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Sunday, June 14, 2009

Here's Some Baseball Thoughts And Quotes For Youth Baseball Coaches And Players



AdvancedSkillsTee.com

Here are baseball thoughts and some quotes that I thought all you youth baseball coaches would appreciate. There are far too many hot dog players and coaches in youth baseball today. I believe we must honor the game baseball by example. Most of it is just common sense and courtesy. I'm not giving you any secret formula to success. Let's behave like mature adults and remember we don't have a team full of future professional baseball players even though others may think otherwise.

Everyone on the team must be willing to trade sweat, effort, and sacrifice for success. When looking at yourself as a player, the critical. There are too many egotists among players today. Egotism is the anesthetic which deadens the pain of stupidity.

Success is costly. You must exchange something solid in yourself for success.

Concentrate on improving your weaknesses. It is more obvious than your strong points.

No player ever becomes a success by giving up. Keep trying.

If your coach criticizes you, it indicates that he is watching you, so appreciate that.

Never alibi. Excuses never win games.

Be confident. Say to yourself, I can I will, I must.

Be a good team player. Encourage your teammates and cooperate with them. They in turn will do the same.

Don't yell at the officials or umpires. They are seldom responsible for your success so don't blame them for your failure.

Your conduct, both on the field and off the field of, is a true test of you as an individual. It reflects your degree of dependability, responsibility, and the extent of your self sacrifice.

Here are some anonymous quotes...

If what you did yesterday still looks big to you, you haven't done much today.

The coach may not always be right, but he's always the coach.

When I won I thought I was lucky, but the harder I work, the luckier I got.

Every athlete has problems, the winners handle theirs.

The player who refuses to be beaten is tough to beat.

Not always a winner but never a loser.

If you know anyone who has always received a fair deal, get a witness- you're seeing a miracle.

Repetition is the mother of education.

I will get ready and perhaps my chance will come.

Enthusiasm is like a coat of paint- it covers up a lot of mistakes.

Little things make big things.

The surest way not to fail is be determined enough to succeed.

The player who does what he pleases is seldom pleased with what he does.

When a winner makes a mistake, he says I was wrong. One loser makes a mistake, he says, it was not my fault.

Hustle! You cannot survive without.

Enthusiasm and action will overcome fear.

The greatest key to success is a good attitude.

If You Think You are good, then why not be better. If you'd think you are better, then be the best.

Winning is not everything, but wanting to win is.

It takes a cool head to win a hot game.

I will leave you with this, it pertains to more than just baseball.

You can never get ahead of someone as long as you are trying to get even with them.

Thanks for your time, I hope these quotes, the ones without quotation marks around them, will help you get through this long winter waiting for baseball season start.

Thanks again, Coach Chip

Hello My name is Chip Lemin. I'm a long time youth baseball coach who loves to promote this great game of youth baseball. Promoting sportsmanship in this game of youth baseball is something that really needs I feel. I have a free course that will give you some solid coaching information along with great help on the inter-personal relationships we must have to be good youth baseball coaches.

Things such as parents, travel baseball, getting parents to help out, how to communicate better to parents and players, just to touch on a few. This course will help to organize practices like an elite coach. How to motivate players and other coaches with your positive attitude. It really is not very hard to be a great coach when you know what to do.Best of all you will learn how to have fun with these great kids that you have the privilege of coaching. Do yourself a favor and check it out, it's free,you will get 1 part every couple of days in your e-mail. Coaching can be fun and rewarding if you have a plan in place first, and you have an idea what you are doing. I would like to help you with that.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chip_Lemin







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Friday, June 12, 2009

Great Baseball Hitting Drills For Keeping The Head Closed



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Great Baseball Hitting Drills For Keeping The Head Closed
By Joe Brockhoff


It is very easy to get into the habit of pulling off the ball. This is especially true for power hitters. Have you ever seen a power hitter hit a home run and thereafter, he can't couch the ball? What happened? The home run took him out of himself. So as he pivots, he is also pivoting his head.

First of all, hitters should never take a 100% stroke. Doing this invites pulling off the ball. For efficiency, the stroke should be no more than 95%, saving 5% for command. As coaches, we sometimes go too far in the other direction by telling them to "just meet the ball." And now they start to aim the bat, which is not good either.

