Big Blue Huddle

Guys:  I am sorry that I forgot about this thread.  I never even realized I had comments. 

Dale:  With the youngster, usually the bat that they are using is too heavy.  To find out, have him hold the bat straight out parallel to the ground with his power hand.  If his forearm flexors start quivering before 10 seconds have elapsed, then the bat is too heavy.  The little guys frequently need to choke up.  As far as getting around late, I'd check the grip that he's using. Some kids find it easier to use a modified or "caveman" grip where the lower knuckles on the power hand are aligned with the the high knuckles on the weak hand.  A conventional grip, which will give him his fastest bat speed is for the lower knuckles on each hand to be aligned. 

Next, try and have the kid hold that bat at a 45 degree angle before the pitcher releases the ball.  When he does decide to swing, the bat will have to be at the 45 degree angle, anyway.  Sometimes kids hold it straight up (perpendicular) to the ground because the bat feels lightest this way.  However, they will have to drop to 45 degrees after the release.   It is better to start at that position.  Don't let him wrap it around his head and hold it up high like Julio Franco did, the left-handed version of Reggie Smith's swing, or Yaz. 

Baseball to a rather prominent degree is about getting your hips through on both your swing and your throw.  Watch for that "squishing the bug" with the rear foot.  Same as a golf swing.  You have to spin on the toes of your back foot to get your hips through.  Lastly, remind him to drop the barell head down on the ball.  "Slap hands down" is a good mental imagery.  I really can't get specific about your grandkid unless you can give me a clip of his swing.  But I hope he loves baseball.  Just be patient.  Of all the games it is the hardest to learn and play.  The difference between abject failure and euphoric success can be a matter of a couple of inches. 

Lenn:  Share you appreciation of the good catcher.  I agree 100 percent that he can get 8-10 edge strikes called a game.  I hate a 'noisy" catcher who is bouncing all around back there.  I tell my guys to be still as they're receiving the ball.  And I think these guys who set-up inside or outside on the pre-pitch give away both pitch type and location.  Hitters can see that type of movement with their peripheral vision. 

Question:  It's very tough to get a high percentage of breaking balls called for strikes, even at the MLB level.  Would you agree that a 40 percent ratio is excellent?  Thanks for the input. 

Great to have it recapped like that, Rich.  Thanks.  And much thanks to Ceri. 

I'm getting back into this.  If any of you guys are working a Babe Ruth team this summer, some of these concepts might help you.

Batting:

1. Start inside.  This means that we begin our swing with the knob of the bat inside the pitched ball.  We don't want "casting,"  This causes a long swing.  We will be late to the hitting zone with the sweet part of the bat when we cast.  We want a short, compact swing.  We want to reach the hitting zone quickly.

2. Stay short.  As above.  Short stroke.  Fast to the hitting zone.

3. Use the whole park.  In other words, hit the ball where it is pitched.  Remember that the idea is to contact the ball slightly out in front of your body.  It has to be earlier than that to drive the inside strike.  You can be a bit later on the outside strike, to about even with your front hip.

4. Keep your front side in.  Don't pull off the ball.  Point your front shoulder toward the pitched ball.  Laser paint the ball with it.  Same with your lower body.  Don't pull out.  Don't pull off the ball.

HITTING POINTERS:

1. Remember to make an inward turn with your front knee and shoulder as the pitcher is about to release the ball.

2. Hands then go from the load to launch position.  Make up your mind to swing.  When you do, it's time to launch.  Short stride.  Stride on "thin" ice.  Do not take a long stride.  You lose balance that way, andy our head will remain still.  Think A to B on your swing.  Complete the arc.  Finish out over your front shoulder with the bat.  Do not be content to make soft contact with the ball.  You can't play baseball if you're afraid of swinging and missing. 

3. Head stays straight on the ball throught the swing.  No head bob.  No looking up to see where the ball is going.  Keep your head down on the ball.

4. We swing down on the ball.  Not up on the ball.  Remember the Jeter on-deck drill.  Think, "This is what my lead arm does."  Take your back hand off the bat.  Practice the correct lead arm action.  The bat will feel heavy so it's OK to move up on the handle with your front hand.  Swing down.  Don't worry about your back shoulder.  The back shoulder is symptom not cause.  The back shoulder will follow the instructions of the lead arm.  If you're chicken-winging with the lead arm, in other words, coming up underneath the ball, you'll have a bad upper-cut that way.  We don't want that.

