Coaching Hitters; Stay Back Batting Tee - Stop Bad Habits Before They Start

Improves Bat Speed and Stops Players from Lunging!

The Stayback Tee is designed help teach and practice rotational hitting that can increase bat speed. It helps the batter establish the proper axis to launch the swing. It virtually eliminates forward motion after swing initiation commonly called lunging. This enhances balance in the stride landing and allows the hitter to adjust to different speed pitches and maximize the power by leading with hips and turning into the ball.

• Great for all ages, baseball or softball


• Made of solid metal construction with replaceable tee


• Converts to left handed easily and adjusts to any size player.


• Designed with a safe padded frame so it can be used on any surface indoor or out.


• Breaks down in seconds to 2'x2'x5", making it very portable.


• You can remove the tee and use the frame with many other training aids too.

StayBackTee.com

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Coaching Baseball Catchers: Tips and Mechanics

Snap Throws to 1st and Throwing to 3rd Base - I have a couple of coaching points that I teach my catchers when making "snap throws" to first. My catchers will make a snap throw to first when it is called out of the dugout. If we feel that we can catch a runner off, we will try it. The first baseman must receive a perfect "tag-shot" throw to get a good solid swipe tag. Our catchers are expected to make a perfect throw. We do not allow our cathers to come up and throw. The catcher simply drops the left knee toward the bag, pivots the shoulders and makes a quick throw to the bag. The catcher will give the firstbaseman a "verbal" signal so that the 1st baseman knows to "bounce"off the bag to his defensive position and then go back to his proper recieving position as quickly as possible. If we have this on, the pitcher must be aware of it, and throw the ball away or slightly off the plate, outside. (to a RH batter).

Throwing to 3rd Base - The catcher will come out of the crouch position, take a short jab step with his right foot behind his left foot. This short, quick step should clear the right handed batter and put the catcher in the perfect position to make the throw.

Good Drill For Catchers - Our catchers warm-up with the team and then go immediately to the diamond to throw "corners". Sometimes our middle infielders also sprint to their receiving position to practice receiving and executing the tag. Most of the time we have 4 catchers throwing to each other. The receiving catcher receives and executes a tag at the plate. We work this drill with a catcher at each bag and the plate. They will throw 6 throws across the diamond with their receiving catcher. (as if throwing
to 2nd base) Next the catchers will practice making throw to 1st and 3rd.
A ball will be thrown 3 times around the diamond to their left, simulating a throw to 3rd, and then a ball is thrown 3 times around the diamond to their right, simulating a snap-throw to 1st base.

I hope these drills and tips are useful to you and your team. Good luck, til next time, Nick

Why Coaches Are Often Remembered As Childhood Heroes

Why Coaches Are Often Remembered As Childhood Heroes
By: Gregg Hall

Very often it is more than just a mother or father that shares in raising a child. Other people can be very influential in the way that a child turns out and for the morals and values that are instilled within them. This person could be anyone but very often it is a child's coach. Coaches are normally a huge influence on a child and a very positive role model as well. Most look at a coach as a person who teaches child perseverance and how to be dedicated and win the game. This could be in part because as a coach is instilling values that are relevant to the game, they are also values that are spilling over into the child's life. As he grows, he remembers things that he was taught by his coach.

One way that a coach teaches a child to win the game is to establish goals and this is a critical factor when one is growing up. In order to be a sound and responsible adult, you should establish goals as this is how you get from point A to point B. So coaches instill this quality in children while they are still young and impressionable. They also teach children how to never give up and to be determined to finish whatever they begin. These are all things that set a foundation for the path that leads into adulthood.

Coaches also instill the values of how to work in a team setting and adults are all too familiar with that concept. Those who can not work in a team environment are sure to get left behind. There is a lesson to be learned from coaches whether the game is won or lost. Coaches say just the right things that are often exactly what a child needs to hear especially from someone other than a parent. Another important lesson that coaches teach is making sure that a child follows through with everything to the best of their ability. If that lesson follows through the rest of their life, they will surely be winners.

Good coaches teach children that winning is secondary to everything else that the game in its entirety teaches. The outcome of the game is not always going to result in a big win or a big loss so it is important to teach how to be a graceful winner as well as a graceful loser. Coaches very often are the ones who children look back from adulthood as one of their childhood heroes but may have never realized at the time exactly what an important role this person actually played in their lives until they became more mature.

