I coach a 10u rec team. Actually through a series of events we are playing in a 12u league which is new for all of my girls. It's fall ball so the pitching we've faced is all over the board but some of the opposing pitchers are pretty good. Last week I was chatting with the opposing coach before the game and he told me one of his girls throws 50mph. Not sure how accurate that is but 9-10 year olds were basically frozen with their bat on their shoulders. If/when they decided to swing they were waaaay behind.
Some of it is a matter of simply swinging harder/faster. Some of it is proper mechanics so they take a direct path and reducing time to impact. We've worked on that. But mostly it's learning to load up for each pitch because, the way it is now, by the time they decide they want to swing at a pitch it's too late. I have tried explaining this but it hasn't been clicking. My best pitcher is too wild to get my batters quality BP so I'd like to take a trip to to the batting cages.
OK, on to my question. For those of you who have taken your team to the cages, how do you approach it? The local facility charges $120/hour which includes one cage with a softball pitching machine and one cage with no machine (although I think I could negotiate use of their baseball pitching machine cage).
Here's my general plan... let me know how you went about it.
I'm going to make it optional. Tell parents time and place and explain cost will depend on turnout (rsvp ahead of time). 11 girls all at once seems like a recipe for chaos since there will be too much standing around so perhaps I assign 30 minute blocks?
Would love insights or best practices from anyone who has done this.
Thank you.
Some of it is a matter of simply swinging harder/faster. Some of it is proper mechanics so they take a direct path and reducing time to impact. We've worked on that. But mostly it's learning to load up for each pitch because, the way it is now, by the time they decide they want to swing at a pitch it's too late. I have tried explaining this but it hasn't been clicking. My best pitcher is too wild to get my batters quality BP so I'd like to take a trip to to the batting cages.
OK, on to my question. For those of you who have taken your team to the cages, how do you approach it? The local facility charges $120/hour which includes one cage with a softball pitching machine and one cage with no machine (although I think I could negotiate use of their baseball pitching machine cage).
Here's my general plan... let me know how you went about it.
I'm going to make it optional. Tell parents time and place and explain cost will depend on turnout (rsvp ahead of time). 11 girls all at once seems like a recipe for chaos since there will be too much standing around so perhaps I assign 30 minute blocks?
Would love insights or best practices from anyone who has done this.
Thank you.