8u Training Sources for Skills and for Strength

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Apr 30, 2018
349
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My daughter has started playing 8u and I'm helping to coach her team. Spring ball was her first time playing and this is my first time coaching. We thought the season was over, and our region decided to put together a 3rd All-Star team and my daughter was picked. I have been watching tons of videos online and doing lots of reading. I'm not seeing much differentiation on training an 8 year old vs training a 16+ year old. Are there any good videos or websites that give insight to teaching hitting/throwing/catching to a younger player? Any recommendations on strength training for 8 year olds? Don't want to go overboard go to the gym and start using machines, just some guidance on same easy basics that can be done at home. Exercises that could be done as a game would be a plus.

Our spring ball season has games on Tues/Thurs and tournaments on weekends so we rarely actually have a practice. This seems kind of flawed to me as you don't really have any time to teach skills. All-Star season has practice twice a week and a tournament on the weekend, but coach just wants to run high repetition drills without slowing things down enough to teach some basic proper footwork or glove work. This leaves me to teach her on my own. I do take her to a hitting coach once a week.
 
Nov 30, 2018
27
3
Hey there,

http://Flosoftball.com is a pretty good website, and http://softball-spot.com has some good content.

I also put out a lot of free softball content myself - My YouTube channel has a lot of throwing drills, mental training ideas and strength exercises on it. Hopefully it helps you. I was a professional baseball pitcher and I own a baseball and softball academy in Illinois. I work with lots of players in both sports.

Dan Blewett
 
Feb 3, 2010
5,752
113
Pac NW
I've looked at the pitching content on Softball Spot and would discourage folks from looking for advice on pitching mechanics there. Haven't looked at the other stuff, though...
 
Feb 21, 2017
198
28
I am going to ignore the hitting as there is tons of information on DFP and you have a coach.

This game, and baseball come down to catch (as told to me by some who play at the highest level). At young ages you are working on fine motor skills which develop good muscle memory so you want to be good at catch. Nothing more frustrating than a player who makes one ESPN play (and everyone thinks it is the greatest ever) but blows three routine plays because he/she can’t make a simple field and throw.

I would look into Austin Wasserman for throwing because IME fixing throwing form is difficult to do once it is ingrained.

For fielding look into Morgan Stuart from package deal, she has individual videos and Instagram. You should also look at Trosky Baseball. Really focus on force outs (catch and stretch with one hand), double play turns (catch and transfer with two hands), ground balls (at her, forehand, backhand and long hops & short hops) and finally doing outfield receiver drills.

I wouldn’t really bother with strength work unless you go to a professional. You can do agility like ladders and similar as part of drills but zero weights. She isn’t ready. TBH it is more likely she will get hurt vs. gain strength. When she hits teens 13-14 look around for a reputable gym.

CoC


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Jun 12, 2015
3,848
83
ITA agree about Wasserman's throwing. We only used the free resources, didn't even buy anything, and it made a big difference. We started with that in first year 10U when DD had some elbow tendinitis due to her throwing mechanics. We did the rest/ice/ibuprofen thing and then really focused on her mechanics when we started back up. She's never had another problem with throwing. DH uses the water bottle drill during warm ups for the team. Good stuff.
 
Dec 5, 2017
514
63
What I've been doing with my dd who just turned 9 this July is body weight movements. Push ups, pull ups, chins ups, wall sits followed by air squats and hand stands against a wall. Justin Stone talks about the hand stand in one of his videos. Very basic, no equipment except a cheap pull up bar that hangs in a door way, and not very stressful on joints. I leave the pull up bar hanging year round and a lot of times she will just start doing pull ups when she happens to walk by it. We also do some jumping work outs to help with speed and leg strength.
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
What MikeP posted seems right to me, might be showing my age and/or ignorance but I seem to remember not doing too much before HS or so.
 

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