Got me a Coach Pitch team this year.

Comfortable with fielding, pitching, base running, and the like.

But am least confident in the hitting aspect. What drills have you found to generate the most success for your kids or kids that you've coached that were 8 years and under?

My initial thoughts are focusing on posture/stance, staying on back foot, driving through the ball. But easier said than done!

The most embarrassing thing about the A&M hitters last year was inability to lay down a bunt. Teach those kids how to lay down a sacrifice bunt.

And there's a lot teaching that can be done on a tee.

Drill #1....take it to a baseball board.

Probably get more traction there in regards to the question. Now, if you were asking what you needed to have a perfectly manicured baseball diamond, you're in the right spot.

The biggest thing is having a coach that can consistently throw strikes. I have watched a lot of coaches strike out their own guys. Our head coach did a really good job simplifying the kids swings and getting them to make contact.

rather be fishing said:

---

The most embarrassing thing about the A&M hitters last year was inability to lay down a bunt. Teach those kids how to lay down a sacrifice bunt.

And there's a lot teaching that can be done on a tee.

---

This is an interesting take on a team that wasn't expected to make the SEC tournament and ended up 4th in the country. Additionally, I am pretty sure you can't bunt in coach pitch.

Interested. My kiddo is starting coach pitch this year too.

Can't bunt in little league coaches pitch.

You've already listed WAY too many things for most kids at 8 and coaches pitch.

I'd concentrate on getting them to, by themselves, completely make sure they are in the right position every single pitch - feet, hands, elbows, head, eyes and location in the batters box.

Focus on level through the zone swings, no golf swings no axe chops. This means consistent m, through the zone pitching m. No rainbows no curves. Played against a team who's back up dad pitch slow pitch softball toss all game struck out like every single kid. 8 year olds should be able to hit a 40 -50 mph fast ball if it's consistent.


Drills, is time in the cage and quit when they are done. Pushing them when they ain't there doesn't make positives. Hitting heavy balls, soft toss and off a tee helps identify areas to focus on for individuals.

Need a pitcher that throws from a low position (more important thanks strikes)


Hit at practice, a ton. we had tee in left field. Wiffles in right field. Coach pitching in the middle. We spent 2/3 of time doing this.

Have non-baseball-Like fun. Start every practice w a completion. We used a relay race to start and kids were pumped and willing to try hard immediately. Also did half kids at SS and 2nd. Have a points competition for good glove and throws. Loser has to run in circles or to the fence. Get them involved early and the next 80 minutes are fun.

3 regular seasons and went 28-2 and zero bored kids.

Check with the league….some make the coach throw from the rubber. Others allow to set up in front of the mound like BP.

Have fun. Throw strikes. Put it where they like it. Let them swing away.

Doubling up on what Only said above. Good basic drills but limit them to 6-8 swings at a time. The focus should be on quality swings and then let a teammate jump in. Can do multiple rounds but having a kid hit a 30 ball bucket typically leads to tired swings halfway through

Thanks for the responses so far. Keep it simple and fun, it seems!

1Aggie99 said:

---

Doubling up on what Only said above. Good basic drills but limit them to 6-8 swings at a time. The focus should be on quality swings and then let a teammate jump in. Can do multiple rounds but having a kid hit a 30 ball bucket typically leads to tired swings halfway through

---

not to mention the other players get distracted while one separate guys gets 30 balls.

Yep. Small groups based on position or skill set and keep them busy. Practice goes faster and less grab ass.

For a team, a lot of great info posted above. I'd also add that you highly recommend that the parents work with the kids throughout the week. Most won't because they don't care, but some will and you'll notice a huge improvement with those kids.

If it's ever for your individual child,...hitting coach. As much as you don't want to hear it, it really is the best option.

