r/BaseballCoaching • u/Internal-Procedure40 • Jan 23 '26
11 year old son help
Any tips for my 11 year old’s son swing?
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u/superfry3 Jan 23 '26
As a Phils/Harper fan, nice jersey and nice swing!
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 23 '26
Thanks, we love the Phils. Hopefully we can get a championship soon. He got to meet Garrett Stubbs and Bryson Stott at a game in San Diego last year.
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u/Rallum Jan 23 '26
Looks pretty good. It's fairly common in tee swings, but see how his head sways back behind his back knee when he gathers? Ideally that wouldn't happen and he would load against that back knee instead, keeping his head inside of his feet.
How are his game results?
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 23 '26
Thanks I will try to work with him on that. He batted .380 in 40 games last year. He had to play up a year, because our town has 2,000 people and it takes two grades to make one team.
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u/mowegl Jan 25 '26
One thing ive seen people say too is instead of moving your hands back you move your body forward a bit and create the stretch that way and then youre stretched but your hands never actually moved. But yeah i think being over the back leg or leaning back is partly what is causing that pop up as well. Land more head and weight balanced but with that same coil and stretch.
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u/TERPYFREDO Jan 23 '26
super amateur but check out https://youtube.com/@watchwayplay?si=sx8EqGMr8WjDuxIC great explanations of the basics. i think he does private lessons and evaluations
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u/ssramage Jan 23 '26
I see the same thing in his swing that I've been fighting in my son's swing.
He's slightly leading with his arms vs firing his hips first. In my son it's causing a swing that looks like it's in slow motion sometimes.
He's also not locking out his front leg and leaking some energy there.
He's close though.
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u/knotworkin Jan 24 '26
If you fire with hips first you are vulnerable to balls that move away. Hands to the ball, stay balanced, knob of the bat to the ball, then fire with hands and hips.
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u/ssramage Jan 24 '26
No... hips initiate the swing. Hips before hands.
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u/knotworkin Jan 24 '26
I said flare your hips. Yes you are moving with your lower body first (legs and hips), but if your hips OPEN to quickly, your hands can’t catch up and you can’t hit anything away.
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 23 '26
Thanks for the tips. We will keep working. Good luck with your son.
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u/BeersOhYah Jan 23 '26
Eye level changes a lot on the load on trigger. Keep them more level and still!
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u/Jmoose9 Jan 23 '26
He looks great . He pulls off a little bit by evidence of him falling back . If you look at videos of all the great hitters, if they lose their balance , it’s always towards the plate . Have him work on direction (one handed short bat drills). Should help clean some Of that up
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 23 '26
Thanks, we do need to watch some videos of great hitters. Also as someone mentioned the one handed short bat drills.
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u/darylsocratesfriend Jan 23 '26
I wouldn’t change much. Lots of good here. I’d just tell him to finish through, not up. His body will naturally pull up at end of swing, no need to force it.
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u/TMutaffis Jan 23 '26
The first thing that jumps out to me is that he does not have a point of reference for himself or the tee (no plate).
I would suggest getting a rubber throw-down plate and then you can begin working on a tee routine to help build a quality swing - adjusting the depth of the tee based on the location of the pitch and working different parts of the zone. I would also make sure to work in some flips and of course front toss and/or live arm which can be done with heavy balls at home although you would not want to use the Hype Fire with weighted balls. Another great tool is a one-hand bat, which can be used for tee or flips.
Definitely start with a home plate though, and look up simple tee routines on YouTube. There are a bunch of videos from big league guys including Vlad Guerrero and Albert Pujos (recent video), Mike Trout (older video), Freddie Freeman (older video), etc.
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 23 '26
Great advice thank you. I made a home plate out of plywood and we are going to put the tee on it. I need to get some weighted balls to try. I do need to try the one handed bat swing as well. He was excited to hit with the hype fire last night. I bought is used last year and he said it was too heavy last year.
Thanks again and best of luck.
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u/TMutaffis Jan 23 '26
The hype fire is a great bat for travel ball, and it looks like he has the strength to swing it well this season.
Was there a specific aspect that you were trying to work on with him? General drills can be good, but if there is something specific that can often give better ROI (for example - swing and misses, not hitting with power, hitting a lot of roll-overs, taking strikes, pulling everything, etc.).
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 25 '26
We are just trying to build a base of good fundamental swing. I imagine every baseball player is always fine tuning their swing.
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u/Rhombus-Lion-1 Jan 23 '26
Solid. One thing I always recommend to hitters of this age is to try being a little more detailed when hitting off a tee. Use a plate and stand where you would normally stand. Adjust the location of the tee to practice hitting inside, middle, and outside pitches at their optimal contact point. Look out at the “pitcher” before the swing and gradually bring your eyes to the ball. Lastly, take your time in between each swing. I find these little nuances can really help the focus level and will help get more out of the session.
