
David Klein
@CoachDavidKlein • 15,608 subscribers
Founder @MPLegends & SpeedBall ⚾ Former College Player/Coach💥 Experience Designer | Dad | Coach 🚀 I help coaches create transformational sports experiences
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We employ about 120 young coaches every summer. This year 7 of them literally cannot throw. Their arms are done. Tommy John or some version of a UCL injury. It is an epidemic and it is always from overuse. Too many months a year. Five games in a weekend. No one watching pitch counts. We never had this problem 5-10 years ago. If you are a baseball parent, we gotta protect our kids from arm overuse.
David Klein31,714 просмотров • 5 дней назад

This game deserves your best. When you give anything less than 100%, this game will get the best of you. Not just in baseball. That’s goes for life as well. Whatever you do, bring full passion, full energy, and full effort. No exceptions. This umpire gets it. He shows up for these kids and gives it everything he has! Legend!🔥 #umpire #littleleague #youthbaseball #baseballumpire
David Klein117,942 просмотров • 1 месяц назад

You get 1 spring Little League season per year. You can play tournaments every weekend. Missing your rec league games to play in a travel ball tournament is not legit. It's also not safe from an arm care perspective. The travel ball player is probably a top Little League player, so it really hurts the team. Dont put your child that situation. And dont do that to the team. It puts the Little League head coach in an awful position. What are they supposed to tell the team? "Oh yea, little Bobby is playing on his travel team this weekend instead of with us..." And then that travel ball player is expected to just be slotted back into the lineup? That's not right. I bet if the LL coach sits the player for skipping out on the team, those parents complain. In fact, I literally just had this happen with a good friend... which prompted this reflection. Play Little League or Travel Ball. And if you do both, prioritize the rec league with the team who has worked together for months with the goal of playing meaningful baseball at the end of the season. Show up for the volunteer coach who probably selected you as one of their top picks to carry and lead the team. And just wait a few more weeks and play in as many weekend tournaments as your heart desires. ⚾💪🔥 #baseball #travelball #littleleague #youthbaseball
David Klein61,573 просмотров • 2 месяцев назад

Tried this wall ball game with my kids today and they played for 20 straight minutes. 1 tennis ball 1 wall Everyone wears a hat Catch clean? You’re good. Bobbled? Hat turns sideways (1st out) Hat backwards (2nd out) Hat off (3rd out, but you can still play) Simple. Competitive. Non-stop reps. #YouthBaseball #baseball #littleleague
David Klein300,749 просмотров • 1 год назад

The moment I walked away from travel ball forever... Its been 6 years and we havent looked back. Since then our program has exploded. Coaches are happier. Kids are progress faster. Parents are obsessed. We have ZERO competition because we are the only ones who do what we do. Over time I believe more programs will liberate themselves from the unnecessary and unethical travel ball model and innovate within a league format instead. Isnt that how the game is played in HS, College and Pro? Every game matters, right? Not like tournaments where we play everyone on Saturday, pitch our crapiest pitchers.... and then all of a sudden, we hit 9 and play to win on Sunday. What an awful message to send your players! In the game of life, it all matters! If you have a half a dozen travel teams within 30 minutes of you, your wasting your time and money going to travel ball tournaments and chasing rings. When YOU own the experience, you dont rely on a tournament director to create a quality playing environment. You create your OWN experience with YOUR vision for YOU kids in YOUR community! I promise you, everything will be better when you take the leap. It wont be easy at first. You'll lose kids. But you'll also attract new families who have your shared values. Not going out to tournaments every weekend anymore is a BIG DEAL. Now we have prescheduled games and can plan our family weekends. We can now go on bike rides, hikes, concerts, sporting events and other adventures which are FAR MORE enriching than sitting around a tournament facility all weekend eating fast food. I get that tournaments provide many families with "something to do" and they are great memories... But I'd argue that your missing out on other, more impactful opportunities and quality family time when dedicated so much time and money chasing tournament AB's. Im not a hater. So Im sorry if this comes off negative, but Im so tired of what Im seeing and am hoping to capture attention and inspire others to BUILD YOUR OWN FORMAT and STOP lugging 7-10 year olds out to play 5 games in the middle of no where. Im telling you, your life will change when you create something new and unique. Its way more fun for everyone. Rant over. #baseball #littleleague #homerun #travelball #summercamp #fun #baseballseason #littleleaguebaseball #softball #mlb #speedball #legendsbaseball #sports
David Klein478,974 просмотров • 2 лет назад