My daughter has been playing softball since she was 5, and she is pretty good. We worked with her on her swing, but her form was so inconsistent and she fought us on almost everything (kids do that with parents), but we're also hard headed and kept trying, especially since my MIL was a HS softball coach. We bit the bullet for hitting lessons and it has made a world of difference. He broke down everything for her all the way down to how she holds the bat as she walks to the plate. Feet, hips, hands, elbow, etc. He starts her on a tee that he sets up to work on outside pitches, then sets it up for inside, and he watches her form. Feedback with every swing. Then he moves to pitching her from pretty close and working on her seeing the ball out of the pitcher's hand, identifying balls/strikes, and her timing (fast, slow, inside, outside, etc). She's been going to him for a few months and it's night and day on her consistency as well as power. My son is 7 and has his first lesson today, so I'm pretty excited since he's one where sports just comes natural to him while his sister loves sports but it takes longer to "click."

When she told us she wanted to pitch as she was moving up to 10U kid pitch, we didn't even try to work with her. We just went straight to lessons with a well known pitching coach in our area and she's responded very well. In her last tournament, she went 2 innings with zero contact, 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts. She also hit a bases clearing triple that one hopped to the fence. Not bad for 9.

You also have to practice. She pitches to us 3-4x per week where we focus on the adjustments that her pitching coach did in the previous lesson, and she hits 2-3x per week. It helps my inlaws are huge sports people who sent 2 of their 3 to be collegiate athletes, and my FIL built a batting cage in his backyard and bought a Juggs machine. I asked him why he was doing it, and his response was pretty simple..."it's cheaper than a lawyer."

Don't know what to tell you to do, but I know what you should not do. Don't be tempted to teach them to slap hit off their front foot. It's easier to make contact that way, but it's also a horrible habit that pretty much insures that they will not play baseball beyond the time they see their first breaking pitch. You will do them a great service if you correct it as soon as you see it.

Tell them to stay back and see the ball for as long as possible.

When my kids get old enough for coach pitch, I am going to throw really softly and hit every one of them, walking in runs all day!

Tee work and soft-toss over and over again.

And kids this age often don't understand how to swing hard so I'd do a little competition- get a tee and heavy balls. Then the kids get one swing to see who can hit the heavy ball the farthest in the air. Winner gets a lollipop or something.

1) Balance #1. Starting Posture and Holding Balance on the FINISH (this will be really hard for many 8 year olds). Forces them to maintain balance throughout the swing. If they "step out" it will be extremely hard for them to hold the finish.

2) Knob Must Go Ahead of Back Elbow (ie, don't drag the bat). This one is also very hard bad habit for 8 year olds to break if they are already doing it. Some do it due to lack of strength when hitting off the tee. Collapsing back elbow prematurely when then the back elbow gets out in front of the knob creates a position where the hitter then "drags" their hands and barrel through the hitting zone. It's probably the biggest issue with little kids besides basic posture & balance. Not the end of the world as long as coaches and parent understand at some point it has to be corrected when they have enough strength. Otherwise as a 12 year old they will see fastball flying by them and they can't catch up to the pitch as they drag the bat through the zone, and make week contact. I'm not saying they need to keep the back elbow up (like taught in the 80's), but I am saying the back elbow should not get out in front of the knob ever.

3) Eliminate "casting" as young as possible. You can use an inside tee, or two separate tees. Plenty google option drills you can look up. but basically place the second tee behind and outside the hitting tee. If they hit the second tee as they swing they are casting outside with the barrel and hitting outside the baseball. They need to learn hitting middle-to-inside the baseball. No outside contact if possible.

Probably stated above but when you throw, don't lob or rainbow it in there. that angle makes it very difficult to make contact. Try and throw as flat as possible. If you can't do it with a full motion, try throwing it like a dart.

aggolfer said:

---

Probably stated above but when you throw, don't lob or rainbow it in there. that angle makes it very difficult to make contact. Try and throw as flat as possible. If you can't do it with a full motion, try throwing it like a dart.

---

And wear a cup if you are the coach pitcher....trust me!

