You’ve coached your son’s team at the early ages and everything is pretty simple and straight forward. Then he gets to around 11 or 12 and it seems like the entire game changes.
That’s because it does.
My son is now 11 and a boatload of changes have now made the game much more complicated for him and his teammates. The field is now bigger. Runners can take leads and steal on first move instead of no leads and stealing when the ball crosses the plate. There are now dropped third strikes. And balks. That has meant a lot more practice time on these little changes.
Here is a list of things (many with links to articles and videos to learn more) that they now will have to know how to do.
- How to take a lead off of each base. (article) (video)
- How to get back to the base.
- Learn the options for the 1st and 3rd plays. (article)
- Good base running angles due to longer distances. (article)
- Catchers blocking. (video)
- Pitchers covering home plate on passed balls with a runner on 3rd.
- Pitchers covering first base. (video)
- Pickoffs to all the bases. (video)
- Spin-move pickoffs vs Inward-turn pickoffs. (video) (video)
- Timing of the suicide squeeze on offense. (article)
- Pitching from the stretch position.
- Quicker deliveries to home plate. (video)
- Preventing runners from getting walking leads.
- Learning how to step off the rubber.
- Going first move as a runner with a lefty on the mound. (article) (article)
- The keys to not getting picked off as a runner. (video)
- Become more vocal on the field. (article)
- Asking for “Time” when the pitcher is taking too long in the set position.
My players will not get this stuff overnight and neither will yours. So when you are looking for little drills to throw into your workouts, think of these new concepts and add them accordingly.
