Kids learning to pitch/hit/field by emulating MLB players they see on TV

[skipper5]

Some lucky people are able to watch somebody perform a complex physical action and then repeat it.
Back in the day at the 8th grade dance, some kids could instantly emulate dance moves. I couldn't, lol.
Forty years ago, my buddy on a construction job watched expert drywall finishers while we ate lunch and then, bingo, he blew me away by taping a drywall joint like a pro.
My youngest son had the gift. From a very young age, his pitching mechanics were darned good, just from watching baseball on TV.
I don't have the gift. Just ask the women whose toes I stepped on while dancing last weekend at a wedding reception.

[JoeG]

Some lucky people are able to watch somebody perform a complex physical action and then repeat it.
Back in the day at the 8th grade dance, some kids could instantly emulate dance moves. I couldn't, lol.
Forty years ago, my buddy on a construction job watched expert drywall finishers while we ate lunch and then, bingo, he blew me away by taping a drywall joint like a pro.
My youngest son had the gift. From a very young age, his pitching mechanics were darned good, just from watching baseball on TV.
I don't have the gift. Just ask the women whose toes I stepped on while dancing last weekend at a wedding reception.

I don't have this gift either and am in awe of my own's son ability to watch a video and emulate. I think it helps for the pitcher windup. As a youngster he had around 20 different pitching motions and you could easily identify which MLB pitcher he emulated (in the end, he settled on Cliff Lee as the base for his own).

Nowadays - he knows all the fortnight dances, even though we don't let him play fortnight at home.

[Colonel21]

I don't have this gift either and am in awe of my own's son ability to watch a video and emulate. I think it helps for the pitcher windup. As a youngster he had around 20 different pitching motions and you could easily identify which MLB pitcher he emulated (in the end, he settled on Cliff Lee as the base for his own).

HAHA. Reminds me of Carmen from Bad News Bears when he was stuck between his Catfish Hunter and Luis Tiant.

[Colonel21]

I do agree. I think it is awesome how kids can study a video and integrate the motions they see into their own actions. This is how my son learned his golf swing. No one ever showed him how to swing a golf club. He just learned by watching.

But I do agree that now he is older I wish he would spend more time watching hitters and pitchers on youtube rather than watching videos of other people playing Fortnite.

[Tman]

Used to be a bigger thing it seems like. I can hardly get my son to watch games on TV with me. He'll go to a live game but that's about the extent of his interest outside of playing.

I remember trying to emulate Nolan Ryan's windup. I'd play wiffle ball and imitate various swings with big leg kicks or waving the bat. I remember in 3rd grade snagging a hard ground ball on one bounce and slowly and deliberately making a throw from the pitchers' mound to 1B like I'd seen players on TV do and getting chewed out by the coach. Played catcher later on and learned to frame pitches from watching on TV. I never had a coach even bring it up.

Sometimes I'd get it wrong though between the gobbledy gook the announcers would spout and misinterpreting what I was seeing. Like at one point I thought you brought the glove to the chest when you were pitching, not chest to the glove, and I did it wrong for quite awhile. I was of the understanding that an "uppercut swing" was something maybe you did in slowpitch softball but guys like Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn had a level swing.

I hear older folks talking about listening to the game with a transistor radio under their covers when they were supposed to be sleeping, sounds like a totally different world.

[pattar]

I hear older folks talking about listening to the game with a transistor radio under their covers when they were supposed to be sleeping, sounds like a totally different world.

My parents had a raised ranch and the tv was downstairs. I used to "sneak" out of my room to listen to Celtics/Sox games at the top of stairs. When I go back home now with my family we typically sleep downstairs and you can hear an ant walking on the upper floor from downstairs due to all of the creaking..; )

[omg]

Copying? It's definitely the way to get good as long as you have a little common sense.

[songtitle]

Copying works in many endeavors.

[dominik]

Some lucky people are able to watch somebody perform a complex physical action and then repeat it.
Back in the day at the 8th grade dance, some kids could instantly emulate dance moves. I couldn't, lol.
Forty years ago, my buddy on a construction job watched expert drywall finishers while we ate lunch and then, bingo, he blew me away by taping a drywall joint like a pro.
My youngest son had the gift. From a very young age, his pitching mechanics were darned good, just from watching baseball on TV.
I don't have the gift. Just ask the women whose toes I stepped on while dancing last weekend at a wedding reception.

there are visual learners who can do this but others are more auditory or kinethetic learners https://www.rasmussen.edu/student-li...s-of-learners/

you really have to find out which type of student you have and then find the right channel for him.I do show my kids video of mlb players as well as demonstrate myself to make points but I will also explain and give verbal cues (for auditory learners) and do contraint drills for kinethetic learners. also some kids need literal cues (what actually happens) and others react better to feel based cues and overcorrections. If you use only one channel you risk not reaching some kids, many coaches will do this and then blame it on the lack of talent or effort of the kid.

BTW I had a great moment when I coached my kids group two days ago. one of the kids brought his friend from school who has never touched a baseball bat. I showed him some basic stance, grip and handset, gave him a basic idea of the swing and then left him alone (the first day I only want to give minimal instruction) and then one of my more experienced kids corrected him and showed him to not swing down but hit the ball from behind with the bat. kid did listen.

[Scrub]

Just as long as they aren't emulating the "hustle" of MLB'ers. I've had to talk to my son about that. He likes to coast into 2B with a stand-up double at 10U because he's seen over and over that that's what MLB players do on a gap shot. But what he doesn't realize is that, at 10U, if you're able to get to 2B standing up, you ought to be sliding into 3B for a triple. We just don't have the arms in CF that MLB teams do.