Baserunning: Taking a Lead

Good Video on When to Transfer Weight and Stride

Watch Backside of Pitcher

Take a look at Carlos Marmol's backside how it comes with you as you throw. Furthermore, notice how the pitcher gets over their front leg.

When Pitching Take a Look at the Front Leg

When teaching pitching take a look at the front leg of the pitcher. Note the knee comes straight up and the toes point down so that they don't open up too fast on the front side. This is a picture of A.J. Bunnett.

Infield Tag Plays

Here is a Hitting Test for You

http://www.wiziq.com/online-tests/529-hitting-test

Very Good Advice For Parents of Players

I am always searching for new information and I thought when I read this article it was right on the money. I posted excerpts of the article below:

After coaching, I moved onto working in the field of college baseball recruiting, which a completely different level of dealing with high school baseball parents. Between the two experiences, I have certainly developed a solid list of do's and don't to help parents out with following their young athlete, and hopefully assisting him in advancing to the next level, whether it be as a collegiate student athlete, or even as a pro.
As a coach, I really only had one rule for the parents, and it was rule I stole from my high school coach who now coaches a DI in Florida. That rule was, "you can talk with me about anything except playing time. If playing time enters the conversation, the conversation is over." For some reason, when a player does not start or play an entire game or play their position of choice, a parent can twist this into the coach having an "agenda" against their child. That is almost never the case, especially the higher up you go. When coaches are paid to win games, they are trying to do just that. Sometimes a player may be in a slump, sometimes a coach plays a matchup, sometimes he may simply feel another player is better, but it is almost never because the coach doesn't like a given player or parent. Keep in mind that a good coach will communicate to his players why he makes a certain decision, and what they player can do to improve and get more playing time. Invariably, players understand these things better than the parents. Here are few other general principles to go by:
• Be seen and not heard - Especially at games. Cheering on the players is the best thing you can do. Yelling at a player, coach, or umpire is not going to have a positive impact. Don't coach every pitch from the stands. Players become distracted by what their parents are up to in the bleachers and it absolutely affects their play. Practices are the time for coaches to be vocal, games are for the players.
• Don't try to "pitch" your son to a high school or college coach -- It is extremely difficult, if not impossible to view your own son's play objectively. That is for the coach to do! If your son has talent, the coach will see it. That is what they are paid to do. Believe it or not, coaches see just about everything that happens on the practice or playing field and it doesn't take long to get a feel for a player's skill set.
• Coaches aren't perfect - Keep in mind, that coaches will make mistakes. I do realize that many coaches carry themselves as if they don't, but I can speak from experience and say I have mis-evaluated a player, especially early in the season. Some times a player simply improves, but sometimes he may have been better than the coach thought all along. Either way, coaches will usually correct their error and adjust the lineup accordingly. Even if they wont admit they were wrong, the lineup will show it.
• Be careful when you "angle yourself" in - Many parents volunteer their time to help with practices, concessions, scorekeeping, etc. Be sure that if you do this, you maintain the proper boundaries with the coach. Often times, parent that have additional responsibility feel it is acceptable to overstep and volunteer their input on how the team should be coached.
• Encourage and empower! - As much as a parent wants to help because they know best, whether it be on the playing field or in the recruiting process, the ultimate goal is to make the player self sufficient as a young man. If a player wants additional playing time, or wants to play a different position, he should simply go to the coach in private and ask what he needs to do to accomplish that goal. This will go miles longer than if it came from a parent. If a player shows the initiative to stay after a practice and do the extra work, coaches will reward the good example if possible so that it is seen by other players. You also want to empower your son when it comes to the college recruiting process (there will be following articles on this). Many parents feel this is their time to get more involved, however, a player is perfectly capable of initiating contact with college coaches by phone or email. Our website has detailed step-by-step instructions for them on how to do so. Coaches will seek out the parents when it is time.
In short, do your best to empower your son as a young man and high school athlete. Work with them to develop their skills, but don't be overbearing. Teach them to carry themselves with proper etiquette and work ethic, and when in doubt stay out of the coaches way.

Defensive Help

I saw this article on Defense and Conditioning Drills and I thought I might share it with you.

1. When we take infield (13 - 14 year olds) I usually do it by playing “Follow the Ball“:
Put a baseball player at every position of the infield except pitcher. Have the rest of the baseball team line up at short. Hit a grounder to the first guy in line at short to him to make a play at first. He then “follows the ball” by running to first and taking the first baseman’s position. The first baseman throws to second and “follows the ball” by running to second and taking that place.
Second baseman throws to third and runs there to take the third baseman’s place. Third throws home and takes the catchers place. The catcher puts the ball in a bucket and runs around to short and gets in line to receive a grounder.The nice thing about this baseball drill is that it moves very quickly and it keeps the players moving so it works on fitness and stamina. It also looks really cool when done correctly and everyone is making good throws.
2. To teach the proper way to go back for a fly ball, we have the outfielders literally run football pass patterns - typically a simple slant pattern - either to the left or right. While running the pattern have the baseball coach throw a long fly ball far enough behind the player so that they have to run to catch it. They sometimes will have to attempt an over the shoulder catch or, if they get there in time, they can stop and catch the ball in proper position to make a throw to the infield. The drill is designed to teach them how to turn and run for a deep fly ball rather than back peddling.

Here is a Hitting Tip for Coaches

Defensive Help For All My Coaches

Single to right field with a man on second and third.

A Great Point Made by Hal McRae Hitting Coach

Hal McRae was an outstanding hitter and great hitting coach for many years. He made a really great point that I thought that I would share with my coaches. Hal was speaking about using key phrases and points when talking to hitters. He said that he only uses a few of them so he doesn't as he says "go all over the map". He goes on to say "the time to educate the hitter and break things down are during soft toss drills or in the cage. Give them one thing to work on and not five or six things to do because they will become counterproductive."

What a great point for all of us. Sometimes we throw things at our players that is not the right time or contains too much information to process and eventually it becomes counterproductive.

Work on one point at a time and once the player masters it and builds confidence, throw another thing at them. That way they can attack the ball without self doubt or hesitation.