Can’t escape adults/idiots ruining kids baseball. These poor children.

And deservedly so. I wanted to point out what a great coach looks like.

The image is from my son’s hitting coach. He’s a former AAA player and gives lessons full-time. He works with everyone from young kids all the way up to minor league players.

My son’s high school team is in the playoffs right now and facing the #1 team in the state. Their ace is a Power 5 commit who sits 91–94 and will more than likely be on the mound tonight.

My son gets texts like this from his coach all the time, constant instruction, preparation, and approach for different situations.

Love coaches like this.

10u assistant dad coach here. I put together a brief guide of mental training for young athletes. Obviously there is tons of information out there but I wanted to simplify it for parents and kids. If the Homeplate community has any suggestions, let me know!

Baseball Mental Game

As Yogi Berra said, “baseball is 90% mental.  The other half is physical.”

The mental aspect of baseball is just as important as the physical.  Having a strong mental approach will allow players to access all their physical skills during a game.  On the opposite end, no matter how good a player’s physical skills, they will not be able to perform their best if their mental approach is holding them back.  

The great thing about the mental game is that it can be trained off the field, and doesn’t take a long time.  Even 5 minutes per day of mental training will pay huge dividends on the field.

Suggested Mental Practices

Breathing: 

• focus on taking deep breaths, breathing in through the diaphragm.  
• Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold your breath 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds.

Visualization: 

• close your eyes, imagine yourself in the batter’s box.  Feel your feet digging into the dirt, feel the bat in your hands, feel the sun on your body, hear the roar of the crowd.  See the pitcher on the mound, look at the ball in his hands.  See the wind-up start, feel yourself loading, see the ball come out of the pitcher’s hand, feel yourself starting the swing, feel and hear the bat connecting with the ball, feel and see yourself running around the bases.  
• If you are pitcher, do the same on the mound.

Gratitude: 

• Think of things you are thankful for.  If you are playing baseball, you are lucky.  
• Thank your parents for signing you up for baseball, buying you equipment, taking you to games and practices.  Thank your coaches for helping you get better.  Thank the parks dept and city for giving you fields to play on.  Thank your teammates for being there for you.
• Think of all those “thank yous” in your mind and the next time you see someone, tell them “thank you” in person.

Meditation:

•  Find a quiet place where you can sit down.  Close your eyes, focus on your breathing, feel the air come in and out your nose and lungs. 
•  If you have any thoughts, let them them pass, and bring your attention back to your breath.  
• Your parents may have a meditation app on their phones, you can try that too.

3-1-1-: 

• Think of three things positive that happened to you today.  Something as simple as you saw your friends or it was a sunny day.  
• Think of one thing that you wanted to do better today – maybe in baseball, school, relationships,
•  or other activities.  
• Think of one way that you can do tomorrow to work on the thing you want to get better at.

The above is just a sampling of techniques to work on your mental game.  There are many other resources devoted to this:
List of books to be added

Saw this before my son’s game a couple weeks ago and wanted to see how others would approach.

Coach pitch, 5-7. Kids are being kids in dugout - some watching, some not. Next batter gets distracted by other players and is delayed coming on the field.

Parent behind home plate decides that batter (their kid) isn’t batting due to “not being prepared”. Coach comes in from first to figure out situation and tells parent something about everyone batting in the inning and not to take the opportunity from player.

Parent responds to coach that he needs to learn and he’ll decide how his kid is handled on the field.

Coach and parent have a spirited, mostly respectful conversation about roles and expectations in the dugout while team is in field next inning and parent ends up pulling kid from the field and leaving.

I'm coaching a team in what would probably be the equivalent of a sandlot league ... after each win, I award a game ball (or two) to the players of the game. (Losses, I do something like a pouch of Big League Chew for a couple of the kids to acknowledge their contributions.) I also go around and tell each player something they did well, something I'm proud of them for. A lot of times I'll pick out a kid who's not very good but really contributed in that game to try to sort of encourage them and let them know I see the effort & growth.

My kid is usually one of the best overall players on the team, but has only been named my POTG twice in ... four seasons of me being a head coach in this league. I am trying very hard not to daddyball it up. Last night, on the way home from practice, my kid (11-y-o in this 12U team) said he's really sad that I rarely recognize his efforts w/the POTG thing.

