If it was true for Vince Lombardi that coaching professional football still means teaching, then it must be even more true for us in youth sports. The more you teach, the more you will be successful as a coach.  It’s that simple.

In this manual we will cover several fundamental skills that should be taught to young baseball players to bring out the best in the aptitudes they were born with. We will start with the three fundamental skills of throwing, hitting and fielding. Then later we will turn to the more specialized skills of pitching, catching, and playing each of the other specific positions on the field.

This manual can’t cover everything there is to know in each skill area; that would take a book much bigger than this one (and a much smarter author!). But we’ll try to cover the most fundamental elements of each essential skill, to get you off to a running start.

To simplify explanation, almost everything here will be in terms that seem to indicate all players are right-handed. For lefties (which are just as valuable, and sometimes even more so), just reverse the “handedness” of each explanation.

There is no one magic system that works best for everybody. There are as many good ways to teach baseball as there are variations in kids, and that is a LOT. So look for what seems to be working best for your own players, and stick to that. You’ll probably find it varies a bit from year to year.

The ideas that follow below are just one coach’s take on how and what to teach. I may or may not have it all right. As you get more experience you will develop your own ideas and opinions.

But for older beginners, the same things will apply. For players who already know the most fundamental elements of each skill, just concentrate on the more advanced material (but make sure their fundamentals really are right).

Finally, one last thought before we get into the specifics that follow: When things seem to be going backward for your team or your players, never hesitate to return to the real fundamentals. Like football is made up of blocking and tackling, so baseball is all about throwing, hitting, pitching and fielding. When a player (or the whole team) seems to have gotten off track, figure out which basic skill is most in need of improvement, and go right back to the fundamentals of that skill for a refresher course. That process works - time spent on the fundamentals always pays off big-time.

Your 12-year-olds may think you’ve lost your mind when you tell them they need an hour of “refresher instruction” hitting off a tee to recover their batting strokes, but they’ll think otherwise when they hit twice as well in the next game. It really is all about fundamentals, fundamentals, and more fundamentals.

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Good throwing is the most important skill for a young player to develop as early as possible.  Hitting is more fun, but good throwing form is more important. The main reason begins with the fact that so many throws will be made in a player’s first season that he will definitely begin developing “muscle memory” and habit patterns around his own natural throwing tendencies, and some of those natural tendencies might not be good ones. Bad habits will have to be rectified later, and straightening out bad throwing form is very frustrating, difficult and time consuming, usually much more so than bad fielding form or even bad hitting form.

So, it pays off later if a player learns how to throw a ball well very early in his development. Then he can spend his time learning the other skills, never having to waste time re-learning the principles of good throwing.

As with hitting, the single best way to throw a baseball can be broken down into a series of elements. Start with a very fundamental throwing stance. Feet spaced a comfortable distance apart, with the toes of neither foot out in front. Shoulders square to the coach, who stands similarly, about 10 to 20 feet away. The young player can “point” to his target with his gloved hand, if that feels right to him. If not, he can delay that element for later.

The throw will be overhand, always overhand. Never practice anything else in the beginning.  Never even plant the idea that sidearm throwing, for example, might be OK. There are other ways to throw that come in handy from time to time (especially when time is limited on a play), but right now we are concentrating on fundamentals.

Now the player brings his throwing hand back to cock his arm for the throw. Ideally, the elbow should be at about shoulder height, pointing in the general direction of the target. The forearm is at an acute angle with the upper arm. At the same time the arm is cocked, the thrower steps a short distance straight toward the target with the left foot, then brings the right arm straight forward to throw. The pointing with the left arm and glove can be combined with the step forward. As the ball is thrown, the shoulders rotate so that the right shoulder ends up closer to the target than the left.

And as the ball is thrown, the left (pointing) hand is pulled into the body (toward the left armpit), offsetting the forward momentum of the right arm.  That improves balance and increases angular velocity so the ball comes out of his right hand at higher speed.

There is one slight complication here. The straight-fastball throw for a pitcher (and sometimes an outfielder), and the straight throw for infield positions often differ just a bit. For the pitcher and outfielder, the forearm moves in a more near-vertical plane until the ball is released. It takes more time, but gets the last little bit of oomph into the throw. For a catcher or infielder, who has less time to get the throw off, it is better that the forearm forms a more acute angle with the upper arm, so the hand starts more “behind the ear”. That allows quicker throwing.

The cocking of the arm is sometimes described as “feeding an apple to the giant”. The player imagines there is a giant (maybe the coach) standing behind him, slightly bent over toward him and facing the same direction. The player’s job is to feed an apple to that giant without turning around.

