Archive for the ‘Baseball’ Category

One of the most common words used in hitting is the word “swing” as associated with a hitter as he “swings” at the ball.And although swing is not a “nasty” word, it does give the impression that the bat makes a long arc as it goes to the ball.

Visualize a bat swinging.The bat is moving and arcing as it comes to the ball for contact.  This is what most people visualize when they think about “swinging”.However, swinging is the wrong approach.There is virtually no chance to make maximum contact with the ball.

So, whether coaching youth baseball or older, here’s one of our baseball coaching tips:  A better idea to teach would be—no arcing or swinging the bat to make contact with the ball.Instead, DRIVE the baseball bat in a flat line to connect with the ball.

In simple words, we do not swing the bat to hit the baseball!You should send the bat in a direct line and DRIVE the baseball bat to connect with the ball.Contact first, the bat swings second!The baseball bat should never arc before contact, but should after.So if we take a little deeper look at this, using the pro-type action, the batter is actually ‘stroking’ the ball, not swinging.

So how do you produce more contact and better distance? Send the bat in a straight line…we refer to this as the “pro-stroke”.

This is what we call the “PRO STROKE”  It is outlined in 8 Hitting steps, which we call The Super 8 Hitting System.The 8 steps are: Stance, Coil, Stride, Drive, Contact, Extend, Extend Again, and Finish.

Our site includes many baseball coaching tips, including full article overviews, video analysis, and baseball hitting videos, sure to increase bat speed and raise your batting average. 

This is one of many baseball hitting drills coaches teach —“Get the bat off your shoulder!”

It is a common phrase used by fans, coaches, parents, and players.

The question is “Why is that so bad?”

Here is what happens when a player moves his bat away from his body in his hitting stance.As the player does this, the player must separate his grip from their body.His grip will end up, more often than not, over the plate opon striking the ball.You’ll have no support and not be balanced.  

So why is that a problem?  Let’s look at it this way.When arm wrestling, should you keep your hands away from your body?Would you want to keep your hands by your body for support?

If you had to throw the best punch you could, would you hold your hands away from the body?Absolutely not.It would be smarter to have your hands in a fist in back of your head.

If you had to push an automobile, would you want your hands at your side, or would you want them in front of you?Your body allows for thrust to your hands.Of course, you want your grip in front.

Now, stand up like you’re at home plate with your bat out over the plate like it is in contact with the ball.Do you know what is behind your hands?  Nothing!What MLB players. 

You might say…”I’ve seen major leaguers start with their hands away from their bodies.Essentially, this will be good.”

And the answer to that is –“Major leaguers make an adjustment. It’s quick, but they will rapidly bring their hands close to their should area.  We usually don’t see this, because it happens so quickly.A lot of pros do this.

Therefore, let us be clear.You will always be in a better hitting position when you have your hands near your shoulders.Rotate your mid-section, and always keep your grip by your shoulder as you move to strike the ball. Now your hands are in FRONT as they enter the contact zone, NOT OVER THE PLATE.

So if you want to learn how to hit a baseball,  remember this rule:  The only time separation of the hands from the body occurs is when they move forward to hit the ball.

These techniques are fully explained in the “Super 8 Hitting System”, completely demonstrated in a series of baseball hitting videos, which includes many baseball hitting drills. 

HITTING TIPS:

Get the bat off the shoulder in the hitting stance?   No.

Connect with the baseball over home plate?    No.

The baseball player must be able to compete with faster pitching today.After coaching 1,000′s of baseball players, I can help you with this. All of the steps to hitting a baseball are the same for both softball and baseball. 

In today’s game it is absolutely essential that the good hitter is “short to the ball” with a good compact stroke.

 A major part of being the best hitter we can be is to be “tough to strike out.”  A good hitter should have no more than a 10% strike-out ratio.  The strike out gives us NO chance to help our team.Not making contact with the ball, it allows the defense to make an easy out. 

While no one has to be convinced that a strike out is not good, we cannot fear the strike out.  We must not let it affect our boldness when we come up to bat.You shouldn’t enjoy it, you should dislike it and avoid it like the plague, but never allow fear in yourself.Each time we come to the plate, we will be able to make contact.

So the first part of the process is TOTAL CONFIDENCE, to completely eliminate our fear of the strike out.

Part two is “How do we do this?

The Super 8 Hitting System gives us the softball hitting tips to practically eliminate striking out.It gives you all the secrets in baseball batting.Most call it the “drive” action.  It is short, direct, and will immediately improve contact.

By consistently practicing the “drive” action, the softball player can be assured that she can improve her ability to put the ball in play over 90% of the time.

