Teaching the young ones to throw

[Mr T]

Hi I've been coaching 6U and 8U and I find that throwing is one of the hardest things to teach. Surprisingly, to me at least, I've had much more success getting them to hit than to throw.

I've read some good threads in here, but they are mostly more advanced. They get into the finer details of mechanics, which are good to know, but my girls are starting at ground zero.

I'd love to be able to at least pass them up to 10U with decent form.

I'm pretty convinced the standard stuff you always see is pretty worthless: isolated wrist snap drills might be a decent warm up for an older player but they don't seem to do much for this age. And the stand-like-a-statue, point the ball to 2nd, arm way up in the air, point your glove at your target seems to be wrong is so many ways, as well as ineffective.

Does a good drill even exist for getting the kids to throw well, or should I just try to explain and demo good throwing, have them attempt it, critique it, rinse and repeat? The thing about this, at this age, is that it's very boring for the girls and they don't seem to get much fun out of throwing like they do fielding, pitching, and hitting. I think that's definitely part of the problem.

 

[softballphreak]

Hi I've been coaching 6U and 8U and I find that throwing is one of the hardest things to teach. Surprisingly, to me at least, I've had much more success getting them to hit than to throw.

I've read some good threads in here, but they are mostly more advanced. They get into the finer details of mechanics, which are good to know, but my girls are starting at ground zero.

I'd love to be able to at least pass them up to 10U with decent form.

I'm pretty convinced the standard stuff you always see is pretty worthless: isolated wrist snap drills might be a decent warm up for an older player but they don't seem to do much for this age. And the stand-like-a-statue, point the ball to 2nd, arm way up in the air, point your glove at your target seems to be wrong is so many ways, as well as ineffective.

Does a good drill even exist for getting the kids to throw well, or should I just try to explain and demo good throwing, have them attempt it, critique it, rinse and repeat? The thing about this, at this age, is that it's very boring for the girls and they don't seem to get much fun out of throwing like they do fielding, pitching, and hitting. I think that's definitely part of the problem.

As far as making it fun, set up a target for them to throw at. At that age you could hang a teddy bear up somewhere to throw at. Or set a bucket up at home and divide them into groups and compete.

You can also have them see how many throws it takes to reach the outfield fence or compete for distance. Or how high they can throw it.

Set your assistant coach on a bucket at home plate and let the players try to knock him off the bucket.

Anything that gets them plenty of repetitions.

 

[obbay]

we used to run clinics indoors where the girls would throw the softer softballs (i forget what they're called) at a masonry wall. one of the contests we had at the end was to attach balloons to the wall and see who could break the most.

I'm pretty convinced the standard stuff you always see is pretty worthless: isolated wrist snap drills might be a decent warm up for an older player but they don't seem to do much for this age. And the stand-like-a-statue, point the ball to 2nd, arm way up in the air, point your glove at your target seems to be wrong is so many ways, as well as ineffective.

any drill is worthless if it is not run correctly. at the age you are talking about, I would say they definitely need those kinds of drills if you know how to administer them correctly. one of the important things is to not spend too much time on any one drill. Set up stations that they rotate thru every 15 minutes or so. keep it moving and keep throwing as a part of the whole, but not the whole practice.
Hint: don't tell the girls not to throw the ball like a shot put- girls a lot older than them don't understand the term so they won't. Instead, refer to that style of throwing as "throwing a pie". (Sue Enquist said this and she was right)

 

[starsnuffer]

we used to run clinics indoors where the girls would throw the softer softballs (i forget what they're called) at a masonry wall. one of the contests we had at the end was to attach balloons to the wall and see who could break the most.



any drill is worthless if it is not run correctly. at the age you are talking about, I would say they definitely need those kinds of drills if you know how to administer them correctly. one of the important things is to not spend too much time on any one drill. Set up stations that they rotate thru every 15 minutes or so. keep it moving and keep throwing as a part of the whole, but not the whole practice.
Hint: don't tell the girls not to throw the ball like a shot put- girls a lot older than them don't understand the term so they won't. Instead, refer to that style of throwing as "throwing a pie". (Sue Enquist said this and she was right)

Great advice!

I really liked the last line, and would suggest to take it even a step further. The brain cannot process negative thought efficiently. If you tell a kid "not" to do something, the brain has to apply what it knows and turn the statement into a positive action before being processed. The coach has no idea what is going on in the kids brain, so the coach shouldn't use a "do not do this" statement when teaching. Always use a positive, teachable action, as this is much more efficient for the brain to process.

-W

 

[RichK]

Don't underestimate even very young girls' ability to "do it right." Most do it wrong because they haven't been shown. And doing it right doesn't have to be boring if you build in the games and activities described above too.

Here's a thought...very young girls can be taught to play the piano. As an adult, I can't play at all and would struggle mightily to pick it up now.

Girls will learn things the right way if there's not another path or option that is the wrong way.

GOOD LUCK!

 

[SoftSocDad]

Play catch with them and have them play catch with one another.

 

[starsnuffer]

Don't underestimate even very young girls' ability to "do it right." Most do it wrong because they haven't been shown. And doing it right doesn't have to be boring if you build in the games and activities described above too.

Here's a thought...very young girls can be taught to play the piano. As an adult, I can't play at all and would struggle mightily to pick it up now.

Girls will learn things the right way if there's not another path or option that is the wrong way.

GOOD LUCK!

You're right about how they learn, and how quick they can pick it up. The problems arise because so many parents and adults "baby toss" to their toddlers and younger children. The kids mimic this, and what you end up with is a square to the target, bend the knees, point both toes down, shot put type wimpy throw.

Most of the work teaching t-ballers how to throw properly is undoing the last 4 years of "throwing experience" they were taught at home.

-W

 

[Mr T]

Thanks all for the ideas and tips on coaching. I'll give some of them a try.

 

[obbay]

One more thing- girls definitely gravitate toward facing their target when throwing (like throwing darts), constantly reinforce with them the need to get sideways to the target (glove pointing at the target if you want to, otherwise have the elbow pointing at it). start with the glove shoulder toward the target and finish with the throwing shoulder toward the target. we are moving when throwing so don't expect to stand still while throwing. the whole body gets into it. (sometimes it helps for them to relate the throwing motion to a swimming motion where one arm is going back while the other goes forward)

good luck!

 

[Mr T]

Yeah they really do like to face the target. I'm working hard on that. I have a great thrower on my team. She won the 8U distance toss at the hit-a-thon last year as a 7 yr old. The funny thing is is that I think she could add as much or more distance than some of my worse throwers.