To accomplish this, he will have to bring his arm and hand into just the right position for throwing a baseball. The wrist will be cocked, that is, it will be bent back, palm up, at perhaps a 120-degree angle with respect to the forearm. The ball is out on the fingers, not in on the palm. The throw is then completed by simply moving the arm forward, and “snapping” the wrist forward also. The arm should follow through after the ball is released, with the throwing hand ending up more-or-less at the opposite thigh.

(A slightly more advanced element is for the thrower to arch his back as he cocks his arm. He does this by thrusting his hips and chest a bit forward. This stores energy in his spine, legs and back muscles; that energy will then be released when he brings his arm forward, helping to drive the ball rapidly toward the target.)

There is an important principle involved in all this, and it applies to hitting and other baseball skills as well as throwing. The idea is stay compact in your form. Avoid “gangling” movement that gets  the arms and legs far from the torso. That is why, for example, we pull the left hand back into the armpit area while the throw is being made with the right arm - it improves compactness, and thereby converts stored momentum into quicker, more powerful, movement (in this case with the right arm).

Overhand is the best way to throw for several reasons. First, it makes the most efficient use of the muscles involved in throwing, and so produces the most velocity. Second, properly performed, it results in the most accuracy. Third, it develops strength in the right muscles – the ones that are most important for throwing. Fourth, it entails the least risk to the tendons and ligaments in the joints of the elbow, wrist and shoulder. As stated before, there are other good ways to throw, at the right time and place, but right now we are teaching fundamentals.

You might have concluded by now that this overhand throwing form is very similar to the form that a baseball pitcher employs to throw a good fastball, and that is exactly right. So if your young player wants to later become a pitcher, he will have already learned the most fundamental pitching throw. And all the time between now and then will have been spent developing strength and the right memory in all the right muscles.

So, most fundamentally speaking, that’s it. It now just takes practice and more practice. Slow, short throws at first. For the young kids, use a safety ball, not a regular hardball. The player’s goal on every throw is to throw straight into the coach’s chest. Never mind speed at first, it’s form and accuracy we want to develop. Use whatever speed allows him to hit his target as often as possible.

When he can do that with some consistency, increase the spacing of coach and player. When his form begins to waver, and it will from time to time, remind him about the giant, about staying compact, and about stepping and pointing, and coming straight “over the top” with his throw. It will take time, but if you keep after it, you will develop an accomplished thrower in several week’s time, in just 15 minutes a day. And next year he will be a half-mile ahead of where he would be otherwise.

There is a good alternate drill you can use. Have the player kneel with his throwing-side knee (only) on the ground, that upper right leg vertical, and the left foot flat on the ground a little out in front. Then commence throwing with a similar form as above. The advantage of this drill is that the player will have to do all the throwing with his arm and upper body. His legs cannot help out.

This allows both you and him to concentrate on the form he is using with his right arm, wrist and hand. It can help a lot in the teaching process. Of course, the strength of the throw will be reduced, but we are trying to develop form and accuracy with this drill, not velocity.

A word or two about grip. Unquestionably, the best grip to teach is the “four-seam fastball” grip. If the young player’s hand is still too small to employ this grip, just approximate it as best you can.

The index and middle fingers grip the top of the ball, with the thumb underneath. The ball is out toward the end of the fingers and thumb, not in toward the palm. The two fingertips are right on top of the same seam (which runs sideways with respect to the fingertips); they sort of grip that seam.

The idea is that the last contact the throwing hand will have with the ball should be at those two fingertips. Both fingertips will lose contact with the ball simultaneously. The ball “rolls” off those fingertips, with the top of the ball rotating toward the thrower, the bottom toward the target. This produces the one rotation (spin) of the ball that is ideal for straightness – the ball rotates around an axis that is horizontal and perpendicular to the flight of the ball. The four-seam grip is the one that all young pitchers should use, too. Nearly all other grips help produce “movement” which can be difficult to control, even the “two-seam” grip. No matter what position your young player ends up playing, the four-seam grip will be the most important one for him to employ whenever the play allows him time to have a choice (which is most of the time).

A good way to practice this grip is to toss the ball repeatedly into the glove, or opposite hand, and then reach for the ball without looking, obtaining the proper grip as quickly as possible. The goal is to “feel” the correct fingering of the seams.

Finally, don’t worry if your young player doesn’t seem to get all this down exactly right in his first year. If you put in the time and the teaching this season, you will know you did the right thing when you see him start throwing early next year and see how much better he looks and throws compared with the previous year. And he will know, too.

