coachtrev writes "Why Baseball  Hitting Drills - The art of hitting a round ball with a rounded stick was identified by USA Today as the hardest feat in all of sports…what other sport identifies prime talent as those who only fail 7 out of 10 times (a .300 BA) and the greats of the game by failing only 6.50% of the time (a .350 BA)!Your actually considered pretty good hitter with a .280 batting average.

Who Else Wants To Be A Better Hitter In Less Than 1 Week?
Youth Baseball Hitting Drills

Baseball Hitting Drills | Be A Better Hitter

The ugly reality is that by age 13…70% of players have left the game and the #1 reason given in the one major study I have seen  is that its not fun…Possible translation = a lack of success. Hitting is one of the biggest measurements we put on our youth baseball players

We humans thrive on success and the approval of our peers. We enjoy being good at things and getting slapped on the back for a job well done! Good golfers don’t play tennis on the weekends…bad cooks probably don’t enjoy cooking in their spare time.

Some of The Greatest Pro Athletes Never Get Out of Low A Ball!
Some of The Best Amateurs Never Even Thrive In High School or College!
The best players don’t always become tomorrow’s superstars. Take talent and add commitment and you will have many of the MLB Players you see on TV… Take tremendous gifts and add that same competitive work ethic and you have the few superstars that exist in any generation!

Kids Don’t Swing Enough… so most players don’t ever maximize whatever gifts they have!
Team practice just does not give kids enough quality swings to go beyond their physical talents to become a successful hitter. Baseball batting drills are a must at home and need to be made fun! This encourages today’s players to stay in the game…long enough to thrive!

So How Do You Become Your Best?
It’s a 2 Part Answer:

1. Learn how to most efficiently swing your bat…this takes a coach, a dad with some knowledge and maybe one good video or book on the subject (remember, even the best in the game have a hitting coach in the dugout so there’s always little tweaks until the day you play your last game)
2. Do it over and over and over…the right way.

Baseball Hitting Drills - The short is that there are 3 basic areas…
where any age youth player can really develop a better game… and the first two right at home:

1. You Must Hit Off A Batting Tee… a lot! This will help you perfect your swing mechanics without having to track a moving baseball. All it takes is a good batting tee and a catch net to keep the balls out of the neighbor’s yard (and yes, you can pitch into it as well)! Baseball Tips offers over 14 different tees and 6 catch nets… good stuff starting from under $100. total! They say that Derek Jeter wore his tee station out during the long Michigan winter months.
2. You Must Hit Angle Toss… a lot! Soft Toss, also known as flip drills is simply a drill where a coach sits on a bucket at a 45 degree angle on the open side of the hitter and tosses a looping flip about every 6 seconds. You can use the same catch net from your Tee Station, saving you some extra cash. This valuable drill builds on your tee station and adds timing and the focus you must have to consistently hit hard shots. Balls are tossed toward the front knee, the mid body and then the back knee to teach hitting to all fields
3. Soft Toss…a lot!  A coach or a partner either stands or sits on a chair 25 – 30 feet in front of the hiiter and behind an “L” screen for protection.  The coach/partner soft tosses baseballs to the hitter.  It’s a good idea to alternate hitters or rest after every 5 or 6 tosses other wise the hitter loses his focus and or gets tired, resulting in poor hitting mechanics and thus destroying everything the hitter has tried to build on.

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youth baseball hitting drills by coaching youth baseball
Want to make your son and or team better hitters? Learn to caoach how to hit the ball hard !
http://coaching-youth-baseball.com/

Forum Discussion on coaching youth baseball.. very interesting.
For coaching youth baseball tips see http://coaching-youth-baseball.com/

Read the truth about some common myths in youth baseball and be the smartest baseball mom or baseball dad in town

I love reading about coaching youth baseball myths. Here are 5 quick ones
http://youthbaseballdrills.youth-baseball-equipment.com/

By Cal Ripken, Jr.

