Some of Mike Marshall's ideas may seem about as old-school as they come, but in the area of youth sports and the way it is administered, he is always spot on. He addressed a question from one of his followers regarding the recent death of the Arizona Little Leaguer and, not surprisingly, came down far harder on coaches and administrators than I did. His comments and recommendations are posted below.
More importantly, he provides concrete examples of how coaches ought to be teaching the technique of bunting, but simultaneously, how to batters can protect themselves from the worst-case scenario, the high and tight fastball.
Marshall has long been an advocate for pitchers throwing daily as well, swimming against the tide of pitch count vigilantes. Maybe the recent shelving of Joba Chamberlain -- he of the Joba Rules -- will cause some to reconsider their positions in this area.
from the New York Daily News:
Joba Chamberlain's father admits 'reservations' about 'Joba Rules,' looking back on early years
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2011/06/10/2011-06-10_dad_regrets_joba_rules.html
from Dr. Mike Marshall's Pitching Coach Services - Question and Answer area:
http://www.drmikemarshall.com/Question-Answer2011.html
549. Little League Death
Here is an article where a teenager died when a ball hit him in the chest.
My understanding is that this happens when a baseball hits a kid's chest with sufficient force between heart beats.
The story doesn't say whether a defibrillator was available at the scene. Would you require such a device at all Little League games?
------------------------------------------
Arizona Little Leaguer, 13, killed after pitch hits chest
PHOENIX, AZ: (AP) A 13-year-old Arizona boy was killed in a freak accident after a baseball hit him over the heart as he tried to bunt, officials in his Little League said Friday.
Hayden Walton went for the bunt during a game Tuesday night in the close-knit northern Arizona city of Winslow, said Jamey Jones, a Winslow Little League official. "He took an inside pitch right in the chest," Jones said. "After that he took two steps to first base and collapsed." He died the next morning at a local hospital.
The boy's parents, who were at the game, are heartbroken, shocked and unable to speak to members of the media, league president and family spokesman Dale Thomas said. "It's a hard thing to handle for everyone," Thomas said. "When you're touched by something of this magnitude, it sends shock waves throughout the community."
Thomas said he grew up around the boy's family and described Hayden as "the epitome of what every little boy ought to be." Besides participating in Little League, Hayden was a Boy Scout, loved to work on cars and helped neighborhood widows by mowing their lawns and doing odd jobs for them, Thomas said. Hayden had a younger sister.
The league suspended games until Friday and has counselors available for players or parents who need them. Stephen Keener, president and CEO of Little League Baseball and Softball, said in a statement that "the loss of a child is incomprehensible."
"Words cannot adequately express our sorrow on the passing of Hayden," he said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Hayden's family, all the players and volunteers of the Winslow Little League, his classmates, and his friends, at this difficult time."
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Sacrifice bunting is a very dangerous motor skill. When batters sacrifice bunt, to get baseball batters to pop up the bunt, baseball coaches teach their baseball pitchers to throw the baseball high and inside.
To sacrifice bunt, untrained baseball coaches teach their baseball batters to move their rear foot forward to parallel with their front foot and farther, which turns the body to face toward the baseball pitcher.
In this position, baseball sacrifice bunters cannot rotate their head and body away from the pitched baseball.
Instead, their only reaction is to move away from the pitched baseball and raise their arms. This opens their face and the front of their chest.
The person legally responsible for this young man's needless death is the untrained baseball coach that taught this young man this deadly sacrifice bunting technique.
Whatever the motor skill, the first obligation of those that teach motor skills is to teach their athletes how to prevent motor skill technique injuries and avoid competition-generated injuries.
This requires coaches to inform parents and athletes of the potential dangers of the motor skills they teach and,before they can participate, what preventive skills the athletes have to master.
Therefore, the first baseball batting motor skill that athletes must master is how to avoid getting hit with a pitched baseball in the head or heart.
Baseball pitching is an Initiator skill. That means that nothing can happen until baseball pitchers throw the baseball.
Baseball batting is a reaction skill. That means that baseball batters have to wait until baseball pitchers throw the baseball.
With tennis balls, batting helmets with face guards and protective eye wear, coaches need to teach baseball batters how to turn their head and chest away from pitched baseballs that are going to hit them.
With regard to baseball batters avoiding getting hit in the head or heart with a pitched baseball, the critical factors are having their front foot on the ground, their body turned sideways to baseball pitchers and their rear foot on the ground in line with their front foot away from home plate.