It would be then that they would discover how much their coach actually did help them walk through life and become the person that they have become. The real shame is that all too often coaches themselves do not know how much of an influence that they played in the children who surrounded them and their life growing into adulthood.

About The Author-- Gregg Hall is an author living with his 18 year old son in Jensen Beach, Florida. Find more about coaching as well as sports equipment at http://www.nsearch.com

Holding The Runner In Baseball

Holding The Runner In Baseball
By: Jimmy Cox

When playing a runner leading away from the base, any infielder has these objectives-catch the runner off the base; make the runner run the full 90 feet to the next base. The latter objective is very important at 2nd, because it is the spot from which a runner can score on a good single.

The runner leading away from 2nd usually has the second baseman in his field of vision. If the second baseman bluffs a run for the bag, the runner will see him and start for the base. By the same token, if the second baseman doesn't pay any attention to the runner, he gives the runner an opportunity to stretch his lead.

While the second baseman does not always have a good chance to work a pickoff play with the pitcher, he can decoy the runner into such a play for the shortstop. Visualize this:Runner and second baseman on the bag just before the pitcher steps on the rubber. Pitcher stretches. Second baseman moves to his position. Runner leads away. Pitcher waits. Second baseman runs back to bag, runner returns to bag.

As the second baseman turns his back on the runner and returns to his position, the runner instinctively leads off. At this instant, the shortstop rushes to the base, the pitcher whirls and throws. The shortstop is back of the runner and out of his field of vision, thus the runner must rely on the voice signal of the third base coach to realize he's in danger.

If the play works, the defense has an out. If not, it has put enough pressure on the runner to keep him reasonably close to the bag.The second baseman returns to the base after every pitch and does not leave again until the pitcher is on the rubber. Then he should always move to keep pressure on the runner. Cut It!With runners on 1st and 3rd in anything below the high school level of ball the defense has a tough problem. If the runner on 1st breaks for 2nd and the catcher makes his throw to 2nd, the runner on 3rd can usually score.

In college or professional ball, the second baseman can often go to the base to play the runner going from 1st to 2nd. Then, if he sees the runner on 3rd try for home, he probably has enough power in his throwing arm to fire to the plate to catch him.But, in the younger groups, second basemen rarely have that power.

Here's a cut-off play that will help the defense in this situation.The offense, first of all, will probably order the runner to steal on the 1st pitch and have the batter "take" to avoid a double play on a line drive. If the defense expects the play, the pitcher should "pitch out", giving the catcher a good chance to get the ball away to 2nd.The second baseman, instead of going to the 2nd, runs to a spot halfway between the mound and the bag and on a direct line between 2nd and home. The shortstop covers 2nd, the third baseman 3rd. The catcher fires right at the second baseman's head.If the runner on 3rd does not break, the shortstop yells "Let It Go!" The second baseman does and ducks out of the way.If the runner on 3rd is breaking, the shortstop should yell "Cut It!" The second baseman cuts the ball off and throws to the plate. There are these "ifs":If the runner going from 3rd to home stops halfway down the line-charge him.If the catcher's throw is off line, cut it off whether the runner on 3rd goes or not.

About The Author-- Want Baseball Training Tips & Tricks? These Little-Known Secrets Will Have Your Youngster Hitting The Longest Yard Over The Boundary Fence! Click Here For Free Online E-Book: http://www.baseball-training.org

Baseball Batting Mechanics - Tips for teaching a proper grip.

COACHING POINT: Make sure that players do not line their knuckles up when you are looking and then move their hands to an "ax grip" when you walk away.

One way to teach the benefits of the "finger grip position" is to have the two batters take several swings from shoulder-to-shoulder very quickly using the two grips. Take two batters of similar ability levels and with similar hand speed and do this demonstration. One player uses the "correct grip" and one uses the "ax or incorrect grip". Have the batters take 10 shoulder-to-shoulder swings. See which batter completes the 10 swings first. This shows the kids how much faster the hands move when the correct grip is used.

Note: Make sure to move the batters at a safe distance from each other and from other players when performing this illustration.