BaseballParentGuide.com - Official Blog

Welcome to the official blog of the Baseball Parent Guide. Our free baseball articles and daily post provide baseball parents with valuable drills and tips to help improve your home, team and backyard baseball practice. Our archive has hundreds of informative and useful articles and posts related to all aspects of baseball training, practice and skill development. Make sure to save this site to your favorites for future visits. Happy Hitting and Good Luck to Your Team!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Become the Best Baseball Player on the Field With Core Strength

Become the Best Baseball Player on the Field With Core Strength
By guest author: Barry Lovelace

Baseball is a great sport. After all it is the great American past time. From little league to the big leagues people love to be a part of it. In addition to the serious baseball athlete, many people enjoy baseball as a recreational sport. No matter where your interest in baseball lies, I'm here to tell you that you can see great improvements in your game with sports specific exercises.

Baseball, like all sports, requires unique strengths. Each position puts a specific demand on the body. To properly train your body you need to prepare it for those demands. That is the concept behind sports specific training. This type of training mimics the planes of motion and position an athlete encounters and then adds resistance and balance challenges. Sport specific training enhance baseball specific strength needed for hitting, and core strength and flexibility needed for grounding and pitching.

Much baseball coaching and training is spent on game skills and drills. This is incomplete. It doesn't matter that you know what to do if you are not fast enough or agile enough or have enough power to do it. Generic workouts do nothing to help you on the baseball field. Think about the bench press for instance, an exercise that many baseball players perform. A bench press is designed to build strength and size in the chest. It's great to have a strong chest but think about the game of baseball and game situations that are faced. Where would a chest press help? It would not. You want to perform exercises that train you to hit with more power, throw with more power, run with more explosive speed off the plate and most of all build the core strength that is required for every move on the field. These are just some of the skills that are developed through my baseball specific workouts.

Another reason that sport specific training is important for all athletes is that it trains the body as a whole, which is how it is used during a baseball game. In other words no time or energy is wasted doing bicep curls or shoulder presses, instead the entire body is challenged in creative and effective ways that specifically work to improve the skills needed for baseball.

The importance of core strength, which is vitally important for stability and strength, can not be underestimated. The core is the body's powerhouse and the source of all of its movement. A strong core equals a strong athlete, it's that simple. Whether you realize it or not, your core is involved with all athletic movement, providing you with power, balance and stability. The strength, or weakness, of your core will dictate how easy or difficult it is for you to play your position on the field.

When you are moving through your baseball game you are using your body in its most functional state, in other words, as a whole. You are using your lower body and your upper body together; you're throwing, twisting, hitting, running and sliding. The list goes on and on. Your core is the basis for all of this movement and once again the strength or weakness of that core will dictate the ease in which you move on the field. Baseball players often find themselves in an unstable environment, like landing on one foot or throwing from an awkward position. You need balance, your balance comes from your core; a strong core equals good balance.

Here is a perfect example: Think of the shortstop diving for a grounder and then springing up to throw it to first, all while twisting and virtually in mid air. Can a situation be less stable? The power to make that play must come from the core!

If I sound passionate about baseball training, well, I am. I see the results first hand every day. Hundreds of athletes that I have trained enjoy incredible results and it is very exciting. I encourage you to add core training and sport specific training to your routine. Anyone can do this type of training and frankly, most people prefer it to boring and repetitive gym workouts. It can also be done in much less time than traditional workouts because the movements are so incredibly effective.

Barry Lovelace is an internationally recognized fitness professional specializing in athlete training and created Core Power For Baseball, a complete core training workout specifically for baseball players.

Core Power For Baseball

Email Barry at: barry@barrylovelace.com

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

======================
Thanks to our sponsors:

Baseball2u.com/CoachesBest.com is the ultimate online baseball training and coaching store. With over 1400 products organized into categories Baseball2u.com makes finding that baseball training product easy and simple. Order securely online or by phone. Baseball2u.com is a fully licensed company and has a full time staff available from 8:00 to 5:00 CST. Their toll free customer service number is 1-877-431-4487.

The Categories they have are: BatAction Hitting Machines, Hurricane Hitting Machines, Batting Cages, Pitching Machines, Jugs Equipment, Game and Practice Baseballs, Protective Practice Screens and Nets, Portable Pitching Mounds, Baseball DVDs & Books, Clearance Items on Sales, NEDCO Bataction Replacement Parts, Baseball Training Equipment, Youth Baseball Training Equipment, Training Bats, Pitching & Throwing Trainers, Defensive Trainers, SKLZ Hurricane Replacement Parts and Much Much More! Visit Baseball2U.com today!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Baseball Drills - Improve Form and Accuracy With Tee Drills


Baseball Drills - Improve Form and Accuracy With Tee Drills
By Kenny Buford

(Brought to you by AdvancedSkillsTee.com)

As players mature and reach a higher ability level, coaches often forget to incorporate tees into batting drills. However, tees can be highly effective tools if properly utilized. The following baseball drills were designed for skilled players who can use the tee to help improve their form and accuracy.

Basic Tee Drill

For this drill, the player will need a helmet, bat, tee, and several balls. The drill can be performed on the field or in a batting practice station. The player should start by placing the tee in the middle of the plate, raised to about thigh height. He should then put balls on the tee, taking a few swings to loosen the arm and feel comfortable at the plate.

