clinic for 8U beginners-need advice

[Playaction]

I have been asked to do a 3 part clinic for 8U league teams. It is coach pitch but they want pitchers better prepared going into 10U. It is really to get kids interested and the ones that want to pursue it would be encouraged to go to a pitching coach.


I have only 4 years experience with pitching. I have taken my daughter to 2 different pitching coaches and attended several clinics. I have also read this site a lot and watched many videos. She has been very successful and now pitches on the school jv team as a 7th grader.

I am very comfortable working with my own but I need suggestions for getting these young ones and their parents started. Drills and/or ideas would be greatly appreciated.

BTW-I love this site and will probably be burning it up over the next few months as I will be coaching travel ball when school ball is over.

 

[halskinner]

Coach Hal’s Foundation Method.

This is how I always started off a young beginner, tuned up more experienced pitchers and converted step style pitchers to leap and drag.

I once agreed to put on a one hour clinic at our academy for a 10u team. I expected maybe 4 or 5 kids, just the pitchers. What I got was 14 kids, the entire team! I only had an hour to work with them all a little bit. It turned into 14 short one-on-one sessions. I used my Foundation Method for each one and spent 4 to 5 minutes with each.

The clinic took an hour and 20 minutes. When it was over, I felt like the kids had been short changed on what I had hoped I would accomplish. The coaches assured me they were very happy with the results. I gave each of the kids their own copy of my Foundation Method that they took home to repeat exactly what we had done that day.

A month later I got a call from the head coach thanking me again for doing the clinic that day. He said the kids went home with their printed copy and they all duplicated it with their parents. After a few days practicing like that, they started recruiting little sisters and younger neighbor kids and teaching them just like they had learned. The coaches and parents all got together and one month later, they advertised and put on a pitching clinic for 8-year-olds and it was a huge success. THE INSTRUCTORs WERE THE 10U KIDS I WORKED WITH THAT DAY!

It is very simple to use, explain, understand and teach. It is simple enough that with a little practice, a 10-year-old can even teach it correctly.

The Foundation Method is a chapter in my book listed below.

It can be the best money you ever invest in a young pitchers training.

It is a very rare occasion that anyone talks about the information in my book. The reason for that is simple; Once they practice it, then use it in a game and find out how effective it is, they don’t want ANYONE else to know about it. ESPECIALLY the other pitchers on their kid’s team. They want their kid to be the #1 gun so they leave my book at home and only practice what they learn from it at home.

That’s why you hardly ever hear anyone talking about it. Parents and coaches talk about other books, DVD’s, etc all the time. The information is good, however, none of it will ever be any threat to THEIR kid’s pitching time..

Coach Hal