What is y'alls philosophy on striking out? Is it not as big of a deal anymore?

UAH

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Nov 27, 2017
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One of the problems I see on the youth league level (and the HS level as well) is coaches who have "educated themselves" on hitting trying to fit every player into one mold. There are some universal principles to hitting that apply to every hitter, no matter their body type, level of play etc. I can probably count those universal principles on one hand. After that, teaching a player the best way for them to hit becomes unique to that player's skill set, body type and other variables unique to that player.

I'll take my two oldest sons for example (7 yrs old, 10 yrs old) They have different body types and skill sets. Some general background about the two:

The 10 year old has above average athletic talent (in context of baseball talent), he's long and slinder, has relatively quick hands through the hitting zone, but has average hand eye coordination when it comes to making consistent contact with the ball and his bat control is average. That's normal for kids his age. Remember, hitting a baseball is hard for grown people who are paid to do it.

The 7 year old has elite talent (in the context of baseball talent), he's shorter in statue, compact, has explosive quick hands through the hitting zone, has elite hand eye coordination and excellent bat control.


Considering the above, I cannot teach my 10 year old and my 7 year old to hit the same way. They have different skill sets and different body types. I have to tailor their approaches and mechanics to hitting to fit their body type and their skill set.
There is one thing that every experienced coach understands about youth players and I have witnessed in spades is that know one can say what type of athlete a 7-10 year old will become at 18. One clue is the fact that if their Dad is above 6' the player is more likely to develop the body size to enable them to compete in sports.

One of the constant mistakes the testosterone driven coaches we discussed earlier is to project early biological maturers as being future stars when the actual fact is many kids will mature later and often exceed the early maturers in capability even as they proceed in high school.

As one example we played with a young LH who could not get anyone out at 14. I mean he was gosh awful with zero mechanics He went on to be a reasonable pitcher in 6A high school ball then signed to play four years at Auburn and ultimately signed a professional contract. He just grew up to have the body type that could be developed.

Who can say what type of players your sons will become. One thing for certain they will undergo many changes from now through to HS graduation.
 

Bamabuzzard

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There is one thing that every experienced coach understands about youth players and I have witnessed in spades is that know one can say what type of athlete a 7-10 year old will become at 18. One clue is the fact that if their Dad is above 6' the player is more likely to develop the body size to enable them to compete in sports.

One of the constant mistakes the testosterone driven coaches we discussed earlier is to project early biological maturers as being future stars when the actual fact is many kids will mature later and often exceed the early maturers in capability even as they proceed in high school.

As one example we played with a young LH who could not get anyone out at 14. I mean he was gosh awful with zero mechanics He went on to be a reasonable pitcher in 6A high school ball then signed to play four years at Auburn and ultimately signed a professional contract. He just grew up to have the body type that could be developed.

Who can say what type of players your sons will become. One thing for certain they will undergo many changes from now through to HS graduation.
No doubt. No one can accurately project future development at these young ages. I was speaking more about where a player is presently and coaches trying to make every one have the same batting stance, exact same mechanics, and basically apply a cookie cutter approach to hitting when players' body types and skill levels aren't the same.
 

Ebay

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Jan 18, 2017
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Finally getting a chance to post this after travelling this weekend...did anyone notice that the LSU hitter Beau Jordan, choked up with 2 strikes. Of course, he then hit a grand slam on an elevated pitch. My point is that, he was trying to shorten up because he had 2 strikes on him. Smart hitting.
 

Krymsonman

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It's why I don't/won't coach any of my son's youth league teams. I work them out and "coach" them on an individual level. Which I feel a responsibility to do. But I don't want to be their team coach. They need to get used to being coached by different people.
I played college baseball here in New Orleans in the late '70's. Played at it is more like it, as I now call myself the "world famous bullpen catcher". Didn't see the field much, but I learned a lot. I did play with several talented guys that went on to careers in baseball like Paul Mainieri at LSU, and Tim Jamieson who was head coach at Missouri for many years. We played for Ron Maestri, a coach who stressed fundamentals in everything - pitching, fielding and hitting. "Take two and go to right" was a common phrase for us back then. Basically, shorten up and go with the pitch. No one ever wanted to strike out back then, you wanted to put the ball in play somewhere.

I have one son and as he was growing up, I coached him in playground baseball. He played up until about 8th grade. My buddy's son was also on the team, so we went up thru the years with them. We weren't in the testosterone clique at the playground though, so we always ended up with a lot of project kids. (The testosterone clique teams always seemed to get the best players in "the draft"). It was a lot of fun passing on some of the stuff I learned to these kids and watch them get better over a season. Fortunately, I didn't have too many bleacher coaches to deal with. We just had fun and hopefully the kids learned something about baseball.
 

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