To do this, the player gets into a “45º drive position”, which means that before we initiate the stroke, we rotate the hips half way to the pitcher.Right handed hitters, the bottom of the bat and your belly button are pointed where the 2nd baseman plays.  Then all the hitter needs to do is to snap the bat on the ball.

We fully explain the “drive action” in our system in a series of baseball hitting videos, which includes many softball hitting tips.

Cal Ripken, Jr. is certainly one of the most legendary baseball players. Cal Ripken was born on August 24 1960 in Havre de Grace, Maryland and was raised in Aberdeen, Maryland. Calvin Edwin Ripken Jr is the full name of Cal Ripken. His father was a coach for the Baltimore Orioles during the late 80s. He was not only Ripken’s mentor in baseball, but also in life. Cal Ripken, Jr and his former wife Kelly Geer were married and had a son and a daughter together.

During his time playing for Major League Baseball Ripken played both shortstop and third baseman. The time when he had his entire career was with Baltimore Orioles all the way from 1981 up to 2001.

In 2001, Cal Ripken Junior retired from the game after playing 21 seasons with the Baltimore Orioles. Having accomplished more than 400 home runs and 3000 hits, he was one of only 7 baseball players in history to have that amazing triumph. On September 6, 1995, the record was set in his name, for playing most games in a row during his game against the California Angels. Before Ripken the record for the most consecutive games was held for 56 years by Lou Gehring. Before he ended his streak in 1998, Ripken played 2,632 games in a row. Covering 16 seasons, his streak began on May 30, 1982 and ended September 20, 1998.

During his career Ripken was voted as the MLB All-Star player a total of 19 times. He was also the baseball’s all-time Iron Man because he played despite of his injuries. At 6′ 4″, he was believed to be one of the best shortstops in baseball.

During the year January 9, 2007, the first year of his eligibility, Ripken was chosen to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He always was one to emphasize that athletes could and should also be role models to their community. Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation was set up by him. He created the foundation in his father’s memory and as a means to support disadvantaged youth in Americas struggling communities. He believed in giving back to the community.

Items with Ripken’s autograph can turn a good profit. No wonder he is cautious whenever people ask for his autograph. The best place to find original Cal Ripken jerseys would probably be through Cal Ripken Jr. Autographed Jersey with 9 Inscriptions. Whether you are buying it for yourself as collectibles or for someone you loved, it is a great memorabilia to keep.

1. Have an idea of a few schools you would like to attend, like 5-10.Make sure you target your top choices accordingly, searching on their website or some baseball coaching sites. You not only can get some great advice, but also be able to view some resources and pick up some baseball hitting tips.

2. Try and reach out to a coach of the college you are interested in, and give them some information or video about you. Have some baseball hitting videos, or pitching and fielding videos with some text on your talents. Keep it simple and get an affordable website. You can use shutterfly, or even YouTube. Ask the coach to offer the top 3 things you need to work on from your videos….. who knows, they have some baseball hitting tips to pass along.

3. Most coaches have their own schedules and games going on, so it’s difficult to get out and see players as much as they would like. If a baseball coach drives to see a game, you might bomb and give up 8 runs! Have someone take some baseball hitting videos of yourself. Keep it short. Be precise in your video… No more than 10 minutes on your video. If you’re good, and they see something in you, they’ll make the time to come out and see you play, maybe even with a baseball scholarship in hand.

4. If the coach has had a chance to see you play after sending the video of you hitting, pitching, fielding, etc., make sure you pick up the phone or shoot him an email to follow up! He a coach shows some interest, be proactive and talk to him. Be sure to get to a game of a college you are interested in and maybe try and talk to the coach afterwards. Also, even if they show a little interest, and maybe they don’t have any scholarships available, keep following up. This is what happened to me… my college, UAB, just got an additional scholarship becuase a pitcher went to dental school instead of finishing out his career.

Also, be sure to attend local baseball clinics and MLB tryouts… you’ll be able to meet coaches and other players in a more relaxed setting.

Fantasy baseball has a very special place in the world of fantasy sports. Stats of the real-world players are used as a basis for the game.  As the name implies, fantasy baseball managers control imaginary teams with the help of the real players’ accomplishments to continue their game.  Baseball being the national game of the United States of America, it is natural that many Americans take a lot of interest in the fantasy game too.

