What should a pitching clinic offer?

Probably a big difference for the 8 yo vs the 12yo.

For the 8 yo, some may be in the "point, step, throw" stages, throwing a baseball for the first time.  The 12yo may be an All Star looking to win district/states, learn to throw a curve, etc. (I was not close to being concerned about upping velocity at that age, but times are different).

If you son is going to break into groups, maybe he should based on age/skill, and have a plan for each.

BTW, now that your son is in college, should he now be a 2022 instead of 2019?

Whatever they do, keep it moving. Make it fun.

CTbballDad posted:

 

BTW, now that your son is in college, should he now be a 2022 instead of 2019?

Good advice on the pitching side. Sadly, it's worse than this. He was a 2018 in HS. Oops.

No idea when he'll graduate as he's now listed as an academic junior. Hoping we might squeeze a few graduate hours into four years of college.

Teach them how to warmup and stretch.  Why they do what they do in warmups and stretching.  I have to remind my son when he does lessons to explain why not just how.  I would have them start from basics with everyone.  Takes time but don't assume.  I have high school pitchers that no one has ever taught how to hold a ball.  Walk through steps for windup and stretch.  Then break down into groups according to skill level.  Make sure they put on the form for the parents what age group they play and how far mound is from home plate.  i would also strongly recommend them sign a waiver in case.  won't keep them from getting sued but will help.

Well, at that age I would suggest keep it fun - competitive games, gum as prizes, etc.

I think having your coaches share their experience on how to deal with poor control/command on the mound and resetting, how to deal with a bad game, how important recovery is as they grow in the game. How to develop pitches beyond just grip and throw it a 10,000 times. 

One good start would be to have separate times for the groups.  8-10 year olds from 9-11am.  11 and 12 year olds from 5-7.  Do more basic stuff with the younger guys, and break them up into two groups.  More advanced stuff with the older guys, broken up into two groups.

A few conclusions from our 300 clinics.

It is a "great" idea for you to share your experiences. You may desire to make notes, ask the young players questions, record their answers. This will be a future research/term paper for College.

In your introduction, stress the function of "balance" in fielding bunts and pitching. Show the players photos of proper body balance. During the clinic provide individual "tips" to each player as they are playing catch.

When you conclude, have the players tell you what they desire in the next Clinic.

Bob "founder" of the Area Code games and Goodwill Series Int'l

Thanks for all the suggestions. They used a lot of these suggestions and apparently it went well because the two instructors booked some lessons from the kids there and the guy who runs the facility where the camp was held asked them to do it again later in July.

The only one they didn't use was gum and candy as prizes. One thing I learned in substitute teacher training — don't touch the kids, don't feed the kids.

Iowamom23 posted:

The only one they didn't use was gum and candy as prizes. One thing I learned in substitute teacher training — don't touch the kids, don't feed the kids.

You make a good point, but true story here...  we were living north of Houston at the time and my son was 7 or 8 so coach pitch ball. One day the coach shows up, calls the team together and announces at the end of practice there will be a competition and the winner will get this - and he pulls out a pack of Big League Chew. All the kids eyes got real big as he held it up so everyone could see. For those of you who don't know what Big League Chew is (or was as I'm not sure it's even legal to still sell it) it is a packet of shredded bubble gum made to look like a packet of chewing tobacco.  Now this would not be politically correct or whatever today (and in many places it wasn't PC back then either as it was only 10 years ago), but somehow the coach had found it and bought it. I remember buying it when I was a kid, but I had not seen that product in over 20 years and thought it had been outlawed for one reason or another. Anyway, the kids were pretty revved up all practice waiting for the unnamed competition that was to be held and could hardly contain their excitement.  So when the normal practice was over the coach announced "Everyone get your bats!" which they did. The competition was twenty pitches - whoever hits the most out of the infield wins the Big League Chew.  I never saw the kids so mentally ready and focused as I did that day - they were hitting like never before. The shortstop held the lead with 15 qualified hits, and my son was last batter. Now he always loved those competitions and was always amped up but after the first ten hits he only had six qualified hits (which wasn't bad) but then proceeded to rake all of the final ten for the victory and the packet of Big League Chew. I was proud of him for doing well in the competition, but I was even more proud of him when after he got the packet of "Chew" he opened it and shared it with all his teammates. Good times.