If you have decided to become your son or daughter’s little league coach, it’s important to come prepared to your team’s first practice with all the equipment you will need to help develop your players into a successful squad. The most important tool, you will find, will come in the form of a Zooka pitching machine. With a Zooka pitching machine, you can run batting practice without tiring out your arm, and you can run defensive drills to hone your team’s skills in the field. Here are two models that you may want to consider:

ZS720

The ZS720 Zooka pitching machine is battery operated and can be set up in minutes. It comes with a 12 volt rechargeable battery that, when fully charged (which takes about 10 hours), can throw 800 pitches at 40 mph or 700 pitches at 50 mph before needing to be recharged. It is built within a polycarbonate outer housing unit and has an 1/8 inch thick steel chassis. It can throw pitches from 10 – 50 mph, and it has a digital speed reading to ensure accuracy.

The ZS720 was designed to throw real baseball, dimple balls, or tennis balls, however tennis balls can come out of the machine at 70 mph, so kids should be careful when practicing with that type of ball. The elevation of the pitches can also be adjusted from 2 – 80 degrees to work on popups and line-drives defensively.

ZS740

The ZS740 Zooka pitching machine is similar to the ZS720, expect that it has been developed for older players. The ZS740 is also operated by a 12 volt rechargeable battery; however, it has the ability to throw pitches up to 70 mph. On a fully charged battery, the ZS740 can throw up to 500 pitches at 70 mph. Another feature of this Zooka pitching machine is that is has computer controlled change-ups. This will allow older developing hitters to learn to adjust to the pitch as it is released instead of just assuming you will be getting a fastball.

The ZS740 also features a taller tripod on which the machine is stationed. This will create a more realistic sense of where the pitcher’s release point of the baseball will be as players grow and get taller. Like the ZS720, the ZS740 is designed to throw real baseball, dimple balls, or tennis balls. However, with its more powerful design, tennis balls can be thrown at over 90 mph, so safety is a major concern.

Let me just give you some background on why and how I decided to write an article on how I train my pitchers and baseball players. First off, I recently went on my honeymoon and I literally had a dream on our first night in Fiji about some training protocols for my pitchers at Newell Strength. Secondly, I had phone interviews with Louie Simmons (one of the highlights of my career and a day I will never forget) and Jim Wagner (Trevor Bauer’s of UCLA’s private strength and pitching coach). Add this to the fact that more and more pitchers and baseball players have been finding their way over to me. If you were born in the 80′s or before, you most likely saw the movie, Major League, and if you saw it, then you remember Wild Thing. But how did Wild Thing get to be such an animal on the mound?

I wrote my thesis paper for my master’s on biomechanical aspects of the shoulder joint. The shoulder joint is a complex ball and socket joint. The joints of the shoulder include: glenohumeral joint, acromioclavicular joint, scapulothoracic joint, and the sternoclavicular joint. The rotator cuff is an anatomical term given to the four muscles that act to stabilize the shoulder. It holds the head of the humerus (ball) in the glenoid fossa (socket) (Neuman, 2002). One thing that is often overlooked by many strength coaches is the demands that are placed on the shoulder joint for an overhead athlete. The tremendous range of motion in the shoulder makes it extremely unstable, leading to a high rate of injury. Just a few more scientific terms, stay with me, it is useful to know some of this. The scapula (your wings-the big flat bones located on your lateral upper back) must internally and externally rotate and posterior tilt to maintain ball and socket kinematics (Plum, Van Cingel & Kibler, 2010). Many times, my baseball players will tell me that their shoulders are sore or just not feeling right. This can be due to possible impingement. Impingement is compression and abrasion of the rotator cuff structures during arm elevation (pitching). The supraspinatus has an internal moment arm of 1 inch for shoulder abduction-supporting the load by the hand about 20 inches distal to the glenohumeral joint (GH). The creates a mechanical advantage of 1:20! Meaning the supraspinatus must generate a force of 20x greater than the weight of the load! In addition to this, the shoulder has been shown to have a peak angular velocity of 7000°/second!