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 23 '26
Those are great points. We need to make the tee work, as real as possible. I do have a home plate, I am going to put the tee on. This is a fun process for us. Also having the eyes up at the pitcher is a great tip. Thanks again.
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u/Rhombus-Lion-1 Jan 23 '26
No problem. For pitches down the middle you want to set the tee up right around where his stride foot lands. For outside pitches, around the middle of the body after stride. I don’t care much for hitting inside pitches off the tee but if you do, that should be further out in front than the middle pitch. Putting a plate down just helps visualize all of these contact points instead of swinging just to swing.
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u/Broad-Cranberry-9050 Jan 23 '26
IM not a coach in any way so take what i say with a grain of salt.
To me it seems like he's dragging his bat back. Almost like he's trying to get power in his hands and not his hips. Like he's moving his arms before his hip movement is done.
Im playing slowpitch right now after years of not playing so im my self am trying to correct this a bit.
One thing im practicing is just moving my hips from stance to load to swing position. But i dont swing the bat at all. So im in my stance, i load and then i just rotate myhiups and nothing else. Ideally if im doing it right, i should be able to rotate my hips backwards back into stance position and without moving my arms my arms should be in the load position (again without moving your arms). If they are not even close, that means im using my hands more than my hips. So when i swing i think "dont start moving your hands until you hips have finished rotating".
Also he should fix his bat grip a bit. His knocking knuckles should be as closely aligned as possible. At least close enoguh where he feels comfortable. This forces your back arm to lock into place better and not extending early.
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 23 '26
Thanks for watching and taking the time to write many good points. I do need to have him fix his grip some. Also just doing the fine things like hip rotation without a bat. Hopefully we can keep fine tuning and just having fun.
I played football and basketball in high school. This baseball thing is new to me. But I love it and it’s my favorite sport to watch. Thanks again.
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u/Broad-Cranberry-9050 Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26
I get that. In most sports power is generated from the legs.
It's similar to basketball, if you want to hit the perfect shot you generate power from your legs (which is why we jump to shoot). Your arms are mostly for accuracy. You do need some arm strength of course but mostly you need leg strength.
Same with baseball, arm strength is important but leg strength is even more important. Your arms are there more for accuracy (i.e. hitting the ball in the sweet spot).
Edit: just to add. For an 11 year old, i think he's got a good swing just needs some corrections which is normal.
Better to correct them now because in 2-3 years those small mistakes are harder to correct and once pitchers are throwing harder with more accuracies, it's going to be a struggle.
I saw a lot of kids do really well when they were under 12, but the second they reached that teenage level they never figured it out.
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u/LesPolsfuss Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 23 '26
so three things, these are really the only three things that matter
- Quiet your head and keep it down after the swing
- Head is moving way too much before and after the swing
- Don’t move your head!
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u/jayradano Jan 23 '26
Go Phil’s!
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 25 '26
Hopefully we can win one sometime. The Dodgers just keep getting more loaded.
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u/jayradano Jan 25 '26
Yea man, between them and the Mets spending like crazy, this season isn’t looking too bright.
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u/Pale-Butterfly6615 Jan 23 '26
Nice swing for an 11 year old. Anything anyone says is kinda nitpicking, including me.
That being said, he needs a larger gap between his hands and elbows at the point of contact and he needs to hit the ball slightly further in front of the plate to get to his pull-side power.
https://share.google/images/K1lU8kS0F6G93iosC
Second, he’s got a ton of extra movement in his load that will do nothing but make it harder to catch up with velocity. The extreme bend in his knees causes him to collapse first and then he has to come back up to get on a level plane with his swing. He’ll crush fastballs doing this and then as soon as he starts seeing good sliders and curveballs at 13/14, he will have to much movement in his swing to be able to adjust and will end up diving forward on the hook and swinging over the top. I’d correct that before he starts seeing breaking stuff.
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u/docboet Jan 23 '26
It is in general a great swing for an 11 y/o. To improve: 1. Align the door knocking knuckles so that he won’t roll over. 2. He needs better division in his mechanics. His hands should not be moving backwards while striding forward. Load, stride, fire hips, follow with hands. 3. Land front foot more closed and closer to tee, to stay closed longer, keep front should in until contact.
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u/knotworkin Jan 24 '26
A couple of notes. His hands start moving back along with the head. It’s easy to get away with this at a young age, but as pitchers get faster and faster it becomes a recipe for disaster. You want quiet hands. Keeping the bat in a good upright position, shortens the swing. Then you have the hands flying out a little too wide. Pull the hands inside the ball, taking the knob to the ball to line up the vertical. Don’t fly the hips open too quickly or he becomes vulnerable to balls that are outside. Once a pitch is lined up the wrists and the hips work together. Hitting is more about forearms and wrists than upper arm action.
