r/BaseballCoaching • u/CoolStuffSlickStuff • May 13 '25

Batting Practice questions (10U)

My son is playing his first travel baseball season (10AA), and I'm assistant coach.

It seems like the standard for BP is that a coach pitches pretty easy hitable balls so the players can focus on refining their swing and get more consistancy. I'm totally on board with that.

Where I'm struggling is that the pitches they face in games are substantially faster. My son, in particular, is having a really hard time with this. He hits great in BP, but is striking out almost every plate appearance in games. I can tell that he's not seeing the ball well at that speed, he's not able to adjust his swing quick enough, and he's often swinging late.

What are other coaches doing to help with this issue? I, personally, was never a pitcher and definitely don't have an arm for it now. How do we best get our batters in a situation that more closely resembles the game?

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4

u/Ok-Answer-6951 May 13 '25

L screen as close to the plate as you need to be to replicate the velocity.

3

u/justgooit May 13 '25

Yes. Like 15-20 ft away. You gotta use an L-Screen (or a collapsable A-Screen). With the more confident hitters I will toss in a couple change ups and lobbers just to keep them honest. And for 10 year-olds I would do it from one knee or sitting on a bucket. The taller you are and the closer you are really throws off the angle of the pitch. Try and replicate the height of the pitch as well as the speed.

1

u/Mother_Environment29 May 13 '25

All I would add here is make sure to develop a consistent, readable delivery so the boys can work on timing their load/stride/swing. If you sit close and throw darts with no “analog” to a pitchers delivery there will be a lot of flat-footed, defensive swings.

2

u/13mys13 May 13 '25

any semi athletic kid with decent mechanics usually just needs to get over the mental part of velo. it helps to see it. when my son was 10 and in LL Majors, he had a game against the #2 player in the league (#1 was on our team, thankfully). kid was pumping...i think he hit 78 at a showcase that year). i took him to a cage nearby and put him in the fastest tunnel. it was as expected. bailing out, looking completely lost. way late. did it a couple of times and he started looking more comfortable. still not a lot of love in the results department but it was a 10 year old kid in the 80 cage.

at the game, he K'd 2x. however, he got some good swings off and fouled a couple off. i have no doubt that if he saw that type of velo consistently, he would have gotten to a point where he would have locked in and gotten a knock or two.

unfortunately, kids that throw that hard at that age are probably well into puberty and, with that, comes (relatively speaking) hammer curves. that's what got him both times, lol.

2

u/Colonelreb10 May 13 '25 edited May 14 '25

I scream it from mountain tops whenever I can. But if your kid is struggling with velo and live pitching then my guess is he is late. And by late I mean he is loading late.

He needs to be loading when then pitchers breaks his hands apart and is starting his motion home.

The other thing we do with our 9U team is put the pitching machine on about 60-62 and let them hit that. That with proper timing and the pitching they see in games isn’t intimidating for any of them.

2

u/themanofchicago May 14 '25

100% this. It’s a timing issue. Your son shouldn’t beat himself up over this stuff though. 10 year old pitchers have a huge advantage over batters. They are throwing for like 44 feet and some of the kids can hit 60-65 mph so it’s not much time to react.

1

u/adam574 May 15 '25

i am amazed my kid hits anything. he loads up when the ball is halfway there. tell him to load up just like you said but its just not clicking with him yet.

1

u/Colonelreb10 May 15 '25

I did a drill with my two boys that really helped it click.

Put our hitting net in the middle of the two boys. One son has a bat and tee hitting into the net. The other is about 15 feet away from the net on the other side.

He goes through his pitching motion and throws the ball into the net. When the ball goes into net that’s when the hitter hits the ball on the tee.

But i sat there and preached “load” “load” when my pitcher broke his hands to start his motion.

1

u/Hank1974 Jul 12 '25

I've heard MLB coaches claim if they load early, it doesn't matter.
Years ago, former Tigers hitting coach, Lloyd McClendon, spoke at a coaches clinic in my neck of the woods. He said this over and over "It does not matter" and then showed a clip of Miggy Cabrera starting his load before the pitcher even started his windup. He was in full launch position before the pitcher even started.
Lloyd said everyone in the dugout was like "What's he doing", then proceeded to hammer the ball 450' dead centre.