5. Squish the bug with your back foot.  This means pivot on your toes of the back foot so your hips release as you bring the bat through on your swing.  Be careful of back-foot, lock-out disease where your back foot stays straight down throughout the swing.

6. Guys are starting to throw hard now.  You have to look for the ball early.  If the pitcher is good, he has some camouflage to his delivery which hides the ball on you.  Once he releases, you must be able to identify pitch type.  If the ball is spinning backwards towards you, that is a fastball.  If the ball seems to rise up after he releases it, or if you see a small "button" on the ball, that is a breaking pitch.  We hammer the nail when swinging at a fast ball.  We connect the dots when hitting a curve.  To properly hit a breaking ball you have to "track" it as it breaks.  You will intersect it with your bat at the hitting zone.  If it is a good breaking ball it will break down as well as across.  A good change up is difficult to identify.  Many accomplished pitchers "grunt" when they're throwing their change up in an effort to deceive you.  Don't be fooled.  Concentrate and stay disciplined as a hitter.

PITCHING:

We want to use a compact, efficient, wind-up that allows us to throw as fast as we can with the greatest accuracy possible.  We know that true confidence on the mound is reached when we feel we can throw our fastball in the zone to any hitter, and get the hitter out.  The four-seam grip will give us the most speed on our ball.  But whether we use the four-seam grip, the two-seamer or a sinker grip, the key is to be able to control the ball so we can pound the strike zone .  The plate is 17.5 inches across.  The hitter's strike zone is from the hollow of his knee to the lower lettering on his chest.  We visualize this as a pretty large peach basket that were are throwing into. 

COMPONENTS TO THE DELIVERY:

1. Start from the power position.

2. Short "jab" or "rocker" step.  Both words mean the same thing.  If you're right-handed, your jab step is with your left foot.  If you're a lefty, you jab with your right.  It is permissable to jab either straight back or to the side.  We recommend straight back.

3. As we begin to jab, head stays straight on the target, all the way throughout the delivery.  Then we begin to spin on your contact foot.  If you're a righty, this is your right foot.  If a lefty, your left foot.  Slow and deliberate, while never coming to a complete stop, we then raise up on  our front leg until we reach the balance point.

4. At this point, we execute hand break.  The pitching hand leaves the glove. We remember the orchestra conductor at this point.  The glove hand goes up in one direction, the ball hand in the other.  This movement is synchronized.

5. Next comes the pitching component known as the "loop."  We are very careful here because most problems with the delivery, and many arm injuries, stem from a long and circuitous loop.  Think "Get the ball out.  Get the ball up."  You now have the ball at the "throw" position.

6. At this point, we now bring everything forward at what is known as the "plus" part of the delivery.  That is, what happens in front of the rubber.  We stride with our lead foot.  We allow our glove-hand arm to lead our body as we drive down. We achieve maximum pop on our pitch by getting the proper torso action which comes by "rolling over" on the contact ankle--right ankle for a righty, left ankle for a lefty.  By getting maximum trunk rotation into our delivery we recruit our body's core muscle groups to help take the pressure off our our arm and shoulder. 

7. We're careful to not overstride.  If we do, we'll leave the ball up in the zone because we won't finish our delivery with our body weight out over our front leg.  Pitches left up in the zone are almost always caused by overstriding.

8.  We release the contact foot from the rubber as we bring the whole body through. 

9. We check to make sure that after landing with the stride foot, our two feet are pretty much in a straight line.  We don't want to be too far off in either direction.  Landing inside the line with the lead foot will cause us to throw across our body.  We will ruin our shoulder that way.  If we stride outside the line, we'll tend to hang onto the ball for too long.  Our pitches will lose velocity.  We'll also tend to have them take off to the left if we're right-handed or to the right if we're a lefty.

10. If we stay with it, as we get older, and control the ball better, and add off-speed pitches like a good change and curve ball (which we will begin throwing this season), we will remember that we get up on him with the fastball, and put him away with the off speed pitch.  We throw inside strikes early in the count and work away later in the count.  Obviously, circumstances change relative to game situations and the ability of the hitter, but that is the basic pitching pattern.  If we're up in the count 0-2 on the hitter, locating the next pitch underneath his lead elbow is a good place to keep him honest.  Then go down and away.  But 10 we will shelve for now until we are ready to expand our game plan.  What we want  this season is a solid, compact throwing motion that allows us to be as fast and accurate with the ball as possible. 