I’ve had a glove and a bat in my hands since I can remember. But my dad, just like any dad, wasn’t always there to give me instruction every day.

So, my brothers and I, we just played.

I started playing organized baseball with a team called the Angels when I was eight years old. We played a total of eight games. That was it for our entire season. The rest of the time, Billy and I played our own pickup games with other kids in the neighborhood.

That’s a far cry from many youth leagues today, which include as many as sixty games or more in one spring and summer.

I don’t know if playing sixty games a season is such a great idea.

When my son Ryan was younger, one of his coaches explained to me that he believed more and more games are scheduled simply because kids today don’t go out on their own and play pickup games like we did when we were growing up. As a result, the only way that youngsters can truly improve and hone their skills is by having more scheduled games to play in.

I certainly appreciate that approach, but I wish kids today would play more pickup games. An organized game structure does not allow kids to experiment with different approaches. Youngsters might want to switch-hit, or maybe try a different position, or change their batting stance or the way they pitch a ball - all things they could do easily in a pickup game.

That type of experimentation isn’t really encouraged during the course of a formal game, and kids miss out. Experimenting is great fun for kids. It allows them to be, well, kids.

I have heard that the coaches of youth club teams in Europe emphasize practice sessions much more than games. For every three practices, they will have one game. That’s a lot different than youth teams here in the United States, which might have a handful of practices before diving into a season with dozens of games and very little practice time.

When kids have more practice time, they have a better chance of developing their skills by experimenting with their approach to the game. That practice-to-game ratio of three to one makes a lot of sense to me. It could be baseball, basketball, hockey, you name it - every coach will tell you that the more you practice, the better you will become.

Game situations tend to restrict kids. Youngsters don’t want to make a mistake in a real game, so they become much more tentative in their play. They’re less likely to try something new because they’re fearful that they may fail and thus risk the reprimands of their coach and even their mom or dad. Conversations like this happen all the time:

DAD: Why’d you try to stretch that single into a double?

SON: I dunno... I guess I just thought it would be fun to run fast all the way to second and surprise the outfielder and beat the throw.

DAD: Well, it wasn’t a good play. You were out by a mile.

What’s the chance of that youngster ever trying to stretch a single into a double again? Pretty much zero. But how else in the world is that young ballplayer going to develop his skill at running the bases unless he gets the chance to go out and experiment and push his limits every so often?

Perhaps next season you should consider replacing some games with more practice sessions, if possible. Finding a balance between trying new things in practice and then trying them out in a game is a wonderful way to allow a youngster to polish his or her skills without risking a negative reaction from a parent or coach.

The season does go by quickly in youth baseball, thus we travel and play select ball. But, it can be overdone.
More about coaching youth baseball at http://coaching-youth-baseball.com/

Looking for some baseball hitting tips for your youth baseball player ? Check out the new article  for youth baseball hitting tips. It explains the importance of seeing the ball and not only telling players to see the ball , but how and where to look. These are important youth baseball hitting tips and are just as important as the hands and swing to hit the ball hard and get more base hits and extra base hits.

http://www.coaching-youth-baseball.com/article100.html

Jeff, the owner of the website East Texas Youth Sports and President of a local youth baseball association, put a post on his website. The conversation is a text between Amy a youth baseball parent, and Jeff.
We would like to give the reason for the conversation and some background information
http://coaching-youth-baseball.blogspot.com/2011/07/east-texas-youth-sports-r...

By Cal Ripken, Jr.

Bill and I love hearing from readers of the Clipboard. It reminds us that we have a community here that genuinely wants to have a positive impact on the kids who are playing ball today.

So it was great hearing from so many of you in response to what I wrote about Josh Hamilton and the ultra-aggressive style of play that landed him on the DL for 6-8 weeks. A lot of you just wanted to express how much you agreed with my assessment that aggressive players should stay aggressive - there is no on and off switch. But there were quite a few of you who questioned Hamilton's choice to slide headfirst, and showed some concern that I might be condoning a more dangerous style of play.