I'm in the same boat. Agreed to be head coach for my two sons' 7&8 coach pitch team this year. It is an incredible amount of work, but I'm doing my best. Dead on about parents working with their kids during the week. I can tell who does and who doesn't and it is just mind boggling. There are a couple of 8 year olds who are playing for the first time this year who have no idea how to swing a baseball bat or throw a ball. Which is just unbelievable to me. Their dads never come to practice or reach out and have apparently never taught their kid the basics of throwing, hitting and catching. They look at the league as a baby sitter for a few hours a week. So after the first practice I sent somewhat of a passive aggressive email to everyone that basically said "look, I'll do my best in the hour and a half or so that I have with your kid each week, but they'll never develop if you aren't working with them at home.

Best hitting advice I can give…make sure that lead foot is coming right back toward the pitcher when they swing. Many have a tendency to sway outside of the batters box with their lead foot and will never make contact that way.

Out coach always threw "hard" without Lobbing it. He said lobbing it wouldn't do us any favors when we moved up from coach pitch. I think it helped.

I got by until high school with less than stellar hitting mechanics because I hit the ball. That changed when pitchers began to really be able to throw inside at speed. So don't only focus on results. Things that would have helped me:
1, more focus on getting hips into the swing
2, a smaller load stride

I would be willing to help but its way too much to post on here about. DM me if interested. I help coach 8u where in the city league we were first and almost always scored over 20 runs a game. Help out from time to time with select teams when I have time. At this age its all about basics.

Hitting coaches can help but there are a lot of bad ones out there, like don't even get their stance on the tee correct.

And yeah don't lob the ball, now the kids can only hit the ball in a small area instead of a larger one thrown by a flat pitch. They will get used to it.

Durkin Nowitzki said:

---

aggolfer said:

---

Probably stated above but when you throw, don't lob or rainbow it in there. that angle makes it very difficult to make contact. Try and throw as flat as possible. If you can't do it with a full motion, try throwing it like a dart.

---

And wear a cup if you are the coach pitcher....trust me!

---

sounds like you were playing with USSS bats. If not, you are fat, slow, or both!

https://www.muhltech.com/Advanced_Skills_Batting_Tee_p/ast.htm

get this tee and do lots of tee work. This tee eliminates dipping, casting, and it requires the batter to get the swing on plane.

evestor1 said:

---

Durkin Nowitzki said:

---

aggolfer said:

---

Probably stated above but when you throw, don't lob or rainbow it in there. that angle makes it very difficult to make contact. Try and throw as flat as possible. If you can't do it with a full motion, try throwing it like a dart.

---

And wear a cup if you are the coach pitcher....trust me!

---

sounds like you were playing with USSS bats. If not, you are fat, slow, or both!

---

we were playing in a coach pitch tourney once and the opposing coach took a shot up the middle off his nads. He made it about three steps towards the line before he planted face first. Needless to say we had a 10 minute halt of play until the pitcher could return to the game.

Yes and Yes!

TarponChaser said:

---

Tee work and soft-toss over and over again.

And kids this age often don't understand how to swing hard so I'd do a little competition- get a tee and heavy balls. Then the kids get one swing to see who can hit the heavy ball the farthest in the air. Winner gets a lollipop or something.

---

Focus on swinging correctly rather than hard, because when they swing hard, they pull their head.

Practice Drills

I kinda model my practices off this guy for our 9U. Shorter practices of course. I'm learning still too so nice to read some of these.

I usually have a fielding practice and a hitting practice during the week. There are some good hitting drills later in the video. If you have the dads...it helps to break them down as small as you can but agree with limiting swings. This age group tires quickly. Most of them aren't really coordinated enough yet to have a consistent swing so it seems sometimes you have to pick and choose what you work on with some. If we have enough kids at practice we'll usually scrimmage 5 v 5 with hitting at the end. Lets some of the kids get extra reps in the infield.

If you can find a good coach pitcher that is key. Don't think you have to do it since you're the coach. Ask some dads in practice to try it out and you may find at least another option if you're having an off day.

As far as other practices go...after kids arrive and start to warm up I like to do controlled 'catch' as a drill as well. Some of these kids don't play catch much and so it may seem repetitive but that is where they learn. Match the kids with a similar partner. Throw each other close grounders, learn to flip a close ball to each other, etc. Don't leave out long toss as that's where they'll get arm strength.

