Coaching Management 11.6

Coaching Management VOL. XI, NO. 6

B A S E B A L L ■ ■

P O S T S E A S O N

Captains Talk Pitching Strength

LOOKING FOR HELP Borrowing from other sports to help your players

E D I T I O N

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$5.00

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Coaching Management Baseball Edition Postseason 2003

CONTENTS

Vol. XI, No. 6

p. 2

p. 25

LOCKER ROOM

Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Talking about supplements … Having a former major leaguer as an assistant …

Georgia Tech brings in more fans …

Non-wood bats get thumbs up in Massachusetts … Only minor changes made to playing rules.

Q&A

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Franklin Pierce College reached the NCAA Division II College World Series semifinals in its first tournament appearance. Head Coach Jayson King talks about what it took to get there.

p. 31

Cover Story

Looking For Help

The Right Stuff

CATALOG SHOWCASE

Circulation Director Mark Shea

Associate Editors Jim Catalano Guillermo Metz

Asst. Production Manager Kristi Kempf

Ad Materials Coordinator Mike Townsend

Production Assistants Jonni Campbell Hildi Gerhart

Special Projects Dave Wohlhueter

Business Manager Pennie Small

Cover photo: NCAA PHOTOS/CLIFF WILLIAMS

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ADVERTISERS DIRECTORY

Prepress Manager Adam Berenstain

IT Manager Mark Nye

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A pitcher’s arm gets all the acclaim, but the legs and torso are the unsung heroes that need extra attention when planning strength training programs.

Production Manager Kristin Ayers

Art Assistant Dina Stander

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Strength Training

Editor-in-Chief Eleanor Frankel

Assistant Editors Kenny Berkowitz David Hill Dennis Read Laura Smith

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Whether you select them yourself or leave it to the team, your captains can make or break a season. Some top coaches talk about what they look for and what they expect from their captains.

Publisher Mark Goldberg

Art Director Pamela Crawford

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Management

Mound Muscle PRODUCT PAGES Team Equipment/Uniforms. . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Hitting & Pitching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Baseball Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 More New Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Web Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

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When searching for ways to do your job better, you need simply look around you. There are countless opportunities to borrow ideas from other coaches who may know little about baseball, but lots about coaching.

Administrative Assistants Sharon Barbell Daniela Reis Amy Walton

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Advertising Sales Associates Diedra Harkenrider, (607) 257-6970, ext. 24 Sheryl Shaffer, (607) 257-6970, ext. 21 Business and Editorial Offices 2488 N. Triphammer Rd., Ithaca, NY 14850 (607) 257-6970, Fax (607) 257-7328 info@MomentumMedia.com Mailing lists for Coaching Management Baseball are provided by the Clell Wade Coaches Directory.

The Coaching Management baseball edition is published in February, September, and December by MAG, Inc. and is distributed free to college and high school coaches in the United States and Canada. Copyright © 2003 by MAG, Inc. All rights reserved. Text may not be reproduced in any manner, in whole or in part, without the permission of the publisher. Unsolicited materials will not be returned unless accompanied by a self-addressed, stamped envelope. Coaching Management is printed by Banta Publications Group, Kansas City, MO. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Coaching Management, P.O. Box 4806, Ithaca, N.Y. 14852.

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

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bulletin board Ephedra Bans Spark Supplement Discussions Since March, when a Broward (Fla.) County coroner’s report added Baltimore Orioles pitcher Steve Bechler’s name to the growing list of athletes whose deaths have been blamed, at least in part, on the use of ephedra, a new urgency has swept through state and federal attempts to ban the substance.

don’t really change the availability all that much,” Burandt says. “Alcohol is illegal for people under 21—and we know kids drink. Tobacco is illegal for those under 18, yet teens account for the majority of new smokers.”

Education, not legislation, offers the best results, Burandt says, and it starts with frequent discussions with athletes. “Our coaches discuss supplements at least once a week with their teams,” he says.

he says. “Kids interpret silence as a message that taking supplements is okay with you.

“But you can’t say, ‘If I find out that anyone is using ephedra, they’ll be off the team,’” Beste adds. “That’s the way to ensure no one will tell you anything. Your message needs to be, ‘This is very dangerous, and I’m concerned about this issue because I care about you.’ Whether or not you leave the door open from the start will determine how open your players will be with you about the issue all year.”

