All elite infielders (with one exception…I’ll get to that in a minute) do this one thing. Do yours? And what is the thing they all do? What they do is funnel on a routine ground ball. What is funneling? Funneling in baseball is the process of taking a routine ground ball that you can field […]
Read the full articleHow to test for dominant eye
📖 Less than two minute read What the heck is ‘dominant eye’, why should I care and how do I know which eye is my dominant eye? What is dominant eye? According to WebMD: Ocular dominance, or dominant eye, is when you use one eye more than the other, have better vision in one eye, […]
Read the full articleHow to teach pitch recognition to your players
Improving pitch recognition for your batters will help them be better prepared to hit and help them avoid being hit by pitches. Here’s how you can implement this for your team.
Read the full articleHow To Calculate Relevant Defensive Stats For Youth Baseball (free spreadsheet and chart inside)
Does GameChanger provide relevant defensive stats that you as the coach can use to plan related drills for future practices? I say no, and I explain why in podcast episode 142. So is there anything you can do? I have a free spreadsheet I’ll share with you that provides relevant defensive data.
Read the full articleIt’s Time To Separate Classroom Instruction From On-Field Practice
Here’s my clarion call to youth and high school coaches to start emulating what successful baseball colleges are doing to be efficient with their practice time. This is a significant change to how you run your practices, but I think the benefits will be worth it.
Read the full articleWhy Most People Use The Batting Cage Incorrectly (And How To Fix The Problem)
Do you or your coach tell your kids their goal is to “hit the back of the batting cage”? If so, you’re feeding your kids misinformation in the cage. Why is this wrong? And what can be done to make it right?
Read the full articleThe Drill Doctor: Catcher Back Picks Drill
Diagnosis of a catcher back picks drill to see if it is well or not; if not, what can we prescribe to make the drill healthy?
Read the full articleMake Over Your Youth Baseball Pre-Game Routine
If your youth baseball pre-game routine consists mostly of your kids playing catch to warm up, with a simple infield drill and/or outfield warmup drill, then you may want to consider making over your pre-game routine.
Read the full articleWhy Competitive Games In Practices Aren’t Always Great
It seems everyone’s singing the praises of competitive games and drills in practices. But be warned: you have to use them wisely. Find out why and how in this post.
Read the full articleBaseball Olympics Drill For Youth Baseball Practices
Here’s a drill that crams multiple mini-drills into one. I go over the benefits of this drill, how to run it (both at a high-level as well as more detailed info), variation ideas, competition ideas and provide a homemade graphic (don’t laugh) that illustrates how it all flows and operates.
Read the full articleHow To Definitively Find The Best Bat For Your Child
What’s the best bat for my child? What’s the ideal bat weight for my child? At last, a definitive way to answer those types of questions.
Read the full articleThe Lowdown on Rundowns: 3 Simple Rules
Baseball rundowns seem easy to execute, yet they are often botched. What rules must we teach and what rules are superfluous? Here is a definitive three-step process to teach rundowns to any age group.
Read the full articlePro Tip: An Advanced Way To Wear A Baseball Glove
If your kids are wearing their baseball gloves the traditional way of sliding their hand all the way into their glove, they may benefit from a ‘pro’ way of wearing their glove.
Read the full article“Get Your Back Elbow Up”?
“Get your back elbow up!” Have you heard this at a game? Or maybe you’ve said it yourself? Why do we say this? And is it a valid cue for our young hitters?
Read the full articleScrimmages: Good Or Bad?
Are scrimmages for lazy coaches? Or are scrimmages useful? I’ve held both views over my coaching career. So do I currently consider scrimmages as good or bad, and why?
Read the full articleMinimizing Use Of The Term “Practice” For Practices
Can a simple change in terminology help increase the rate at which your players improve over the course of the short season? Even without changing any of the content of your practices?
Read the full articleTravel Baseball: A Flawed System
While the popularity of travel baseball has soared, so have the problems. Guest poster Larry Owens explains what makes travelball a flawed system.
Read the full articleHitting: The Important Sequence From Batting Stance To Foot Plant
The seeming innocuous sequence of the swing from stance to foot plant is often incorrect among younger hitters. Learn how to diagnose it and how to fix it.
Read the full articleAssistant coaches: like-minded with head coach, or different-minded?
If you are a youth baseball head coach, do you know if your assistant coaches are like-minded or different-minded? Do you care? What should they be?
Read the full articleDo you tell your kids to “get more hits”?
An all-too-common coach-speak after a loss is “We need to get more hits, guys!”. Few realize how foolish it is to say this. But it’s not just foolish to say; it’s actually harmful to your team. I explain why and what to do instead.
Read the full articleWhy saying “Throw strikes!” is not just dumb but dangerous
Tons of coaches say to their pitchers “throw strikes”. A few people know it’s dumb to say that and crack jokes about it. But did you know that saying “throw strikes” goes beyond being an odd statement and is actually harmful to your pitchers? Find out why and what you should say instead.
Read the full articleIt’s Time For Coaches To Stop Showing Up Kids In Practices
Every practice, every coach unwittingly shows up their kids, publicly embarrassing them in front of their friends and peers. It’s time to be aware of what coaches are doing and just as important, how we can avoid doing that.
Read the full articleThe Secret Alternative To Developing Pitching Prospects
With the sharp increase in Tommy John surgeries in baseball pitchers, is there a way in developing pitching prospects that lowers that risk?
Read the full articleHarness The Power Of Your Smartphone In Practices (And Do Your Own Video Swing Analysis)
One of your most powerful tools for baseball practice is also the one least used: the smartphone. It can help you do your own youth baseball swing analysis. But why would we want to do that? And if we did want to do that, exactly how do we do that?
Read the full articleThe 80/20 Rule For Youth Baseball (And How Knowing It Will Radically Change How You Organize Your Practices)
Most practices are equal parts hitting, throwing and fielding. But do those parts affect the game equally?
Does the 80/20 rule (a.k.a. the Pareto Principle) apply to youth baseball? And if so, what does that mean for how coaches should plan practices?
Read the full articleWhy (Most) Youth Baseball Drills Are An Utter Waste Of Time
Youth baseball coaches love drills…lots of them. But has anyone stopped to ask: are most drills a waste of time? How can you tell if a drill is a waste of time? Which drills are actually helpful?
Read the full articleHow To Optimize Your Batting Order Lineup
Most youth baseball coaches don’t think twice about whether their lineup is the most optimal lineup. This post explains why the traditional batting order is flawed for use in youth baseball and proposes a more appropriate way to arrange your lineup.
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