If your tournament team is going 3 and out most weekends…. I bet if u asked that coach behind closed doors… “do you think continuing to play tournaments is in the best interests of the kids?” they would 10000000% say NO!” But they do it anyways. Why? To appease the parents. Why appease the parents? They are writing the checks. It comes down to money. Which sucks. Providers… If you are taking your kids out to tournaments for them just to get destroyed, rethink your approach. Cancel tournaments. Spend your resources and time on more skill development. If you’re a parent of a player on one of these teams, just get outta there and stop drinking the kool-aid. Take that money and get in with a great private instructor or a program with a more developmental approach. Optimize for skill development and not winning tournaments! My personal opinion is… for kids age 11 and under, unless your kid is extremely elite or you live in a VERY remote area, you should almost NEVER have to subject your kids to this absurd tournament model. This format designed to MAKE MONEY. To extract every single dollar they can out of you. And NOT with the kids best interests in mind. I have a ton of kids coming into my new facility right now, and it’s driving me FRIGIN NUTS nuts to hear them tell me about how they are getting destroyed at weekend tournaments. I honestly just feel bad for them. And they are subjecting their kids to massive arm injury risk too. These providers’ pitch count rules are all over the place!! I know 10-15 teenagers and college kids in my own circle who just had or are about to have surgery. ITS AN EPIDEMIC!! Truly. You don’t think it’ll effect your kid until it does. You think your 11 year who just threw 80+ pitches and then catches 8 innings the next day is invisible? This is a recipe for TJ years later in HS when things matter most. I havent stepped foot in a tournament facility since 2018, and my baseball program has grown 10x. I don’t need it. Either do you. If your kid is 11 and under. Just don’t. Your kid may think it’s fun. I’m sure they are having fun. You also think green smoothies are healthy. It’s not healthy. They’re often packed with sugar. It’s a disguise. Tourneys for ages 11 and under NOT healthy or what they need. I’m convinced they exist to give parents something to do. An excuse to get out during the weekend and drink some beers. And miss out on so many more worldly experiences they could have. I know your options are likely limited for competitive ball, but just stay away. I’ve been in this space for almost 20 years now. Don’t listen to me if you don’t want to, but this is what I’ve observed after seeing thousands of kids go through my program. 3 big leaguers, 50 MLB draft picks, 2 Olympians. Its about development. If you want your kid to play in college and beyond, its about being the best 21 year old you can be. And the path is not more youth tournaments. Sorry but I just had to get this out there.

Just some notes from coaching four games of 9U and 11U baseball today… It’s amazing how many things I constantly find myself coaching that require ZERO talent. Run on and off the field. Talk. Support your teammates. Be ready on deck. Know the situation. Communicate. Be ready when your number is called. None of it takes talent. Just focus, effort, and being a great teammate!

Explaining the load to kids in a way that hopefully makes sense. To maximize power at the plate you need a load.

One of the best drills for kids who spin around after they swing. You cant get down to a knee if you're doing the "ballerina swing" #baseball

The most important job we have as coaches, organizers and baseball leaders is pretty straightforward: Make kids WANT to come back. And sometimes the little things make a huge difference. These are some of the coolest jerseys we’ve made over the years, and the kids absolutely LOVE them. For about $5 more than a basic jersey, we can give a kid something custom that they’re genuinely fired up to put on. We get ours through Champro’s 5 Day program. They’re quick, affordable, fully custom and you can get pretty creative with them. Is a sweet jersey going to make a kid a better baseball player? Probably not. But can it make them a little more excited to get dressed, get to the field and feel like they’re part of something special? Absolutely. We spend so much time thinking about drills, development and winning. Sometimes making baseball better for kids is as simple as making it a little more fun. ⚾️

STOP rolling over by creating a positive attack angle. This is done by creating proper shoulder tilt. Basic breakdown to 9 year olds right here.

4 catcher specific strengthening exercises that are simple for players of all ages.

Created a new travel ball league in Northern California and designed custom rules based on what kids at these 9U/11U ages need for both development and fun.

Swing mechanics simplified for youth.

Whenever kids are not getting full hip rotation or if they’re bending out their front leg, this seems to help.

