Category: Baseball

It depends.

Sure, there’s a few rudimentary basics that everyone has to learn such as bat grip, batting stance, hip rotation, keeping your back foot planted, and keeping your eye on the ball. Beyond that it gets confusing fast.

Should coaches spend a lot of time teaching hitting mechanics during practices and give tips during game at-bats? Should kids take private hitting lessons? Will spending time improving hitting mechanics have an immediate impact on game performance? With all the disagreement among pros about finer points of hitting technique, how to even know which mechanics are correct? Do mechanics even matter all that much if you have the right mental approach and a good batting eye?

I’ve been confused about this topic for years. My 10-year-old son recently began taking private hitting lessons for the first time, which helped me sort out why and when mechanics matter. I’m ready to share what I’ve learned.

Continue reading “Do Hitting Mechanics Matter in Youth Baseball?”

Some parents come from a place of supporting their kid’s biggest passion in life. Others come from a place of wanting their kid to be the best they can be at whatever they do. Others may wish for their kid to have more baseball success than they had. Regardless of where you’re coming from, you’re not alone if you want to give your kid every chance to realize his or her potential.

I’ve observed hundreds of kids from the age of 2 to 10 being introduced to baseball. I’ve learned that how you get started playing baseball can have a big impact, perhaps more than what is possible once your kid has some experience.

In this article I don’t discuss mechanics or getting formal lessons. I discuss what you can do when your kid is just getting started that will be most helpful for the long run. Some of my advice will be conventional wisdom or common sense. Some of it will surprise you. Most of it will be based on evidence backed by data or scientific studies.

Continue reading “So You Want Your Kid to be a Good Baseball Player”

I maintain a comprehensive youth baseball bat guide, targeting the ages of 12 and below. While this guide briefly summarizes key points for various recommended bats, I think there are some noteworthy bats that merit a detailed review. The complete line of Axe bats is one of them, due to the special nature of the handle.

Note: I have written two more Axe Bat reviews since this one: a more recent version of the Origin Drop 12, and my son’s first big barrel, the MB50. FilterJoe readers can apply a 10% discount at Axe bat site, using code JGOL10. The code is usually disabled when Axe is having a site wide sale, as often happens between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

My 10-year-old son has been using an Elite Axe bat (provided for review by Baden Sports) and a Phenom Axe bat (purchased) over the past 10 weeks (since renamed Axe Bat Origin Youth drop 12), partly because I wanted him to test them, but mostly because he wanted to.

In the comprehensive guide, I mention several times how bat reviews are universally poor. Too many variables are not held constant, making it difficult if not impossible to write a completely fair review for any given bat. In this review, I discuss the unique aspects of the Axe bat and how my son fared. I also point out issues with my own methodology and why reviewing bats is so difficult.

Continue reading “Axe Bat Review: In the Hands of a 10-year old”

Imagine: The hardest throwing pitcher in your local youth recreation league dominates by striking out most batters, even though he does walk about 1 batter per inning. All he has to do is throw hard strikes. Clearly a shoo-in for the all-star team.

Then comes the first game against a tough team in summer play. Everyone is surprised when the other team scores 7 runs in 2 innings through a combination of walks, hits, and errors. How could that happen against the team ace?

What’s even more surprising is when the guy who relieves him does better, despite having only average velocity. This pitcher varies the location of his pitches, throws some changeups, and throws a “little league curveball” that wasn’t permitted during regular rec season. The other team’s hitters are baffled, managing only 2 hits, 1 walk, and 1 run in 3 innings. What’s going on here?

Continue reading “Developing a Youth Pitcher: A Balanced Approach”

Kids often don’t like it, but hitting off a tee is useful for developing hitters. It’s also quite useful for accomplished hitters. Most major league players practice with a tee every day.

This article discusses the benefits of hitting off a tee and recommends specific tee and net models suitable for the back yard or team practice.

Continue reading “Practice Hitting with Tee and Net in Your Back Yard”

There are good, bad, and ugly reasons for a kid to get benched in youth baseball. There are good, bad, and ugly ways to react to benching.

Most recreational youth baseball leagues have rules to insure that all youth baseball players get a reasonable amount of playing time, regardless of ability. It is when a young player gets selected to be on an all-star or travel ball team that, in many cases, lots of bench time begins.

You may be mystified by playing time decisions the first time your player goes through this experience. You may feel as if your player is being treated unfairly, or that coach decisions seem arbitrary. Read on to make sense of what’s happening and how you and your kid can react in the most productive manner possible.

Continue reading “Getting Benched in Baseball: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”

Massive barrel. Huge pop. Light-swinging composite barrel. Swing a bat like this and you’ll be hitting better than ever, right?

Uh, not really.

Continue reading “The Bat with the Biggest Barrel and Most Pop”

Every year or two there comes along a new bat that quickly takes the youth baseball world by storm. I call the latest of these the “Magic Bat.”

Making contact anywhere on the barrel sends the ball to the outfield, regardless of how hard you swing or which part of the bat hits the ball—or so reported my son the first time he saw this bat in action among 9- to 10-year-olds. Each month I see ever more players in travel ball and even recreation leagues with this $300 bat:

Is this the best bat for youth baseball? If you’d like to spend $300 to improve your player’s hitting, is this the best way to spend it?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Continue reading “Best Youth Baseball Bats: A Skeptic’s Guide”

My son fell in love with baseball at the age of 20 months. Since then I’ve read over 100 baseball books for bedtime reading and attended over 150 youth baseball games.

For those with similarly baseball-obsessed kids, I’ve put together a guide to describe our favorite baseball books, ordered by age range.

Continue reading “Great Baseball Books for Kids”

Baseball scoring has been done by hand for over a century. Now that most people own smartphones and tablets, many people are motivated to keep score electronically. Why?

• Live broadcasts
• Pitch count tracking
• Single game boxscores, stats, and recaps
• Season stats and spray charts

Among the many scorekeeping apps attempting to accomplish all four of these objectives, Gamechanger and iScore stand out for their comprehensive suite of features and polished user interfaces.

Continue reading “Review: Gamechanger Scorekeeping App for Youth Baseball”