Baseball IQ

Question
QUESTION: Willie, I coach a Minors LL team (9-10 yrs old), however my team is loaded with young players - 2 8yrs, 8 9yrs and 2 10 yrs.  Talent-wise, we can compete, and I/we are teaching sound fundamentals and the kids improve physically every practice, and they are learning new things in practice daily. HOWEVER, we are so far behind the Baseball IQ curve when compared to the other teams in our league who are loaded with 10 year olds.  Is there anything I can do to jump-start the learning process and get my kids more competitive with respect to understanding the game better and reacting more aggressively to situations, i.e. knowing where to throw the ball, checking runners and thinking ahead?  In other words, how do I accelerate their baseball IQ?

ANSWER: I think the biggest thing you can do is take the time to walk them thru different situations.Make sure you explain to them what might happen so they can begin to anticipate what might happen.While talking make sure you use baseball lingo.This will help them begin to understand what they here on tv and it will make more since to them in a game.Talk them thru it.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: completely different question, but since you replied to my other question so quickly, i will throw this at you - my son, 9 yrs old, struggles getting  his lower body in his swing. He does a wonderful job of taking his hands to the ball, comes down on the ball, keeps his right shoulder in (he is a lefty) but absolutely can not seem to get his legs into the swing.  At most, it is a feeble attempt at hip rotation.  His is incredibly strong in his lower body and if he would ever turn on a ball, he would drive it hard.  As it is, he hits 90% of his balls to the left side (usually from short to the left field line).  He sees the ball, he reacts to the ball, he is just not turning on it and is getting jammed on inside pitches, but puts the ball in play with middle to outside pitches.  I don't mind him taking the outside pitch to left...I WANT him to.  But, I think if he could take the middle pitch and drive it to the gaps, and take the inside pitches down the line, he would see a remarkable difference in power and would get more excited and aggressive at the plate (which translates for him, getting more enjoyment out of the game).  Any suggestions on getting his lower body in the swing?

Answer
First I must say I have a son who is left handed.My approach with him at that age was to hit everything to left field.He is 12 now and pulls the more.I dont think at 9 a player should be worrying about power or driving the ball.They should be worrying about not swinging at bad pitches and making solid contact.If you start to make him worry about pulling the ball he may start to pull off the ball,rolling over more and his strikeouts may go up because he is pulling his head out.
But if you want to work on it one of the things that I do is soft toss to him and throw the ball at his butt.He will have to fully rotate to get his bat to the ball.Please give him time.Most good hitters learn to hit the ball the other way first and then they begin to pull the ball.Check Manny Rameriz when he first came up.Hit most of his homeruns to right field.Now he pulls the ball more.So to me pick your poision.