Youth Baseball Travel Teams - The Challenges and Benefits

Youth Baseball Travel Teams - The Challenges and Benefits
By Jake Wyatt

When your son is asked to join a youth baseball travel team, a parent will feel proud at first. Then reality hits - the cost involved, the weekends away from home, the extra practices required. If your son is good enough to make such a team, how important is it that he actually participate for his future baseball prospects?

Your son will benefit in many ways by competing in a baseball travel team. The fact that he has taken part in this type of team will only affect his future baseball career in that he will improve his skills. But it won't guarantee his high school/college prospects.

So, when deciding whether or not to allow your son to play with a travel baseball team, consider the following positives:

1. Playing with and against a higher caliber player will help your son increase his skills. This is noticeable. If your son has always played Little League, you will be amazed at how much better he will play in a baseball travel team.
2. Teamwork becomes much more important in a travel team. Tournaments may involve several games in a day. The coach has to keep his players fresh and may play different kids on the same day. Players will soon realize that playing every game is not possible.
3. Youth baseball players will learn how to win, and how to lose, more professionally.
4. The play is more aggressive, which will require your son to step up his own game. These are not just fun Saturday afternoon games, these games are played for trophies and rings.
5. Finally, travelling with the team can be a lot of fun for the entire family.

But these positives must be weighed against the negatives:

1. The cost - for hotel rooms, possibly airfare, tournament entry fees. This can all add up to a strain on the family budget. Some of this can and should be mitigated with fundraising.
2. The time - what are your commitments during the travel team's play? Can your son commit to the games even if you can't?
3. Possible parental over-involvement, although my experience with travel teams is that even the parents are more professional.
4. Possible win-at-any-cost coach attitude, which can lead to a bad experience for your son. Make sure you know the coach's style and are comfortable with it.

Allowing your youth baseball player to participate in a baseball travel team can be extremely rewarding and will certainly make him a better baseball player. He may even end up with a special trophy or winner's ring!

In order to be the best possible baseball player, training should happen year-round and be a joint effort between the coach, the player and the parents. Get FREE tips to improve baseball performance, reviews of e-products related to baseball, and links to training resources at http://youth-baseball-training.com.

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Change-Up Versus Curveball - Which Should A Youth Pitcher Learn How To Throw First?

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Change-Up Versus Curveball - Which Should A Youth Pitcher Learn How To Throw First?
By Joshua S Stickel

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.

If you liked this article then you should check out my main site the #1 youth baseball site. In it there is one on one coaching, free tips, contests, practice equipment, the best baseball equipment, instructional programs, youth leagues and camps, and of course exactly how to throw a change-up. You want to be the best on the diamond? Then click here The Youth Of Baseball Once you learn the change-up how about you Add 5 to 10 mph on Your Fastball

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Teach Kids How To Hit A Baseball

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Teach Kids How To Hit A Baseball
By guest author: Jeffery A Wise

A baseball player will never forget the person or people who taught him how to play. It's a great opportunity for parents to influence their kids in a good way. My dad taught me how to hit a baseball when I was young and it meant a lot to me.

He wasn't just my personal coach, though. My dad coached Little League teams all through my childhood and he even coached my team when I was 14 years old.

My first coaching experience was one-on-one with a friend's son. I thought it would be a breeze. We were both excited, but I didn't realize how difficult it would be. He had been playing organized baseball for a few years so I just briefly covered the basic fundamentals of how to stand, hold the bat and swing. I was confident his dad and coaches had already covered those areas. I could also tell he wanted to bypass the training and get straight to the hitting.

I started pitching to him and I immediately saw the frustration starting to build. I remembered having the same feelings as a kid. Kids want to be able to hit every single pitch and hit it good or they start to get frustrated. Sometimes that frustration leads to lack in confidence.

There are two important rules you should remember when teaching kids how to hit a baseball.


They don't have to swing at every pitch. Train them to swing only at good pitches.
Teach them to relax, be confident and have fun. We all want to hit well but make sure they are having a good time.

If you see them starting to get frustrated, remind them of these tips and then start throwing to them again. Hopefully you will see a change in their attitudes and their hitting. If you don't, it's probably best to take a break from practice or work on other drills. Be patient when teaching kids to hit a baseball. Don't push them to do anything spectacular or place demands on them. They will learn at their own pace and that's okay.

