hsbaseball101 posted:We have 6 new kids who have never thrown a baseball in their life and they desperately want to make the team. One has decent velocity (65mph) while the others are around 55-60. The guy who throws harder however puts everything into every throw and he gets tired quickly. I keep telling him to take it easy but I think he wants to impress us. How would you train these guys to get the most out of them? Right now they throw rainbows over trees during lunch time. I figured that's a good idea as that's what I did when I was a kid, but I was 10/11, not 15/16. Should they do any long toss or hard throwing at all or should they just play catch everyday until next year?
Hey Coach,
I think long toss is good as part of the equation but it should be monitored, at least until you have drilled the importance of maintaining proper mechanics when throwing with an intentional arc. My experience is that most new players drop their arm angle and fly open when they just jump into long toss without proper guidance.
I would have a very specific progressive warm up and throwing routine for them instead of "just play catch". Again, there should be lots of guidance by coaches as to give them a chance to properly develop good mechanics and kinetic chain. For some, most of this comes naturally. For many, it does not. For most, slight adjustments at the outset can make a big difference in how much they can improve in a relatively short period of time. Close monitoring of throwing mechanics during warm ups is so important, yet I see so many coaches use this time as their "BS with the other coaches" time or "field maintenance" time.
Even more important... I'd spend more time on hitting 