YBE 139: 3 Things Killing Youth Baseball (and How To Fix Them) with Steve Ferroli

Youth baseball has been around since kids ever knew about the game of baseball. But organized youth baseball as we know it today is wrong in three critical ways, according to Steve Ferroli. Is the sport of youth baseball—and the millions of kids participating in it—in serious danger? Does youth baseball need to be saved? Can it be? This is part two of a two-part interview with Steve, who is the personally chosen successor by Ted Williams to advancing Ted's hitting theories. Plus Rob (and Deven Morgan, the Director of Youth Baseball at Driveline Baseball) answer the Question of the Week (51:22) about whether it matters if kids pitch from flat ground instead of raised mounds.

In this 54-minute episode, you'll learn:

• the overall problem with youth baseball today (1:52)
• why shrinking home plate size won't make pitching harder (13:16)
• why sacrificing velocity for accuracy is not a bad approach (26:06)
• the problem with the base path distances (28:08)
• why the size of the baseball is a significant problem in youth baseball (32:03)
• the advantages of a smaller baseball (35:13)
• how a skilled youth team has reacted to these changes (39:31)

Resources and links mentioned in this episode:

• Steve's Ted Williams League
• Flat ground analysis by Driveline (note: 99% of the article refers to adult baseball players)
• Subscribe to the YBE email newsletter

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