OK, now that we got the science part, lets examine some ideas for a baseball player and pitchers workouts. First and foremost, it is essential to strengthen the external rotators because the internal rotators will grow exponentially stronger from so much throwing if nothing is done to correct the imbalance. This can be done through incline rear deal raises with a pause at the top, explosive dumbbell shoulder cleans, face pulls, scarecrows or reverse flyes with a band and pull aparts to name a few. I prefer to also have the baseball pitchers perform a lot of pulling rather than pressing. I find that many pitchers and players are weak in the upper back and strong and short in the chest. For pulling, we do a lot of TRX rows and variations of them, neutral grip pull-ups with the shoulders retracted and depressed just like in bench pressing and Prowler rows.

Also, because of many impingement problems found in pitchers, I like to stay away from too much pushing. The pushing that I do perform with these athletes includes: medicine ball pushups (activation of the upper back and scapular muscles and rotator cuff, alt. incline db pushups (for stability) and standing sled pushing with the sled behind.

Obviously, core training will be key, but we do not go overboard. We pick 2 exercises from the stability and bracing, anti-extension or anti-rotation category and perform them at the beginning of the workout. As for lower body development, we do a lot of dynamic squatting deadlifting along with box jumps. Because most of these athletes are high school age, I do not do a lot of 1RM work, but we do our max work through sets of 5 reps on the above exercises. Sled dragging is always essential in an athlete’s program for hip and posterior chain development. We focus a lot of posterior chain development and ‘hip-hinging’. You must not forget that in addition to pitching or playing the field, at this level, they also still must hit. So in addition to increasing throwing velocity, all my ball players have seen an increase in hitting power with the above program. Lastly, we work on the start of their 60 yard dash which is performed at their combines. The start is critical in any short sprint and for this, I can find no better reference than Joe D’s Mastering the Combine DVD. If you happen to have a stim machine, put it on your players shoulder region or elbow region, especially the day after throwing. For how to use stim on athletes, pick up a copy of the Charlie Francis’ Training System, he goes into great detail on it in his book. Fresh out of ideas, until next time!

This is a question that comes up all the time in youth baseball. Coaches, Parents, and Players are concerned about throwing the curveball because they are afraid of the damage it could inflict on their arm. However, some youth players decide to try to learn how to throw the curveball anyway because they feel it is a more effective pitch than the change-up.

There are multiple problems with this idea of learning the curveball first. The most important problem is youth pitchers try to teach themselves how to throw the curveball which almost always leads to arm problems. The arm problems usually originate at the elbow which can cause major damage and take a long time to recover from. If you want to learn how to throw a curveball I would suggest that you wait till you are 12 years old. In addition, you should always learn how to throw a curveball from someone who is a professional coach and knows what they are doing. I would still advise you not to start throwing a curveball too early.

So, if you can’t learn a curveball right away and you want to have more than one pitch to be a very effective pitcher you have to learn how to throw a change-up. The change-up is a much underrated pitch. It is very deceptive because it looks just like a fastball coming out of your hand, but is 5 to 10 mph slower. The change-up can also break down and away giving the pitch movement along with the change of speed. One of the best parts is the change-up will not do any additional damage to your arm and it is easier to learn how to throw. In fact the difference between a fastball and a change-up is a fastball is gripped on the finger tips and the change-up is gripped deeper in the palm. Your arm angle and arm speed stay the same, which is why the pitch is so deceiving.

I hope this article helped you decide to choose to learn how to throw a change-up before you learn how to throw a curveball for the sake of the health of your arm. It is an easy pitch to learn and once you learn how to throw it is an easy pitch to locate. I really hope that you learn the change-up first, then learn the difference between a two seam and four seam fastball before you learn the curveball. The difference between a two seam fastball and a four seam fastball is the grip. You grip the two seam fastball where the seams come together. You grip the four seam fastball on the side of what looks like a horseshoe on the seams. The two seem fastball will move more but the four seem fastball will be faster.