With the front foot on the ground, baseball batters have the ground contact that they need to rotate their head and body away from the pitched baseball.
As they rotate their body away from the pitched baseball, baseball batters need to turn their head away and bend their neck downward to hide their face behind their front shoulder and look at their rear heel.
Simultaneously, they need to tuck their front arm across the front of their chest, thereby covering their heart.
With my baseball batting technique, baseball batters start with their front upper arm vertically downward in contact with their Rib Cage, their front forearm diagonally across the front of the chest.
This means that, without having to move their front arm at all, they are protecting their heart from pitched baseballs.
I do not voluntarily give away outs. Therefore, I do not ask my baseball batters to sacrifice bunt. Instead, I prefer to teach my baseball batters how to hit the baseball on the ground.
To advance base runners, I have my base runners run and my baseball batters hit the baseball on the ground.
However, with base runners on first and second bases with no outs, I do have my baseball batters assume the appropriate sacrifice bunting position.
The baseball sacrifice bunting position starts with the same body position as my baseball batting position.
To assume the sacrifice bunting position, baseball batters:
01. Stand as far away from home plate as the batters box and their reach permits them to have the end of their bat in the middle of home plate.
02. Have their rear foot in line with or slightly behind their front foot.
03. Turn their upper body to forty-five degrees toward the baseball pitcher.
04. Bend their knees.
05. Move both hands up the baseball bat.
06. Hold the bat at the top of their strike zone at a slight upward angle.
As I said, I never sacrifice bunt. However, if I were to ask my baseball batters to sacrifice bunt, I would teach my baseball sacrificing bunters to:
07. Always bunt the baseball to the right side of the infield.
The reason why I would always have baseball sacrifice bunters bunt to the right side of the infield is that, when they try to bunt the baseball to the left side of the infield, they have to turn their bat toward the left side of the infield.
This means that, if the baseball contacts the top edge of the baseball bat, the baseball can hit the sacrificing baseball bunter in the face.
Remember, the first rule of coaching: Never teach a motor skill that can injure the athletes.
I suppose that those in charge of youth baseball games could require the umpires that they hire to know how to resuscitate people in need and bring a defibrillator with them.
However, the best answer is to teach and train athletes how to avoid injuries.
This is another reason why college educated and trained athletic coaches should be in charge of youth athletic programs. We learn that our first responsibility is to teach our athletes how to perform injury-free motor skills and how to prevent competition-generated injuries.
Unfortunately, with regard to baseball pitching, except for this Kinesiologist, those in charge of designing an injury-free baseball pitching force application technique have failed.
My recommendation is for these parents to sue those in charge of this league for every cent that their insurance policy covers. I prefer to have no leagues than leagues operated by incompetents that have no idea what they are doing, but want the money.
Here is an article where a teenager died when a ball hit him in the chest.
My understanding is that this happens when a baseball hits a kid's chest with sufficient force between heart beats.
The story doesn't say whether a defibrillator was available at the scene. Would you require such a device at all Little League games?
------------------------------------------
Arizona Little Leaguer, 13, killed after pitch hits chest
PHOENIX, AZ: (AP) A 13-year-old Arizona boy was killed in a freak accident after a baseball hit him over the heart as he tried to bunt, officials in his Little League said Friday.
Hayden Walton went for the bunt during a game Tuesday night in the close-knit northern Arizona city of Winslow, said Jamey Jones, a Winslow Little League official. "He took an inside pitch right in the chest," Jones said. "After that he took two steps to first base and collapsed." He died the next morning at a local hospital.
The boy's parents, who were at the game, are heartbroken, shocked and unable to speak to members of the media, league president and family spokesman Dale Thomas said. "It's a hard thing to handle for everyone," Thomas said. "When you're touched by something of this magnitude, it sends shock waves throughout the community."
Thomas said he grew up around the boy's family and described Hayden as "the epitome of what every little boy ought to be." Besides participating in Little League, Hayden was a Boy Scout, loved to work on cars and helped neighborhood widows by mowing their lawns and doing odd jobs for them, Thomas said. Hayden had a younger sister.
The league suspended games until Friday and has counselors available for players or parents who need them. Stephen Keener, president and CEO of Little League Baseball and Softball, said in a statement that "the loss of a child is incomprehensible."
"Words cannot adequately express our sorrow on the passing of Hayden," he said. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Hayden's family, all the players and volunteers of the Winslow Little League, his classmates, and his friends, at this difficult time."
