The Youth Baseball Edge Podcast with Rob Tong: Coaching | Drills | Strategy · Rob Tong: Youth Baseball Coach, Consultant and Training & Development Leade

YBE164: Lessons Learned in 2022

·33 min·3 clips

Did Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn actually swing level when hitting home runs? Rob Tong reveals the surprising truth.

This episode features host Rob Tong sharing seven practical coaching lessons from his 2022 youth baseball season. Tong is a youth baseball coach and the creator of the Youth Baseball Edge platform, which provides coaching advice and resources. The first lesson is to ask parents bigger-picture questions during team meetings, such as their expectations for the season or their definition of success. The second lesson is to ask parents individual-focused questions about their child, like how hard the coach should push them or if baseball is their favorite sport. Tong's third lesson advocates for incorporating "base running chaos drills" into practices to prepare defenses for aggressive runners. The fourth lesson emphasizes re-practicing fundamental drills periodically because children's skills "decline into disorder" without reinforcement. The fifth lesson recommends having players hit off other children during tryouts, not just coaches, to better evaluate game-like hitting ability. The sixth lesson advises grouping players by similar skill level during practice stations for more effective coaching. The seventh lesson reveals that recreational leagues allowing player retention can be as competitively "cutthroat" as travel ball, based on Tong's experience where a parent recruited most of his team to another squad. A surprising insight is that even iconic contact hitters like Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn exhibited a slightly upward swing path on their home runs, according to Tong. He argues that a slightly upward swing creates more margin for error against downward-angled pitches and is more effective as players advance to larger fields. Tong challenges the assumption that a level swing directly causes higher batting averages, suggesting elite timing was the true cause for historical hitters. He presents data showing league-average fastball velocity has increased from 88 mph in the 1980s to 95 mph in 2022. He also notes that a home run guarantees a run, while a single only leads to a score about 51% of the time in youth contexts. The tone is educational and conversational, blending personal anecdotes with direct coaching advice. The style is structured, with clear numbering of lessons and detailed explanations. Youth baseball coaches seeking concrete, season-tested strategies for communication, practice planning, and player development would find this episode highly valuable. Listeners solely interested in professional baseball analysis or advanced sabermetrics might prefer to skip it.

As heard by us

Practical youth-baseball coaching advice centered on practice structure, player grouping, and roster dynamics.

Rob Tong lays out practical coaching takeaways from youth baseball, with the clearest value coming from his advice on practice organization, grouping players by similar skill level, and managing roster turnover.

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If you want practical youth-baseball coaching lessons from Rob Tong, start here.

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