This Saturday is opening weekend of Legends Select, my new Bay Area travel ball league that I created. Here’s what I got going: I own and operate Legends in six regions across Northern California. We have hundreds of kids come through our camps, clinics and programs every year. This spring, we ran tryouts in each region to identify some of the best players in our ecosystem. Then we used the summer to continue evaluating kids and filling out teams. The goal was six 9U teams and six 11U teams. We landed at four of each. Honestly, I’m really happy with that for year one. Before playing a single game, every team gets seven practices. Four outside and three inside the batting cages. Then we play doubleheaders every Saturday for six weeks, followed by playoffs and a championship weekend. Everything is scheduled in advance. Standings. Stats. Music. Announcers. Walk up songs. Epic jerseys. Full game production. Basically, I want it to FEEL big league to the kids. But the part I’m probably most excited about is that because we created our own league, we got to design the actual baseball around what I believe kids at these ages need. A few examples: Both divisions use a continuous batting order. Everybody hits. And instead of resetting the lineup for Game 2 of a doubleheader, we just pick up wherever Game 1 ended. Simple for coaches. Equitable for kids. More consistent reps. 9U has no traditional travel ball leads. We’re using Little League style baserunning. I just don’t think 9 year olds need to spend half the game worried about holding runners, balks and controlling the running game when there are so many more important baseball skills to develop. 11U will introduce leads and steals in Week 4. That gives us three weeks of practice and games to teach it before we add another layer to the game. We’re also being pretty intentional with pitching. Early in the season, pitchers are capped at 3 innings or 50 pitches. Later that moves to 70 pitches. You cannot pitch in both games of a doubleheader. And teams need to use at least three pitchers per game. That means six different pitchers getting opportunities every Saturday. 9U has no dropped third strike and runners cannot score from third on a passed ball. 11U plays both. And then there’s probably the rule I care about most: Our coaches are expected to be chill. Don’t argue with umpires. Don’t yell at kids. Don’t spend the entire game coaching every movement from the dugout. Be positive. Be level headed. Teach. Let them play. Playing time is guaranteed. Positions are earned. This whole thing is basically an experiment in building the travel baseball experience I’d want for my own kid. High level baseball. Great competition. Awesome experience. But still development first. I’m pretty damn excited to see it finally start this Saturday.

I only promote products we use regularly. We use this almost every day for hitters and pitchers. Highly recommended. Get 10% OFF when you go to f.mtr.cool/va0yaox6yg and enter promo code: LEGENDS

There’s 2 ways to do your skill work at practice: 1. You can split into stations and rotate your players through working on hitting, outfield, infield, etc. 2. Or you can do it as one big group splitting The kids up amongst your coaches. That is what we are doing here. I think if you have one really strong coach and a rep givers there’s an argument to do it as one big group because the one really strong coach can break down the core skill you’re working on. You don’t have to rely on your coaches to know much when you do it as one big group and then split up the reps.

Simple method for getting infielders to field the ball out in front where they can see it. Also, helps keep them quiet!

Simple method for teaching youth how to move the glove to the ball properly.

Throwing mechanics 101. Here’s a simple way to break it down for youth.

We haven’t stepped foot in a tournament complex since 2018. And we never will. It’s simply not a safe or appropriate format for kids and their families. Kids may enjoy them but that doesn’t make it good for them. It’s like a green smoothie. On the surface is look fine and healthy but it’s packed with unhealthy ingredients. While it’s more challenging to execute, the lead format has substantial advantages.

The RIGHT way to throw wiffle balls to kids 🎯 Most coaches grip with 2 fingers like a baseball. Ive learned that doesnt work for most.  Here's what actually works: ⚾ 3 or 4 fingers on the ball. More fingers = a stable ball in your hand. It just seems to work.  ⚾ No wrist snap. You can't break your wrist on a wiffle ball the way you can a baseball. The ball is too light. Let the arm do the work. ⚾ Full arm swing. Kids need to see the whole motion so they can time their load. Short arm it and you steal their timing. ⚾ Get on a knee. The ball should come in on plane, just like a real pitch. Game like reps make game like hitters. Hope this helps!

This baseball field has been sitting dormant for 15 years. Not in some forgotten town. In Menlo Park, California, 10 minutes from some of the most valuable companies on earth. A full size diamond sat here, and then it just stopped. No games. No kids. 15 years of dirt and chain link! The park itself opened in 1936, one of the oldest in San Mateo County. Ohlone land first, then part of the Flood estate. The county built it as a public park during the Depression and then it went essentially untouched from the 1980s until now. Everything around this diamond has been rebuilt in the last year. New courts, new pump track, new picnic areas. The ballfield was supposed to be part of it. It got cut and it is still unfunded. I played high school baseball on this field. I have been working to bring it back for years and I am reviving this project now and getting after it. We are going for funding in January. In one to three years there will be baseball played on this field again. Mark my words. One video a week until we break ground. Baseball Back to Flood. If you want to help, email me: david@menloparklegends.com