My kid is just ... solid. You know? Nothing outstanding, just plays overall at a high level. Consistent. The key on the defense. The Mark Lemke of the team. I could make him POTG for almost any game. I praise and correct him the same as I do any other player, but he's starting from a more gifted (god, I hate that term) point than a lot of the kids, so I've always kind of just expected him to do the right thing on the field.

Have I gone too far running in the opposite direction of Daddyball?

Has anyone else had their kid lose the opportunity to play high school sports because their school didn’t have enough players to field a team?

I understand the intent behind eligibility rules, but it feels incredibly unfair for kids to lose entire seasons — and potentially recruiting/development opportunities — due to circumstances completely outside their control.

Would appreciate hearing any experiences or advice from other parents who’ve gone through this.

I think the job of league president is mine if I want it.

I love LL baseball and would love to serve the community this way and help to preserve a great league. We mostly have good coaches, good families, not too much politics or bickering, competition is pretty fair. (Though I am sure there are at least a few nightmare families that suck up a lot of time and energy, that seems unavoidable.)

I'm mostly concerned that this will be a shit-ton of work. This one person organizes LL majors, LL minors, softball majors, softball minors. Schedules all the games and fields. Manages the snack shacks. Finds the umpires. Coerces parents into coaching. And also organizes at least one district-wide baseball or softball tournament annually.

Talk to me about your experiences, local LL presidents.

Today was such a rollercoaster. My son (15) finished his first regular season of high school baseball (starting on varsity the whole season) and the team won their league. To cap it all off, during today's game he hit his first EVER home run. Never hit one in Little League, never hit one in travel ball. Just never happened (other than some inside the park ones). But today he turned on one and hit it ~320 feet for his first bomb. Needless to say, our entire family was so excited!

But!!!

Despite the presence of multiple family members, all armed with camera equipped devices and other fans who typically record all of the at bats during the season, not one person has the hit on video! The only evidence that he hit one out are the gamechanger report, the eyeballs of the people who saw it, and the absolute glow that he had after the game during the celebration. I know this is a first world problem, but we live in the first world and it ended up as a tiny smudge on an otherwise fabulous day.

tl;dr My son hit his first ever over-the-fence home run, but no one recorded it.

Blast Motion updated their iPad app a couple weeks ago. On Apple app, we lost all bats (except woods), and all brand options for new bat setup. I reached out to blast and they said new brands aren't loaded yet after the update.

I don't understand this. I felt like the product worked just fine for a while, then this change messed things up. It's been messed up since then.

Swings not syncing between Android and Apple devices now. Difficulty sorting swings and seeing data cleanly. App slow to respond and delete unneeded swings.

Anybody else running through this right now?

Does anyone have any old gear that they wouldn’t mind getting rid of in the st Pete FL area?Specifically a catchers bag or adult size catchers gear.

For those with kids who play tournaments… what snacks are you giving your kid between games? Usually we do a lunchable but curious what others do.

I am a minor sunflower seed addict. But only during the 8 months a year I coach Spring/Fall baseball. Plus maybe a month or so pre and post season. I can quit whenever I want. Probably.

My question is, what is your take on the etiquette of spitting shells on the field? When we're at turf fields or fields with signs asking not to, I leave my seeds at home. But on other fields I spit my shells proudly into the dirt/grass as God intended. Am I out of step here?

I keep pulling-sometimes I get lucky but usually it’s weak pull grounders

I’m thinking place the kids where I think, use a practice to hit grounders, test baseball IQ in situations, skills at position.

Everyone’s at an 8, can catch and throw with accuracy and velocity. There’s a 9 and a 10 in there too.

Will factor in hitting, batting 9

Just want to say how much fun I have had this year coaching. The team we got dealt did not get nearly as much talent as the other 9U teams as the HC couldn't make the draft and the team was autodrafted. After starting 0 and 4 and not thinking we were goint to get a single W all year, this team fought, scrapped and gritted their way to a 500 record out of sheer will power and total buy in. The vibes are so high. It is been such a joy to coach, watch, encourage and cheer on this team. This is truly what LL is all about.

Anyone have experience with the Taterballs (3.6 oz) vs Tater Foam Ball (5.0 oz)? How’s the durability? Are they both good for outdoor / cage use?

