VERY OT: Omaha baseball hitting coaches
- Thread starter Nate004
- Start date
Allowed them to charge more. 3 hours of hitting is a pretty bad idea for anyone.
I have a two hour one I am putting on this summer, the time was not my idea and I am already dreading it.
It's always the parents. No one ever says the coaches are nuts. Seems to me like it's a joint issue, and there's no doubt that FOMO is a big motivator for all parents. Not just baseball parents.
Anyway, I agree these camps are mostly cash combines but then again I doubt you find many HS or College rosters with guys that didn't attend at least some camps or private coaches as kids. My son that is playing at a small juco (headed to their CWS later this week) attended almost no camps and had no private coaches, but you better believe there were times I felt like I had failed him because it seemed like those that did were usually ahead of him. The baseball camps/coaches are mostly about networking and when you're looking for an opportunity at the college level those connections are key. We had none!
The VB coach I work with said pretty much what you just said. Tons of parents contact her
"Coach, my daughter is heading into 3rd grade and has not attended a camp yet, we are worried she might be falling behind in her VB skills, is there room at your camp this summer?"
Clearly the more practice you have the better you will get, up to a point. I can practice golf 7 days a week over the summer and I am still not going to be a pro. I might shave a stroke off here and there.
Where it all changes is that 10th/11th grade year. When for the most part, growth spurts have happened and the reps you took when you were 9 at some camp just no longer matter.
More than likely you are just better off playing a bunch of sports for a long as you can.
Now, there are some sports where the sooner you start the better you will be and kids that start later just won't catch up.
Wrestling. I coached wrestling and the kids that started at 4-5 years old were ass kickers, period. The kids that came out as 9th graders, well, it is crazy to watch a 119 pounder beat the hell out of a 145 pound kid who has never wrestled before.
Hockey: Just the skating aspect of it, you need to start early.
Golf: Probably but just up to a certain point.
I agree. This was a long time ago, but used to go to the DVH big red baseball camp. Mike Anderson was great with giving some tips and they help a little, but in the big setting like that it is hard to really get much out of it. I continued to go to the camp just to try and get visibility with the coaches as they were showing some very small interest, but other than that it is more just something fun for kids to do to pass some time.
This is the right way to treat it...it is just something fun for the kids to get out of the house and play.
Until this summer I never ran a camp for over 1 hour.
With the exception of this 3 v 3 BB "camp" that I used to put on, that was 2 hours per session for 3 days with the last day being a tourney.
You want to talk about easy money? That was it! No refs, call your own fouls, I did the schedule, I did the bracket for the last day. All that cash came right to me.
I would snag 2,000-3,000 for 4 days, a total of about 16 hours.
I looked up their camp. I think I was wrong, it was for 2 hours. But still, 2 hours of swinging for 9u.... no way is that beneficial for any youth.
Another thing I don't get are parents putting their kids in (enter sport) camp while in season for that sport?
We're in the middle of baseball season right now. We've already played 25+ games. When school gets out & after Memorial Day we'll have like 10-14 games in 12 days and parents are going to throw their son into a baseball camp during the day too? Talk about exhausting....
Again, its parents AND coaches. Why the hell would anyone hold a camp during baseball season? M-O-N-E-Y. I don't mean to harp on it, but I get so sick of reading coaches on X complaining about parents. Like baseball coaches are bastions of rationality. I mean, @BTF69, you've flat out said that you make cash on this stuff but you think it's wrong. Why are you doing it?
To quote Gene Simmons: "I like money and I want more of it"
It is not like it is "evil" in the end it gives the parents a chance to dump their kids off for an hour or two. The kids get to hangout with friends, shoot the shit, run around. Nothing wrong with that kind of stuff.
Now, if the parent thinks this is how Timmy will end up with a full ride to a D1 school...well, they are going to be disappointed.
Does the cost = great results? Probably not.
No issue with that. I think its mostly harmless . When I was growing up I played baseball AND worked on grandpa's farm. Let's stop acting like a kid going to a 3 hour camp and playing a DH later that day is going to kill them. I doubt that happens often anyway.
