Pitching counts

My oldest son's baseball season is about to begin and this is the first year he'll be facing live pitching. Kids pitching to kids. It's a scary thought and not just for the players. Will an errant throw change your little leaguer's passion for the game? Hopefully, after reading this it won't be.

The first thing your little Ted Williams needs to learn is how to properly get hit by a pitch if he can't get out of the way. It should be instinctual, but I've seen kids take a pitch in the worst way. Teach your kid to turn his pitcher's side shoulder to the catcher guarding his head behind back and shoulders. Protect the head and chore muscles and the sting will be gone by the time he reaches 2nd base.

Batters have getting beaned since the game began, but the game is SO much fun, 99.9999999999% come back to play again another day. That percentage would be even higher if today's batting helmets would have been mandated earlier.

Youth leagues provide batting helmets for players from T-ball up, but if you're child is going to play I highly recommend getting your own. And spend the extra $9 and get a face cage. A properly fitted helmet will make you and your little batter feel more secure at the plate and it can stop lice spreading to your house. And while the cage can be something to get used to, it's a lot easier than getting used to reconstructive dental or facial work. I had a friend who had a shiner for a month after a ball went off his bat and hit him in the eye (he was lucky).

The other side of a hit batter is the pitcher. No pitcher wants to hit a batter but when it happens, the pitcher needs to know how to recover. Getting your pitcher to refocus quickly probably starts before a game situation ever happens, but in a game situation, it will most certainly take just the right words. If you're the coach, you've probably been taught some techniques at a certification course. Say something along the lines of, "The sting will be gone before he trots back to the dugout. sometimes a pitch gets away. it happens. now make the adjustment. remember what we practiced and rely on your stuff."

I've been working with my little Cy Young for some time, trying to discover what works and what doesn't. We have a canvas strike zone, supported by PVC piping and nylon netting. The thing even has a silhouette of a batter. I watched all the pitching mechanic videos on YouTube and shared the good ones with my son. In the beginning, I was encouraged to see pitches go into the net. What surprised me the most was when I applied some colored tape in the corners of the strike zone and asked him to pick one and hit it. His strike percentage increased leaps and bounds. Turns out the strike zone was too vague of a place to focus and after defining specific points within it, he was able to dial in and deliver consistently.

Prepare to hit and be hit with the right moves, equipment and practice methods.