2022 Little League Thread of Dominance

[Jshep34 2303]

Defense its all about reps. Every player should get 30 to 40 ground balls a practice. Half time we dont even throw to a base, just field and drop in a bucket. Pitching teach, preach enforce mechanics. Separate hands when leg comes up. Also most kids that are starting pitching best to have them start from the stretch at all times and with ball in thier throwing hand.

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[Classic Rock 258]

I coached baseball and girls softball in all different age groups. I always time scripted my practices based on the time limit for the practice. Parents appreciated the organization, and the players enjoyed staying productive. My basic outline for a 2 hour practice for 8-10 yr olds was:

Warmup, stretching, throwing form, long toss, relay drills - 15 min

Group station work (4 players per group) hitting/tee station (preferably in a batting cage), infield station, outfield station, base running - 60 min

Situation work - Full infield and outfield, base runners with coach hitting (Use those same groups to rotate in and out the players running and infield/outfield) - 30 min

A fun, competitive game activity to end practice - 10 min

Practice review with team, and give them some sort of homework drills to do at home - 5 min

Every 3rd practice would be a scrimmage format with live pitching, but station work was always a part of practice. When I didn't have enough assistants, I involved willing parents to help with the stations and I would flow between stations giving feed back. Some coaches added a pitching/catching station. I always tried to run pitching and catching by asking a group of 4 to come before practice, or after. I made sure to involve every player at least once during the season in the before/after sessions.

My main goal was to teach overall fundamentals, have fun, and never coach anyone out of playing.

 

[UncleBuck 6444]

We just had our 2nd practice yesterday (Majors;9-12). I like our coach, he seems good, and his kid's really good. He's not from here, just relocated here, so he didn't know many of the kids, but managed to get an okay roster, but with a lot of young ones (my son included, who is 9, and average-ish with room to improve). All we've done so far is fielding and throwing to the bases called, for a full hour, twice. Some work on cut offs, and a lot on making sure the outfield is backing up the infield.  The kids haven't picked up a bat yet, and honestly I'm okay with that. I think it's a good crash-course for the start of the season, and also gives the coach an idea of the kids he's got, where their arms are at, their baseball knowledge etc... Looking like I'll be one of the assistants, which I don't mind, I enjoy it.

The coach with the team practicing next to us seems to be "That Guy." He's probably been coaching in this division for three years, knows all of the players and appears to have grabbed a lot of the older, more athletic kids. He also wears baseball pants to practice.

Edited March 3, 2022 by UncleBuck

[Briuis 61]

On 2/13/2022 at 9:53 PM, Murfdogg21 said:

When I was little (30 years ago) everyone played t-ball the year they were in kindergarten. What happened to LL age rules? I thought I was ahead of the game by enrolling my 4 year old, only to discover I missed his K-ball and fall t-ball seasons and this is his final opportunity to play t-ball, moving up to coach pitch a month after he turns 5. Holy smokes I’m still trying to teach him which direction to run the bases! Oak Ridge/Woodlands had a real shortage of coaches this year too (or every year?) so I got upgraded to head coach as well.  The most difficult part so far is explaining the tight short shorts to my wife. 

ORWALL seems to have a shortage of coaches every year for my son's age group (8YO/machine pitch). I coached fall ball but my work schedule makes it impossible to be a head coach. I saved my kid the embarrassment of showing up in the Bike coaching shorts. 

[Dennis Taylor 18679]

On 2/28/2022 at 12:06 PM, Huckleberry said:

My kid never played machine pitch, but during his coach pitch seasons (which were in a previous league) I caused a bit of a kerfuffle in the league because I pitched from a knee. Apparently that was against the stupid league rules even though it helps the ball come in on a more realistic arc. Long story short, I dared them to call every little kid on my team out because their coach refused to follow that absurd and counterproductive rule and the next season the rule was changed and everyone pitched from a knee. 

