I use a tee, wiffle balls and a 28" long 1" PVC pipe to teach beginners to hit. I have 3 different sizes of wiffle balls, with several different colors. I start with the biggest of the wiffle balls on the tee. I have the girl get into hitting position, with the tee just in front of her front foot, and using the PVC pipe as her bat, touch the pipe to her arm, just below her shoulder. the girl turns, keeping the pipe on her arm, then whips the pipe to the ball. We move to smaller balls as the girls get better, and then for fun, stack the balls like a snowman. This drill teaches the girls to swing without dropping their hands. That rotating the hips and shoulders brings the bat around (not the hands), it keeps the hands in tight (no casting of the hands/bat) and to accelerate the hands through the hitting zone. You can use a full sized bat for this, but the pvc pipe is lighter and doesn't tire them out and teaches them to swing faster.
8U First-Timers
- Thread starter MacLobo
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Preferably good catchers as well. Checkout the NECC (New England Catchers Camp) DVD found here The New England Catching Camp - Online Store . It's the gold standard...scratch that, the platinum standard of catching and teaches you how to teach proper catching techniques to your catchers. It's well worth the money and you'll see your pitchers improve along with your catchers and their receiving skills.
ETA: A great catcher can make a mediocre pitcher look great but a poor catcher can make a great pitcher look terrible. just ask the pitcher parents on here.
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Our rec league used girl pitch for the first two innings and then coach pitch the remainder of the game. During the first two innings coaches came in after 4 walks or 2 HBP.
Our Rec League doesn't include player pitch until 10U. We are with Babe Ruth and PONY, is allowing 8U pitching more a travel team thing?
Rules are all over the place, I do not think there is a right answer.
Our league players pitched at 8U with coach backup, some long games. 10U they were on their own, some really long games.
(I would try to get them pitching at 8U, the better ones are going to leave which is fine.)
Our league players pitched at 8U with coach backup, some long games. 10U they were on their own, some really long games.
(I would try to get them pitching at 8U, the better ones are going to leave which is fine.)
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Speaking of coach pitch, how to find a good one? Because of the rule "Coach Pitch can't coach from the mound" I'm forced to be the 3rd base coach. Thus I have to depend on the parent who just happened to volunteer. Great guy and helper but can't pitch to save his life. He got better towards the end of the season. Need to break his habit of adjusting to the different height of each player. Any thoughts on what he can do to improve?
We used a blue flame pitching machine, I think it worked OK.
You pitch to your batters.
(I am really good at hitting our batters when I pitched)
You pitch to your batters.
(I am really good at hitting our batters when I pitched)
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- Feb 3, 2011
- 1,880
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Hitting basics for first-timers: setup, raise, STEP, hands inside ball
Defense: Overhand throw, overhand throw, overhand throw
Defense: Overhand throw, overhand throw, overhand throw
Oh it wouldn't be a practice if I didn't hit a batter. Our Pinto/Rookie baseball division uses the pitching machine. With softball, we have to interlock with other leagues and they use coach pitch. At this age I have parents who know very little on how to coach the game. So I'm training them at the same time I'm coaching their daughters.