Been thinking a lot about this… if this progression was adopted across all recreational baseball we’d be creating more baseball lovers. Ages 4 and under: no baseball game play. Only practice/fun stuff if anything at all. I believe we are pushing kids away from the game exposing them too early. Ages 5-7: Tee ball. Asking kids to hit a moving baseball at this time isn’t necessary. Let’s solve for action and reps. ELIMINATE RECREATIONAL COACH PITCH! Coach pitch can only be executed properly with professional coaches who throw consistent strikes understand how to deliver reps. IT DOES NOT WORK AT SCALE WITH REC. I’ve seen enough to feel strongly about this. Ages 8-9: Machine Pitch. If someone would invent a pitching machine with an arm that was mobile they’d make a lot of money. I know about the slingshot and I think it’s a good start but not quite it. Ages 10-12: Kid pitch. No earlier. Practice pitching/throwing in practice starting at age 8. Just finishing up my third year as a head coach within Little League but I’m also coming off of 16 years of running a massive youth baseball organization in Northern California so I have seen enough to confidently make these conclusions.
David Klein160,600 просмотров • 1 год назад

Double fungo massive rep drill for youth players. This was for my AA Little League team where they just need to focus on getting the ball back into the middle of the diamond and getting outs at 1B. They are not ready to cut to different bases yet. This takes about 30 minutes or so to get through. Its better when you can make it a competition by having them count how many perfect plays they get. If a perfect play, ball goes in the bucket. The rest go on the ground. Most balls in bucket wins the round. I recommend having some coaches out in the field too to help keep them focus and organized. Hope this helps! #baseball #baseballdrills #baseballtraining #legendscamps #youthbaseball
David Klein37,382 просмотров • 2 месяцев назад

In our league the play stops when the ball gets back to the pitcher. So getting it back in fast is everything! Our team was struggling with it so I came up with this game on the fly. One practice. Fixed. And the kids were BEGGING to play it again! Here's how it works: ⚾ Two teams. Defense takes their positions. ⚾ Hit through the full order with a tennis racket and tennis ball. ⚾ Every base touched before the ball gets back to the pitcher = 1 point. ⚾ For example: Pitcher secures the ball between second and third? 2 points. ⚾ Out at first before runner gets there or fly ball caught? Zero points. ⚾ Score and keep running if the ball still isn't back. The play never stops until the pitcher has it in the pitchers circle . Works on getting the ball back in fast, backing up throws, base running, communication, and teamwork. We saw a massive difference the very next game! PLEASE SHARE with someone this can help! ⚾💪🔥
David Klein44,156 просмотров • 3 месяцев назад

Don Mattingly with a refreshingly simple, old school approach. Why can’t we keep hitting this simple anymore? ABCA
David Klein63,057 просмотров • 6 месяцев назад

The attack angle mirrors the shoulder angle. This “Airplane Drill” helps kids understand… 👇✈️
David Klein108,848 просмотров • 1 год назад

If Division 1 athletes are training at multiple positions, so should youth. We want athletes, not robots.
David Klein56,287 просмотров • 8 месяцев назад

For hitters whose swings are too flat... If they are rolling over and chopping down, this can help.
David Klein22,761 просмотров • 4 месяцев назад

Barehand outfield progression great for indoors and confined spaces. Ages 12+
David Klein34,703 просмотров • 7 месяцев назад