Sixteen and seventeen year old high school baseball players who want to play summer baseball have to make a choice between American Legion baseball versus travel baseball. And quite often there is some heavy recruiting from the American Legion coaches. Over the past few years legion coaches have seen a drop in the number of players wanting to play American Legion baseball. They now have to actively pursue players. Let’s take a look at why American Legion baseball numbers are dwindling.

Little League Baseball Explodes

The little league baseball scene exploded about fifteen years ago for ten through fourteen year olds. World Series tournaments went from just a few organizations with eight or ten teams to many organizations with tournaments of one hundred or more teams. And over the last six years this expansion of teams and tournaments has carried over to the fifteen through eighteen year old age groups.

Travel Baseball

Previously the baseball choices for these high school age players were limited to a few AAU teams and American Legion teams. Now there many teams called travel baseball teams. These teams do just what their name implies; they travel around the country playing in tournaments or showcases. Some sporting goods manufacturers help sponsor many of these traveling teams.

With this expansion of travel teams, college baseball coaches have figured out a new way to scout and recruit high school players. Rather than travel all over the country and chase summer teams, they now have these traveling teams come play at their stadium. Many college coaches will organize a couple of tournaments each summer. They make a little money on the tournament and get to see lots of players without having to travel.

For the players the exposure to college coaches is invaluable. And they get to play on college baseball fields and see college campuses.

Other Sports Demand Summer Time

Another reason for the drop in players wanting to play legion baseball is other sports. It seems like every high school sport has a summer long training program or other activity forcing kids to play only one sport. High school football and basketball players do not want to go lift weights and workout every morning, and then go play a baseball doubleheader that doesn’t end until eleven pm. It is sad but true that many high school players are forced to choose one sport.

Legion Age Limit Raised

A few years back American Legion raised the age limit of legion players from eighteen to nineteen. This increase has helped teams keep their numbers up. Many freshmen in college like coming home and playing another year of baseball. And recently American Legion has started promoting their Jr. Legion baseball program. They feel that the sooner they get players into the legion program the better. It is too early to know if this feeder program will be successful or not.

What to Do?

So what should a high school baseball player do? Should he play American Legion baseball with his high school buddies, or find a travel team to showcase his skills to many college coaches?

I can speak on this subject from both sides of the fence. I have a son who played four years of legion baseball and another one who is playing travel baseball. American Legion baseball is an old and proud program. Players on the team all come from the same town or city. You wear an American Legion patch on your shoulder. Typically legion coaches stay with the program for many years. You play lots and lots of games, and your home games are played close by. And usually the cost is reasonable. But from my experience not many college coaches or recruiters come to legion games.

Travel teams are usually made up of players from many different high schools. They will practice a lot and it may be far away. Quite often travel teams have hired coaches. They may travel three out of every four weekends. Many tournaments start on Wednesday or Thursday during the day. Lots of car pooling becomes necessary. There can be many college coaches and professional scouts at their games. The cost of travel teams can be very high.

I believe both types of teams are needed and will survive. Travel baseball is not for everyone, nor can everyone afford the cost. However, if you or your son is good enough, there can usually be something worked out. Travel team coaches want to win, so they will find a way for good players to be on the team. If you are a good player it is worth your effort to find a travel team. The college and professional baseball exposure is substantially better with travel teams.

But the American Legion program will continue to be a great choice for many high school players. Many professional and division one players have come out of the legion program. There are just a little fewer coming from legion baseball now.

As a young, developing baseball player, if you want to become one of the best you will need to put in a lot of hard work. It’s important to use all of the tools available to you to help you get better, and one of those tools is youth pitching machines. These machines will not only help you develop into a better hitter, you can also these machines to help you improve your defensive skills. Here are a few tips for using you pitching machines to help you improve as a middle infielder.