Oh yeah, for sure. It doesn't hurt them, I hope I did not say that.
Agree 100%. You mentioned earlier with parents, FOMO. If their 10 year old doesn't go to these camps, come tryouts in June (for the 2025 season, when the 2024 season doesn't end until July... which another stupid thing about baseball now), they'll think they've failed their son if he doesn't make the cut. Or if he doesn't move up the batting order, it'll because they didn't attend a camp.
Best way to seperate parents from their check book is to call your scam a ODP
Olympic Development Program.
...because the soccer talent in Omaha isn't good enough for your 11 y/o daughter, so you drive to K.C. on the weekends so she can be in ODP and the parents can live on that forever!! "Our daughter was on an Olympic develompent program" ...translated..."we spent thousands and thousands of dollars to brag about our daughter who never had a shot to be in the Olympics"
That's where it's at.
Olympic Development Program.
...because the soccer talent in Omaha isn't good enough for your 11 y/o daughter, so you drive to K.C. on the weekends so she can be in ODP and the parents can live on that forever!! "Our daughter was on an Olympic develompent program" ...translated..."we spent thousands and thousands of dollars to brag about our daughter who never had a shot to be in the Olympics"
That's where it's at.
Dude I LOOOOOOVE when they drive 3hours or more to end up playing teams from their same town! HAHAHA
While you're correct, but what's funny to me is that these kids can be dropped off at a park for an hour or two hanging out, having fun, shooting the shit, running around, etc.... FOR FREE. Probably way more fun too.
Baseball camps by and large are a waste of time and money. When you have 20-30+ kids running around, how much actual individual instruction do they get? I developed a methodology a long time ago, and I've never charged a penny for it. Any dad with a decent background in baseball can do this.
I would have the dad videotape, even using a phone and have his son take 3 sets of 12 swings with 10 minutes between sets so you don't wear the kids' arms out. (How many times in their career are they gonna have at-bats with more than 12 pitches in an at-bat?) First set of 12, you film from directly in front of the kid, if you have a screen thats great, if not, don't use a ball, the target is the top of the tee anyhow.
After 12 swings and a 10 minute break move the video to 1/2 the distance between the front foot and the tee. The 3rd set is setting up the video 1/2 the distance between the tee and the back leg. That way, between the 3 sets you're able to see the swing in its entirety.
The first set allows you to check balance, where his eyes are, is there zero head movement, is there any type of pre-pitch rhythm, what is the direction of the bottom hand on the bat. For a right handed hitter, the knob of the bat should reach the left hip before the barrel begins to drop, that insures a short swing and backward spin on the ball which gives the ball carry.
The 2nd set allows for a check on the hip rotatiion, is the front half in unison with the hands moving back, is there a hitch or a dropping of the hands, etc. This will show if its an A to B to C swing, or the needed A to C swing.
The 3rd set will show the whole body in action, where does the knob of the bat go, straight back or is it moving upwards as it should to create a whip action, does the left/right arm (depending if he's a lefty or a righty hitter) open up too quickly which affects the speed of the swing. The left arm is for accelerating and the right arm for guidance. (The opposite for a left handed hitter).
You need to show these kids how to swing A to C because by the time they get to 17-18 years old, if its not, they're not gonna catch up to any upper 80's/low 90's fastballs.
When they text me those sets of swings, I can break it down frame by frame, so by the time I ever work with them in person, I already know what I'm looking at. When we start to make corrections we always start at the feet and move up.
I skipped all the when the pitchers lifts his front leg, when the pitcher separates because there's a slight discernment between the two depending on the age/ability level of hitter the kid is and how hard the pitcher is throwing and how quick he is to the plate. It all goes back to the pre-pitch rhythm that sets everything in motion. Its not that hard guys.
I heard recently about a tournament in Okaboji, all Omaha teams. Hope the parents got their boozing in.
We used to play baseball all day and then more after dinner at the local neighborhood park, completely unsupervised. Drank from a hose if we got thirsty. We were kings.
The summer soccer tourney at Boji is all Omaha teams and boozing parents. It is awesome and foolish.
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