"Our mission is not really to teach the boys.
It is to help them find it within themselves."
      -anon

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Hitting a round, fast-moving baseball (or softball) with a round bat is not easy. Even the professional players will tell you that, and do. And even the professionals seldom get more than one hit out of every three trips to the plate.

If you watch professional baseball on TV, you will see many different batting stances, many different-looking strokes, many different approaches to this difficult skill. It almost seems as if the best hitters are those that simply have a gift from God, each one a little different maybe, but each one successful simply because he has followed his own natural tendencies.

Well, that is not true at all. Baseball has been played, studied and analyzed for a long time now, and the best coaches and players are pretty much agreed. There really is an optimum way to hit a baseball. True, there are many successful variations on that optimum approach, and some improvements will probably keep coming along from time to time. But, one way or the other, they almost always incorporate the same elements -- the elements that maximize success.  Young players need to be taught what those elements are; they will not even come close to achieving their full potential just by doing what seems natural to them.

Every professional player will tell you about the coaches that made a big difference in their careers, the coaches that taught them their skills. Babe Ruth was a case in point, and he was unquestionably the greatest all-round baseball player the game has ever seen. Because his parents owned a bar, they didn’t want him hanging around the family business after school. So they sent him off to live (and play baseball) at a nearby Catholic boy’s home (an “industrial school”) in Baltimore. It was there as a kid that the Babe said he learned his batting stroke, from a clergyman and teacher named Brother Matthias. If you watch films of Babe Ruth, you will see his batting technique was made of the same elements that are still being taught today. (Where do you suppose Brother Matthias learned it all?)

The essential elements of hitting comprise a fairly long list, and everything on the list is important.  You can’t teach it all at one time. It literally takes several years for a young player to come to an understanding of all the elements, and get them fit properly together. I believe the best approach is to start your players as young as possible, and begin showing them some of the elements from the very beginning. But only some of them. This approach has worked very well for me.

There are two big reasons you want to start teaching your young players as early as possible. First, at age 5, 6 and 7 they have great enthusiasm and desire to succeed. Especially in hitting, because that skill is the one that’s the most fun. If you help them with early success as hitters, they will develop a positive self-image, and that can make all the difference. Second, you don’t want them to form bad habits and “muscle memory” that is just plain wrong. Bad habits can be very difficult to rectify later.

It is a real challenge for kids that start late to ever catch up with the ones that got started when very young, assuming the early starters got decent coaching.

On to the elements. For the youngest players, from the very first day, you can teach them how to position their feet at the plate. That one element is absolutely crucial. If a batter does not stand properly with respect to the strike zone, pitchers will see that, and he ruins his chances of hitting his way on base. Proper positioning should become an automatic habit very early in the process. But for young players it requires constant reminders. Most kids just don’t get the importance of foot positioning for quite a long time - often their entire first season. But the essence of coaching and teaching is repetition, so here’s a chance to practice your technique.

I’m not going to go through a full description of exactly where a typical batter’s feet should be. In all likelihood, you already know something about it anyway. Suffice it to say that the “sweet spot” on the hitter’s bat must be able to reach all parts of the strike zone. And to start with, he should not be all the way either up (toward the pitcher) or back (toward the catcher) in the batter’s box. A good compromise is to have him line his belt buckle up with the back corner of the plate (not the sharp tip where the baselines converge).  In the batter’s box, he should stand just a bit pigeon-toed.

You can take it from there, and we’ll cover more detail about it in the coach’s clinics.

Young players can also learn how to grip the bat. Not the very best grip; that will come later because it is a bit “unnatural”. But an acceptable grip for very young players. Left hand about a half-inch above the knob of the bat, and right hand up against the left. I used to tell the youngest players to keep their hands touching, because that is what I meant. But lately it has occurred to me they seem to understand better if I tell them to keep their hands “mooshed” up against each other.

In all skill-teaching, use the language that seems to work best for your kids. Watch them to make sure they don’t forget and start spreading their hands; it’s a very common problem. Also, note that the back of the left hand should not be facing the “opposite side” (first base for a right-handed batter); it should be turned more toward the pitcher. Also don’t let them grip the bat so that it is buried in the back of their hands - we want a looser grip on the bat, with the bat handle about centered at the base of the fingers, not back in the palm. More about these last two points at the clinics.

Vertically, the hands are best held near the top of the strike zone. Batters can then be trained to avoid swinging at any pitch above their hands.

