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One of the biggest challenges encountered by youth baseball coaches is the difficulty that players have in following and identifying the pitch. In younger players, a common problem is that the batter doesn’t pick up the ball until it is too close to hit. In older players, the issue is more that the batter doesn’t identify the pitch until too late, leaving him at the mercy of his pitch guess.

The solution to both of these issues has a similar fix – get the hitter concentrating on the pitch as early as possible.

But how to accomplish this? You can tell the player to “watch the ball” until you are blue in the face, but odds are that they won’t connect what you are trying to convey.

Take a selection of baseballs and, using a marker (colored sharpies work great for this), draw coin-sized colored dots on the surface of the ball. Repeat the process with at least one alternate color, making sure that it is clearly distinguishable (red and blue work well for this).

To begin with, pitch to your batter from reglation distance, but instruct them to not swing. Instead, have them call out the color of the dot on the baseball as soon as they can identify it.

As the hitter’s recognition improves, call out a certain color and only allow them to swing at that color ball. In all cases, make sure to mix up the colors used (this is why three colors are better than two), and hide the ball in your glove until you actually begin to make the pitch.

What have you acomplished? Your players are truly watching the ball from the very instant it leaves the pitcher’s hand, giving younger players more time to nail down thier timing, and oldr players more time to recognize the movement of the pitch. It goes without saying that players of all ages can benefit from this drill.

In baseball, we tend to emphasize – as we should – the need to get rid of the ball quickly. Of course, that doesn’t do us any good if the throws aren’t good, or the other guy drops it. Use this little drill as a competition to practice good throws and good catches.

Star by splitting your team into two or three squads. If possible, have the same number of players on each squad, and certainly make sure to spread the talent out as equally as possible. Have each squad for a line, with a gap between ech player roughly equivalent to the gap between the second baseman and first baseman on your infield. Have the first player pick up one ball, make a good throw to the next guy, then have him turn and throw it to the third player in line, and so on.

After they’ve done the drill a time or two, place three balls on the ground at the end of each line. When you give the signal, the race begons – the object is to move each ball to the end of the line. If a player misses the ball, due to a bad throw or a muffed catch, he must return to his place in line before throwing it again. Once the first ball reaches the end of the line, the second ball may be put into play. The winning team is obviously the one who finishes first – have the losers do ten jumping jacks.

Vary the competition by allowing the players to have all balls in play at once, but don’t let them get carried away and whack one another in the head in a rush to win. For another twist, you could require any dropped balls to be carried back to the beginning of the line – really emphasizing the need for a good throw. Of course, you can always make the drill more challenging by increasing the gaps between the players, but don’t let them get so far apart as to make the throws too difficult for your lesser-skilled players; this defeats the purpose entirely.

So, it’s time for baseball practice. After some good warmups – maybe a short jog, defintiely some throw and catch – you are ready to begin. You line your fielders up in their positions and begin hitting grounders. In order to give some game situational repititions, you go through the infield, having players make outs at first base, then cover second, then play as if the bases are loaded. You hit balls to the outfield, having your fielders practice hitting the cutoff man where appropriate. You hit balls faster and faster. You keep the players moving, you work them hard.

Now, you bring in batters. Maybe you even have them run bases after hitting, to really help with authentic game situations. What a great practice, right?

Right?

Sorry, pal. You are wasting everyone’s time.

You will involve no more than two or three players on any given repitition. Tops. Everyone else will stand around and watch. If you are like one hundred percent of the other youth baseball coaches who run this sort of practice, you will almost certainly hit two to three times as many balls to your infielders, knowing that they will see more action in games. Maybe you’ll even just give up and pull your outfield in to run bases exclusively.

This is not a great practice at all – in fact, you are making baseball into a chore for many of your players. Kids want to play, they don’t want to watch others play. Even your star shortstop is probably bored, waiting for his next grounder.

This is not to say that there is no merit to having your whole team on the field; yes, there is a time and place for doing it this way. However, you will see much more benefit if you run stations.

What the heck are stations, you might ask? Simply put, the idea is that you divide your team into several small groups and have them each focus on a specific skill. One station might consist of a batting tee and a coach to help make sure the player is getting in a nice number of quality swings. Another station might be a coach throwing batting practice. A third could be practice on fielding grounders correctly… and so on.

Have your players do thier station for a set amount of time, then rotate them to the next. In this way, they get many more repitions at that particular skill than they ever would have standing around and waiting for one ball out of twelve.

Following are tips on how to organize your stations:

Come to practice with a plan
Know what you want to achieve ahead of time. You don’t have to plan for weeks in advance, but make sure that you have one before practice begins. A cheap three ring binder is invaluable for organizing practice!

Use your parents wisely
There is no way you can be everyone at once. Use your assistant coaches, and if need be, your parents to run stations. Ideally, you as the head coach will seldom (if ever) run a station – instead, you will roam from station to station, observing and offering pointers to both parents and players.

