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I know it's been a challenge to get much baseball in so far this season with all the rain we've, had but with a lot of the younger divisions starting practices this week I thought I'd spend a couple minutes on some really valuable pre-season hitting tips.   By the end of May, I will …

Crazy Inflatable Flailing Arms Guy! Read More »

With tryouts taking place all over the South Bay on Saturday, I wanted to share some advice with you that will help your ballplayer be mentally prepared this weekend. Tryouts (and games when the regular season starts) can be unnecessarily stressful for young players due to pressure they feel, either from themselves or from adults, …

Tryouts Read More »

If your son has ever attended baseball camp with me, then he's heard the "Dominican Republic" story about my many trips there bringing baseball equipment, building fields, training local coaches, and making classroom visits in the local schools. The point of the story is threefold:   1) To educate the campers about a country with …

Equipment Donations for the Dominican Republic Read More »

I write a lot about hitting because every kid in Little League will get at-bats in every single game while only a couple kids will pitch, but here's one for the players who like to toe the rubber. Defining, or redefining success, is something I talk about often in lessons and at camp, and the …

Kershaw, Verlander, and…R.A. Dickey?!? Read More »

Without a doubt the most difficult aspect of the "mental side" of hitting for Little Leagues is, quite simply, deciding when to swing. Playing the pitch-selection chess match against the pitcher doesn't really become a big part of hitting until high school; nor does situational hitting (advancing a runner on 2nd with nobody out to …

Stop Trying To Read The Umpire’s Mind! Read More »

With regular season games officially underway, I'm starting to get a lot of "performance anxiety" questions during lessons. Generally speaking, the term refers to an issue that's very common among young players where they play well during practice but then struggle during games.   I've outlined three of the most common performance anxiety issues I …

Performance Anxiety Read More »

With most local leagues holding 2018 tryouts tomorrow, I wanted to share a few quick pieces of advice that I think will help your ballplayer get the most out of his evaluation.   1) It's not really a tryout!  Nobody gets cut based on their performance tomorrow so I think  "Evaluation" is a much more apt …

Advice For Tryouts Read More »

One night after baseball camp last week, and after both our kids went to sleep, I found myself in my usual 8:30pm spot: plopped on the couch next to my wife, completely exhausted, and staring blankly at whatever game MLB Network had on. A few minutes into my nightly end-of-the-day-coma, the broadcast switched over to …

Bryce! Read More »

Padres SS Erik Aybar pitched the 9th inning last week as his team was losing 11-1 and Manager Andy Green didn't want to use his bullpen anymore.   Throwing an awkward semi-submarine sort-of-sidearm knuckleball pitch, Aybar got Diamondbacks Catcher Chris Hermann to weakly ground out on a ball thrown...wait for it...59 MPH.  59!!!!   Chuckles …

Use Your Defense! Read More »

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