The bat should be held up and back at about a 45-degree angle, with the upper hand (right hand) at just about shoulder height. Don’t be concerned with keeping the right elbow up. That technique has become popular lately for some reason, but many good coaches and professional players discount it. It might work for some players, but does has definite disadvantages. First, it tends to cause the bat to be jammed into the web between thumb and index finger of the right hand, and that hurts power and bat control. Second, the elbow will later have to be dropped anyway, so the bat can be swung properly. And it lengthens the swing, which is bad. I think the best approach might be to let players keep the elbow up if it comes naturally to them that way, but don’t force other players into worrying about that elbow -- let them hold it for now wherever it feels most natural for them (though not WAY down against the ribs), and where it gets the best results for that player.

Then you can show them how to shift their weight onto their back foot as the pitcher goes through his motion, and then take a very short stride forward with the front foot just before starting their actual swing. This shift-and-stride weight shift (back, then forward) sounds pretty complicated for young kids, but in my experience nearly all of them learn it very quickly from a simple demonstration. Once they try it, it somehow seems entirely natural to most of them. Remember that the stride should be quite short and directly toward the pitcher, with no movement of that front foot in any other direction but toward the pitcher. The right time for the stride is when the pitcher is releasing the pitch.

In hitting it is important to minimize head movement. Moving the head makes it more difficult for the eyes to track the flight of the pitch and direct the bat toward the ball. So the front-foot stride should be quite short, to avoid pulling the entire head down. (Later I will point out that the head must rotate slightly to track the pitch to the bat, but that is not meant to contradict the idea of minimizing head movement.) The head should not be tilted to either side; keep it upright, with the eyes level. It can be good, however, to have the head tipped down just slightly (i.e., with chin tucked a slight bit), so the sight-line is not horizontal, but directed a bit downward.

Have your young batters take lots of practice swings until it all begins to smooth out. They will enjoy that, and you can watch them and offer suggestions to correct the defects in hand positioning, hand movement, weight shift and stride, and the actual swing of the bat.

Get them to relax, with their muscles loose, not tensed up. They can even be using a little constant rhythmic or orbital motion with their arms and upper body if it helps them stay loose as the pitcher makes his delivery.

I believe that completes the list of elements for first-year hitters. There are more elements to add in later years. Things like optimum grip, the pigeon-toed and knock-kneed stance, the inward turn, hip rotation, variations for expected pitch, etc, etc. And bunting, of course. But they are all too much for young players, and trying to teach them all early-on would simply overload them.

At this young age, left-handed batters are a challenge. To develop their swing, they must be taught how to hit the ball to the right side of the diamond. That makes them vulnerable to the problem I just explained - the short throw from second to first for the out. So lefties, even more than righties, need to develop some strength and power as quickly as possible, so they can drive the ball into the outfield. Later in their careers, when they are older and stronger, being a left-handed batter can have some distinct advantages (consider how a left-hander starts out closer to first base, for example), but early-on it’s usually a challenge. Some young lefties, like righties, will have a tendency to hit the ball to the opposite field (left field in this case), and so you might be tempted to let them keep this tendency in the interest of seeing them get safely to first base. But this ignores the development of their needed skill for pulling the ball strongly to right field. There is a balance in there somewhere, and you will have to find it for each naturally left-handed batter. Note that the most successful (older) left-handed hitters are power hitters, not singles (”scratch”) hitters. A wonderful solution for some lefties is to make them into switch-hitters, but unless the particular kid is naturally quite athletic, that may not be a smart path to take when they are still trying to learn the fundamentals from their most natural side.

What every player needs now is proper repetition, repetition and more repetition. There is no substitute for that, and that is why they cannot become skilled baseball players at NSBC’s “official” practices. Young players MUST practice at home, and that is best done (by far) with an interested adult coach who can show them how to adhere to the best techniques. Best of all is Dad or Mom.

Start with a 9” safety ball, not a regular hardball. And get them used to wearing a helmet whenever they are going to bat. Nasty injuries kill enthusiasm, and you don’t want that to happen to any player. Some kids will want batting gloves, and if the family budget permits it, using them is OK.  But in my experience, for the youngest kids they are more of a psychological crutch than a necessity. (But when using a wood bat, they can be a real help; see Appendix K.)

It’s important that practices always have a big element of fun. That means that there must be variety in what the players are doing, and little standing around waiting, or listening to lectures.  Start your players hitting off a batting tee. The big attraction here is that all elements of the swing can be practiced, and the ball hit, without having to track a pitched ball. The kids have fun whacking the ball, and the coach can make sure their entire technique is correct, including all the elements described above. Also, the hitters can be trained to keep their eye on the ball, and can be taught about the “sweet spot” on the bat (mark it with tape). Most will often be hitting the tee itself rather than the ball, from time to time. This defect points up how they must develop their hand/eye coordination. When they can consistently hit the ball off a tee, you know their eyes and hands are working together pretty well.