Tell your coaches/conscripted parents what to do before they begin running their station – during warmups, when kids are throwing to one another, is an ideal time. Don’t expect your parents to know everything about the drill they are running; instead, explain one or two important flaws to look for, and let them concentrate on those. For example, if your parent is t the station teaching the proper way to field ground balls, have them make sure that players sidestep properly, frame up the grounder with their feet, and use both hands in fielding the ball out in front.

Emphasize quality repititions
Instruct the players on what to do at each station before they begin – even if you have qualified assistants, it’s a better use of the time to do your “big” explanation once, not three or four times as each new group rotates in.

Set stations so that each group works for a certain amount of time, not a certain number of repititions. If you focus on reps, players tend to rush and take shortcuts, which lead to bad habits. Make sure your kids hustle between stations, but emphasize the importance of working hard and doing things right at each station.

Make it fun!
Many drills can be done as games. Whenever possible, take advantage of this fact; your players will enjoy them more, work harder, and get more out of practice.

Possibly the most important choice your player will make prior to any given season is on what bat to use. There are a host of different choices out there, ranging from inexpensive ($20-$30) to extremely pricey ($250+). You’ll need to decide what sort of price range you have prior to shopping for bats, so that you can really compare “Apples to apples”.

The point of the baseball bat is, of course, to allow the player to focus as much power as possible upon the baseball. While this may sound simplistic, it does lead us to the guiding principle behind selecting a bat – a player should swing the heaviest bat he possibly can without sacrificing any of his batspeed.

Batspeed is the number one creator of power in a swing. Of course, the laws of physics tell us that if you can swing a heavier bat with the same velocity as a lighter one, you will produce more power – energy equals mass times acceleration, after all!

Length, weight, and drop
There are three major standards that apply to every baseball bat. The first is length, measured in inches. The second is weight, measured in ounces. The last is drop, which is figured by subtracting the weight of the bat from it’s length. If a bat is, say, thrity incehs long and weighs twenty-three ounces, it is said to have a “minus seven” drop, due to the fact that it wieghs seven ounces less than the length in inches.

Wood or aluminum?
The real question here is aluminum or aluminum. No, that is not a typo – there is really no place for wooden bats in youth baseball these days. A wooden bat has no hope of being as light as its aluminum counterpart, even if that counterpart is made of “cheap” material. Consequently, the player will not be aleto swing as hard, nor generate as much batspeed. Wooden bats simply cannot produce as much power as aluminum. Wooden bats are fantastic for nostalgia, and are the equalizer at the professional level, but your child needs to be swinging metal – in fact, most leagues require that bats be aluminum.

CU-31? CU666? SC-900? ST+20?
What the heck do all of these mean?

These are various designations representing the alloy used in the construction on the bat. Generally, the more expensive alloys allow for more “jump” off of contat, resulting is measurable gains in distance from hitting. Yes, youth baseball technology has caght up with golf – you can literlly buy yourself additional distance on your hits.

Of course, this comes at a sometimes expensive price tag. Baseball bats only have so many “good hits” in them before they become dead. Avoid hitting in extreme cold, or hitting non-regulation baseballs, as you can damage your bat and void your warranty. Realize, too, that your child may grow enough that they may only get one season out of a bat, regardless of how well you care for it. Keep these factors in mind as you weigh price versus performance.

But what size bat should I purchase?
You should determine the correct length of your player’s bat first, then take a look at wight and drop. Larger drops (and thus, lighter wieghts) are usually preferred, as the player can generate more batspeed with a lighter bat. I have time and again seen as little as two ounces make a huge difference in a young player’s swing!

At the bottom of this article is a chart containing suggested bat lenghts and weights, but this is a guideline only. Some players prefer to choke up on the bat, allowing them to purchase a longer model. Some players are simply stronger than others, and can handle a larger bat more easily than simialrly-sized children.

An excellent test is to have your player hold the bat by its handle, then stretch his arms out so that his body makes a lopsided “t” shape (lopsided because the bat makes one arm much longer than the other). If he cannot hold the bat level with his shoulder for at least a count of ten, the bat is too heavy for him.

I  cannot count the number of times I have watched a young player get out on a play when they should have been safe at first, had they simply ran hard. This is a very preventable out, and one that will cost you several runs over the course of the season if you don’t nip it in the bud.

Younger players especially tend to see first base as a destination, and they will slow down in order to stop on it, or, even worse, time their run to the bag in order to make a little “hop” and land perfectly on the base. Either of the methods will invariably lead to plays that are far closer than should be, and even to outs.

The concept that you must teach is that first base is simply a checkpoint over which the runner passes. In no circumstance should a batter ever simply stop on first base. They should always be charging at full speed, ready to make the turn to second if the ball is in a gap, or simply run down the line otherwise.

Beware that players who run sraight down the line will often like to turn back to their left on the way back to first base – oftentimes placing them in the field of play, and subject to being tagged out. The dugout drill avoids this.