The knot on my shin that never went away courtesy of a kid that 15 years later is on the Marlins makes me cringe thinking where the ball would have hit me if i was on a knee! 

[BrazilHorn 6576]

Won first game of season tonight and my son went off with 6 RBIs and some really solid play in the field as the team won 9-1.

No more games for team until after Spring Break so it was nice to get out to a 1-0 start.

Hard to believe after years if Tee ball, coach pitch, machine pitch, kid pitch that this is last year of LL.

Been a wild ride.

[Murfdogg21 4412]

Re: the saga of ORWALL age groups

I previously commented that I thought it was weird that 4 year olds played t-ball, kindergartners play coach pitch, and first graders play machine pitch. I learned last night that it was because Klein LL lowered the first year of machine pitch from second grade to first grade and some Woodlands parents started moving their kids over. ORWALL responded with the same lowering, but didn’t want kids going straight from kindergarten t-ball to machine pitch. They slid the first year of t-ball (k-ball) down to 3 year olds, t-ball at 4, and coach pitch at kindergarten as a buffer before machine pitch. Seems like a retarded arms race all around. We are halfway through the season and I can tell my 4 year old is nowhere near ready for coach pitch. 

[Briuis 61]

We tried Spring/Klein (SKSA) for summer league last year. It was a complete shitshow, I have no idea why ORWALL would piggyback off the idiocy we experienced there. 

My wife is wanting to move our son to select ball in the fall. She is under the impression that the recent change in districting based on the side of I-45/high school zone is going to negatively impact us. 

[BrazilHorn 6576]

Not quite LL but I am a proud poppa - eldest (Freshman) just pitched his first HS game and threw 5 innings, allowing 1 hit, 1 run (un-earned), 5 BB & 11 S0. He also hit a 2 run bomb of a HR and 3 RBI in total on the day.

Good day at the office for the kid. He's fired up.

[Jshep34 2303]

Awesome @BrazilHorn . Nothing more enjoyable as a dad than seeing your kid excel in what they enjoy. Also all you dads with kids in tball, enjoy every single second. Its the best of times.

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[BrazilHorn 6576]

Ok 2-0 to start season with game tonight against a solid team. 
We have a good infield defense but our outfield is very much a WIP. 
 

Hope all are having a good season thus far. 

[VirginiaLonghorn 4750]

Pardon, but there’s some confusion over the thread title.  Is this now where we post about Longhorn baseball?

[BrazilHorn 6576]

Welp - lost tonight - boys came out with really poor body language - didn't take infield well etc

One of those games where you tip your hat to the other team but you are mad at yourself for not having mind right.

These are kinds of games boys can hopefully learn from, get a little bit of scar tissue and not want to feel this again.

Practice tomorrow and then another game Friday.

[Jshep34 2303]

We have 2 games in tomball starting at 8am. For most of our kids it's a hour drive. Warm ups start at 715am. Hate they have to start so dang early.

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[BrazilHorn 6576]

Alright. Good night of baseball for the family. Youngest got a W in his LL game and played great and my oldest threw a no-hitter for the four innings he started at pitcher (game was called after 5, cannot believe coach pulled him as he’d only faced 13 batters) and went 3-3 at plate. 
 

Favorite time of the year. Love baseball season 

[Murfdogg21 4412]

The t-ball Red Sox are 0-4-3 for the season but at least we have cut down on the run differential, not that it matters since we’ll be the last place seed. We’ve reduced the frequency of getting 3 outs on us while batting by batting the 3 autistic kids at #4, 8, and 12 in the lineup, and batting our slowest non-autistic kids at #5 and #9 (because whoever is on third when #8 or #12 hit are almost guaranteed to get forced out at home…might as well burn the outs on the slow base runners). We get in trouble in innings where we start with #5 or #8, because we end up with two force outs at home plus an out on #12 attempting to run the bases. 
 

