Extension drills

[Eric F]

I believe this is the "step and hit" drill FFS was referring to...
[video]https://youtu.be/vLbpAoG_dgQ[/video]

 

[Eric F]

...in a school where we lost all our varsity players to travel ball...

I'm curious how this has happened. In CA, players cannot play both HS and travel at the same time. Are the rules different for your state? For us, most HS-age TB players play HS ball, and their TB team goes dark. HS teams that are deep with good TB players do very well. HS teams with little to no TB talent get their teeth kicked in (this is my DD's experience, so far).

In my observation (as a former TB coach, now just a parent), the short duration of the HS season means you probably won't be able to make meaningful mechanics changes with many of your players just due to the limited time you have during the season. If you can give them some good fundamental things to try to adapt for the road ahead, they will (hopefully) be better next year. Helping them to have a "predator" mindset with the swing they have, however, is a quicker fix (hopefully) to some success.

 

[HasBeenorNeverWas]

I'm curious how this has happened. In CA, players cannot play both HS and travel at the same time. Are the rules different for your state? For us, most HS-age TB players play HS ball, and their TB team goes dark. HS teams that are deep with good TB players do very well. HS teams with little to no TB talent get their teeth kicked in (this is my DD's experience, so far).

In my observation (as a former TB coach, now just a parent), the short duration of the HS season means you probably won't be able to make meaningful mechanics changes with many of your players just due to the limited time you have during the season. If you can give them some good fundamental things to try to adapt for the road ahead, they will (hopefully) be better next year. Helping them to have a "predator" mindset with the swing they have, however, is a quicker fix (hopefully) to some success.

Our high school hired a coach, who created 16u/14u/12u teams to play in the summer for more experience and then he ended up not getting rehired the following year. So, all the girls who played for him ended up not coming back out the following year for the new head coach and instead decided to continue to play travel ball with him instead of play for the school. Last year we only had 13 players and only 2 had any varsity experience (no seniors, no sophmores). Some avoided the drama all together and just didn't play anything or ran track. This year thanks to a large freshman class we are up to 19 players, with only 1 having experiences beyond rec ball.

 

[Eric F]

Our high school hired a coach, who created 16u/14u/12u teams to play in the summer for more experience and then he ended up not getting rehired the following year. So, all the girls who played for him ended up not coming back out the following year for the new head coach and instead decided to continue to play travel ball with him instead of play for the school. Last year we only had 13 players and only 2 had any varsity experience (no seniors, no sophmores). Some avoided the drama all together and just didn't play anything or ran track. This year thanks to a large freshman class we are up to 19 players, with only 1 having experiences beyond rec ball.

Wow. That's a bummer.

So far, my DD's HS team has seen teams that are all good TB player, teams that are all new/rec players, and a mix of the two. My DD is the only freshman on her varsity team, but only 1 of 2 that have significant TB experience. There are 2 others (Jrs) that played TB for the first time last summer. The rest only have rec or HS experience. It's been a rough ride. The years ahead don't look super promising for incoming talent, either.

 

[HasBeenorNeverWas]

Wow. That's a bummer.

So far, my DD's HS team has seen teams that are all good TB player, teams that are all new/rec players, and a mix of the two. My DD is the only freshman on her varsity team, but only 1 of 2 that have significant TB experience. There are 2 others (Jrs) that played TB for the first time last summer. The rest only have rec or HS experience. It's been a rough ride. The years ahead don't look super promising for incoming talent, either.

The travel team that was created was a good thing for our community where softball was never a widely participated in sport. Our rec league is very very weak (i know most are, but it's really bad) It's just unfortunate that they won't play now. We do have some talented girls we are missing out on sadly. We do what we can though! We're better than we were last year but still play some teams very far out of our experience level, mostly because we have 1 pitcher with any experience (who's injured) and the rest just toss the ball over the plate at 35mph and once they get that timed out its line drive city. Good luck ��

 

[Eric F]

The travel team that was created was a good thing for our community where softball was never a widely participated in sport. Our rec league is very very weak (i know most are, but it's really bad) It's just unfortunate that they won't play now. We do have some talented girls we are missing out on sadly. We do what we can though! We're better than we were last year but still play some teams very far out of our experience level, mostly because we have 1 pitcher with any experience (who's injured) and the rest just toss the ball over the plate at 35mph and once they get that timed out its line drive city. Good luck ��

My DD's team faced one of those pitchers on Tuesday - low-30s for the whole game. She's the only P they have.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

One of the bigger issues with young players is getting them out of a horizontal torso usage mindset.

 

[Eric F]

One of the bigger issues with young players is getting them out of a horizontal torso usage mindset.

That's pretty good.

 

[2br02b]

One of the bigger issues with young players is getting them out of a horizontal torso usage mindset.

In terms of Youtube. I don't think anyone has matched Antonelli's value in the last couple years. Not even close.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

A related Antonelli video segment ....