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Baseball is a unique sport that teaches kids Patients, determination, focus, and order. In order to be successful in baseball you need to start with some fundamental knowledge of the game before you can move on to advanced mechanics and stratagy. Many coaches overlook the simplest of things when it comes to baseball, and within those simple things they miss, the greatness every player has inside.
The following are some of the obvious, but often overlooked fundamentals of Baseball that I have learned over the past few years of coaching. When all of these are mastered at the minor level, it will allow each player to contribute to the team, rather than being a bump in the line up.
Position - Whether defensive or offensive the position a player starts in predetermines how he will finish. I have an old saying that if you start well you finish well and if you start bad, well you get the meaning. Each position on the field must be prepared before each windup of the pitchers arm. If a base runner is looking the other way, he may get thrown out. If a short stop is caught with his hands on his knees, he may just mis that great play and allow the runner to advance to 2nd base. Being ready for anything to happen on the field is both a mental and physical state that each player must know and be trained dilligently in. If they are ready and armed with the knowledge of what to do depending on where the ball is hit, the rest will take care of itself.
Focus - at the beginning of each play, every player on the field needs to clear their mind of everything that just happend on the last play, think about what they will do when the next ball is hit, then clear their mind to focus on the ball. Whether pitching, catching, hitting or fielding, every player must watch the ball in order to achieve success in what they are trying to accomplish. The Pitcher must hold and release the ball just right, the Catcher must be ready to grab it once it gets close, the batter must focus on the ball to lead his hands with the bat to it, and the fielders must watch the ball so they know when to grab it out of the air.
Order - Every play made by an individual or the team requires strict attention to the order that the play is delivered in. The pitcher must place his feet, clear his mind, wind up, and release. The batter must watch the ball to the bat, swing if the ball is within reach and run to 1st base. The Fielder must watch the ball into the glove, Recover, Switch the ball to his throwing hand, then look to make sure he throws the ball to the target he programed his mind for before the play. When the order is rushed or steps are skipped, Errors are Certain to happen.
Other Fundamentals include:
Throwing - Not just whipping the ball out there, but structured and intentional mechanical movements that produce reliable results.
Catching - It is easy when you focus on catching, but try doing it when you are thinking about something else, like the next move. Watching the ball into the glove is not enough. To properly catch a baseball, you need to watch it come near you then grab it out of the air, don't wait till it hits your glove.
Batting - Seems simple enough, hit the ball with the bat. Problems come in when the eyes leave the ball before it is in range to be hit. God gave us the natural ability of using our eyes to lead our hands. If we take our eyes off too early, we are sure to miss. If we set up poorly and don't focus on the ball or hold still and be ready for the pitch, most likely it will result in a strike.
Pitching - Pitching at the lowest level requires consistancy at the mound. If you watch the pro's, their windup and arm movements are identical from pitch to pitch. Only their release determines what the ball will do accross the plate. there are as many windups out there as there are pitchers, but the key is for each pitch to look like the last one. One false setup, on extra movement will guarentee wild pitches.
Today I Relearned something. I remembered that Baseball is a very mental sport. If you don't pay attention every moment, you will miss an opportunity to make a play and let the other team score. But there is more:
Catching - Every position needs to be Baseball ready before the pitch is thrown. Every defender needs to know where to make the play and what they will do depending on where the ball is hit.
Pitching - The pitcher needs to visualize the throw before they throw it. They must clear their head and focus on precise movements to make sure the ball ends up exactly where they want it to.
Hitting - Each batter needs to clear their mind of all distractions and see nothing but the ball coming toward them. One blink of the eye can be the difference between "Home Run" and "Strike you are Out!"
Every player no matter what the level needs to work toward mastering this skill. The teams that discover this sooner will be the more successful team during the season.