Half of my parents refuse to attend a practice once the season started, so improving on defense has been very challenging. Most of the kids have developed the instinct to get in front and stop the ball, then know they should throw but still no clue where to throw. It really has been a lot of fun though and I think all the kids will end the season liking baseball more than when we started the season. 

[BrazilHorn 6576]

10 hours ago, Murfdogg21 said:

The t-ball Red Sox are 0-4-3 for the season but at least we have cut down on the run differential, not that it matters since we’ll be the last place seed. We’ve reduced the frequency of getting 3 outs on us while batting by batting the 3 autistic kids at #4, 8, and 12 in the lineup, and batting our slowest non-autistic kids at #5 and #9 (because whoever is on third when #8 or #12 hit are almost guaranteed to get forced out at home…might as well burn the outs on the slow base runners). We get in trouble in innings where we start with #5 or #8, because we end up with two force outs at home plus an out on #12 attempting to run the bases. 
 

Half of my parents refuse to attend a practice once the season started, so improving on defense has been very challenging. Most of the kids have developed the instinct to get in front and stop the ball, then know they should throw but still no clue where to throw. It really has been a lot of fun though and I think all the kids will end the season liking baseball more than when we started the season. 

Definitely a tough draw and it is made harder for sure with no parents getting involved during practices etc.

The kids though seem to be having fun based on what you are saying and at that age it is less the W/L and more just getting them into the pattern recognition of recognizing what to do/where to go with ball etc

[Mez2 4020]

Your Oaks Dad's Club Peewee Banana Slugs are 1-0 on the year, had a good game last weekend, won 13-5, my boy went 4-4 with 3 doubles and a single. We're playing coach pitch right now, second game later today at 2p.

Baseball is the tits. 

[UncleBuck 6444]

The Little League division Yankees (still getting used to this name gross) are 2-0. Had their game postponed from this past Thursday over what I'm calling some bullshit shenanigans (as I mentioned before, coach is new in town. They're trying to take advantage of him. Me and the other assistant aren't new here, though, so this is about to get fun). But back to the Yanks... They're scrappy as hell, and I love how they play. 

The Boy has a couple of hits, including a 2-out hit down 3-0 which started the rally (we'd tie things up that inning and win 4-3 on a walk-off steel). The first pitch he faced this year, to a kid a couple of years older than him throwing some decent heat, he looked over at me with his jaw dropped and eyes opened wide. I said "that's fine, reach out and touch it next time." He did. 

I'd say we're a top three team in the league, behind or tied with the team we just beat 11-5 last week, but they didn't have their ace on the mound (whose name actually happens to be "Ace"), and he is without a doubt the best pitcher in the league.

Anyway, the kids are having a blast. I'm loving it. 

My daughter (first year coach pitch, 6) got a hit and scored a run this past week as well. Also tagged a runner out (She seems to be the only one paying attention out there most of the time). Wish I could work with them more, but The Boy's either practicing or playing.

Edited April 4, 2022 by UncleBuck

[Jshep34 2303]

Lilshep from last weekend

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[Surly Bevo 24692]

Get up and set your feet son...you had plenty of time 🤣

[Cuernavaca 254]

10U Oak Hill Cards going down tomorrow! My boys are super pumped after the shutout at the Disch tonight and getting a bunch of autographs. My younger boy lost the ball that he got a few players to sign before the game and then just had everyone sign his glove after the game. Three and four on the season but our four losses came by only six runs. My oldest boy really wants to pitch and has a lot of work to do before he sees game time action but damn if he isn't putting in the effort. He makes sure that we show up for practice super early so that the other coaches can see him pitching when they get there. If either of my boys puts one over the fence this season then I owe them a new bat but no more than tree fiddy.

[BrazilHorn 6576]

Won a close one last night in LL 5-4 and then went 1-1 in tournament for my 12 y.o. today. 
My Freshman killed it today. Struck out 13 in 5 innings, allowed 1 ER and then went 3-4 with three doubles. He’s struck out 33 through 4 games. Having a great year. 
 