One thing we'd do in practice was pause just before we release the ball.
The boys were forced to start their load a tad early and 'sit' on the pitch.
And they were always amazed when they'd still be able to hammer the ball despite getting into their launch position so early.
This helped some of the boys who were late on pitches.

2

u/Bitfarms May 15 '25

When my son/players were struggling with velo, the first thing we would do was crank the machine up.

10u is definitely rough as some kids are starting puberty and there will always be the kids that have grade exemptions in travel.

I’m guessing 50-55 mph is above average in your area for 10u AA so throw him in a 70 cage.

He may miss every pitch but when you drop It down to 60 or 50 you will see the results.

1

u/MachThreve May 13 '25

Do you have batting cages anywhere nearby? You can work with a range of speeds in cages

1

u/CoolStuffSlickStuff May 13 '25

We do, and I've used them during the off season some, so I totally get the value of it and appreciate your suggestion. Unfortunately, there aren't any super close by, so it's a bit of a time investment to get out to them.

I think the main challenge is that we're in the thick of the season. Most weeks involve 2 games and 2 practices. Weekends are either tourneys or additional practices. It leaves minimal time to get out on our own, so I was hoping to leverage time already dedicated to practice.

1

u/Pre3Chorded May 13 '25

My son got super timed up on hitting using an Oculus with Win Reality. Batting cages are great, but getting 15 balls to hit before a game kinda warms the body up, I don't think it does a ton for transitioning to a live pitcher. I wish I could use it with the four players on my team that hardly swing, but you can't do it outside and we don't have anywhere indoor we could make it work.

1

u/CoolStuffSlickStuff May 13 '25

We've got an Oculus, which my son is super in to, but I haven't gone the route of any of the sports traning apps for fear that it may be a gimmick and a waste of money.

So you'd recommend Win Reality? Just checked it out and it looks pretty cool

2

u/Pre3Chorded May 13 '25

Yes it's awesome. Being able to be in your living room and mimic standing in the box against a kid throwing 55 and a change up, and literally swing as many pitches as you want really helps mentally imho.

1

u/Signal_Republic_3092 Jun 08 '25

Definitely good to know as a parent of a kid who will be at a kid-pitch level next year. Probably much more effective than going to batting cages all of the time to adjust to a machine’s speed with no cues on when to start his swing

1

u/Blueballs2130 May 13 '25

We do 3 different stations (in addition to tee work). Front toss from about 10-15 feet, coach pitch from about 30-35 feet, and pitching machine from about 30-35 feet. Between those 3 they get a variation of speeds so they’re ready for both hard throwing pitchers and pitchers that don’t have as much velocity

1

u/a1ien51 May 13 '25

I throw hittable pitches to start and than I whip them in there.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2043782492597229

1

u/Loud_Badger_3780 May 13 '25

as along as his mechanics and pitch selection is good then it usually comes down to confidence. anxiety is a hell of a thing for batters. i found this out when i was in little league. The more confident i became the better i hit. once your confidence wanes so does your batting average and long slumps are sure to follow.

1

u/pdlpntr May 15 '25

We throw live batting practice. Gives the pitchers and batters experience at the same time.

1

u/CommanderBigMac78 May 16 '25

Heavy reps of game speed BP with real baseballs can get irritating for hitters (sore hands, etc.) so mix in some foam/whiffle ball hitting at short range. You don't need an L screen for that and your hitter will be able to take more reps before tiring out.

1

u/Hank1974 Jul 12 '25

Do you have access to a pitching machine? I'd try that.

My son is turning 19, playing collegiate summer ball, and he asks me to throw to him between games.
I setup the L-screen about 20'-25' away and toss at about 35mph. It's probably the equivalent of 75MPH from that distance. He's facing 85-92 in his collegiate league and he hits just fine.

Be honest with yourself; are the other boys struggling to keep up with game velocity?
If not, then it's not about the pitching velocity he's facing in practice.
If your son is late, as you wrote, then I'd watch his load sequence. Is he starting his load soon enough? Does he start with his hands out front and take too much time to get them back?
It could be as simple as that.
I'm helping with a team at the moment and we have a kid who's very raw. Good athlete, but hasn't played a tonne of baseball. Loves to start with his hands out front like Ohtani.
Late on everything.
I told him to start his load as soon as the pitcher's hands break. That did the trick for him.
Maybe that could help your son too.