Improving lateral quickness

As a middle infielder, you need to be quick. To help you increase your speed, you can set up youth pitching machines to fire line drives up the middle from home plate. Start at your normal second base or shortstop position, and have the machine throw balls right up the middle over second base. Work on getting to ball as quickly as possible, set your feet, and fire it to first for the out.

Double Play Transition

The double-play is one the most exciting defensive plays in baseball. However, as easy as the big leaguers make it look, there is a lot of technique and difficulty involved it performing a double play successfully. In the same manner that you used to practice your quickness in the first drill, you should use youth pitching machines to fire line drives over second base. Again, start at your middle infielder position.

As the balls are fired up the middle, get to them as quickly as possible, however, since we are working on double plays, you will need to control the ball and give it a quick flip to second to get the first out. It’s important to try to make the transition from your glove to your throwing hand as smooth as possible if you want to have any chance of getting both outs.

Cut-Off Relays

As a middle infielder, it’s your job to get to the outfield and cut off any throws back into the infield. Change the adjustments on the youth pitching machines to throw pop-ups to the outfield. As a middle infielder, you need to align yourself between second base and the outfielder with the ball. As the ball is thrown into you, concentrate on planting your back foot as you catch and turn with the ball so that you can make your throw to the next base in one fluid motion.

The art of breaking in a baseball glove is a very important thing to consider if you want to get that same feel of old baseball gloves. There are several different ways to go about breaking in a glove, but we are going to go over one of the more common methods here. It used to be pretty tough to break in a new glove, as all of the gloves were very stiff when they came from the manufacturer. I remember way back when that my dad actually put mine in the oven for a while after rubbing some kind of weird oil on it to loosen it up. Many things have changed in the world of baseball gloves, and most of them these days are softer than their counterparts from twenty to thirty years ago. So here are the three steps to breaking in a baseball glove:

• The first thing that you will need to do is to pick up some baseball glove oil. There are many different brands out there, and all should do pretty-much the same. The oil that I used was the Franklin Baseball Glove Oil that I picked up at WalMart, but you could get yours at a sporting goods store or online as well.

• After you get your oil, you will want to remove all of the dirt and debris from your glove by wiping it down with a clean, dry cloth. After this is done, you just apply the baseball glove oil to the inside part of your glove. You only want to put it on the inside part, not the outside. While the procedure for different oils may vary, you usually just wipe it on with one dry cloth and then wipe it off with another clean one. After doing this, you just let it sit for a while so the oil can soak into the leather.

• This next part is the way that I personally break in my own gloves. After applying the oil and letting it sit for a while, I’ll take a baseball or two and put them into the web of the glove and then close it up tight. I’ll then take some string, shoelaces, or whatever else I can find and tie the glove up tight, with the balls inside the web. This will help to form the pocket. After tying it up, I put it underneath my mattress and sleep on it for a night or two.

Learning proper hitting mechanics is imperative if you are serious about baseball. To become a better baseball player, there are many things that you have to work on. Pitchers need to work on pitching mechanics, fielders need to do many hours of fielding drills, and everyone should work on the different baseball and softball hitting tips that their coaches go over. The baseball swing, incidentally, is a very complex thing meaning that if just one part of it is slightly off, it could have serious consequences. There are many different things that you can do to improve, but here are three tips to help you improve your batting average:

1. Batting Stance – It is a must that you use the correct batting stance. Influenced by every part of your body, your stance is affected by many different things like the positioning of your knuckles, how you hold your hands, and the positioning of your head and feet. All of these can be taught using the help of drills, and when they are mastered you can be sure that your batting average will skyrocket in the process.

