear some people say let them be successful they need to get confident and most balls during a game arent rocket shots anyway. Then I hear some think the way to do it is hit them very hard ground balls. I would like a few thoughts on both. |
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Pronate
156 Posts |
Posted - 05/30/2008 : 12:44:02
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quote:
Originally posted by Hurricane
For kids ages 12 and under what are your opinons on hitting ground balls? I hear some people say let them be successful they need to get confident and most balls during a game arent rocket shots anyway. Then I hear some think the way to do it is hit them very hard ground balls. I would like a few thoughts on both.
Cane:
Great question!!
As much as I dislike how kids are taught to pitch nothing irritates me more than seeing a poor excuse for a coach blasting ground balls to young kids. Make the grounders easy in practice, tell the kids you only want them to make the easy plays and they will do great.
As with any skil, the kids need lots of grounders.
e |
Edited by - Pronate on 05/30/2008 15:25:35 |
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greglomax
1031 Posts |
Posted - 05/30/2008 : 13:19:33
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My personal opinion is they need to learn to make the routine plays first. Work on medium ground balls that work them straight on and side to side. I used to be in the camp for harder hits thinking "If they can catch the hard ones, they can surely catch the easy ones." But I soon realized that the greatest deterrent to their development was fear. The worst thing for them to do is get afraid of squaring up on a grounder or going hard after one to the side.
They will see a lot more choppers that eat them up if they don't catch it on the short-hop than they will screamers right at them.
As confidence comes, so can mixing in harder hits. |
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jay
177 Posts |
Posted - 05/30/2008 : 14:57:46
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| At 12's some of them are rockets. I think that you have to hit them hundreds of routine ground balls and mix in a few game equivalent rockets. I typically tell them when I'm going to crank it up. I've seen some very big 12 YO kids walk up to that plate this year and last. I just wish they had a light weight mask that they could wear. It sure would make me feel better even hitting the routine ones. |
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bigdog
231 Posts |
Posted - 05/30/2008 : 16:42:08
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| one thing that also helps is practicing on a decent field. The practice field our team played on last year was the worst I have ever seen. My son took a nasty hop right in the mouth. The impact caused his braces to shred his mouth and he spit blood for a couple hours. He was skittish to say the least for the next month. |
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greglomax
1031 Posts |
Posted - 05/30/2008 : 23:51:21
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Jay,
They do have a light weight mask called a "Game Face" that protects the entire face if hit with a ball. It is seen more in fastpitch softball but it works. We have one for the younger girls.
I have wondered when we might see the first pitcher wear one. Maybe no one wants to be thought of as less than macho so it might never happen, but it sure would save a face from the impact of a ball. |
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a1prog
164 Posts |
Posted - 05/31/2008 : 11:50:12
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| here is how we have drilled our kids from age 10 till now (age 14). stand 10 feet away and roll them underhand at a light speed. each kid gets 5 and then rotates out. do this twice. then back up to about 25 feet and repeat. then back up to about 40 feet and repeat. then hit them grounders from home plate, medium speed. one hit and rotate. the kids field the ball, come up to a throwing position, then put the balls in a bucket. each kids goes about 8-10 times. then, repeat this, hitting harder but not "game speed" and have them start to throw to a base. finally, repeat at game speed making sure that you rotate the hit to each position, each kid gets one rep and rotates out and have them throw to the routine play. no situational stuff. running thru this with a 2 minute break for a knee on the field will take about 45 minutes with 2 coaches. |
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bb baseball
73 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2008 : 23:39:00
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| Good info. After coaching travel for a number of years, most errors occur on routine ground balls or short hops so we hit them a lot of routine balls. We teach three types of ground balls, routine, slow and rocket and all are fielded differently and require different approaches to the ball and throws to finish the play. This is at 14U. We do hit a fair amount of rockets but I agree that fundamentals and confidence go a long way. With the rocket shots, god given talent takes over most of the time. I agree with an earlier poster in that moving them from side to side and working on glove side and backhand plays are critical to sound infield development. just my 2 cents. |
Edited by - bb baseball on 06/03/2008 13:09:04 |
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coachkyle
59 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2008 : 12:51:44
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quote:
Originally posted by greglomax
Jay,
They do have a light weight mask called a "Game Face" that protects the entire face if hit with a ball. It is seen more in fastpitch softball but it works. We have one for the younger girls.