The main purpose of a fantasy game is to be triumphant in the finals. This is true in the case of fantasy baseball too. The ideal method to begin playing is to get yourself ready well before the start of the season by familiarizing yourself with all the stats and other relevant data about the players.  Joining a public league or setting one up, you can go ahead with having fun.  Then, as you wish, you can have a live draft or an automatic draft.  It is advantageous to go for a live draft where you can have you own say in selecting the players.

Next you are faced with ranking your players. Though it is set to a default ranking, you can change it according to what you think where the player stands going by his statistics.  Even though past years’ stats are generally applied for this, you may have recourse to previous 2 years, 3 years or next years’ anticipated statistics. As it is viewed that rankings are a reflection of your assessment of how vital a player is to you in fantasy baseball, meticulous attention is to be paid in figuring out the rankings.

A great deal of scrutiny, thoughts, and tactics go into the game of fantasy baseball and it is completely vital that your are mindful of the fact. At the same time, it is all about statistics. So, mixing these ingredients with a pinch of some luck on the draft day will certainly help you rope in the most ideal team for your fantasy baseball game. But take care in heeding to the recommendations of the professionals on rankings as they sometimes put a little too much into their advice. Hence, apply your general knowledge in finalizing your line up.

Fantasy baseball both enjoyable and aggressive. Hence, make certain that you draft sagely to come out with flying colors.

Baseball is identified as USA’s desired hobby.  It is logical enough since it is the national game of the USA.  Hence, you can picture the attention it gets from Americans to watch games of baseball.  Though various television channels make it a point to telecast recorded as well as ‘live’ matches, the enthusiasm to watch one’s favorite teams in action in person has not subsided a wee bit. This explains the great demand for baseball tickets countrywide.

Since the Internet has taken over almost all conceivable business of man, the selling of tickets also is done on it widely.  It is not necessary to bother about buying or reserving one’s tickets through ticket-sellers by visiting them personally.  Everything has been streamlined and at your finger tips. An immense service is rendered by various sites by making baseball tickets available for purchase online.

The benefits of watching your beloved team playing are many.  Unlike on TV, it will save you the dreariness of commercials, commentaries and other interruptions.  While breathing clean air, you will be at one with the goings on rooting for your team.   Most of all, you can have a grandstand view of the game from the position of your choice. Baseball tickets selling websites offer every one of these facilities online.

Baseball tickets both for every home and away games are to be had on such webs. Tickets are on offer for regular season, spring training and post season or preseason games. No matter what type of matches you are interested in, whether MLB games, minor league baseball or World Series, you can have tickets for any game anywhere. It is of interest to mention that these webs provide details on directions to the ballpark, seating charts, schedules of games and even the past games of the teams.

For the whole exercise of buying baseball tickets online, it takes only a short time, showing how trouble-free, safe and straightforward it has developed into. First make your choice from amongst the list of teams and between home and away games. Once you have finished selecting your game, you can select the type of tickets you wish to purchase according to funds you have. There you are, within hours and days, as the case may be, of witnessing your favorite game of entertaining baseball.

As all baseball players and fans know, the sport they love is on its way to becoming a truly global sport like football, golf or cricket. With its growing popularity comes increased demand for baseball players with skill and flair to play the game and entertain the growing audience throughout the world. But how can budding baseball players cultivate their talent enough to play in the big leagues?

A head start is extremely useful to baseball players, like other professional sportsmen and women. To ensure that they gain a competitive advantage, players should ideally start training while in middle school. An early start to training and a regular programme of exercise ensures that when they do try out for teams, they have the advantage of an extra year or so of practice over other players. This also allows them to increase their strength gradually and polish their swings and pitching over time.

Growth by association with better players is also an excellent way to develop natural talent. Sometimes just listening and watching can be a great way of learning the dos and don’ts of the sport. Good baseball players, no matter how old they are and how much experience they have, always have room to learn something new – and they use this to constantly improve their game.

Getting a good coach early on helps as well, by preventing the formation of bad habits, and ensuring that good ones are built in from the beginning. It’s more difficult for baseball players who have formed a habit over years of play to correct it, than it is for them to change if it’s been caught early.

Despite the fact that a coach can have a wide range of talents, one who is a great pitcher, may not necessarily be the best hitter. Baseball players should aim to get the best out of the coach’s area of expertise and always listen when another coach offers advice. Possibly, the player may pick up some very useful hints from one coach that the other may not have thought of because he was an expert in a different aspect. The combination of their natural instincts and talent with advice from coaches and their observations of other players is what makes great baseball players successful.

Having a loving and supportive family is a great advantage for anyone, especially an athlete who needs to dedicate a certain amount of time and effort to his or her sport. It’s not always easy to meet the demands of the game, but the success is definitely worth it.