1. Your Swing – Some may think that it is easy to hit a ball, but there is more to it than meets the eye. Your brain gets information from your eyes as to the approximate speed and direction that the ball is going. It then tells your arms to swing the bat towards the area where it thinks the ball is headed towards. This in itself is a difficult process, but there is much more involved as well. If you want to become a better hitter, you need to master the pivoting of your feet that allows for maximum hip rotation which gives you more power. It is also important in how you get your bottom hand to the ball and the top hand positioning throughout the entire swing. These will all have to be developed through practice.

1. Bat Speed – A common misconception, brute strength alone is not what creates power. Strength along with proper hip rotation and quick bat speed is where a batter gets all of his/her power. This is a problem for younger players, as they often develop bad habits trying to “kill” the ball with their strength and not paying attention to the other factors involved. A long and looping swing, dipping the shoulder, and arcing the back side are all common errors that happen when younger players try to emulate what they see on TV.

As a first baseman, you have the possibility to be involved in every defensive play. This means that you will need to be skilled in multiple areas. To help you develop your all around defensive game, youth pitching machines can be used to help you go through drills and improve your defensive prowess. Here are a few different drills you can use to get better playing first base.

Shots Down the Line

Playing first base, you will see many balls hit sharply down the first base line. It’s your job to get to those balls. Here’s a way to improve your quickness and corral more of those balls for outs. Begin by setting up youth pitching machines at home plate to fire line drives down the line. Assume your standard defensive position at first, about 8 – 12 feet off the line. As the machine fires balls down the line, work to keep as many as you can from getting to the outfield. Even if you can’t retrieve it and make the play, if you can at least knock it down and keep it in the infield, you are probably saving an extra-base hit.

Applying a Tag at First

When playing first base, you are going to have opportunities to try and pick off base runners at first. It’s important to practice catching the ball from the pitcher and quickly applying a tag on the runner who will presumably be sliding back to first. Youth pitching machines can help you practice apply that tag. Set up the machine on the pitcher’s mound so that it faces first base. Maintain a stance at first that will provide a target for the “pitcher”. Practice receiving throws from the machine and applying the tag on the runner. You can adjust the throwing angle to help simulate the potential for errant throws from the pitcher.

Chasing Foul Balls

As a first baseman, you are going to have to try to catch foul balls where obstacles in foul territory can make that difficult. Using youth pitching machines, adjust the settings to throw pop ups into foul territory. Try to maintain your focus as you chase these balls down to make the play. You may have to deal with avoiding dugouts, fencing or tarp, but when you can make an out without the batter leaving the batter’s box, your team has a much better chance of winning.

This is for parents and coaches who are thinking about having their son play fall baseball, or thinking about coaching fall ball. The first thing you need to ask yourself is will you have fun with fall ball? Before you just say yes to that question, think about it long and hard.

Summer Baseball Is Competitive

Summer baseball, even in the park and recreational leagues, can be a hot bed of competitive fire. Of course it is the adults, coaches and parents, who are the culprits. But do not kid yourself, the kids feel the heat. After a long hot summer they are not ready to do it again in the fall. Give them a break and let them have some fun with fall ball.

My First Fall Ball Game

My first time coaching in fall baseball was a real eye opener. Another coach suggested I try it out. I checked with my summer team and most of them wanted to play. We had a few football players who could not play, but the league had some extra players to give us.We signed up and started practicing just once a week.

We arrived at our first game and I walked out for the coin toss. I remember winning the toss, because I chose to be the home team, and the umpire and other coach gave me a strange look. I didn’t think anything about it, and we played the game.

Game Over – What?

Time limit for this league was one an hour and a half. Well, at exactly an hour and a half the umpire stopped the game. We were on the field. It was in the middle of an at bat. I asked the umpire if we were going to finish the inning. He said no, game is over after ninety minutes. Now I know why I got the strange look for wanting to be home team.

That league at that time was fall ball at its purest. No score was kept. Nobody ever won or lost. It was organized because we had set opponents and there were umpires to call balls and strikes and safe or out. Kids played new positions and some even tried pitching for the first time.