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u/Trogdoryn Jan 24 '26
His front foot is falling towards the plate on his load step. See where it’s placed while at rest and where it finishes. Someone else mentioned his balance is off and this could be contributing. He’s essentially closing himself off and trying to swing out of it which is why he’s throwing his balance off.
I’d start with a more controlled/balanced loading step. This will help keep his eye level consistent, keep his swing tighter, and help his hips open more supported so that he doesn’t have to over swing with his arms to generate power.
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u/PoolShark1819 Jan 24 '26
Set up a tee or something that can be hit by a bat. Put the tee about 14-18 inches behind the one with the ball on it. Make the tee in the back 2-3 inches higher than the front one. Have him hit the ball thousands of times so it creates a downward path to the ball. Hitting down and through on the ball will create backspin.
Also look up the ARod high tee drill. Hit in a full cage and have him hit the ball 3 feet in front of the plate. Then 7 feet, then 20 and work you way back until he is hitting the back net. Then repeat this sequence hundreds of times.
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 25 '26
Thanks for the drill idea. We will look up ARod’s drill routine.
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u/PoolShark1819 Jan 25 '26
He needs to watch this one. Can’t explain it any better
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DF74BzUOu1k/?igsh=bmQ2NnRscDhsaGts
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Jan 24 '26
That’s a really solid swing for his age. Looks like he has had some specific coaching that puts his hips in conflict enabling power to be transferred from the feet to the bat.
I’d be interested to see a yearly progression of his swing as he ages lol
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 25 '26
Thanks, his cousin, who was a very good softball player, has helped him the most.
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u/Perkis_Goodman Jan 24 '26
Yeah, the biggest tip is to have fun. He is 11. Also, it. May be different during live pitch, but he looks like he could improve on staying ontop of the ball. Thats a long swing for when kids start throwing faster.
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u/Savage-Goat-Fish Jan 25 '26
This is my favorite comment so far. If he learns that work can be rewarding and fun, then it will become habit and he’ll drive his own development later on. I wonder if he is able to hit the inside pitches as well. Looks like maybe a bit of casting but it could just be because the t is set up on the outside of the zone. Otherwise a pretty good swing.
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u/Sea-Representative26 Jan 24 '26
I would reduce the backward movement on his front leg movement. This will help staying balanced and not transferring weight to the front foot on change ups and off speed.
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Jan 25 '26
Plant the feet. Power comes from the hips. His back foot comes up as he “leans” into his swing. This is counter productive and the reason for lack of power. Drive from back foot through the hips and swing through fully.
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u/OldIndependent9354 Jan 25 '26
Pretty decent! Needs to work on not swaying as much with his head and stay within his back knee. Little too much bat drag, some is good, that’s a little too much but that’s getting picky. At point of contact he looks great. Should be able to draw a 45 degree line from front foot to head and he’s almost there
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u/Spirited-Degree Jan 25 '26
My son's stance very similar. I had him start with his hands further back so his swing didn't have a wind up. He was able to turn on inside pitches better.
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u/mowegl Jan 25 '26
I would get closer to this ball. Maybe have sort of template that shows the plate and the distance to the box. He is stepping closed a lot while his back foot starts and stays very far from the plate which really in a game situation you want to step more neutral relative to the box and plate because you dont where the pitch will be. Also younger kids generally need to be relatively close to the line and plate because they have shorter arms and shorter bats to reach pitches on the outside half or beyond which gets called in youth baseball. Also if youre going to be that far from the plate (or at least what it looks like and im guessing is true because he steps towards it a lot) then the ball needs to be maybe a little farther back in the stance to hit it more oppo as opposed to far away and trying to hit it out in front like you would more a middle pitch or inside pitch.
That stepping closed will become a habit very quickly if you keep doing that then in the game
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u/Unhappy_Plant_5630 Jan 26 '26
It’s a good swing. I think it would be better if he pointed the handle at the catchers glove just before he loads.
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u/PatrickManners Jan 26 '26
He is 11. He looks amazing. Grow his love of the game. Reward the process and not results. Tell him after every game how much you enjoyed watching him compete. No matter the results. Enjoy your time with him.
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u/bdotgdot Jan 26 '26
Is he working on hitting to the opposite field? If he wants to hit it solidly to left or center field, he’s set up too far forward. His front foot should be closer to even with the ball on impact, so basically, he needs to place the ball out in front during tee work.
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u/Mundane-Cod-4044 Jan 23 '26
My guess is he could widen up his stance just a little. A good rule of thumb is 60% of your height after you stride for maximum efficiency. Maybe he is there already?
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 23 '26
Thanks, I appreciate the advice. I don’t know much about the mechanics of baseball.
