Expert: Brian Flaspohler - 3/1/2005

Question
As a 8-10 yr old's coach I'm looking for a guide as to what to foucs on at this age. A list of videos or CD's that can help in this dept. would be valuable.

Answer
Jerry,

It might sound crazy, but the focus should be on fun!  There is no better way to make a player interested in getting better then to have fun.  To that end, I'd focus very heavily on batting practice.  Everyone likes to hit!  Kids need lots of repetition to get better, so they should gets lots of practice at bats.  Also, it makes sense to have them hit situationally, so they run the bases and the fielders make the plays.

Schedule practices to keep everyone busy.  It helps a lot if you have extra coaches to hit flies to outfielders and grounders to infielders.

I don't really know what CDs or videos are out there.  But instead of over analysis, repetition and fun work.

Hope this helps!

Brian