I have wondered when we might see the first pitcher wear one. Maybe no one wants to be thought of as less than macho so it might never happen, but it sure would save a face from the impact of a ball.
Greg, there was a pitcher at the Univeristy of Miami a couple of years ago (I think his name was Scott Maine?) who had reconstructive facial surgery after a serious auto accident. When he returned to baseball, he wore one of those masks on the mound for pretty much an entire season. |
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jrog76
80 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2008 : 16:09:24
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When I was 10, I bet my coach he couldn't hit my pitch out of the park.
He didn't - put it right between my eyes. Doctors told my parents I wouldn't make it. Fortunately, they were wrong (but it explains a lot ...)
Still don't understand why facemasks aren't used more, but testosterone rules (and, overall, that's probably a good thing). But hitting screamers at kids on iffy infields is asking for it.
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12uCoach
357 Posts |
Posted - 06/04/2008 : 07:03:02
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| Had a SS a few years ago break his cheek on the knee of the LF when both were going for a ball. Kid was allowed back to hit and play the field if he wore a mask, or he could wait 2 weeks and play without the mask. His choice was to sit for the 2 weeks. Kid started 4 years in HS and his first two years of College, he is a competitor with too much misdirected pride, like many of the kids today. |
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Pronate
156 Posts |
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bballman
1432 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 10:08:03
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| Pronate, he could have gotten hurt even using your finishing position. An unfortunate situation for sure, but not a valid way to promote your unorthodox mechanics. He got hit in the head, not in the middle of the chest. Being that the head is round, regardless of body position, the head is just as likely to get hit from any angle. |
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jay
177 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 13:30:45
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I was going to say a whole bunch of stuff that likely would have gotten Karma on my case full-time. So, I'll keep it simple. You can't make all sports risk free or no one would play them. Or is that the point?
Now sit back and wait for the video game crowd... |
Edited by - jay on 06/06/2008 14:05:22 |
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Pronate
156 Posts |
Posted - 06/06/2008 : 18:48:01
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Bball/
The young man was hit in the chest not the head.
"The ball struck him in the chest and caused his heart to stop, a condition known as commotio cordis"
The Cardinals are now trying this "unorthodox" motion in their minor league system. Their owners are fed up with all the injuries.
Jay:
I'll bet that young man's father used to agree with you. Now he's shocked SHOCKED that a baseball rockets off these metal bats.
If you turn 180 degrees with your glove finishing next to your shoulder you release the ball closer to home plate and protect your chest and make it easier to protect your head. Watch a game this weekend and come back and tell us where the glove hand is when these kids finish.
e
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Edited by - Pronate on 06/07/2008 07:44:26 |
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humanitarian2112
11 Posts |
Posted - 06/07/2008 : 01:09:31
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This touches on one of my sticking points. I continually hear parents express concern to the point of unsupported outrage(full disclosure: my wife made me promise to never let my son play football; he was still in the nesting area at the time...) that they will never let their son play football, because it is too dangerous. I have seen more injuries on the baseball field than one could imagine in any other sport. Baseball is a very dangerous sport. We take a round ball and a round bat, teach the fellas to hit it square, launch projectiles at speeds greater than 100 miles an hour at each other, cheer and dance while it's happening.
good lord.
I do digress (Pronate makes me think like this, I do wonder if he is an advocate of removing scoreboards and game books...), but I've always prided myself in the art of bouncing the ground ball to infielders off of the lip; teach them to play the bad bounce and you teach them a life lesson. I, in fact, practice hitting ground balls on the field size I coach that season to insure that I can bounce it off of the infield grass edge with consistancy. I work with outfielders on the ground attack by placing english on the batted ball. Based upon the skill level of the players I'm alotted (and I always need one or two more), we determine the agressiveness of the grounders and speed of the practice.
I'll end there, and leave Mr. Pronate be; I'm certain whatever he presents is a much safer alternative. |
Edited by - humanitarian2112 on 06/07/2008 07:44:26 |
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How to hit Ground Balls to kids 9-12
