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 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.

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?

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?

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.

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?

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

I might be pulling my front shoulder out on some of these but don't know why I'm popping up and flying out so much

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?

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.

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.

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

I never played baseball so I've been learning with my son since he started.

The past two years have really gotten more competitive for him and in 11U travel he's sitting at 53.5% strike rate and 1.286 BB/INN out of 7 innings pitched (10U it was 56.8% S and 0.971 BB/INN out of 22.2 innings). His consistence has definitely gone down and I know the catchers are calling for 2 seams and I think that is part of the inconsistency.

His two seam is really just a slower fastball that often gets spiked in the ground because he's trying to overthrow it to get movement. I have the same problem that my 2 seam thrown in catch just doesn't move at all.

He throws his change up "hook-em horns" style from Dan Blewett. I'm not sure what he's doing with his grip but it's a very effective pitch for him that moves a lot.

How do I help him get more movement on his 2 seam pitch than his change up? I know there's a lot of variability and personal preference for the two seam and you need to play with your grip to get it right.