“In order to bring about a positive result with children, or with anyone for that matter,
you must repeat, repeat, repeat. You must constantly reiterate something until it
becomes a positive habit.”
- Wayne Dyer

Tee work often has to be repeated frequently. But hitting a pitched ball is not as difficult for many young players as you might expect. Typically, they will be eager to try it. So as soon as you see the slightest indication they might be successful, give it a try. Don’t abandon the tee altogether; keep going back to it to smooth out their stroke, and work on the fundamentals. But let them have a go at pitched balls as well. It raises enthusiasm, and the more of that you have, the faster your kids will learn.

When pitching to young players, do your best to throw them flat pitches, rather than looping ones.  Flat pitches are easier to hit, and how many looping pitches do you think they will ever see in real baseball games? Stand as close as necessary, and don’t be afraid to try a little more velocity than you might think appropriate at first. These young tigers are often able to hit faster pitches than might be expected, and they like the challenge. But the main rule, at least in the beginning, is to throw at whatever speed and arc helps the particular hitter be successful in connecting with the pitch and building his confidence. Confidence and enthusiasm are key.

A variation on the pitched ball is to use golf-ball size wiffle balls. You can buy these for as little as 2 dollars per dozen at golf shops or sporting-goods stores. The advantage here is that the balls are small, so later the regular 9” ball will look like a fat watermelon. The hitter’s eyes get sharpened.  And wiffle balls almost never do any damage, no matter how hard they are hit. You can even use them indoors, or in the garage when the weather is bad. They’re also available in the 9” size, but cost more. There are probably some good prices available on the internet, but you’ll have to check current prices. You can hit 9” wiffles off the tee, too, even in the garage.

There is also a fairly new training device that has become available that’s pretty reasonably priced, and really works in developing hand/eye coordination. It’s called the Hit-Away device, and costs about 20 dollars. You strap it to a tree or pole, and a young player can operate it entirely by himself (although you should be there in the beginning to get him off to a good start). It’s a great aid in helping him learn to hit the ball on the nose, and two or more kids will quickly think of ways to turn it into a competitive game, and so hold their interest for a period of time. Even 10 minutes a day with Hit-Away can be of enormous help. For the price, it’s first-rate.

A variation on Hit-Away play is for the hitter to hold the bat with just one hand -- pushing the bat through with the right hand only, or pulling it through with the left hand only. This can help teach what the job of each individual hand is when hitting the ball. It’s best done when you are there, so you can correct any defects in hand use. But when they are really serious about hitting the ball well, they should use the regular two-hand grip, of course.

A common problem that many players have is that they don’t keep their eye on the pitched ball as it approaches the plate. They keep their eyes directed out toward the pitcher while the pitched ball passes through the strike zone; they don’t turn their head to follow the ball. You want to train them to watch the ball all the way to the point in space where the bat smacks it. That means that at the point of impact, the head and eyes are pointed somewhat down, looking right at the event of bat-meets-ball. Players that develop that habit are the ones that turn into the best hitters. No surprise there, right? If the batter does not watch the ball all the way to the bat, he may as well be closing his eyes when the pitch is half-way to the plate, and that would certainly not produce good hitting. Vision is critically important in hitting.

A good teaching technique for keeping the eye on the ball is to station a batter at the plate, and have him track the pitched ball with his head and eyes all the way into the catcher’s mitt, without taking a swing. If you do this a few times each practice session, it often helps young hitters develop good technique for tracking the pitched ball all the way to the bat. It also helps them to learn a good feeling for where the strike zone is, if an umpire is calling those practice pitches, balls or strikes.

When coaching young players, use praise lavishly. Good batting is tough to learn really well, so coaching technique is really important. When you compliment a player for doing something well, no matter how small, they have a tendency to remember what earned that praise, and repeat it again and again. Criticism and negative comments, on the other hand, kill enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is the mother of accomplishment. So no matter how poorly a player executes a drill at first, look for the part they are doing well, and compliment them for it. That compliment will help cement that well-done part, so you can then leave that behind (at least for awhile) and concentrate more on what they are not yet getting right. Praise leads to smiles, smiles to enthusiasm, enthusiasm to real skill.

The Natural is just an extreme case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Work only on the aspects of hitting that need attention. The Natural has nearly everything working so well that he’s getting a lot of good hits. So for him we initially leave almost everything alone.