[BrazilHorn 6576]

LL team won tonight 4-2 to move into first place after five games. My youngest had a great game with a double and an in the park homer. He is on a tear this season.

Through five games here are his stats hitting:

14 plate appearances

.857 AVG

,857 OBP

2.357 OPS

1.50 SLG

12 Hits

5 singles, 3 doubles & 3 triples

Been fun coaching him, watching him get after it.

[Had Enough 2054]

LL team won tonight 4-2 to move into first place after five games. My youngest had a great game with a double and an in the park homer. He is on a tear this season.
Through five games here are his stats hitting:
14 plate appearances
.857 AVG
,857 OBP
2.357 OPS
1.50 SLG
12 Hits
5 singles, 3 doubles & 3 triples
Been fun coaching him, watching him get after it.

Little punk needs to learn to take some pitches and draw a walk every now and then. Young, undisciped hitters are the worst.

[BrazilHorn 6576]

4 minutes ago, Had Enough said:

Little punk needs to learn to take some pitches and draw a walk every now and then. Young, undisciped hitters are the worst.

I know - he's an aggressive mofo.

[BrazilHorn 6576]

Staunchly in 1st place now with a great win tonight. 
Got the bottom of the lineup finally making contact and getting some hits. 
We have an 11yo SS that is just flat out amazing. Pitcher’s best friend. 

[UncleBuck 6444]

Lost to move down to 3-2 last night in a roller-coaster of a game against who I believe is the best team in the league. The Boy would strike out twice, walked once and score a run. I've been working with him on underload/overload training for a few weeks now, and you can really see his swing speeding up already. He has seen the ball well all season, but last night it seemed he wasn't. We'll work on it.

Our first pitcher went out and had an off night, was shelled. Our catcher continues to not stop far too many balls. Were down 9-0 after the first inning, but went into the last inning down 10-7 with a chance to hold them and come out for the last frame with a decent part of the lineup due up, but shit went off the rails with a pitching change that had to be made, but just wouldn't work out. We got football scored. 

Still in it. 

[Murfdogg21 4412]

On 4/13/2022 at 7:57 PM, Had Enough said:

Little punk needs to learn to take some pitches and draw a walk every now and then. Young, undisciped hitters are the worst.

[BrazilHorn 6576]

Got the ‘W’ last night in a close, fairly ugly game. Should have beaten other team handily but our team got a little sloppy. Solidly in first place now about halfway through the season. My son hit a 3 run in the park homer (roped one down right field line that landed fair then ran down into corner). 

 

[Jshep34 2303]

Lilshep with Adrian pederson autograph. Lilshep wouldn't flash the hook em at him.

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[BrazilHorn 6576]

Secured a top 2 seed and guaranteed bye with the “W” last night. 
Last regular season game is Monday. The boys win that team wins regular season championship. Hard to believe only a week of LL left for my family and I. Have been in it since my 15 year old was playing tee ball at 4. Now my 12 yo is in his last week. 
crazy. 

[Murfdogg21 4412]

Full ROFLCOPTER. 

Our Woodlands Red Sox t-ball team has won back to back elimination games in the end of season tournament after going 0-5-7 in the regular season. Somehow our three special needs kids have not hit into more than two outs per game, the other team has never hit to one of those kids when they play their required innings in the infield, and 4 or 5 boys finally figured out how flip it quick to get forces at 3rd or home. This is hilarious. I wish we could beat one of the assholes with stacked teams, but our run will likely come to an end on Monday night when we play the dreaded Yankees. 

[BrazilHorn 6576]

Regular season championship in the books thanks to three straight wins to finish the season. Finished a game up on the 2nd place team who would have beat us in the tie breaker had we lost one of our final three games.

WHLL championships are this Saturday/Sunday. Fingers crossed we can win the tournament as well, but even if not, happy to get the full season win.