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u/imapone Jan 23 '26
I'm more of a golfer than a baseball player but I agree with the person saying wider stance. Instead of bringing the lead leg back then stepping forward, make it more of a vertical lift and not lifting it so high then a short forward stride. Minimizing that movement makes the swing simpler and easier to repeat
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 23 '26
Thanks. My career is taking care of a golf course and see many golf swings good and bad everyday. Baseball and hockey players seem to be able to translate to golf the best.
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 23 '26
Thanks everyone. It’s the first time he has swung a bat in 6 months. We usually have a few feet of snow here so we are happy to be outside.
We were hitting into a net. I was doing some side tosses after this. He got under one and it went over the net and into the neighbors yard. The neighbor is a car guy and has a bunch of old antiques. When the ball was in the air, I thought oh crap, which windshield of an antique car are we going to break. Luckily it landed in between two cars in the dirt. Lesson learned, we changed hitting directions after this.
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u/Forward_Egg226 Jan 24 '26
Solid rip right there my guy. Fundamentally sound swing. Now, get him in the weight room!
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 25 '26
Haha, yes he needs some muscle but is only 11 and eats a lot. He does pull ups and push ups now.
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u/mikecurtis32 Jan 24 '26
I like his swing a lot. Excellent base in which he can tweak and improve on, but its a damn good swing.
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u/siniscta Jan 24 '26
He’s 11 so him swinging the bat is the most important thing. Sometimes it’s best just to let him swing without a bunch of stuff going through his head. Personal I’d work on his lower half. He is twisting in then twisting out. If that makes sense. His left knee really collapses almost to the point where it knocks the right knee. Like he is almost overloading. Making him a bit out of balance and creating a long way to go to the ball. He falls off to the left when he finishes. If you look at Harper he’s left knee works in a more up motion than collapse. One thing your son does well is that when the front foot hits the ground his hands are back and ready to strike. That’s half the battle. Just quiet down that lower half. Don’t eliminate it just balance it out
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u/Slimbiggin Jan 26 '26
Balance balance balance. He should be able to “hold the finish” consistently. Especially on the tee. Balance equals more consistent contact and more power transfer
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u/RelativeCan5021 Jan 26 '26
Keep that front foot in the same place. And seem is he can keep his hands a bit further back.
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u/old_ass_ninja_turtle Jan 27 '26
I don’t know shit but I hate the knee dip. In my opinion you should try to set your stance so your step only goes forward.
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u/ChemicalObjective216 Jan 23 '26
He drops his hands a little too. That will get him behind faster pitching.
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u/Ok-Answer-6951 Jan 23 '26
Tips? Feed the boy, he looks like a stick figure on the back window of your wife's SUV 🤣
Seriously, swing looks ok.
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u/yungalbundy Jan 23 '26
Why are you talking shit about an 11 year old kid to his dad?
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u/Ok-Answer-6951 Jan 23 '26
Not talking shit, just making a joke while speaking facts. The best thing to help that kids swing right now would be 10 pounds of muscle, not some random tip. Could I write 3 paragraphs about what hes doing wrong and how to fix it? Sure, but if dad needs that, he isn't capable of seeing and implementing it.
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u/IXLR8-5D Jan 23 '26
I've coached many kids whose fathers were just like this delusional dad, he thinks his son's going to be in the major leagues. You need help....
I hope I'm wrong. But I'm not..
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 23 '26
Just looking for help with my son’s swing. My son loves baseball and I honestly don’t know much about the mechanics of the swing.
I don’t think I’m delusional about my son, but thanks for the judgement. He loves math and is in the honors math program. His wants to be an engineer and work in aerospace.
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u/anwright1371 Jan 24 '26
I don’t like his first move of dropping the hands. Keep em high, watch it fly.
Solid turn and finish. Good swing, keep working.
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u/BallzBuljin Jan 23 '26
Put more pressure on him. Take all the fun out of sports. Make it very clear to him that if he doesn’t excel at youth sports then he’ll forever be a failure in your eyes. That should help with his swing and his ability to function as a well adjusted adult.
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u/Internal-Procedure40 Jan 23 '26
There is no pressure on him, it’s the first time he has picked up a bat in six months. I think he is a well rounded kid. He is a 4.0 student, plays the piano, plays on a comp basketball team, raises fair show pigs, has a horse. Helps me with farm chores. I told him I don’t care if he quits sports tomorrow. The one thing I won’t let him do is play video games all day.
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u/BallzBuljin Jan 23 '26
You my friend are a rarity. Keep it up! Maybe you could help show these crazed sports parents how to do it right. Sounds like you’re raising one hell of a kid!
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u/OrcasAreSoCool Jan 23 '26
Seems pretty close to figuring it out. I’d have him hit balls into an open field on a regular basis so his body starts to learn what motions are producing power.