Dale City Little League: Coaches Corner

Coaching Links
Great coaching is no accident. It starts with a love for the game. It grows from a strong desire to give children the tools they need to succeed on the field and in life. And it can happen in any league, with any team, anywhere in the world.

Please click on the links below for the full articles.

Tips from Colangelo
Colangelo
Mike Colangelo will be posting tips for the Managers and Coaches every two weeks. For more information about Colangelo Baseball, please visit the Colangelo Baseball website at www.colangelobaseball.com.

If parents, coaches, board members or even players have any questions, please feel free to contact me at mike_colangelo@comcast.net.

Colangelo Tips - July 09
As the season starts up again here in the fall please remember to train our Dale City players through stations. This will allow them to pick up mechanics quicker, with more repetitions, more efficient and most of all better time management for a practice. We as a league want to make sure we break down the movement into parts to create the whole swing, pitch, or fielding footwork. Joe Morgan said the other day on his telecast Little Leaguers and players today are being taught hitting in cages which is not good. What he means is make sure we give objectives to our hitters do not let them just go in the cage and hit. The list below are some objectives to think about as you start your season. If you need a better understanding of these please e-mail me at mike_colangelo@comcast.net.

Objectives:
  • Hitting opposite field
  • Situations
  • Inside pitch
  • Hit and Run
  • go over bunting
  • Hit ten to right field
  • Hit ten up the middle
These simple words will allow the hitter to have a better focus on what he is trying to accomplish. This will increase his development a lot quicker. I hope everyone enjoyed the summer and is ready for fall ball to start which means the playoffs for MLB right around the corner.

Colangelo Tips - June 09
Stride and Separation Checklist

As a hitter there is nothing more important than balance. Please make sure all hitters are balanced at all times throughout the swing.

Checklist
  • Dynamic Balance (maintaining posture and balance)
  • Stride foot lands close to a 45 degree angle on the ball of the foot with heel elevated no more than 1 to 2 inches. Please keep young hitters off their toes.
  • Hands should be right off back shoulder with knob pointing down and back.
  • The bat should be over back shoulder with barrel at a 45 degree angel behind body.
  • The hitter should have front foot down when the ball is approx. halfway to the plate.
  • Make sure hitter gets stride foot down on time this will insure he has proper timing and without this the hitter’s sequence will be off.
  • Make sure two eyes are on the ball. Do not let shoulders turn in and change eye position.
  • Stride begins prior to release of ball from pitcher.
  • Make sure when you stride you are still square with shoulders.
  • Lead elbow should be angled down at 45 degrees.
This phase of a swing is very important because this is where a hitter will have pitch recognition. We need to make sure we stay square, balanced and keep our eyes and head as still as possible. Once we stride our front hip is finished with the linear movement meaning it does not go forward anymore.

Drills:
  1. Have hitters stand in on bull pens from pitchers and work on nothing but Load and Stride to make sure their timing is right.
  2. Do underhand front toss and change speeds to make sure their hips stop from sliding forward, also known as lunging or drifting.
The next phase will be how we start our swing.

Colangelo Tips - May 09
Hitting Checklist

Hitting is the toughest thing to do in any sport. To all parents, coaches, and players make sure you maintain a positive attitude because hitting is about feeling confident. Our hitting mechanics are broken up into 6 phases. This article will cover a detailed checklist for the first two.

I. Setup (Stance)
  • Square, level, straight
  • Balance
  • Feet a little more than shoulder width apart
  • Weight placed towards the balls of the feet
  • Knees flexed (bent) inside feet
  • Have proper grip. Base of fingers
  • Bat angled close to a 45 degrees with barrel behind body (This will give the hitter a strong start position)
  • Level two eyes looking at the pitcher make sure we stay level
  • Establish rhythm (Some type of movement to keep our muscles relaxed and helps with timing)
II. Load
  • Keep it repeatable (meaning stay away from extremes)
  • Back knee stays inside foot
  • Avoid front shoulder roll (DO NOT turn front shoulder in)
  • Think of loading with hands
  • Maintain posture and head over center of body
  • Load should be early, easy, and slow
Coaches please check your players with these check points; our goal is to get our body in the right place at the right time. Too many hitters are late getting front foot down. When this occurs it throws off all our timing and ability to pitch recognize. Try and keep things simple "Youngsters of Little League can survive under coaching better than over coaching" The Great Willie Mays. Before every practice spend five minutes with all players working on Stance, Load and Stride to a balance position. Make sure both knees are flexed and head is over center of body. Hands should be right off back shoulder. Weight distribution should be anywhere from 50-50 to 60-40, with the 60 on the backside.

Coaches Resource Center
Expert advice from renowned players and coaches; video demonstrations; skills development drills and exercises: At LittleLeagueCoach.org, Little League managers and coaches can get all the tools they need to start their season right or build on what they already have in place. To register you will need an authorization code, please email DaleCityLL@comcast.net to recieve the code.


Practice Plan
Make sure to download the Practice Plan for your division:

Baseball Drills
This packet of baseball drills is designed to be a guide for you to use during your team practices. You will pick a couple of these drills to use during each practice. If you have any questions on how to perform these drills, make sure to contact Rob Pennington, the Coaching Coorindator, at coach_pennington2u@rocketmail.com for assistance. He will be happy to come to one of your practices to demonstrate the drills for you.

Coaching Tips for Prospective Coaches
Thinking about coaching for the upcoming Spring season, but feeling a little rusty about your baseball skills? Click on the above link to review some very useful coaching tips to help you feel more comfortable.

Game Time Management Docs
As discussed at the Managers/Coaches Clinic, this excel file will show you how to be prepared for a game by deciding where you plan to put your players before you show up at the field. As always, adjustments will have to be made based on who actually shows up for the game, but by planning prior to the game, you can hopefully keep things moving between innings.

Player Stats
This excel file allows you to keep baseball stats on your players throughout the season. Make sure to create a seperate worksheet for each player.