u/TMutaffis

I was putting together a plan for Fall baseball and was looking at content and research on bat speed and under-load/over-load training, and wanted to highlight some of the findings.

• Do you need three bats or just two: It is helpful to perform both under-load and over-load training, but you can still get results doing only over-load training.
• Bat Weights: The optimal over-load and under-load percentage appears to be ~20%, but results were still present with over-load training of under 10% and above 50%. For any youth player (7U-12U) this means that swinging any youth wood bat is likely a great option, and has other benefits.
• Ratio of Reps: A good ratio would be 2:1 of overload/underload and regular game bat. I know that there are popular programs that do a 2-2 approach (two swings heavy, two game bat) but you may want to look at doing 2-2-2 (two heavy, two game, two light) or 4-2 (heavy, game bat).
• Intent: This one is interesting. In one of the studies, individuals who hit live pitching had better results than those taking dry swings. The interpretation is that intent is what made the difference, those taking dry swings did not have any feedback and could have taken lazy swings whereas those facing live arm had to swing with purpose every time.
• Weekly Volume: You need about 250 total swings per week to achieve results, and some programs had 500+ weekly swings.
• Duration: It takes 6-8 weeks to have meaningful results. Programs that were shorter in duration did not show a notable improvement.

Using weighted balls to do front-toss is likely a good option since you can push for intent, and can do it in limited spaces with quick resets (not much different than tee work but more portable). Only downside would be that you would not want to use a game bat, especially a composite, but 6-12 weighted balls and a 'beater' bat is still cheaper than a good tee and/or net. Doing 60-80 reps should only take 15-20 minutes, and if done 4X/week for six weeks you'll start seeing results.

I usually have my older son who is now playing 12U hit weighted balls with a wood bat as a pre-practice (and pre-game) routine to get extra swings, along with an infield 'hands' routine. I believe that both of these routines have been beneficial to his overall development as a player.

Hope this helps!

This was originally posted by u/shaknbakn_5 on another sub, and wanted to share it here:

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I worked 33 games in the last 10 days from LL All-stars all the way to summer college ball. We had a few rain delays and I sat with my fellow umpires talking about the differences between average teams and very good teams from our perspectives. Made a quick list, hopefully this doesnt come off as negative. Things that good teams do..

• Warm up pregame with a purpose. Playing good catch and long toss is the most basic fundamental part of this game that often gets overlooked. I can usually predict which team will win just by watching their pregame routines.
• Hustle on and off the field. Too many coaches and players waste valuable game time by not knowing their defensive assignments and substitutions. This usually works itself out by highschool, but we've all watched a game where the team is disorganized, usually leading to bad baseball.
• Situational hitting/small ball. Everyone loves watching homeruns, I get it. That -5 Supra costs 500$.. swing for the fences right? That type of mentality won't work at the higher levels unless your team is full of absolutely savages at the plate. Teach your kids to bunt. Teach them how to move runners over. You'll score more runs against better teams I promise
• Solid pre pitch defensive positioning. Teaching bunt coverages, 1st and 3rd situations, and your outfielders cheating a few steps will save you lots of runs. And for the love of God.. quit holding the runner on 3rd base 😂 I can promise you.. the ROI just isnt worth it.
• Vocal Catchers that lead the defense. I cannot stress this enough.. your catcher needs to be the leader. Your catcher needs to be loud with communication. If your catcher waits for the coach to go calm down the pitcher with a mound visit.. its already too late. To any catchers reading this.. take charge of your team.
• Coaches that let their hitters hit. What i mean by this.. some coaches are giving wayyyy too much feedback and advice to their batters after every pitch. Your batter knows he shouldnt have swung at that high pitch.. no reason both base coaches need to make it a spectacle. Hitting a baseball is hard enough without 5 different adults telling you 5 different things after every pitch. This goes for parents as well. Shut up during your kids at bat.. your kid is already thinking too much. Parents.. please stay out of the dugout as well. Little Timmy is just fine without you for the next two hours.
• Last but not least.. good teams pick each other up. Errors happen. Walks happen. Strikeouts happen. We've all seen the snowball effect when an outfielder drops a ball or a SS makes a bad throw. Good teams limit the damage by focusing on the next play. Body language is huge in this sport.

Ohh one more.. the best teams retrieve foul balls and bring snacks for the umpires on long days (;

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Success is not just setting and achieving goals, you also need to have the right goals.

I've seen some patterns with players plateauing while others progress, even at pre-puberty ages in the 10-12 year old age group, and I believe that a lot of it has to do with what coaches and parents practice, prioritize, and reward.

Pretty much every team/coach talks about development, and perhaps they are developing players to win at the current level, but I think it is also important to think about 'skills that scale' (borrowed that from driveline) and what it takes to play well next season and beyond.

Some examples of things that tend to scale to higher levels of play would be:

• Learning to hit with a wood bat
• Learning to field ground balls one-handed (along with angles, footwork, etc.)
• Staying athletic - speed work, multi-sport athlete, etc.
• Pitching/throwing development
• Building quality routines (warmup, hands routine, hitting routine, etc.)
• Having an approach at the plate, and making situational adjustments

You can still celebrate success at the current level (reaching on error, bloop singles, striking out kids who cannot hit, etc.) while also celebrating the things that will play at the next level. For example, quality at-bats. Your player may not be excited about an eight pitch at-bat or a line drive missile that was caught, but as players progress into high school and college QABs are often what is measured.

Putting this out there for anyone with a player who is 8-12 and thinking about what to work on this off season, some of those things from the list above are easy to implement and can make things much easier for your player when they adjust to higher levels.

Anything else that coaches/parents have seen help their player prepare for the game as it speeds up, the field gets bigger, bats get heavier, and everyone gets better?