Does your son show great potential as a pitcher?

Good morning. If your son has the potential to become a future baseball prospect as a pitcher, there are 3 things that you should consider doing as soon as possible:

1. Finding a one-on-coach for pitching lessons. Many times you already know a well known and respected instructor in your area. Contact your high school coach, he most likely can recommend a couple of instructors. Make arrangements to visit and talk to the instructor about your son's pitching future. If you are comfortable with this instructor, you can set a weekly schedule of pitching lessons. The money spent on quality pitching lesson is money well spent.
2. If your child is under the age of 10, you may consider building your own pitching mound in your backyard. This is an inexpensive way to improve the quality of your backyard pitching workouts. If you can catch your son during pitching workouts, that is best. If not, you may want to purchase a pitching target or toss back trainer as a target for using during pitching practice.
3. Your son needs to build arm strength and power. There are many great device available on the market that build arm strength. Pitching Training and arm strength builders are available at Baseball2u.com.

The Derek Jeter StrikeBack Trainer is a new toss back trainer desig that feature spinning targets that kids love!

Good Luck Till next time!, Nick

Resource For Helping Your Child Learn and Improve

I hope you had a great weekend! There are many great programs available free that encourage and help sports parents help their young athletes.

Liberty Mutual's Responsible Sports program is designed for parents across ALL sports and aims at providing helpful advice and useful resources that can be applied universally among youth athletes. As the parent of a youth athlete (pre-school through high school), you want the best for your child, on and off the field.

• This website helps you help your children:
  improve on-field performance
• Learn life lessons that sports uniquely can provide.
• Today's Topic:
  

What Is Responsible Sport Parenting?

• A Responsible Sports Parent fills two key roles:
  Ensuring your youth athlete's safety
• Helping your youth athlete apply life lessons from sports on and off the field

Click here to visit this great resource site.

Have great day, Nick.

The 2008 Tee Ball All-Star Game on the Whitehouse Lawn. These kids had a ball!

As baseball parents we either have a kid playing Tee Ball or we remember and cherish those days. America could not have MLB Baseball All-Star Week without honoring America's Tee Ball All-Stars,absolutely the most valuable players in the USA!

President Bush welcomed children from all 50 states to the White House's South Lawn for an All-Star Tee Ball game, this past Wednesday, July 16. It was a great event.

It is always refreshing for me to see how much these young kids love this great game. They have so much fun and they really enjoy it! You can access the links below for video hightlights, slideshows, and news coverage.

• DugoutTheMascot's Video
• Little Baseball's Tee Ball Site with the 2008 Tee Ball AllStar Players names and hometowns.
• News video coverage of the event.
• The Official Hompage of the United States Whithouse also have some great coverage of this great event.
  Have a great weekend, Nick

Arm Care For Young Baseball Players

Good morning. Without a healthy arm a baseball player's playing days are numbered. How should young players under the age of 12 care for their arm? Here are some suggestions:

• Good mechanics are a must. If a player has a flaw, the chance for injury is greatly increased. There are training aids and products that teach and reinforce this baseball pitching fundamentals.
• Overuse is the number one cause of arm injury. Pitch counts and throwing logs must be kept to insure that a player does not "over do it".
• Pain is a sign. If you arm is hurting, not sore, but sharp pain, shut the throwing down and see a trainer or doctor.
• Proper stretching, warm-up, and post-game running are three things that pitcher must be taught to do religiously.
• Icing should only be done as an additonal precaution. Do not subsitute icing for running. Always run before you ice.

Young players must learn the value of proper arm care early. There have been many players that walk away from baseball and never go back because of discomfort and pain caused by arm abuse and overuse. Check out the Baseball Parent Guide for More Tips and Information on this topic.

Have a great day, Nick.

Recommended Baseball Newsletter For Baseball Coaches and Parents

If you are not already a subcriber to the monthly Hit2win Baseball Newsletter, you should consider doing so. You may sign up for this free newsletter at the Hit2win.com website or at the American Baseball Directory. Make sure to bookmark these two sites because they have a lot of baseball information that you may want to refer to later.

http://coachnick0.tripod.com/bbd/id94.html

The 59th Major League Allstar Game

What a great day for baseball!

Tonight I was deeply touched by the introductions at the 59th Major League Allstar Game. Seeing such a great collection of Major League Allstars on the field for the National Anthem will always be a memory that I will cherish. This is truly America's game. I am proud to have the priviledge to coach it. Thanks MLB for a special moment. It was great to Yogi Berra, one of my all time favorites Hall of Famers. The clips of him leaping high into the arms of Don Larson in the 1956 World Series were a special touch to the telecast. For more on the 1956 World Series visit the Baseball Almanac.

As I type this Derek Jeter fouls a 2-2 pitch into the right side stands. Count is now 3-2, runners are moving on the pitch, Jeter hits a comebacker, game is over. National League leads 1-0. Rats!

I can't talk about Yogi without including three of his famous quotes that I consider to be "classic":

• "You can observe a lot just by watching."
• "I always thought that record would stand until it was broken."
• "Baseball is ninety percent mental. The other half is physical."

Thank you Yogi for the momories! Thank you Major League Baseball!

Coach Nick's First Post

Hello and welcome to my blog for baseball parents. You are in the "prime time" of parenthood! Parenting a baseball players carries with it a wide range of emotions. You are experiencing the "roller coaster" of highs and lows that come with playing baseball. The key is not to get too high, and never to get too low. But, the reality of the situation is that when you kid smiles you smile, and when your kids suffers anguish, pain, and frustration, you hurt like your heart has a "hole" in it.

You have many responsibilities when you are the parent of a baseball player. You must look out for your son's safety, first! Then, you must make sure that your son gets all of the help and instruction needed to reach his maximim potential as a player. I have a passion for baseball. I coach it and I love it. I have 4 kids of my own, 1 girl and 3 boys. I know what you are experiencing right now. I may not have all of the answers. But, I am going to give you as much help as I can. Have a great day, Nick.