Have all your players line up behind home plate, and put the first kid into the batter’s box, as if he is hitting. On your signal, he runs down the first base line as hard as possible. The first base coach either yells “Go! Go! Go!” indicating the he should advance to second base, or “Dugout! Dugout!” indicating that the player must overrun first base by two or three steps, then tail off to the right as if he is going to the dugout. Make them turn back to their right, then race quickly back to first base, ready to advance.

Repeat this drill periodically throughout the season to make sure that your players do not forget and stop on first base!

A big part of successful baserunning involves properly reading balls in the dirt. This drill will help your players to learn to properly judge the trajectory of a pitched ball that bounces in the dirt.

Station a baserunner at each base – first, second, and third. Runners should be independent of one another, since the responsibilities for each base differ slightly. Have a coach on the mound, pitching a variety of pitches – mix in balls and strikes, as well as pitches that will bounce.

Any time a pitch is about to bounce, the entire team must yell “Dirt!” This lets you know if everyone is paying attention, and players tend to like the excuse to yell.

Baserunners on first should automatically go if they know the ball is going to bounce – if they wait to see if the catcher has blocked the pitch, they are too late.

Runners on second should read the pitch and decide whether it is safe to go – if the ball gets away from the catcher, they should go, whereas if the catcher blocks the ball, they should stay put.

Similarly, the runner on third should read and react. Take a lead, get a good crow hop as the ball nears the plate, then react to the bounce of the ball.

Emphasize that each base is independent of one another; this is not a game situation in which a runner going from first automatically forces the runner from second. This is a drill to teach the different reactions needed from each base to a pitch in the dirt. Emphasize your runners’ lead techniques, making sure that they don’t lead too far, or are caught leaning the wrong way… it’s not a bad idea to have your coach occasionally make a move to pick off one of the runner, just to keep them honest.

It’s also a good idea to keep two catchers for this drill, to avoid tiring one out too much.

Baseball practice can be, by definition, a chore. In order to perfect game-related skills, players must perform repetitive, sometimes mundane tasks in a quest to build muscle memory and skill. Even so, beware of making practice boring – players who dread practice won’t get as much (or anything) out of it, will distract the rest of the team, and may even quit.

Don’t get me wrong – I firmly believe in organzied, disciplined practices. Troublemakers should be dealth with swiftly; “running laps ’till their tongues hang out” is a great solution for many a problem. I am not at all above assigning pushups for stubborn cases.

But if you find yourself spending more time handing out laps than teaching the proper way to lay down a bunt, ask yourself why. Do you have twelve guys standing around while you hit one grounder at a time? Are the only players getting action the pitcher, catcher, and batter? Does your entire outfield want to sit in the grass, and do they seem to be influencing your third baseman to follow suit? If so, you may have a problem.

Come to practice with a plan. Before you practice, identify the areas you’d like your team to work on. If you don’t have any idea what’s going to happen in practice, chances are, the results won’t be good… at the very least, you’ll waste a lot of valuable time.

Stations are the gospel of practice. You should spend very little time with the entire team working on the same thing. Instead, break your team into three or four groups. Have one work on hitting, one work on ground balls, another work on relay throws, etc. After fifteen or twety minutes, rotate the groups. This ensures that each player gets many more repititions than they ever would have otherwise, and it breaks the monotony – by the time the player is used to doing one station, it’s time to move to the next one. If you don’t have enough coaches for this, ask for parental help – or conscript them from the stands, if need be. Tell them what to do, then go to the next station before they can protest!

Be inventive, and reward your players. Turn drill into contests – give points to different teams within your squad, and watch the intensity level rise. Raise the stakes by offering a small reward; a stick of sugarless gum will motivate a player like you wouldn’t believe. Consider handing out helmet stickers (think of the tomahawaks that the Florida State Seminoles get on their football helmets) for outstanding performers.

Don’t underestimate the power of encouragement. Keep in mind that, as a little league coach, you are one of the most influential people your players will ever have in their lives. Don’t fall into the trap of always criticizing failures without recognizing achievement and effort. If a kid is giving something his all, recognize that fact, even if he is failing. Support him, and he may amaze you – and himself – with what he can do.

If you have a player who is suffering from a long, looping swing, then the old standby of the fence drill may be just the prescription for what ails him.

In hitting, the name of the game is batspeed, period. In order to obtain optimal batspeed, the bat must be held with the elbow “in the slot” – in other words, the arms should remain close to the body, allowing the hips and large muscles of the body to provide the power of the swing.

Many times, however, a player will take the old adage of “throwing their hands at the ball” too seriously and end up extending their arms very early in the swing. This not only causes a slow bat – i.e. loss of power – but tends to force a “dip” in the swinging motion, which leads to a high percentage of easy popouts.

To do this drill, set your player facing a fence, slightly more than one bat length away (make sure that there are no fence posts withing the player’s swing zone). Have the player swing properly through the zone.

If the batter “casts out” with his hands, the bat will contact the fence, causing instant negative feedback. The only way that the drill can be completed successfully is by maintaining a compact swing.

The drill can also be varied by placing the player’s back shoulder very near to a fence or net, but the concept remains the same – a proper swing works, while a long swing or a “dip” results in the bat striking the fence.