In 16 years of coaching, I’ve had a grand total of exactly one true Natural. What I was able to help that player with was not the mechanics, but the mental part of batting. Especially learning to be a smart hitter, waiting for the right pitch, how to out-fox the pitcher.

So far, what has been described is “linear” hitting, where the hitter’s body moves along a straight line toward the pitcher. It can be described as a technique for delivering momentum to the ball through the process of shifting the hitter’s weight straight forward, into the pitch. After young players have two or three seasons of fundamental linear hitting behind them, many are ready to learn how to add a great deal more power to their stroke - through an additional process of “rotational” momentum. Some players maybe even sooner. The new rotational movement I am going to describe can double or triple the hitting power of most batters.

Adding in hip rotation, then, means the sequence of events for the hitter changes to something like this: weight shifts onto the back foot, then as the pitch is released by the pitcher a small stride forward with the front foot on every pitch, just as before. Then, if the pitch is judged a candidate for hitting, the hips start coming around (or “opening up” as you will commonly hear it described).

Then the shoulders start turning, and the hands start coming forward (but the bat does not yet start to come out over the plate), then finally when the pitch is judged to be something the hitter wants to commit a swing to, the wrists bring the bat around. At the point of impact, the hips are very nearly square to the pitcher, and the shoulders not far behind. The final decision on whether or not to swing is delayed until just as the shoulders are getting committed. This technique brings the bat to a point where it is nearest to a 90-degree angle with the pitch (or even a bit beyond that), and the bat velocity maximizes just at the point of impact (which delivers the most energy to the ball). The body rotation initiated by the hips is what delivers the additional power into the ball as it’s hit.

The hips are brought around using a technique often called “squashing the bug”. This technique, and all the other parts of rotational hitting, will be demonstrated at the coach’s clinics.

How to teach this?  Use a tee, even with older players, and practice the sequence described above with practice strokes off that tee until it becomes ingrained into the player’s muscle memory.

Because this hip rotation business has been delayed until now, we are forcing the player to sort of “unlearn” his previous stroke, and adopt this new more effective one. That will take some time, so don’t expect this to take hold immediately when you first show it to your hitters. But when they start getting it down, you will see some eye-popping hits start coming off their bats, really dramatic improvement in your team’s ability to hit the ball. Babe Ruth learned it when he was 8 or 9, from Brother Matthias. Hopefully, your players will learn it from you.

The second improvement you can teach at this point is “proper” grip. Up until now, we have been letting the players grip the bat in whatever manner feels most comfortable for them, only checking to make sure they keep their hands up against each other. For most hitters that will mean they line up the first knuckles on each hand with the second knuckles on the other.

But since bat speed is so critically important in hitting, what if there was a better grip that automatically improves that bat speed? Well, there is such a grip. It only requires hitters to rotate their knuckles so the middle knuckles of the top hand are about midway between the first and second knuckles of the bottom hand. It will feel a little unnatural for many players at first, but when they get used to it, they will find more and better hits coming off their bats, and they’ll be hooked.

In the beginning, good knuckle alignment feels a little weird for many hitters, but it produces better bat speed, and real results.  Miguel Tejada, who is now a member of the Baltimore Orioles, is a particularly good example of a major-leaguer your kids can watch for good hitting techniques. Like so many other big-leaguers, he pays a lot of attention to his grip on the bat. If you watch him, you can see it.

For the most advanced young hitters we might add one or two more wholly-optional elements: the inward turn, and the knock-kneed, pigeon-toed stance.

The inward turn is just a little motion that cocks the bat (storing up a little extra energy) just as the pitcher’s arm comes around. Just before he starts his front-foot stride, the batter rotates his front shoulder just a bit in toward the plate and away from the pitcher. And he may lift his front foot and cock his front knee (and hip) by pulling it back a little. Then he goes into the forward stride with his front foot. It’s that simple. Some batters may like it, others not. You will have to experiment.

The knock-kneed, pigeon-toed stance is an optional answer to the problem of “balance” in the batting stance. What balance refers to is the stability of a hitter as he stands in the box. If you walk up behind a lot of hitters and give them a little shove from behind (toward the plate), they will topple right over. That instability does not help to get good hits. Turning the knees and toes toward each other a bit improves this situation for some hitters. An obvious example to watch for this kind of batting stance is Moises Alou, who will be playing the 2005 season for the San Francisco giants.  Check him out on TV if you are interested.