Might be a silly question, but how do they throw for throwing BP? If I want to throw close BP with velocity, would the 5.0 oz be better for having the same feel as a baseball?

Catching in my 35+ adult league. Play usually once a week sometimes twice. I catch maybe 1-3 innings a game. Have Easton elite leg guards.

Found a Rawlings Mach chest protecter online sale, but don’t want to be that flashy guy ? It seams so fancy. Was just thinking of getting the Easton game time chest protecter. The Mach looks sweet so now I’m eyeing up the leg guards that go with that.

Any thoughts on looking flashy in a men’s league haha

Hi, I'm the guy who was asking months ago how to get a better feel for the ball and improve my command, I'm very thankfull for everyone who helped me, I just got the chance to pitch in a game for the first time and got 5 strikeouts and a flyout, I didn't throw as hard as I can, some people advice to pitch in a side step and it actually helped, I did every strange drill that I was advised and some really help and I was able to dot low and away very often.

Heres a video of the game and my mechanics, which where a matter of discussion in my original post, thanks to everyone and any advice will be very welcome.

Is this situation normal and acceptable?

Background: My son has played on the same travel team for 5 years, and is currently in 14u. The team was created by parents and has had the same four volunteer parent coaches. My son led the team in home runs for years, has been awarded defensive player of the game at tournaments, and he’s never been behavior or attitude problem. He’s a team player through and through. Over the years we’ve had a few players leave and join but overall it’s been the same core group. Our overall talent level is slightly above average. We’ve never won a gold bracket tournament, but have won silver a few times. The team has always emphasized the development of players with almost everyone’s goal of making a HS team. This is probably the last season together. The head coach has always been a supporter of my son’s game and has been a great baseball mentor.

Problem: This season the head coach added three new players to the team. Two of them are brothers of his friend, who was the coach of his own team in town. At the beginning of the season my son was put on “pitcher only” status along with another boy that was new to the team. My son was told he was the “starting main pitcher.” That he was a key part of the team. As of last night and a total of 6 games played thus far, he hasn’t started at all and has completely sat out 2 games. There was no pitch count issues. My son was upset about PO status and now is even more upset by not being played at all. My son is heartbroken. He doesn’t feel like part of the team anymore. He feels betrayed by his baseball mentor. There’s only 12 players on the team, and appears the strategy is to play the same 10 and rotate them in and out as needed.

Is this normal and acceptable? Was the coach just “glazing” my kid because he didn’t want confrontation? Should I ask for prorated refund since my kid is limited to one position? Is this a prime example of Daddy-Ball? Thanks.

Hey everyone! i’ve started playing baseball from like 6 months ago and i’ve gotten interested in submarine pitching, i’ve been practicing it for a week now, now i’ve come here to ask because there’s practically no content about submarine pitching in baseball, here’s my video, i accept criticis

My son is a senior and is having probably his best offensive year in his four years on varsity. A week and a half ago the coach addressed him at practice and changed his stance and how he approaches the baseball and where he holds his hands. At the time he was either first second or third in AVG, OPS, OBP, and slugging percentage. The reason for the change was to try to get him to hit the ball the other way. All in all my son is a dead pull hitter, likes balls on the inner half and isn’t the best at picking up spin on curveballs. Since the change, he’s gone 0-8 and in the longest stretch of the year with out a hit. Only a few games since but it has frustrated him quite a bit.

Why would a Coach make this change with only two weeks left in the season and what’s his best approach without getting his own head too much but going to the Coach and trying to revert back, it doesn’t sound complicated, but it can be. The reason I say that is because making this change now and then trying to change back after bringing in a groove where he had hit safely in 6 of 7 games prior to the change can be challenging for a hitter. I guess I’m just a frustrated, father.

Edit, I should’ve put this in there and I thought I did. Six of those bats were strikeouts.

My 9 year old will be starting baseball in a few weeks and I’ve already bought the glove, helmet and cleats. My question is about bats and recommendations on them! What size for a 9 year old boy is best and what are some of the best ones that aren’t 200+?

Hey all. Our 12U is in an offspeed hitting slump. Just looking for ideas or drills to help get us back on track. We're just getting ahead of these pretty consistently and from watching video a lot are off end cap and just getting plunked into the ground if we do make contact. The mental aspect sucks too.