Posted by: Bruce Allen (ballen@inetfund.com) on Fri Apr 7 05:16:37 2000

How do you coach kids to hit the ball when it crosses the plate, regardless of it's speed?

My Freshman team opened yesterday. Our opponent could have played us for the first four innings without gloves....anemic comes to mind.

Luckily we jumped on their relief pitcher for 3 runs in the 5th and 3 in the 6th to win 7-5. Played pretty decent defense...holding them run-less over the last four innings.

Funny thing. The first pitcher they threw had some junk and a slow fast ball. We were out in front terribly....hitting weak fly balls to the
infield and/or striking out. The relief pitcher threw harder and we nailed him for 6 runs.

We've worked hard in the cage with 30 foot quick-toss and on the diamond with live BP off hard throwers. Then in our first game we face slow speed and flail.

Looking forward to any responses. I'm new to coaching and love learning about other's drills and techniques.

Cheers