We play a game called hot seat at the end of practice. Basically, you throw a popup (home to around second base) to the first kid in line and if he misses and the next kid catches his then he's out. Keep going until you have a winner. It gets competitive and has helped greatly with popups.

9U is fun but kids afraid of getting hit by a pitch becomes the biggest problem with their swings. They turn into statues hoping for the coach to come in for 2 pitches.

Good luck!

aTm2004 said:

---

TarponChaser said:

---

Tee work and soft-toss over and over again.

And kids this age often don't understand how to swing hard so I'd do a little competition- get a tee and heavy balls. Then the kids get one swing to see who can hit the heavy ball the farthest in the air. Winner gets a lollipop or something.

---

Focus on swinging correctly rather than hard, because when they swing hard, they pull their head.

---

At 8, swing hard and they'll run into stuff. Plus, the point of the tee drill is they learn to see the ball.

The mechanics will come, at this point they need to learn to grip it & rip it.

Agree with the point that a lot can be gained by incorporating a tee. Start simple ... you can evolve your teaching as time passes to and much of the detail below would not be used until you have set the simple foundations.

First, if one is not able to generate "pure" contact with a ball that is not in motion, your probability of success even with the best coach-pitcher is not going to be strong. To start with, mark the tee balls with a center point to help them aim small, miss small.

Second, it encourages more swings which in turn builds strength which improves bat control, etc. Sometimes their skill seems to magically increase which is due in no small part to the bat feeling effortless to swing.



The other type of things that you can use include using soft foam balls. It allows the coach-pitcher to safely change throwing distance, toss softly while still controling the time of flight from pitcher's hand to the hitter. Again, this works great even with older kids as you can easily simulate facing very hard throwing pitchers without actually needing to throw hard.

I've also used 1/2" PVC "bats" with soft foam golf balls to work on aim small, miss small with young hitters.

clonebucky said:

---

Agree with the point that a lot can be gained by incorporating a tee. Start simple ... you can evolve your teaching as time passes to and much of the detail below would not be used until you have set the simple foundations.

First, if one is not able to generate "pure" contact with a ball that is not in motion, your probability of success even with the best coach-pitcher is not going to be strong. To start with, mark the tee balls with a center point to help them aim small, miss small.

Second, it encourages more swings which in turn builds strength which improves bat control, etc. Sometimes their skill seems to magically increase which is due in no small part to the bat feeling effortless to swing.



The other type of things that you can use include using soft foam balls. It allows the coach-pitcher to safely change throwing distance, toss softly while still controling the time of flight from pitcher's hand to the hitter. Again, this works great even with older kids as you can easily simulate facing very hard throwing pitchers without actually needing to throw hard.

I've also used 1/2" PVC "bats" with soft foam golf balls to work on aim small, miss small with young hitters.

---

With my oldest, his first coach at 6 recommended getting these little ping-pong ball-sized whiffle balls like these from Academy. Then with the skinny whiffle ball bat I would sit about 10' away and throw darts at the boy while he swung and learned to watch the ball while timing it up. Depending on which ones you get you can do it in your living room- that's what we did until the boy busted up some of Mama's decorations.

This will be my 3rd season coaching coach pitch.

A. Throw consistent strikes. I had one of the worst hitting teams but I had the ability to throw a consistent strike and we beat a lot of teams that were better hitters because the coach would throw one in the dirt and then over their head.

B. Not your job to develop good mechanics. If it's a first timer then sure show them a few pointers but if they have any decent swing, just practice hitting the ball. A team that has 9
Hitters will always beat a team with 5 great hitters and 4 that can't.

C. Fielding. Just stop the ball. Getting a kid to catch at first much less throw consistently to first is rare for 6 year olds. Find your best two and that's pitcher and first. Everyone else just stop the ball and when you have a forced out touch the base. You will win a lot of games by just stopping the ball.

Hitting drills. Three stations. Tee. Soft toss. Full pitch.

Lastly. Have fun and make it fun. That's what you and the kids will remember.