Hitting is a controlled explosion. Continue to be aggressive, with a 95% stroke. So what do we advise? The hitter is pulling off because he's rotating his complete body when he hits. He must focus on his head rotating in the opposite direction to the hips. As the hips rotate to the pitcher, the head should rotate to the ball.

Here are three baseball hitting drills for this:

DRILL #1

Place a pile-on or glove across from the hitter just outside the batter's box in front of home plate (45% angle). After the hitter makes contact, he looks into the pile-on area. This keeps the head inside.

DRILL #2 (with pitching machine or live pitcher)

Hitter assumes his stance, with no bat. To simulate holding a bat, his top hand grabs the thumb of his bottom hand. Coach stands in back of the hitter and holds his head on both sides . The hitter takes batless strokes at the pitched ball, while coach restricts the head to keep it on the ball as it enters the hit zone.

DRILL #3 (Full Take)

The hitter will coil, stride, and read the pitch to the catcher. This keeps the head independent and disciplines it to stay with the ball. Note: This head discipline should carry over to his regular hitting, in the "full take", a pitch that is an obvious ball.

Coaching Points. The hitter should not go to the point where his head is pushing against the back shoulder. This locks up the back shoulder and restricts his extension. The head swivels. It should never tilt while reading the pitch. This causes the body to tilt also and the eyes to look on a vertical plane. Eyes must stay basically horizontal for best vision and body control.

Former Tulane Hall of Fame Baseball Coach, Joe Brockhoff, fully explains his baseball hitting drills with the Super 8 Hitting System, completely demonstrated with videos and hitting drills to help you hit with more power and raise your batting average.These techniques are fully explained in our baseball hitting instruction web site for the "Super 8 Hitting System", including batting aids and a series of baseball hitting videos, which demonstrates many baseball hitting drills. http://www.LearnBaseballHitting.com/lcp.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joe_Brockhoff

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Thursday, June 11, 2009

Are You A Side-Line Coach


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Are You A Side-Line Coach
by: Charles French

With spring in the air, flower’s and baseball are in full bloom. As the father of a nine-year old son, each day is spent perfecting the art of baseball. This includes making that perfect pitch to first base, snagging those ground balls and driving those hits when we’re in the batters box. Oh, did I say we, sorry, I meant, when my son is in the batters box.

My son and I haven’t quit practicing baseball since last year. You see, he loves baseball and as many young players, has dreams of growing up to play Major League Baseball. For this reason, I must make sure he’s doing everything right, avoiding any mistakes humanly possible, or should I?

Before my son started playing baseball, we would often go to the ballpark and watch other kids practice and play. One thing I found amusing and often disturbing was parent involvement and sideline coaching to the point of disrupting the entire game. To my dismay, I vowed to never be this sort of parent.

Oh, how we tend to forget those famous words, "I’ll never be that kind of parent". It usually starts out with a simple shout from the stands "pay attention" or "get your head in the game" and then before you know it, your standing on the side, shouting and pointing out every mistake your child makes. Thankfully, I haven’t reached this point, although it has been brought to my attention that my scorning frowns and sideline presence are quite distracting.

It is so important for parents to remember, these are youth sports. These are our children and they need our support and encouragement. We as parents have to let our children have fun and learn at their own pace. My son brought this to my attention when he said "dad, I know when I mess up but it makes me play worse when you look like your mad at me".

Sports play a very important role in teaching children how to function in society and being able to work as a team. As parents support and encourage your children to play sports. Have fun!

About The Author

Charles & Lisa French are active members of the Sports Developement Community. Feel free to contact us and visit our site on Decorating Country Home.
http://www.decorating-country-home.com
burtf51@bellsouth.net

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Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Baseball Coaches Have Found the Advanced Skills Tee a Valuable Training Tool!


Our team trains daily on the Muhl Tech Advanced Skills Tee. The forward arm and outside barrier helps our players create a proper swing plane and stay short to the ball. These tees are extremely durable and the brush cup ball holder is a great idea, they have held up for years. I would recommend them to any baseball program.

Stan McKeever
Head Baseball Coach
La Cueva High School
Albuquerque, NM
2004 Collegiate Baseball America/Easton Sports Poll National Champions

"We bought 3 AST's last year after running across them at an opponent's field. Immediately upon seeing the tee, I noticed the bad habits that could be corrected with the simple design it employs. The AST has become an important teaching tool for Lafayette High Baseball. One pleasant suprise has been the durability of the AST. My satisfaction prompted me to buy 3 more for the upcoming year.