 

[Huckleberry 32684]

My senior team (14-16 year olds) started 0-3, came back to win the regular season and we're in the championship round of the double elimination tournament Wednesday night as the undefeated team. Of course it's only a 3 team league, but hey, you play the games on the schedule.

Fun season, we have 2 kids on the team who had never played before but decided to try baseball at 16. They have been a revelation because of their great attitudes the entire season. They're good athletes but obviously started with zero baseball skills. One of them naturally crowds the plate and has gotten on via HBP more than walks and hits combined (has a few hits in the last half of the season). I recruited two other of my son's friends to play who had stopped playing baseball three years ago so they were also behind and rapidly improved. Hopefully we can finish it off right this week.

Edited May 10, 2022 by Huckleberry

[Huckleberry 32684]

Lost the first one last night, won the final game tonight to take the tournament. I didn't mention this in the last post, but when we were 0-3 the first place team was 4-0. We were 3-1/2 games behind and we'd only played 3 games. That's impressive.

Great group of kids.

[Rholl 217]

quick note for you moms and dads following this thread thinking your little Johnny will just never hit all these home runs or throw these no hitters youxare reading about.... try like heck to instill love of the game and have Baseball convos with your kids.... watch MLB games and chat about situations.... their attention span may only be a couple innings but use it...... my kid was JAG until 13-14u ..... but we loved us some baseball.... then high school happened .... lotta really fun FB memories rolling thru my FB right now. 

[F250 28658]

20 hours ago, Rholl said:

quick note for you moms and dads following this thread thinking your little Johnny will just never hit all these home runs or throw these no hitters youxare reading about.... try like heck to instill love of the game and have Baseball convos with your kids.... watch MLB games and chat about situations.... their attention span may only be a couple innings but use it...... my kid was JAG until 13-14u ..... but we loved us some baseball.... then high school happened .... lotta really fun FB memories rolling thru my FB right now. 

A goal of mine when I was coaching was not to just teach a kid to play baseball but to make a future fan of the game.

The majority of Little League players will never make the high school varsity baseball team. Probably less than 5 to 10 percent will make it that far in the sport. It doesn't matter. A love for the game will last a lifetime.

 

[bschoolprof 6232]

quick note for you moms and dads following this thread thinking your little Johnny will just never hit all these home runs or throw these no hitters youxare reading about.... try like heck to instill love of the game and have Baseball convos with your kids.... watch MLB games and chat about situations.... their attention span may only be a couple innings but use it...... my kid was JAG until 13-14u ..... but we loved us some baseball.... then high school happened .... lotta really fun FB memories rolling thru my FB right now. 

Great message. My kids are
15 and 13 and are still JAGs tho.

[BrazilHorn 6576]

Welp season finished with a loss in the championship game. Team won the regular season but came up a little short with one "bad" inning where the 2B decided to cram a seasons worth of errors into a half inning. Was a great year and a lot of fun coaching my son for the last time. My son made the all-star time, but I opted not to coach it this year. I am ready to just be a fan and sit and watch my son play ball.

Hats off to all my fellow coaches, parents and fans. Final LL season in the books. Hard to believe as I have been involved since my older son (15) was 4 years old playing tee ball so it has been 11 years of some form of LL type baseball between my two boys. Hard to believe it is all over. I will definitely miss it.

[FigurelliPwC 115]

9 hours ago, BrazilHorn said:

Welp season finished with a loss in the championship game. Team won the regular season but came up a little short with one "bad" inning where the 2B decided to cram a seasons worth of errors into a half inning. Was a great year and a lot of fun coaching my son for the last time. My son made the all-star time, but I opted not to coach it this year. I am ready to just be a fan and sit and watch my son play ball.

Hats off to all my fellow coaches, parents and fans. Final LL season in the books. Hard to believe as I have been involved since my older son (15) was 4 years old playing tee ball so it has been 11 years of some form of LL type baseball between my two boys. Hard to believe it is all over. I will definitely miss it.

