Strange BP ritual

........seriously?????

Where would he hit them - back, leg????

Are you saying when the hitter hits a ball off the L screen the coach drills them?

Yes Coach May. They hit the L with a batted ball. He throws the next pitch at them.

This guy must be insane.

This guy evidently does not have a clue. Why would you discourage a kid from hitting the ball back up the middle? Does he promote pulling everything? To me that would encourage a hitter to cast their hands out and get around everything. Hitting the ball back up the middle teaches them to keep their hands inside the ball. This coach is not helping his players whatsoever.

No doubt a different kind of cat... I feel a bit relieved I hadn't missed the latest, greatest, training technique. Just seemed crazy to me to do anything that would discourage hitting liners back thru the box. I realize that this is bad form in slow pitch softball but baseball bp? WWCMD???

quote:

Originally posted by coach2709:
........seriously?????

Where would he hit them - back, leg????

Usually in the shoulder/rib area

My guess is (at the HS level) he is just trying to have a little fun with the kids (you hit me, i hit you..ha ha)not saying it is funny or whatever, but probably just trying to make a connection with them on some level.

Just a guess.

quote:

Originally posted by Yankeelvr:

quote:

Originally posted by coach2709:
........seriously?????

Where would he hit them - back, leg????

Usually in the shoulder/rib area

Geez.....I hope they were wearing helmets if he's throwing at the shoulder area. Even BP balls can cause some damage if hit in the head.

This guy is ridiculous and I hope he's leaning around the L-screen a little too far today when a ball goes back up the middle.

Could you hear if he was saying anything to them when they hit the L or when he hit them? I can only imagine the words of wisdom being spouted from him.

I wonder if he teaches baserunning by having the guys run around with viking clubs to hit fielders with?

How fast is he throwing at them? If it's full speed, then I would contact the AD or principal today. If it's an easy toss, then don't worry about it.

It is Varsity HS and they are wearing helmets. I wasn't close enough to hear, wouldn't have seen it at all if practice didn't run 45 minutes late. Don't know about baserunning techniques but I hear he hits a mean fungo on the gym floor. Looks like we're in for a long, strange trip... SS he throws em hard enough to stay flat. I won't be speaking with him or the AD unless an injury occurs.

We had a coach get the police called on him a few years ago. He threw a ball inside during BP apparently and the kid didn't like it. This kid apparently left the cage and went straight out and called the police. Nobody knew anything had even happened until a police officer walked into the gym....

If it was my kid, I wouldn't wait until an injury occurred. I can see no training value in this whatsoever.

I'm with NDD. You can't wait for an injury. You'd never be able to live with yourself if the injury was a serious one.

BaseballByTheYard

We mix cloth balls in with our bp buckets and when we grab one of the soft balls we will throw it inside and hit the batter. Just working on rolling with the pitch and no damage done.

quote:

Originally posted by d8:
We mix cloth balls in with our bp buckets and when we grab one of the soft balls we will throw it inside and hit the batter. Just working on rolling with the pitch and no damage done.

I likey!! That is s3xy. I plan on stealing this.

I like it too. Where do you get cloth balls?

That is a great idea and I plan on stealing it too. Is it rags that you ball up and hold together with tape or do you use incrediballs / indoor gym balls?

I guess this thread was in the back of my head today in practice. I was throwing BP and accidentally nailed one of our players. I felt terrible but he was ok and laughed it off.

quote:

Originally posted by bsballfan:
My guess is (at the HS level) he is just trying to have a little fun with the kids (you hit me, i hit you..ha ha)not saying it is funny or whatever, but probably just trying to make a connection with them on some level.

Just a guess.

I would be inclined to agree with this assessment. Anything else and the guy needs to find another job fast!

quote:

Originally posted by NDD:
I like it too. Where do you get cloth balls?

We do this, too. We use "Incrediballs," what we used to call ragballs. You can find them in a lot of catalogs under Balls or maybe Training Aids. We bought around 3 dozen at $25/dozen or so. Well worth it though.

We use the incrediballs....they look real enough that they are hard to tell the difference until they are on the way. While I was throwing BP a few years ago I noticed some of our rag balls got mixed in with our BP bucket. I threw one of the rag balls inside just kidding around with our player.....then the light bulb came on.

Many thanks