Baseball Talk: Hitting, Pitching, Catching Strategy

OK fellas, coaches and pitching coaches have varying opinions on this topic.
The way I go about this is to teach pitchers and catchers, not only about pitching, but all facets of the game. As much as my limited knowledge will allow me to and as often as time and the players will permit me to.
When I was a coach @ the high school level and American Legion,
I never called pitches for a complete game. I did call pitches in certain situations on occasions such as mid to late innings, close game, man on first with one out and a dead pull hitter is up. In this situation I would call pitches possibly, to set up the double play and also to defend against run counts.
Conversely, I would also have my corners play the line and my middle infielders play @ double play depth.
So, certain situations may warrant a coach to call pitches for that at bat but to me, I would not call pitches an entire game.

 

Please note that when this statement was made we were discussing kids that are much younger than high school age kids.

 

My opinion is the outfielders. They genuinely are told to "shag flies and back up throws", but are not taught the fundamentals. Picking up the arc of the ball in flight. Picking up the spin. Windy days. How to get a jump on the ball. Watching pitch location. Where to be on every thrown ball? etc, etc... I just don't believe they get near enough attention.

I learned more about baseball and the outfield in my first two weeks of college than I did throughout my whole life up to that point. I remember wishing I could go back to again.

 

How to hit a round object with a round object sucessfully.

On this board, we've talked alot about pitching & defense and even covered some baserunning. We haven't covered hitting yet this year.

How do you teach a player to hit a round object (ball) with a round object (bat) sucessfully? What trigger keys do you use? What descriptions have worked best with you or your players to get them to understand what you are talking about?

 

Have to learn to see it before you can hit it. Best advice I ever got was to think you are going to get a fastball every pitch. You can adjust easier if you get an off speed pitch. Try stepping up to the plate looking curve but getting a fastball. You will be standing in the same place with the bat on your shoulders.

 

Re: How to hit a round object with a round object sucessfully.

How to take a round ball and a round bat and hit the ball with the bat square?
The single hardest athletic thing to do. This is why hitting is a science.
One of the hardest things that I have learned to teach a young player is to keep their head down when swinging and see the ball hit the bat. If you can accomplish that first, then you have a great start.

 

I saw a clip on Atlanta Brave player Mark DeRosa the other day. He had band-aids all over his chin.When questioned, he told the reporter that every spring his chin stayed torn up from keeping his head down in the batting cage. Eventually, he gets a callous. Applejack's comment made me think about that.

 

Understandable about DeRosa.

When you are tracking the ball, your head will rotate back towards the catcher while your shoulder is rotating through the ball

 

The best training advice is the most simple; Hit off a tee..over and over and over. I know it's a science and I'm sure other posters will make some great comments about the technical aspects ( Rotational vs Linear ) triggers and such, but give me Tee practice for hand/eye coordination to get started

 

I'm sure all you guys know more about this subject than me, so is it fair to say that some (most?) HS coaches tend to coach what they know (or knew) as a player? I mean if a coach was a middle infielder is he a better middle infield coach than an outfield coach.
Most on here have agreed that catchers are the worst coached. Maybe it's because most HS coaches weren't catchers.
My son has been very fortunate that his HS coach was a good D1 catcher and his legion coach was a catcher in the Braves and Mets organizations. The best thing is the consistancy of what they both teach.
Do good players make good coaches? Does a good coach even have to have been a player at all?
I'm not trying to be a smart ***. I'm just curious what you think.