My kid and his Yankee teammates had fun at your son’s expense.  Was a good season with some talented players.  We’ll be on the all star team with you - just yell “Muledick” at practice on Wednesday and maybe I’ll respond accordingly.

 

[BrazilHorn 6576]

6 hours ago, FigurelliPwC said:

My kid and his Yankee teammates had fun at your son’s expense.  Was a good season with some talented players.  We’ll be on the all star team with you - just yell “Muledick” at practice on Wednesday and maybe I’ll respond accordingly.

 

Too funny. Y’all were our Achilles heel all year. Yankees were a top/bottom solid team. I’ll definitely shoulder check you Wednesday for sure. 

[F250 28658]

18 hours ago, BrazilHorn said:

Hats off to all my fellow coaches, parents and fans. Final LL season in the books. Hard to believe as I have been involved since my older son (15) was 4 years old playing tee ball so it has been 11 years of some form of LL type baseball between my two boys. Hard to believe it is all over. I will definitely miss it.

It's kind of like retirement. I was heavily involved for quite awhile myself. My oldest started tee ball in 2005. Currently my youngest son plays HS baseball and daughter plays 12U softball. I am just a spectator these days but will assist my son with cage work in the off-season and same with the daughter although I'll work with her on fielding too.

Those years coaching and being directly involved with your kid though is definitely the golden era of parenting.

[Planet Houston 4922]

Welp, seems like we are jumping into the deep end with summer/fall tournament ball. Lord help us all. 

[Jshep34 2303]

The kid is playing against some national select teams today. Went 2 for 4 with 2 rbis and a homerun. Played error free shortstop. Only kid on team that didn't strike out either.

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[BrazilHorn 6576]

Younger son’s select team won their tournament yesterday in a walkoff. 
Huge comeback win for team after being down big. 
My son plays catcher and had a hell of a game on D:threw a kid out stealing, caught pop up behind plate, caught bunt pop up and threw out kid that was on 1B for DP. 
Great win. Proud of boys for battling back. 

[Mez2 4020]

My turn.

I haven't posted on here in a while, I usually post on my social media feeds but wanted to jump in here since you guys do a great job with your sons and teams. We finished our regular season over the weekend at Oaks Dad's Club in Houston, our last year of coach pitch. I was the head coach for my son's team, really since he's started playing, and it's been an absolute joy thus far. We went undefeated over the season, finishing 10-0 in the regular season and then sweeping through the playoffs going 4-0, to bring us to 14-0. I know it's all subjective but there is some really good talent in our division and league, in general. Some videos of my son's ABs over the weekend I thought I would share. He was one of the best players out there but really turned in on in the playoffs. In 4 games he went:

13-13

3 1Bs

6 2Bs

1 3B

3 HRs (all over the fence). It was amazing to see his teammates and families rally behind him and all the little kiddos on the team, as a coach I hope I can show them how to play baseball and enjoy it so they want to come back the next year. It's something that I don't take for granted, I know you guys who coach and work with your kids probably feel the same way. Anyway, hats off to all the boys and dads and families playing baseball - it's the best fucking sport in the world.

 

[torre 1284]

Congratulations  !

He is well beyond his years with the swing/mechanics at the plate.    Who is his favorite MLB player ?   🙂

[Mez2 4020]

19 hours ago, torre said:

Congratulations  !

He is well beyond his years with the swing/mechanics at the plate.    Who is his favorite MLB player ?   🙂

Thanks! We certainly work at it quite a bit, just hoping he continues to play and enjoy putting the work in.

His favorite player is Alex Bregman but likes to model his swing after Bryce Harper's. He throws right but I made him hit from the left side. 

[torre 1284]

1 hour ago, Mez2 said:

Thanks! We certainly work at it quite a bit, just hoping he continues to play and enjoy putting the work in.

His favorite player is Alex Bregman but likes to model his swing after Bryce Harper's. He throws right but I made him hit from the left side. 

Wise choice !    Best to you all in the future.

Edited May 25, 2022 by torre