How would you define a good hitter? What criteria does a player have to meet to be considered a good hitter? Can you quantify a good hitter by looking at his statistics? The “Good Hitter” label is an envious title in the game of baseball. If you are a player who can achieve this status…
In our last newsletter we discussed sacrifice bunt fundamentals (click here to read). This week I will give you a great drill that you can incorporate into your next practice. Bunting isn’t looked upon as an exciting part of our game, so when doing the drill make sure to make it a competition and involve…
Some refer to it as “small ball” and incorporate sometimes into their gameplan. Others do away with it completely and would prefer to not take the bat out of the hitter’s hands. Regardless it seems more often than not that the art of the sacrifice bunt is becoming extinct in modern baseball. I work with…
When I was a player I prided myself on defense. I loved taking extra ground balls during and after practice at every level I played. It was never work for me. I was one of those guys who loved practice. As a matter of fact I used to have to bribe some of my college…
Recently I have received quite a few phone calls from parents asking how long the basepaths are in their child’s respective leagues. I figured that more of you out there may have the same questions, so listed below are the infield dimensions for most of the fields you will be playing on this year. I…
In last week’s newsletter our poll question asked at what age do you think kids should focus on one sport. I was happily surprised that nearly half of the responses came in at never. I say that because in my line of work I see more and more kids deciding at a young age to…
Many players dream of the opportunity to get on a big league mound and fire fastballs past over matched hitters. God given ability will take most of these individuals only so far so almost every one of them is looking for an edge with the number one goal of gaining velocity. The big concern in…
Who do our children look up to? Who are their heroes? I was contemplating this a few weeks ago while I was watching ESPN and they were reporting the alleged drug use of Manny Ramirez. This flashed my memory back to the Alex Rodriguez saga that dominated the sports pages for weeks and it made…
Over the years I have worked one-on-one with a lot of young players and have seen many youth league baseball games. One of the biggest fears for many of these players to overcome is the embarrassment of striking out. What this leads to is a mentality of “It’s good enough to just make contact.” More…
Hitting Starts with attitude Have you given any thought as to what you look like when you walk up to the plate and get in the batter’s box. How would someone describe you? Would they say, “He doesn’t look too sure of himself”, or “Wwoo! That guy looks like he means business”? The attitude you…