Why Your Kid has Bad mechanics
Daily Newsletter 17/100
Why does my son have bad mechanics?
You see it all the time, parents and coaches giving their athletes a million different cues and mechanical drills to help their kid. Most of the time, the player becomes overwhelmed (this exact thing happens in pro ball) and the coach/parent gets frustrated because the player isn’t making progress or is even going backwards.
This exact situation has played itself out anywhere from the major leagues to Little League and everywhere in between. A person tries to help (coach, parent or instructor) and ends up overwhelming someone who is trying their hardest to improve (player or child). This is one of the single most difficult scenarios to avoid as a coach or parent. Honestly no matter how hard you’ll try to avoid it, you will end up doing it at some point.
The best coaches are the ones that are aware of this, and are careful to be on the lookout for signs and indicators that they’re overdoing it. The best coaches will do this, not often, but they will.
So what? Well, especially at younger ages, kids are extremely liable to lose interest or become extremely discouraged by a possible regression or lack of progress. In fact, in many cases. Kids are way more likely to enjoy the practice, move freely and make progress if they are unaware what they are working on entirely.
For example:
Kid A fields ground balls at shortstop and throws them towards a net at first as hard as he can, only focused on accomplishing the task of throwing the ball. Sometimes he misses the net, but gets right back up and goes again.
Kid B, does countless throwing drills with intentional focus on certain mechanical issues in his throw. He tries to intentionally change his throw to do the things his coach asked him to do, the throws feel weird (as they should) and he makes some progress mechanically, but starts aiming the ball as the internal focus on mechanics lead to some bad throws.
How exactly do these two scenarios play out? I cannot say for sure, but there is a significant amount of research that implies Kid A would be at a great advantage to improve. Obviously there is a ton more information needed to determine what exactly is the best path for every player, but there are some general rules of thumb to follow.
Kid A succeeds because of the environment that he is in. What does this mean? The environment (Practice atmosphere as well as the drill) allow him to focus on accomplishing the task (Making a strong and accurate throw across the entire infield). Over time, his body adapts to overcome the challenge and complete the task at a high level.
Kid B might succeed as well, but there are lots of possible roadblocks that are led by the style of practice. It is 1: much higher stress and 2: generally much less enjoyable than the other.
So why do i see every single major leaguer running through super deep mechanical work all the time?
Because they are better than you, their coaches are better than yours (generally) and they have trained for years to be able to handle the minutiae of their skill. This is normal, and these same professionals most likely could not do these same drills when they were younger, these are limitations put into place simply by the timeline that human motor skill development follows.
You are not “bad” because you can’t do what the major leaguers do, you simply cannot accomplish it **YET**.
I will never tell someone they don’t have the ability to accomplish something in the future, especially at the youth level, there is so much development left to be done.
A completely irrelevant but also someone relevant anecdote regarding this topic/idea:
My travel team in highschool had 3 catchers. 1 I loved throwing to and would always enjoy working with. Another was a great defensive catcher but kind of a prick, so I never enjoyed throwing to him but he always got the job done. Last but not least, we had another catcher that was nice, but honestly wasn’t that good at any facet of the game and I didnt love throwing to him.
Catcher #3 is a multi-year major league starting catcher for a playoff team.
No one else on my team has made the major leagues yet, we had roughly a dozen professional players on that team.
You just never know. So why put limits on people?
Back to the mechanics.
If you don’t want kids to be thinking about mechanics 24/7, then how do you get them to improve their mechanics? The answer is simple: place them in an environment that forces them to adapt to accomplish the task. Whether this be a drill, a time limit or a distance requirement.
Want fast double play turns and you're tired of kids moving slow because they’re worried about doing the transfer perfect? PLace them in a time constraint, put them on a stopwatch and determine an acceptable amount of time for them to turn the double play. Pro tip: Wait for them to do a few before giving them a goal.
Want someone to stop lowering their elbow as they throw? PLace them in a drill with their elbow preset above their shoulder, and have them mix throws from that position as well as a normal arm swing. I did this with my own throwing mechanics, and worked like a charm.
Kids throw all clunky and don’t move athletically? Have them practice throwing on the run like a Quarterback. I do this every single day in professional baseball, as do tons of my teammates.
There are countless ways to fix things without actively thinking about them. I got to a place where I could throw the ball further without an arm swing than with an arm swing (not good at all), and eventually figured it out.
These types of solutions allow for your youth athletes to find enjoyment in the practice that keeps them coming back and enjoying the game. Remember: nothing matters if they hate practice so much they never do it.
Keep things fun, mix it up and don’t be scared to try something funky.
Always remember: You don’t work the game, you play the game.
John