There were three strikes and you are out, or four balls and you walk. We changed sides after three outs. We had a batting order, but everyone batted. It was more like a competitive practice than it was a game. Everybody had fun with fall ball. And players and coaches learned a lot.

Find New Pitchers Right On Your Team

We discovered a couple of new pitchers during that fall ball season. And if I remember right a new catcher. It was a very rewarding season for everyone except a couple of dads. They decided if there were no winners or losers, then it was a waste of time. They no longer attended any games. Their excuse was they wanted to stay home and watch football. Let me tell you, we were better off without them.

Fall Ball Is Different Now

However, people like them have prevailed. Most fall ball leagues now keep score and play for a league championship. And there are lots of fall tournaments being held. In my opinion, unless these are high school juniors and seniors playing in front of college coaches, I’d prefer not to have fall ball so competitive.

But that team, and other teams I coached continued to play fall baseball. The fall weather in the Midwest where I live is perfect for baseball. Kids are in school so you can not practice that often, or very late. There are just too many good reasons to play fall baseball.

But I still continued to coach as if score was not kept. I played players at new positions. I used pitchers who had never pitched before. I encouraged players to try switch hitting.

Communicate With Parents

But I did learn to have a parents meeting prior to the start of the season. And I made sure everyone knew we were not playing to win games. If we happened to win a few games that was great. But we were not changing positions or pitchers only for the reason to win games. I never had anymore complaints or anyone quit fall ball because of this strategy. Competitive parents were actually happy to have a break from win at all cost baseball too.

So have fun with fall ball. Your players are much more likely to work hard over the winter after having a fun fall season. Who knows, you might even like it.

Originally designed for middle and high school aged baseball players, summer travel teams are now providing opportunities for kids as young as 8 years old. I have even heard that in certain parts of the country they are offering travel t-ball. These youth league teams travel all around the country like big leaguers so kids still learning to read, write and complete elementary mathematical computations can play the toughest competition for the biggest prizes. Sounds like a great opportunity for kids who love baseball, correct? Not really. I believe that travel baseball is out of control, and the problems with travel baseball for kids under the age of 12 far outweigh its benefits.

Proponents of travel baseball argue that playing more games against the best possible competition facilitates athletic development. It is hard to disagree with that. However, I urge parents with kids under the age of 12 to evaluate travel baseball with a more critical eye. In doing so, parents should ask the following questions: 1) Is my son really playing the best completion, or is he playing against mainly watered down teams in over-hyped tournaments? 2) Is the focus too much on winning and not on my son’s athletic, social, and emotional development? 3) Is my son’s travel schedule so rigorous that he has lost his ability to be a kid? 4) Is the pressure associated with playing tournament competition age appropriate? 5) What are my son’s long term goals regarding baseball, and how does participating in travel baseball fit with those goals?

While I would like to remove travel baseball all together from the 11-U youth league landscape, I understand that travel baseball is here to stay. With that being said, allow me to offer the following advice to parents:

• Do not let your son play travel baseball until they are at least 12 years old. If you feel that it is absolutely necessary to play travel baseball before the age of 12, find a team that plays about 30 games with minimal travel.

• Look for teams that focus on player development, not winning. Gravitate towards coaches who understand emotional and social development. This can be more important than baseball knowledge.

• Seek out teams with professionally trained coaches or teams who have hired professional coaches to consult with the team throughout the season.

• Find teams who run practices during the season. Running practices during the season is a critical component to the athletic development of young players, as this gives them opportunities to improve skills that were not performed correctly during games.

• Be careful of newly formed travel team. New travel teams are usually formed by those who have self-serving reasons for creating this new team.

When I was growing up in the 1980′s, we all played house league. At the end of the season, the best players made the All Star team, which then competed against other community All Star teams in a post season tournament. Then youth organizations decided to create teams which played a part time travel schedule and a part time house schedule. This later evolved into the development of full time travel teams with significant tournament schedules, sometimes requiring out of state travel and overnight lodging.

