Working on technique
HHS head coach William Booth, center, talks with Seth Ballew at the pitching station while Ben Kimbrough looks on. | Brent Maze
Technique and bad habits are what Hartselle High School baseball coaches are looking for during its annual baseball camp at Sparkman Park this week.
About 110 boys ages 5-14 participated in the camp, which was taught the coaching staff and returning varsity players.
Head coach William Booth said the purpose of the camp isn’t to play baseball games, but to help the players work on the proper technique for playing in a game.
“We’re trying to catch the bad techniques before they become bad habits,” Booth said. “Once you develop a bad habit in baseball, I don’t know how you can break it. So, we’re trying to get them to develop good technique and good habits so they can improve their abilities and eventually help our program down the road.”
Booth said the players rotated among stations including hitting, base running, pitching and fielding. At each of the stations, the players got one-on-one help from coaches and players.
“We showed them many of things we practice every day at least once or twice a day,” Booth said. “It’s the things that they need to work on to become a successful baseball player.”
The 5-10 age group participated the first two days of the camp while the 11-14 participated in the last two days of the camp. In particular, working with the older group allows the coaches to get to know the players that will be coming up within the next few years.
“Some of the older group will be freshmen next year and so this gives us a chance to look at who will be coming up next year,” Booth said. “Hopefully, they’ll take what they’ve learned from us and continue to practice those techniques.”
