WHEREAMI is right about throwing. This is an under-coached part of the game at every level, yet the figure I've heard is that 80% of errors are throwing errors. Eliminate those and you'll keep runners off the bases. They can't score if they don't get on.
I believe Dave Edwards is in the Indy area. Check him out for a pitching coach, as he is in line with what we believe here. I've coached alongside him at Coach James' Rick Pauly clinics. Pitching is definitely critical. You don't need the greatest pitcher, but you at least need competent pitching. The worse your defense is, the more dominating your pitcher needs to be.
Offense v defense is a kind of chicken-egg thing. If you limit opponents to 1-2 runs per game you don't need that strong an offense to win. On the other hand, if you can score more than a couple of runs each game it takes some pressure of the pitching and defense. You kind of need to look at what you have right now and shore up whichever side will help you most right now as you work toward making both better. In other words, if your kids are already decent fielders but weak hitters, try to make them excellent fielders/throwers and limit the number of runs you have to score. In the meantime, encourage them to get hitting lessons on their own!
Another thing to do is to evaluate the talent you have and work with that. If you have a team full of turtles, bunting won't help much. They're just going to get thrown out. If you have a team of rabbits, on the other hand, it could help make up for a lack of power. It's all basically Sun Tzu when you don't have the time to develop things the way you'd like right now.
As for not liking HS coaches here, that's not really true even though it looks that way. What most here don't like is incompetent coaches, or coaches who refuse to learn anything new. Just asking the question you've already proven you are neither. Be the coach we all wish our daughters had in HS, and then share what you've learned, and you'll be popular indeed!
I believe Dave Edwards is in the Indy area. Check him out for a pitching coach, as he is in line with what we believe here. I've coached alongside him at Coach James' Rick Pauly clinics. Pitching is definitely critical. You don't need the greatest pitcher, but you at least need competent pitching. The worse your defense is, the more dominating your pitcher needs to be.
Offense v defense is a kind of chicken-egg thing. If you limit opponents to 1-2 runs per game you don't need that strong an offense to win. On the other hand, if you can score more than a couple of runs each game it takes some pressure of the pitching and defense. You kind of need to look at what you have right now and shore up whichever side will help you most right now as you work toward making both better. In other words, if your kids are already decent fielders but weak hitters, try to make them excellent fielders/throwers and limit the number of runs you have to score. In the meantime, encourage them to get hitting lessons on their own!
Another thing to do is to evaluate the talent you have and work with that. If you have a team full of turtles, bunting won't help much. They're just going to get thrown out. If you have a team of rabbits, on the other hand, it could help make up for a lack of power. It's all basically Sun Tzu when you don't have the time to develop things the way you'd like right now.
As for not liking HS coaches here, that's not really true even though it looks that way. What most here don't like is incompetent coaches, or coaches who refuse to learn anything new. Just asking the question you've already proven you are neither. Be the coach we all wish our daughters had in HS, and then share what you've learned, and you'll be popular indeed!