---------------------------------------------
Sacrifice bunting is a very dangerous motor skill. When batters sacrifice bunt, to get baseball batters to pop up the bunt, baseball coaches teach their baseball pitchers to throw the baseball high and inside.
To sacrifice bunt, untrained baseball coaches teach their baseball batters to move their rear foot forward to parallel with their front foot and farther, which turns the body to face toward the baseball pitcher.
In this position, baseball sacrifice bunters cannot rotate their head and body away from the pitched baseball.
Instead, their only reaction is to move away from the pitched baseball and raise their arms. This opens their face and the front of their chest.
The person legally responsible for this young man's needless death is the untrained baseball coach that taught this young man this deadly sacrifice bunting technique.
Whatever the motor skill, the first obligation of those that teach motor skills is to teach their athletes how to prevent motor skill technique injuries and avoid competition-generated injuries.
This requires coaches to inform parents and athletes of the potential dangers of the motor skills they teach and,before they can participate, what preventive skills the athletes have to master.
Therefore, the first baseball batting motor skill that athletes must master is how to avoid getting hit with a pitched baseball in the head or heart.
Baseball pitching is an Initiator skill. That means that nothing can happen until baseball pitchers throw the baseball.
Baseball batting is a reaction skill. That means that baseball batters have to wait until baseball pitchers throw the baseball.
With tennis balls, batting helmets with face guards and protective eye wear, coaches need to teach baseball batters how to turn their head and chest away from pitched baseballs that are going to hit them.
With regard to baseball batters avoiding getting hit in the head or heart with a pitched baseball, the critical factors are having their front foot on the ground, their body turned sideways to baseball pitchers and their rear foot on the ground in line with their front foot away from home plate.
With the front foot on the ground, baseball batters have the ground contact that they need to rotate their head and body away from the pitched baseball.
As they rotate their body away from the pitched baseball, baseball batters need to turn their head away and bend their neck downward to hide their face behind their front shoulder and look at their rear heel.
Simultaneously, they need to tuck their front arm across the front of their chest, thereby covering their heart.
With my baseball batting technique, baseball batters start with their front upper arm vertically downward in contact with their Rib Cage, their front forearm diagonally across the front of the chest.
This means that, without having to move their front arm at all, they are protecting their heart from pitched baseballs.
I do not voluntarily give away outs. Therefore, I do not ask my baseball batters to sacrifice bunt. Instead, I prefer to teach my baseball batters how to hit the baseball on the ground.
To advance base runners, I have my base runners run and my baseball batters hit the baseball on the ground.
However, with base runners on first and second bases with no outs, I do have my baseball batters assume the appropriate sacrifice bunting position.
The baseball sacrifice bunting position starts with the same body position as my baseball batting position.
To assume the sacrifice bunting position, baseball batters:
01. Stand as far away from home plate as the batters box and their reach permits them to have the end of their bat in the middle of home plate.
02. Have their rear foot in line with or slightly behind their front foot.
03. Turn their upper body to forty-five degrees toward the baseball pitcher.
04. Bend their knees.
05. Move both hands up the baseball bat.
06. Hold the bat at the top of their strike zone at a slight upward angle.
As I said, I never sacrifice bunt. However, if I were to ask my baseball batters to sacrifice bunt, I would teach my baseball sacrificing bunters to:
07. Always bunt the baseball to the right side of the infield.
The reason why I would always have baseball sacrifice bunters bunt to the right side of the infield is that, when they try to bunt the baseball to the left side of the infield, they have to turn their bat toward the left side of the infield.
This means that, if the baseball contacts the top edge of the baseball bat, the baseball can hit the sacrificing baseball bunter in the face.
Remember, the first rule of coaching: Never teach a motor skill that can injure the athletes.
I suppose that those in charge of youth baseball games could require the umpires that they hire to know how to resuscitate people in need and bring a defibrillator with them.
However, the best answer is to teach and train athletes how to avoid injuries.
This is another reason why college educated and trained athletic coaches should be in charge of youth athletic programs. We learn that our first responsibility is to teach our athletes how to perform injury-free motor skills and how to prevent competition-generated injuries.
Unfortunately, with regard to baseball pitching, except for this Kinesiologist, those in charge of designing an injury-free baseball pitching force application technique have failed.
My recommendation is for these parents to sue those in charge of this league for every cent that their insurance policy covers. I prefer to have no leagues than leagues operated by incompetents that have no idea what they are doing, but want the money.
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