DEFENSIVE CONCEPTS:

1. Start in the "ready" position.  Think before every pitch that "this one is coming to me."  Don't let the ball surprise you.  The ready position does not mean hands on your knees.  That is a picture pose for Momma.  We are not posing during games.

2. If we need to get going in a hurry, the correct foot movement is the cross-over step.  Not a shuttle. 

3. Make sure we break down on a ground ball at the knees as well as the waist.  Do not lock your knees as you're waiting to field a ball.

4. You play the ball.  Don't allow the ball to play you.  If you do so, with your weight back, you're laible to play the ball into a bad hop.  Go boldly and confidently for the ball.  If you bobble or boot it, don't panic or become frustrated.  Remain cool and calm.  Pounce on your mistake and recover the ball.  Don't turn an error into two or three.  Everybody makes errors.  Relax.

5. When tracking a fly ball, remember to run with your weight slightly forward.  If you  run with your weight back on your heels, the ball will appear to bob crazily in the sky.  This is because your head is bobbing as you run.  As with all parts of the game, the head bob is ruinous.  Weight slighly forward as you track the ball.  Try and beat the ball to the spot.  Don't run alongside the ball.  Be waiting for it.

6. For catchers:  On the ball in the dirt, get on your pads and drop to stop.  Don't concentrate so much on catching the ball in the dirt. Instead try and block the ball.  Keep it in front of you.  Locate it.  Roll your glove over.  Don't play panny-cake, baker's man.  The glove goes between the legs to protect the 5 hole.  Your chin is down to protect your Adam's Apple.  To get moving quickly to your right as a catcher, your first move is to push hard off your left shin guard.  Reverse is also true.  To move quickly  to your left, your first movement is to push hard off your right guard.  This has been called the Doctrine of Paradoxical Intent.  Don't let that blow your mind.  Just practice it.  With tennis balls. 

7.  On relays:  Remember to FOLLOW YOUR GLOVE.  Position your body properly to accept the relay throw.  Save precious fractions of seconds in transaction time by FOLLOWING YOUR GLOVE.  Avoid the 360 degree whirling dervish. 

BASERUNNING:

1.  With two outs, run on contact.  Locate the third-base coach.  There's no need to stop and watch the batted ball.  You can't be doubled off a base with two outs.

2. Tag up when these three requirements are met:  1. Less than two outs. 2. You believe the defender is going to make the catch.  3.  The ball is hit deep enough so that you can advance a base after the catch .  In all other instances on balls hit to the outfield, go half-way.  If the ball is caught and you have to return to your previous base, don't feel bad.  You played it properly. 

3. Sliding becomes inevitable if you run the bases aggressively.  You also have to slide on force plays at second base when running from first base.  Accelerate into the slide.  Players get hurt when they "think" about what they're doing as they get ready to slide.  And when they slide too late into a bag, especially a bag that is pegged into the ground in the old-style manner.  You can break an ankle or rip up a knee that way.  The dirt marks on your pants when you're sliding properly should be on the inside area of your ankle and knee, and on the side of the thigh.  Not on your rear end or the top of your kneecap.  We strongly discourrage head-first sliding.  Ane we absolutely dread sliding head-first at home plate.  The catcher is wearing a coat of armor.  Save your face.  Go legs first.

4. The lead off of first base should be 2 and one-half strides.  To get back to first on a pick-off throw, the correct movement is cross-over step and dive.  There is no really good reason to not get a good jump on a right-handed pitcher.  We concentrate on his contact foot, which has to come up if he is going to throw to first.  And he has to step toward us as well.  Against a left-hander, it's more difficult.  We have to read his swing foot past his back knee.  At this point he must throw to the plate or he has balked.  However lefties are tricky in tucking in their swing foot.  Umpires have difficulty reading their move.  We believe that most left-handed pitchers make up their mind ahead of time if they're going to throw to first base.  Therefore, when we call for steals against lefties, we'll usually tell you to go on first movement. If he does come to first, do not stop in between the bases.  Force their defense to make two quick, accurate throws.  If you have some speed, you have a good chance of beating the ball to second.