Jeffery A Wise invites you to learn more about youth baseball and teaching kids to hit a baseball. Start learning today on Twitter as we tweet updates that are perfect for youth batting coaches.

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Rediscovering the Magic of Youth Baseball

Rediscovering the Magic of Youth Baseball
By Guest Author Dave Rosene

I have seen significant changes how youth baseball has been 'taught' in the U.S. since the 1960's, and the changes haven't been positive. I didn't say coached because coaching refers to strategy and competition, and the concentration of youth baseball must be on skill development, rules understanding, and team play. We need teaching coaches for that, because today's players show deficiencies in these areas more than previous generations. When people of my era started playing baseball, it was the most popular sport in America and engrained in our culture. There were many different forms that helped improve individual skills: fast pitch, whiffle ball, ledge, penner, or just throwing popups to yourself, and we didn't need parents to organize these activities. We called our friends who would call their friends, we threw off walls or our house steps, and we had games with whoever was around and made up our own rules. We became better players by thinking or playing baseball every day. Plus we learned the game by watching baseball on television or going to major league games if we were lucky enough to get tickets.

Most youth American players today lack the knowledge and experience that we had because they have more options to take up their free time and they therefore have varied interests. By not spending more time practicing, playing, or watching baseball, they are lagging behind kids from other countries in skill development and general baseball knowledge. Why do Latin American players dominate professional baseball? In most cases playing baseball is the only sport available to kids there to participate in, and by playing constantly they progress quickly.

Can we and should we go back in time to help our youth rediscover the magic of baseball? How can we, as teachers and coaches, make the game relevant and necessary for players who get distracted and sidetracked easily. We have to show kids what made us love baseball, and pass along that love. That's the challenge we want to take on. In future articles we will discuss how to effectively teach and coach our youth athletes to maximize their talents while identifying the negative methods to avoid that I've seen too much of in the past 30 years.

DNA Sports specializes in personalized baseball and softball skill programs, college recruiting education and preparation, and coaching clinics. Learn more: http://www.dnasportsonline.com

Dave Rosene - Co-Founder, DNA Sports

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How Baseball Teaches Life Skills

Robert_Bulka

How do you teach kids important life skills? Have them join an youth baseball league.

Below are 5 life skills they will learn:

1. Teamwork

For many young kids organized baseball will be their first introduction to teamwork. Executing ground ball outs, rooting on their teammates , sacrifice bunting and stealing bases are just some of the actions that allow kids to apply and understand teamwork. Youth baseball provides an arena for kids to learn to interact with others with diverse backgrounds, races and religions.

2. Leadership

Not everyone is a leader, when teaching kids baseball we can introduce them to what leadership is; and we can teach them the things that make good leaders. I like to foster leadeship growth growth using the following practices:


Have them lead the cheer of the batter and pitcher
Encourage others to verbally cheer on the pitcher and the batter
Have them lead by example: by always hustling and showing respect to the coaches and teammates
Lending support instead of insults to teammates who have made an error
Executing stretching and game prep drills without the coach having to ask - initiating on their own

3. Confidence

It's great to see kids realize that practice has made them a better player. It instills that vital skill needed to succeed in life. They learn that everything is not easy, that things take time and they have to have the attitude they won't be defeating.
Succeeding at catching the ball and hitting consistently reinforces heir self esteem and pride - this is confidence.

A slap on the back by the coach also goes a long way to building confidence.

4. Learning from Adversity

How could you not learn adversity playing youth baseball? The best hitters make an out 65% of the time, everyone makes fielding errors and few teams go undefeated in a season. One more thing, how many times in the year does the team fall behind in the game, only to comeback to win.

Do we need to say more!?

5. Respect

Not all players respect their coaches, and honestl,y some coaches don't respect some kids. But this is the most important lesson to teach the kids. The coach often takes on the role of the parent, and from my experience, this is the topic where most of the parenting is done. A good coach can address the issues of respect by doing the following:


Having a meeting in the pre-season to discuss behavior guidelines for both players and parents
Insist that kids pay attention and make eye contact when addressing the group
Enforce a rule that insulting other players is out of the question and subject to severe repercussions
Realize respect is a two way street

As you can see, we often underestimate the real life skills youth baseball programs provide to our children!

Robert Bulka is a former college baseball pitcher and current coach in the New York Metropolitan area. For more great tips for teaching kids how to play baseball go to http://TeachKidsBaseball.com

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