Finally, a carefully-guarded secret about bats. Your reward for reading along this far. The best, most effective swing is short and compact. Wood bats encourage that sort of swing, because hitters quickly learn (through simple experience) that the “sweet spot” on a wood bat is relatively small, about half as long as on an aluminum bat. The aluminum bat has a bigger sweet spot, and so encourages longer, less compact swings (which is not good). Consequently, you’re smart to practice with wood bats, and then play your games with aluminum bats. Hitters that have developed the short, compact swing as youngsters will have a much better chance of “making the team” when they get into the older, more advanced levels of play. Experienced coaches are looking for that compact swing - and they can spot it from a mile away.

A compact swing is one where the arms, hands and bat are kept in close to the body until the very last possible instant. This aids the build-up of rotational momentum. Then, when the hitter decides he really does want to swing at that pitch, his wrists bring the bat out over the plate to hit the ball.  Full arm extension does not happen until the time of impact, or even an instant later.

You may have young players that complain about the wooden bat stinging their hands. It’s caused by the vibration set up when the bat strikes the ball. There’s not a lot you can do about it, except suggest your kids wear batting gloves (and make sure the wood bats are not cracked or broken).

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Bunting is an essential part of baseball, a wonderfully effective weapon for the team that knows how to do it well. Here I will talk only about a very basic bunting technique, but extensions from there should be pretty obvious. The basic technique can be used for sacrifice bunts, surprise bunts and slap hits. Even quicker techniques can be added later.

Basic bunting takes much longer to explain than to execute. The batter takes the same stance in the batter’s box as though he were up there to bang out a long line drive.  But as the pitcher’s arm comes around, rather than striding forward a bit with his front foot as he normally does, the batter moves up in the box. His left foot ends up about parallel to the third-place line, a comfortable distance from his right foot, which is very near the inside line of the batter’s box and just in front of the plate. His shoulders are about square to the pitcher. He bends his knees so that he assumes a partial crouch, and faces the pitcher as the ball approaches. (He is up in the box so that when he gets the bunt down, it goes down in fair territory.)

He slides his top hand up to the end of the bat’s grip wrapping, and maintains a loose grip so he can direct the bunted ball in the desired direction. The left hand does not shift. He holds the bat out in front of him (toward the pitcher), with his arms extended (but the elbows not locked). He lowers his body and leans out over the flight line of the pitch until his line of sight is almost lined up parallel with it. He holds the bat so it appears to him to be at a 45-degree angle (tipped toward first base), and also tips the bat’s head a little toward the pitcher. He then simply places the bat in such a position that the “sweet spot” will intercept the ball. When the ball strikes the bat, the bunter deadens the blow by letting his arms absorb the shock, so the ball rebounds only a little off the bat.

The batter does not try to “pinch the bat” or hide his upper hand behind the bat in an effort to avoid its getting hit by the pitch. By keeping his eyes open, he will protect his hand and fingers by putting the fat part of the bat in front of the ball, not his hand. Even if the worst happens, and he loses control of the situation, all he has to do to avoid being hit is to drop the bat, or pull it back. But that is very seldom necessary, and by keeping a secure (but loose) grip on the bat, the bunter is able to control where his bunt goes (usually down one of the base lines), maximizing the effect of his bunt.

The batter’s grip on the bat is loose so that he can cushion the shock when the ball strikes the bat.  The bat is held at a 45-degree angle (tilted toward first-base) for very good reasons. If held in a vertical position, the batter would find it almost impossible to direct the ball left or right; it would just go wherever it wanted after striking the bat. If held horizontal, the risk is that the batter could pop his bunt up to the catcher or pitcher (you even see big-leaguers make that mistake from time to time). But if the bat is held at 45 degrees, a popped-up bunt will almost always go foul and out of play. And with the bat at 45 degrees, the batter still retains the ability to direct the ball left or right, as he desires, when he puts the bunt down.

Note that during all of this, the batter’s feet are still 100% inside the batter’s box. That’s important, because if the batter contacts the ball with a foot outside the batter’s box (or worse, in contact with home plate), he will be called out by the plate umpire, who has an excellent view of what is going on right in front of him.

Before actually offering at the ball, though, the batter will normally want to make sure it’s a buntable strike. If the pitch appears to be out of the strike zone, the batter will usually want to pull the bat back (but not always, since he may have baserunners to think about), to make it clear to the umpire that he did not try to contact the ball. The batter wants that bad pitch called a ball.

A slap hit can be made by using the same foot motion and semi-crouch (to pull the infield in), then pulling the bat back at the last instant, sliding the left hand up to the right, and banging the ball past the charging third baseman who is usually unable to react fast enough to knock the ball down. Slap hitting takes more practice, of course, but is a beautiful tactic when executed properly in the right situation.

