SwingSmarter.com is a website devoted to the collection of all things hitting, but for this blog post we will focus our attention on their article entitled Teaching Hitting to Youth in 9 Powerful Steps. The article develops nine rules to help coaches teach their youth the science of the swing. Among the principles that guide these nine steps, which include keeping it simple, being patient, giving feedback, and the use tee work, the article stresses the importance of being able to relate to your players. Several ways that the article suggests a coach can relate with their players is by conducting drills in small groups that rotate every ten minutes, finding out what your kids like—video games, reading, other sports—and relate your messages through those vessels, and by rewarding them with games for good behavior at the end of practice.
Most of all, the article stresses the idea of keeping it simple for youth hitters, an idea that many baseball players lose track of later in their careers. Keeping it simple offers the opportunity for youth players to make large improvements through simple instructions. When you focus on one or two simple ideas you can increase your ability dramatically, whereas if you focus on ten ideas in a single session your hitter isn’t very likely to remember anything. Base your instruction relative to the age level, and remember that your instruction is supposed to be what is best for the player, not what will win games.
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