Originally Posted by Dwayne From Minden
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu8tX2BAD1k" target="_blank">
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu8tX2BAD1k" target="_blank">
Yeppers and many little leaguers know this fact.
Not any more....
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
A sidenote:
Prior to a HS summer game Sunday at The Box at LSU.
Me: “Infield grass looks great.”
Field crew member: “Well, we didn’t have as many games on it the end of the season.”
Last edited by Dawgpix; 07-02-2018 at 10:37 AM.
Louisiana Tech University
Flagship of the University of Louisiana System
Originally Posted by techman05
Definitely RF, he should have kept charging and screaming the other 2 off the ball.
That's such a shame. I coached Little League up to 13 years old for many years with 2 of my 3 boys and that play looked terrible. Our young men never did that after about 11 years of age. Communication and basics is everything. I guess coaching in general, in the younger leagues these days, doesn't practice enough fundamentals.
Very few strong youth leagues -
Definitely RF, he should have kept charging and screaming the other 2 off the ball.
That's such a shame. I coached Little League up to 13 years old for many years with 2 of my 3 boys and that play looked terrible. Our young men never did that after about 11 years of age. Communication and basics is everything. I guess coaching in general, in the younger leagues these days, doesn't practice enough fundamentals.
Everything has gone to travel ball
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
Most of the good coaches went first.
Louisiana Tech University
Flagship of the University of Louisiana System
Little League baseball, youth, used to be strong across the state. I know growing up in Metairie that even average teams here (in Louisiana, and especially in the New Orleans area) were very good. My older brother was a heck of a fine pitcher in his Pony League days (13 & 14 yr olds). His "recreational" team, based at Delta Playground, won a tourney in Mobile against all-star teams from other states. Fans (parents) of the other teams could not believe his was not also some hand-picked all-star team. Nope. Just random whoever signed up to play stuff.
Natchitoches was awesome in girls' softball. They won a true National Championship in 1994 The "Ponytail League" ages 16-18. But, they had three REALLY good coaches back then. Excellent, no nonsense coaches and the practices were tough. I know, my oldest daughter played for one 'em and I used to go out and help with practices, like hit fly balls to the outfield, with that stupid skinny bat.
But, youth baseball has tanked in recent decades. It's noticeably different.
Half the kids playing travel ball aren’t even good enough to start on a Dixie league team. At least it’s true from what I have seen.
I’ve spent the last three months watching a 7 yr old grandson play travel ball on a 9 and under team in NWA. He had to try out to make the team and I have been very impressed with the quality of play as well as the coaching. Much better than I expected or remembered for kids this age. Kids playing travel ball have to love baseball and be dedicated, it’s pretty serious for the kids and parents.
I refused to do travel ball until after the 5-8 YO developmental leagues...TBall, Pitching Machine, Coach Pitch...when baseball is being learned. Spending your weekends (or even every other weekend) from late February to early July) on the whims of a whiny 6YOs who don’t have proper throwing motion...Now that’s patience. We stayed at home, played local and learned the game first.
Yes, we had to deal with Daddy ball, but I came to find out most Daddy Ball is the result of unhappy Mommies torturing their spouses on position and playing time issues.
Louisiana Tech University
Flagship of the University of Louisiana System
When Haughton Dixie hosted a tournament this past season, all of the travel ball teams dominated, at least in my son's division (9-10 live arm).
We're going to hold off on travel ball for a couple more years while he continues to develop the basics (especially hitting) since he's only been playing for a year. However, I have him in private lessons with a pitching coach who sees a lot of arm talent in him. Being a tall southpaw doesn't hurt either. Don't worry, he'll be going to Tech
One issue that I have is that there are a lot of leagues that are going to open bases on the small field. Thankfully Little League is not one of those yet, but Dixie and travel ball is all open bases. The kids have no idea how to hold runners on, almost every move is technically a Balk, and the catchers can't throw the runners out. There is a team in Blanchard that the coach doesn't even allow his catchers to throw down to 2nd. He knows that they can't throw anyone out there and in between innings throws down to 3rd base instead.
Dowty, your experience is the same everywhere now. I just did the regional tournament for Shreveport Little league and there was a team from Sterlington that registered with Little league but played travel ball all year. They were not use to closed bases, and I had to send back runners for leaving before the ball crossed the plate about 5 times. (Once when they scored 2 runs on it, but the runner on 3rd left early.... took those 2 runs off the board) They won the game 12-1 and gripped and complained the entire game. They didn't play a single LL game in Sterlington, but are now likely representing the this region in the State tourney this weekend. They aren't THAT good and will likely get smoked when they play the South LA teams like Eastbank and Lafayette.
Did Dixie change? Up until last year, they only had one division under 13 that had "open bases". That was age 12 that has "Ozone".
I like open bases and more distance between mound and HP.
-Some of these kids are grown at age 12 playing against 11 year olds who are babies.
-It's time to begin "real baseball" age 12 with stealing and holding on.
-Pitchers need to begin developing pitching out of the stretch at age 12.
Yea, only the O Zone's are open bases. You're correct. So maybe my beef is just with Blanchard. There's not a big talent pool in the small town, so it's just bad baseball. We've actually on more than 1 occasion stayed 10 minutes after the game with both teams pitchers and attempted to help them to things properly. The 13-15 year olds are making even the simple mistakes of going from the wind-up when there are runners on base... and what's even worse is there isn't a single team out there smart enough to go on first movement. It's really bad. $45-50 a game makes it tollerable.
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