When you coach as long as I have the things that drive you crazy can easily add up. I’ve said it before. We have to keep reminding ourselves that we are coaching kids 8-12 years old. The infield, like everywhere else, seems to have the same common mistakes that come up over and over again. I am going to go through five that I keep seeing year after year and discuss how to alter these errors on the field into outs.…

There is no set age for young players when they start to feel comfortable catching pop ups. Many of the really young players are afraid of getting hit in the face by the ball and will camp under a pop up very apprehensively. Unless catching a fly ball is practiced, their nervousness can lead to injury. There are numerous drills a coach or parent can practice with their players. Some drills will work for some athletes and not for others.…

It is amazing how Little League baseball teams and beyond do not practice some fundamental aspects of the game. From my standpoint, the reason I practice certain things other coaches may not is because I’ve been burned by other teams and have lost games and championships because of it. In my 25 years coaching youth baseball, the list of things that should be practiced is long but some situations come up over and over again.  Here are four of…

When my kids were in Little League twenty years ago, the season basically ran from April to June followed by All-Stars, then sprinkled with additional tournaments that would go to the end of July. Today’s leagues are offering more and more tournaments throughout the summer with some going almost to the start of the school year in September. The proliferation of these tournaments added to indoor workouts that begin in January are putting seven or eight…

In my 25 years coaching youth baseball, I’ve been called a good coach, a great coach, an overrated coach and a horrible coach. I guess it depends on which game or games people have seen me coach to determine which superlative to use. I like to think that my best coaching moves come from my gut and not from the “book” of coaching. People have questioned some moves I have made and asked me why I did what I did. Many times I have to respond, “I just had a feeling…

In my twenty five years of coaching youth baseball, I am always looking for the most efficient practice methods for every aspect of baseball. It took me only a few years to realize that most youth baseball coaches and myself were running batting practice, not incorrectly, but not efficiently. From what I have seen with the typical batting practice, a coach will pitch a predetermined number of balls for each batter with the fielders fielding the hit balls and…

How many times do we as coaches call for a practice, meet the team at the field, only to find one team practicing and one or more other teams waiting to practice? When I first started coaching, this always seemed to happen to me. Part of the reason was because our league at the time was in a little bit of administrative disarray and there would be a lot of misinformation about which fields we were allowed to use for practice. Part of it would be my…

        I have some great news for all youth baseball coaches who feel they have a weak team and still want to be competitive. Here it is. Baserunning. Hardly anyone practices this underrated skill. I started paying more attention to it within my first few years of coaching. When a rival coach in the minors (9-10 years old) was using some strategies that really threw me and our team off. I went to this coach’s next few games just to watch the way he coached his…

For t-ball, the season is ending for coaches, parents and players. Some coaches may have been turned off with their first coaching experience and they are one and done. Others cannot wait to move up to the next level and put their coaching prowess to work. I want those coaches to consider the following article and make sure they file it away. If they follow the principles, they will become better coaches!…

Young players have a hard time not throwing the bat down after hitting the ball. Many players will run to first base with the bat or will dangerously throw the bat toward the dugout or the fans.…

  Good news for baseball fans! In the younger age groups there has been a slight uptick in baseball participation. Hopefully this will continue! Baseball is fortunate now to have two rookies

Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger who may become the face of Major League baseball. Everything adds up. Baseball has also been pushing their “Play Ball” program to try and increase participation. We’ve…

Coaches should teach players at the youngest age that blocking the ball and keeping it in front of them is just as important as catching the ball cleanly. In The Block It Drill, coaches can have a few stations with their assistant coaches and parents. …

Discussed already is the need to separate skills with young t-ballers in early season practices. It is better to have players throw without catching, catch without throwing. Here is an easy drill:

On a fence make a line made out of blue painter’s tape. You can make the line long or short but the longer, the more kids can do the drill at once. The player(s) that are going to have a ball in their throwing hand about 20…

A big role in catching a flying baseball scientifically is something called ‘binocular vision’  which  some scientists think is not fully developed until age 7 or 8 in most kids. T-Ball coaches should recognize this and may be try alternate drills in practice to catching a fly like just having the player’s glove make contact with the ball.…

 This drill is from Marty Schupak's newest t-ball book:

T-Ball Drills: For Ages 4-7

Available January 1st, 2020…

This drill is from Marty Schupak's newest t-ball book:

T-Ball Drills: For Ages 4-7

Available January 1st, 2020

Color Ball…