Next, the hitter should simulate an inside pitch by moving the tee in and forward. He should practice a few swings from this location. Then, move the tee out and back for an outside pitch, and swing from that position. Finally, the batter should try these positions again, but this time adjust the height of the tee to simulate high and low pitches.

When practicing with this drill, players need to remember to adjust the position of the tee, not their own position relative to the plate. They should focus on hitting as if it were an actual pitch by visualizing the pitcher at the mound and imagining the ball moving toward them until it reaches its place on the tee.

1-2-3Tee Drill

This baseball drill requires a helmet, bat, tee, several balls, and a coach or assistant. This is a great drill for players to work on isolating their swing to recognize problems or errors at specific points and figure out how to fix them.

Place the tee and ball at a normal position on the plate. The player should assume his batting stance and wait for the coach to call out "1...2...3." At the coach's signal, the player will swing and pause at these designated points:


1.Initiate swing by beginning the coil and hold.
2.Begin the stride, keeping the weight back.
3.Complete the swing and follow through.

Inside/Outside Tee Drill

For this tee drill, the player will need a helmet, bat, two tees, and balls. A coach or assistant should be present, as well. Set up both of the tees at home plate. One should be on the inside and toward the front, and the other should be in the middle and outside. The tee simulated the inside pitch should be lower than the tee simulating the outside pitch. Place one ball on each tee.

As the player begins his stride, the coach or assistant will call out either "inside" or "outside." The player should then complete his swing to hit the called pitch. This exercise allows the player to swing as he would during an actual pitch and requires him to adjust his swing as he determines the location of the pitch.

Next step: Visit my site today for hundreds of free baseball hitting drills, pitching drills, fielding drills, baserunning drills and coaching tips.

Coach Kenny Buford is a youth baseball coach, author, and publisher of Baseball-Tutorials.com, a free blog with hundreds of baseball coaching tips.

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

http://www.AdvancedSkillsTee.com

Monday, June 6, 2011

Baseball Swing Mechanics : Where to Make Contact with a Baseball



What's the best place on a baseball bat to hit a ball? Learn the mechanics of making contact with a baseball from a hitting instructor in this free video lesson.

Visit Baseball2u.com for all of your coaching and training needs.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Teaching Kids Baseball Pitching Mechanics

Teaching Kids Baseball Pitching Mechanics
By guest author: Nate Barnett


It is fun to watch youth baseball games. I enjoy watching the kid on the team with the least amount of talent "accidentally" catch a fly ball that was hit right to him. Those kids will always remember that time in their life when they were a hero; at least they felt that way for that moment in time. That is what youth baseball is all about.

I will always remember (in great detail) hitting my first homerun over the fence in Little League. I was 10; 23 years ago. I remember where I hit the ball, how far I hit it, how the ball almost hit a green car when it finally landed, who the first base coach was, what he said to me when I reached first base, how the sun was setting just above the mountains, the excitement rounding second when I could barely control myself from leaping all the way home, what my third base coach told me just as I was rounding third, how my teammates surrounded me when I reached home plate and the reward of the hamburger after the game for hitting a homerun. It was tasty! I also remember that was the only game my parents didn't make it to that year because it was my older sisters High School graduation night. That is the joy of youth baseball!

As parents and coaches we often forget what baseball is all about as we focus on winning more than we do developing players on and off the field. The coaches that have fond memories of playing little league Baseball can be some of the most influential coaches to the youth.

Here are a few things we need to remember when coaching youth baseball pitchers:

Youth Coaching Tip #1: Youth pitchers have to be taught mechanics with patience and understanding. You shouldn't be aggressive in your teaching style. Most players respond with a negative attitude and won't enjoy the learning process regardless of how well you think you teach if you are too intense. Nobody performs well under pressure from coaches when they are overly aggressive constantly yelling or barking at them during games and practices. They are on the field to have fun learning life's lessons and the fundamentals of the game. Pitching mechanics take time to learn so parents and coaches need to understand that little league is a developmental league not MLB. I read once that it takes Tiger Woods 18 months to incorporate a new swing to his golf game; be patient with the youth.

Youth Coaching Tip #2 Most of us are visual learners and need to be shown how to do things. Coaches should take the time first to learn what they should teach and then practice it themselves so they can physically show pitchers proper mechanics. If the coach is unable to do that, they should find instructional videos that allow the pitcher to visualize what is being taught.

Youth Coaching Tip #3: During practice explain why a concept is important in the throwing motion. If the student doesn't understand why they are supposed to do certain things mechanically they have a difficult time retaining the knowledge. They will continue to do what they have always done.

Youth Coaching Tip # 4: To ensure you know your players understand what is being taught it is necessary to ask them questions about what they are learning during practice. I always make my students re-teach what I taught them at the end of the lesson, or many times during, to help me know they get it. Taking it a step further, have them physically show you what they have learned and have them repeat it time and time again until the mechanics become a part of their muscle memory. This takes a lot of patience because mechanics take time to develop for any pitcher.

Nate Barnett is co-owner of The Pitching Academy.

You can find The Pitching Academy's articles, blog, and videos on baseball pitching mechanics, pitching grips, and hitting mechanics when you visit the website.

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




Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4325277

==========================
Thanks to our sponsors:

Check us out on Twitter:

Blog4Coaches
Blogs4Coaches.com