Coach Jay Domengeaux
Head Coach
Lafayette High School Mighty Lions - Louisiana

AdvancedSkillsTee.com

Friday, June 5, 2009

An Effective Way to Watch a Baseball Game With Your Child and Teach Him Proper Mechanics



BattingCagesDirect.com


An Effective Way to Watch a Baseball Game With Your Child and Teach Him Proper Mechanics
By Jason Alamo

Every time you turn on the television and watch a game with your child, there are actually two different messages being sent simultaneously. Two DIFFERENT games are going on at the same time, depending on your intention and focus.

There are movements, mechanics, routines, and situations that should be observed as games are going on. I remind my players not to watch the game but to watch the movements and strategy! Study the pitches that are thrown in different counts. It is amazing how much can be learned through observation, if you are LOOKING to learn!

The next time you are with your child a college game, or watch a Major League game on television, spend some time talking about what is going on in the game from a movements and strategy standpoint. You will notice that when you spend sometime viewing the game from this perspective, you will notice things that were right in front of your face before, but you never quite saw them taking place.

"But, Coach, Look At Gary Sheffield Hit, He Waves His Arms Before He Swings, Why Can't I hit that way? He's Pretty Good." This is a question that I sometimes get from younger players in regards to a Major League Players mechanics.

To me, this question has an easy two part answer. All good hitters and pitchers may start different, but at contact or release all have the same fundamental mechanical aspects. And number two; some Major League Players have tremendous rare and uncommon physical ability. This sometimes allows them to "deviate" away from a few mechanical fundamentals. As a coach or parent, we should also be looking for what has the greatest chance of making a player better.

Jason Alamo is a former college coach at six different college programs. He is the founder of, http://www.BaseballCampReviews.com, a free website that provides real parent and player opinions and experiences on youth and high school baseball camps from around the nation. The site provides information from others which helps during the decision making process about what camp to send your child to. Baseball Camp Reviews can be found by visiting http://www.BaseballCampReviews.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jason_Alamo

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Thursday, June 4, 2009

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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Build a Batting Cage in Your Backyard







Build a Batting Cage in Your Backyard
By Brandon Bland

To build a batting cage, there are many different options you have to consider. A batting cage in your backyard can be one of the greatest assets to you or your child's playing career. Therefore, it is a wise investment and one that should be highly considered by every ballplayer and their parents.

The first thing to consider is where you would like to set up your batting cage. There are many various ways in which you can set up a cage, and will all depend on space available, budget, etc. First off, all cages will require various amounts of assembly and construction. If you have an unlimited budget and space available, it will be no problem to purchase a nice high quality cage from a company like Jugs or Atec.

For those of us looking to save a little money (who isn't, right?), there are many other options available. You may buy kits from several companies online that will ship most or all of the parts to you for fairly reasonable prices. Something that you should also consider is that you may purchase many of the parts, including netting, and especially the frame from your local hardware store. This can result in some pretty substantial savings, because you will end up saving on shipping costs.

If you have limited space, you may have to get a little creative on how you rig up your cage. There are however, standard sizes for cages that most nets are made for. Here is a list of some of those sizes.


70' L x 14' W x 12' H
65' L x 11' W x 11' H
10' L x 12' W x 12' H
55' L x 12' W x 12' H
40' L x 12' W x 12' H

The size you choose will depend on how much space you have to play with, how old the ballplayer using it will be, how much you wish to spend, etc. Obviously the larger nets cost more than the smaller ones. Regardless of the age, a wider and higher cage will allow for a little more comfort and room to work with.

Hopefully this will give you some insight into the things you should consider before you build a batting cage. Remember, that it will be a wise investment in you or your child's playing career, so take your time and make sure you will get exactly what you need. You can find more information about equipment and netting here:

http://www.baseball-equipment-review.com/build-a-batting-cage.html

Brandon Bland is the webmaster of Baseball Equipment Review, a site devoted to informing ballplayers of the quality of today's baseball equipment so they can make informed decisions about their purchases.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Brandon_Bland


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Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Baseball Coaching Tips - Teaching Players to Have a Good Two Strike Approach at the Plate

Baseball Coaching Tips - Teaching Players to Have a Good Two Strike Approach at the Plate

Good Morning,
I hope the season is going great for you and your team! "Two Strike" hits
are a big part of every team's success. Team that score runs with 2 outs and that get hits consistently with 2 strikes on the batter are the teams that post winning records and win championships. Here are 5 points that I teach to make sure that every player on our team has the same proper "two strike approach":