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For the most young players, I don’t believe in teaching much fielding in their first year of organized baseball. The reason is that fielding is the least fun of the three fundamental skills (hitting, throwing and fielding), and it’s harder for 5-, 6- and 7-year-olds to learn because their attention spans are still pretty short. Besides, they don’t really need to know much about fielding at this age anyway – they have a lot of fun just hitting and throwing. They don’t understand the rules, and no one is keeping score yet anyway. And finally, fielding often involves getting hit by the ball, which can dampen enthusiasm. There will still be plenty of time to learn fielding over the coming seasons, and there is little likelihood of their developing bad fielding habits at this age that would have to be rectified later.

The very first and most basic thing the young player should understand is that to field a grounder, he should do his absolute best to get in FRONT OF THE BALL. For youth players (and most others too), attempting to field a ball that is off to the side of their body is destined to fail 90% of the time, or worse. They MUST learn to move to the ball, and get in FRONT of it. You can drill them on this simply by rolling balls to their left and right, and encouraging them to “slide” their feet in the right direction so they get squarely in front of the ball before it gets to them. No cross-over steps yet, just simple sliding to left or right. Start slowly, then increase speed as the skill develops.

Use safety balls, not a regular hardball – players are bound to get hit from time to time, and we don’t want them to develop a fear of the ball, because that kills enthusiasm and the learning process.

The second fundamental thing they must learn is that the ball is best fielded with the HANDS, well out in front of the body. Once the player gets in front of the ball, he should try to field it with his glove (primarily) and bare hand, not letting the ball get close to his body, or worse, in between his legs. There are two big reasons. First, if the ball is played well out in front, the player can see the ball into the glove most easily – the angle of his vision to the ball changes the least as the ball approaches. Second, if the ball takes a bad hop, he still has some time to adjust before the ball gets in so close to his body that he’s likely to lose sight of it, and lose control of the situation. In later years he will learn how to make moving backhand and forehand catches of ground balls, and those too are best made out in front. So playing the ball well out in front should be learned early and well. It pays off big later.

Use the “clamshell method” of glove and hand positioning. The glove’s fingertips are touching the ground; the glove face is at about a 60-degree angle (more vertical than horizontal) to the ground.  The throwing hand is just above the glove (with fingers splayed out) to protect against bad hops. As the ball enters the glove, the glove cushions the impact, and the glove and ball are drawn back and up into the stomach while the bare hand covers the ball and seeks a proper grip for throwing. The player then shuffles his feet so he steps toward the target with the left foot, and throws - all in one continuous motion.

The best fielding position (except for the head) is something like sitting on the edge of a chair, while reading a newspaper that is on the floor out in front. The feet are spread rather wide. The knees are bent, so the butt is down, with back at a low angle to the ground. But the head is up, so the eyes are peering almost level to the ground. The glove is held comfortably out in front, with the finger tips (only) in contact with the ground.

The last few paragraphs are fundamental. But there’s a bit more to it than that. The main additional thing is that the arms, legs and body are part of good fielding technique also. The old mantra “knock it down, pick it up, throw ‘em out” comes into play. What this refers to is that a fielder must understand his first responsibility is to keep the ball in front of him (“knock it down”), so that he can get control of it (“pick it up”), and then make the right throw. Grounders are usually skipping and bouncing over the playing surface, so getting control cannot always be done with the glove and hands alone. The arms, legs and body become a backstop for getting control.

They should also be taught that, when picking up a ball that is lying on the surface of the ground, they should push it lightly into the ground while picking it up. That is to help ensure they don’t reach for it, but miss. And to kill any latent spin the ball may still have.

For the older players, good fielding skills are developed only from practice, practice and more practice. As a coach you will be hitting infield practice a lot; it’s an essential part of almost every practice session. That’s because you will learn sooner or later that it is good defense that wins games more than any other single thing.

More advanced infield techniques like some of those mentioned above will be covered in our coaching and player clinics, but it’s really the basics that you must practice the most. It is the basics that will save games for you by far the most often. The more advanced skills come in handy from time to time, but usually only for the most advanced 12-year-olds. The younger kids should spend 95% of their practice time on the basics: know where you will go with the ball if it is hit to you on the next pitch, then get in front, knock it down, pick it up, throw ‘em out.

If you preach that mantra over and over, you will produce a good defensive team in the 12-and under age groups. Then use the more advanced skills as nothing more than icing on your team’s cake.

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