Games increased from 30-40 games per summer to 60-70 games, sometimes more. Not only did the amount of games increase, so did the number of teams. Towns and communities which once offered only one travel team now have several options to choose from. Previously considered an honor to be selected for travel baseball teams, now anyone willing to travel on weekends and who is financially able to afford the registration fee can play travel baseball.

The existence of numerous options is a major problem with travel baseball. In the past when kids did not make their travel team, the lesson was to work harder and try out next year. However, with multiple options currently available for many eager travel players, this message has been eliminated. Now, many parents shop their kids around like free agents, looking for teams with the best records and most trophies. Kids who were cut from one travel team simply tryout for another, or parents of those children who were unhappy with playing time simply form their own teams. Last time I checked, sitting on the bench and learning how to support teammates from the sidelines is a valuable lesson that all kids should learn. No wonder we as high school coaches are seeing more and more incoming freshman with spoiled attitudes and a strong sense of entitlement.

Naturally, the existence of multiple travel teams waters down the talent level per team. Now, most travel teams have at least three or four marginal players on the roster because the best players in each community are spread out over several teams. Not only does the existence of multiple travel teams water down the talent level of each team, but it also waters down the number of quality coaches. Let’s face it – great coaches do not grow on trees. And when I say great coaches, I don’t just mean coaches who know baseball (and believe me, there are very few of those). Great coaches are those who can teach and manage the game, as well as understand the emotional and social development of kids, carry themselves with class, honor, and integrity, and teach life skills. Good luck finding multiple great coaches in one community, let alone one!

And while I admit that there are probably just as many bad high school coaches as there are bad travel coaches, the fact of the matter is that many high school coaches are either trained educators or certified by well-respected coaching organizations such as the American Sport Education Program (ASEP). In addition, high school coaches must be accountable to school administrators and athletic directors, in addition to following various policies and guidelines as established by state high school associations. In contrast to this, the majority of travel league coaches do not possess the proper training and experience to work with kids, and most do not have to be accountable to anyone for their decisions, behaviors, and conduct.

When travel league schedules revolve around tournament play, winning inherently becomes the primary focus. Rarely do these teams have time to practice due to the heightened amount of travel and games. This is a glaring problem with travel baseball, as kids need a combination of practice and games to best facilitate athletic development. Simply throwing young kids out on the field to play as many games as possible does not necessarily facilitate athletic development, as younger athletes need considerable practice time to develop their hitting and defensive skills in a pressure free environment.

Basically, what travel baseball has done is put 8-11 year olds in an adult created setting where the pressure to win and perform takes precedent over the emotional and athletic development of the players themselves.

A bi-product of this reality is the coaches themselves acting as if they were managing professional players – the yelling, the throwing of equipment, the arguing with umpires, the sulking after losses. And while it may appear that these travel coaches know what they are doing with their custom made dry-fit coaching shirts and Oakley Sunglasses resting on the brims of their fitted caps, the fact of the matter is that most of travel coaches possess the same amount of knowledge as your average house league coach. In fact, the majority of travel players are being coached by parents who don’t know the first thing about baseball or the social and emotional development of kids. Many of these parent coaches cannot even properly parent their own kids!

Rather than winning, the focus for youth baseball needs to be on development. After all, once these kids hit puberty, it is really not going to matter which travel team your son played on and how many tournaments they won. Athletic excellence and success cannot always be identified at an early age, and inferior athletes will frequently blossom and attain success in later years given the right opportunity to compete and develop their skills. Consistent practice time is a critical component to this development.

Though some may disagree with several of the statements in this narrative, understand that my goal is to report in an honest and straightforward manner what I know to be true from my many experiences working with youth baseball players. I have no hidden agenda. The well-being of kids is always my top priority, hence the reason why I created this article.