If you haven't had a chance to read the article, you can check it out here. For now, let me address those concerns of yours.

Feet-first is always the first choice.

A feet-first slide is always the safest option when the circumstances call for a runner to slide in order to avoid a tag. It is the safest and easiest way to slide into a base while lowering the chance of an easy tag by the man covering the bag.

At the youth level, the feet-first slide should be used exclusively. Even up to more advanced levels of youth baseball, players should rely on the headfirst slide only when diving back to the bag on a pick-off attempt. Other than that, the feet-first slide is safest and generally gives you a great chance at being safe.

In fact, many youth leagues have rules against sliding headfirst. In those cases, players that use the headfirst slide are called out on the spot. It's a rule designed to protect young players from the increased risk of injury that comes with sliding headfirst.

When players transition from the formative years of youth baseball into the more competitive realms of baseball as adults, the style of slide becomes an individual choice based on the player's ability, his comfort-level with the headfirst slide, and of course the unique situation of the play that demands a slide.

Why would you ever slide headfirst?

Sliding headfirst is faster. Not by a lot, but in a game of inches, the slight difference can be all that a runner needs.

How is a headfirst slide faster than a feet-first slide? Consider momentum.

A feet-first slide is basically a controlled "fall" as the runner approaches the base. The runner leans back and "sits" as he goes into the standard bent-leg slide. So, while this is the safest way to slide, the runner is actually taking some of his momentum away as he leans backwards - away from his target base.

On a headfirst slide, the runner throws all of his momentum forward, toward his target base. It's similar to an outfielder diving to catch a ball. In fact, on a headfirst slide, you don't want to be "sliding" much at all. You're really almost diving to "catch" the bag and hold onto it before the defense can catch the ball and place a tag on you.

The difference in speed isn't a big one, but it's there. Players that are comfortable sliding headfirst just have that as an added weapon. In close-play situations, where a fraction of a second might make the difference, they can use the headfirst slide to gain that split-second advantage.

At the youth level, that tiny advantage is not worth the risk.

We always talk about emphasizing good player development and safety over winning at the youth level. And that's why young players should stick to the feet-first slide - it's safe and fundamentally sound. When dealing with kids, we're not worried about gaining a tiny advantage for the sake of winning. We're not worried at all about winning. Our only job as coaches in youth baseball is to make sure the kids develop good fundamental skills in a fun and safe environment.

For professional ballplayers, it's a different story. Winning does matter. And as professionals, they frequently weigh risk against reward in the name of winning.

That's why I can't criticize Hamilton's decision to slide headfirst. He's comfortable sliding headfirst, he's used it effectively in the past, and he's a professional who knows the risk.

Would a feet-first slide have saved him from the injury? Probably.

Could Hamilton have injured himself just as badly sliding feet-first into home plate? Of course - there's a possibility for injury whenever someone slides.

The biggest danger in sliding is indecision.

Sliding is an inherently dangerous part of baseball.

But what we hate seeing is when players hurt themselves on the base paths because of indecision. They're approaching a base, and they want to slide, but they hear their coach yelling "UP!" because there's no throw. In that split second, the runner tries to change his mind and ends up somewhere between a slide and staying in stride to the base.

That's a dangerous place to be, and it's how a lot of leg strains and other injuries occur.

That's why we've always taught, "When in doubt, slide."

If a player is stealing a base, or if a play has the slightest chance of being contested, the runner's safest bet is always to slide.

For the pros, that means sliding whichever way gives them the best chance of beating the defense.

For young players, that means sliding feet-first, always.

This is a really good article on sliding head first and sliding feet first. It tells why , and addresses concerns for sliding in youth baseball.
more about youth baseball and youth baseball drills at
http://coaching-youth-baseball.com/topics.html