1. The batter should assume a more balanced stance and take most of the weight off the back foot.
2. The batter will be prepared to swing at "anything close". My saying is that "if it is close enough for the ump to call a strike, it is close enough to hit".
3. The batter should get 3 inches closer to the plate than normal and choke up at least one inch on the bat. This is done regardless of the batter's ability or position in the batting order.
4. I would rather that the batter be late on the pitch than early. What this means is that the batter must keep the hands back and have trust in his or her hand speed.
5. Expect anything! Do not guess pitches. The even stance and "shorter bat" should allow the batter to hit or fight off any pitch location.
6. The batter should fight to saty alive. He or she should battle their butt off to get a hit or stay alive. The batter must win the battle by fouling off pitches, eveining the count, and fighting until the pitcher makes a mistake and throws a pitch that the batter can handle to get a basehit.

Good luck til next time.
Have a great day,
Coach Nick

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Monday, June 1, 2009

Baseball College Recruiting: 10 Facts Baseball Players, Coaches, and Parents Need to Know


By Kenny Buford

Although many of the colleges want you to believe you have to be the top of the top for baseball college recruiting, that isn’t always so. In fact, many times colleges are assuming that they are not looking at the top 5% because those student athletes may already be spoken for.

Some things to remember:

1. Grades count. Sure, athletic ability is important, but do you have the grades to get into the college admissions office and catch their eye even without your sports ability? You should have grades that support you as a well-rounded student, not just an image of a ball player alone.

2. Do you know what a college coach values in a player? Is it the same as a high school coach or a teen-level coach? What do you bring to the coach that is different from the myriad of other players your age and ability that makes you a step above? Can you bring the values to the team that your coach is looking for?

3. What is your motivation? Not just “are you motivated” but what motivates you? Is it fame, money or a passion for the game? Do you work at your game based upon only your motivation? Do you have many motivators for your game? This is important; because parents, students and coaches will need to understand the motivators.

4. Are you motivated? As a verb, do you have it? Do you have what it takes to look into adversity and tough times and still shine? This is going to be important to be able to display to prospective colleges and future coaches as this may be a tie breaker trait.

5. Don’t wait until the last minute. Some students start as early as their freshman year in marketing themselves to colleges. If you are a senior and haven’t started, don’t let that discourage you, but do get moving on that! Market yourself as early as you can as a true athlete, because every moment you are no exposing your abilities, your peers are.

6. Do you, or do you plan to, meet the core requirements of entering college? If you are a great player, it’s important to have pretty good grades and decent SAT scores. There are a myriad of Internet sites that can help you make sure you are not lagging, and your guidance office should be able to help you. Again, it’s never too early to start working on your sports collegiate career.

7. Know the reality. According to statistics, less than 15% of high school baseball players will play college baseball. Just know your realities so if you don’t make the team, you are not devastated. It’s as important to know the realities of the situations as well as how to best get into a situation. Never enter any situation blind to both sides.

8. Look at the bigger picture. You may want to play ball but you may also want to have a certain climate, social life and academic schedule that fits your desires. Look at more than just the team; because you are more than just a ball player.

9. Do you have what it takes? It’s more than just the above. There is also something called “Luck and Timing”. Absolutely realize that you have to have both in addition to all the things you can control. Realize that a little of this is going to be out of your control.

10. Finances: not everyone is going to be playing ball on scholarship, or at least on full scholarship. Decide if the cost is worth the sport participation. If you are reading this, the answer probably is “yes, of course it is” but realize an injury or a sudden lack of passion means you still have the finances to deal with but none of the glory of the sport. Really weigh your financial realities.

All of this is meant to get you thinking – be it a parent or a player. Even a coach reading this needs to understand that you are going to be looking at some kids who have the research down pat and can impress you, but some other youth will be just as impressive deep down, but you may have to scratch the surface a bit. Not everyone knows the ins and outs of impressing a coach and a college but may be an exceptional player, student and person under it all. It’s everyone’s responsibility to learn as much as possible and do what they can to ensure the best options for all involved.

Kenny Buford spent years playing baseball at the college level. Today, he coaches 3 youth development teams and shares his extensive coaching knowledge on his blog, you can visit him here: http://www.baseball-tutorials.com/

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kenny_Buford