Young baseball players often have a couple of bad (and very
painful) habits when it comes to pitches. More often than not, they have the
urge to turn toward balls that are coming at them, or, even worse yet, to put
out their hands to stop the ball. These are instinctive urges, but they aren’t
very smart instincts.
Explain to young players why they should never turn toward
balls or put out their hands for balls. If they do happen to do it, it will
hurt and be unfortunate, but it will be a lesson well learned!
No one is suggesting forcing kids to “take the hit” and feel
the pain in order to learn what not to do. Instead, simply work on teaching
them easy, effective ways to avoid getting hit by a pitch, such as turning away
from it and placing their bat on the
ground. They might still get hit, but they’ll usually get hit on the back or
the bottom, which hurts a lot less than getting hit in the face or chest.
If you’ve taught your players these techniques but still
find them doing dangerous things around the ball, practice a simple drill. For
this drill, all you need is a couple of players or coaches willing to lightly
chuck whiffle balls at the players. The players’ job will be to avoid getting
hit by practicing the techniques you have given them. The practice is fun and
will get kids used to reacting that specific way toward oncoming balls.
As you can see, there are lots of ways to teach players to be responsible around the ball. Try these tricks, and your little players should
have better habits in no time at all.
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