The messages needn’t come in formal presentations, either.

Periodic short reminders work better than long lectures.

“Take advantage of teachable moments,” Beste advises. “Pay attention to current events, and when you see a newspaper story about the results of an athlete using supplements, take it to practice and discuss it with your players. Print copies and post them in the locker room or pass them around. Your words have a lot more impact when players can link them to something real.”

In May, Illinois became the first state to outlaw the sale of ephedra. A New York ban passed both houses of the state legislature in early June, and awaits the governor’s signature. In July 2004, Florida law will prohibit its sale to people under 18.

And U.S. Senator Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) is drawing up a bill that would change the way all dietary supplements are tested and approved.

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“When you’re communicating with players, you can’t just say the right thing and expect a light bulb to go on,” he continues. “It’s a long term building process, and coaches have to communicate to players that they care about them first as human beings. Until you get that message across, anything you say is just going to be seen as one more adult preaching to them.”

Iowa High School Athletic Association Wellness Coordinator Alan Beste agrees that communication is the key. “It all starts with what you say, and silence is not an option,”

Creatine, another supplement commonly used by high school athletes, poses concerns as well and has been linked to dehydration and an increase in muscle strains and pulls.

Even substances that appear to be safe can pose hidden dangers, especially if not

Even protein shakes carry some risk, Beste believes. “Again, labeling is an issue, because there’s no way to be sure what’s in them,” he says. “But I think the biggest concern here is philosophical. When kids use protein shakes, the message is, ‘You can’t achieve optimal performance naturally; you have to take something.’

And then they think, ‘What else can I try?’ It’s a short path from there to ephedra, creatine, and andro, and the only place to go from there is steroids. We have to send the message that getting there naturally may take longer, but they can do it, and it’s safer.”

Educating parents is equally important. “Parents see these supplements at the supermarket and think, ‘If these weren’t safe, how could stores sell them?’” Beste says. “Coaches need to provide parents with the same information they’re giving players.”

Getting information into the hands of parents can be a challenge. “If I’m a player taking ephedra, I’m probably not going to take a pamphlet about the dangers home to my parents,” Beste says. “Try talking to parents after games.

Get them together and discuss how the game went, and then spend a few minutes telling them where you stand on supplement use.”

For more information, visit www.drugfreesport.com/choices/ coaches/index.html or www.healthycompetition.org.

CHRIS MURPHY

But legislation is only part of the answer when it comes to protecting high school student-athletes from ephedra and other easily obtainable supplements teens are often eager to try, says Mark Burandt, Activities Director at Fond du Lac (Wis.) High School. “Laws are a good start, but they

“We don’t just not encourage the use of supplements. We actively discourage it.

Joining ephedra on the list of supplements teens are likely to use is androstenedione, a steroid precursor banned by the NCAA. “There is a very high level of concern over androstenedione,” Beste says.

“It can have the same negative effects as being on a steroid.”

used or labeled correctly.

“Mislabeling runs rampant, and products can contain ingredients that aren’t listed on the label,” Beste says.

“Athletes can be getting more creatine than the bottle says, or even ephedra. Then there’s the question of whether kids are taking the amount the label says. My gut feeling is no—I think almost all of them take a lot more.”

If your player suffers from dehydration it’s like you’re not even there.

When athletes are dehydrated they lack the ability to perform and may lose focus. So all the hard work during practice becomes as effective as standing at the plate without a bat. Gatorade is formulated with sodium, potassium and carbs to replenish athletes and rehydrate them in a way water can’t.

Risk dehydration and you might as well let athletes coach themselves.

is it in you?

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©2003 S-VC, Inc.

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bulletin board Other ideas: ■ Start an e-mail list for parents and use it to communicate about supplement use.

Invite parents to give you their e-mail addresses, and tell them you’ll use the addresses to contact them periodically about issues of concern.

■ Ask players to sign a pact that states they will not use supplements during their team’s season.

■ Host a sports nutrition night for parents and athletes.

Involve your school’s athletic trainer, or, if you don’t have one, invite a school nurse or physician. Provide information on supplements and their risks, and allow plenty of time for discussion.

Help your athletes form a “chemical-free society” at the school so athletes attempting to avoid supplements, drugs, and alcohol don’t feel like they’re alone. This society can provide peer support and opportunities to socialize with others with the same goals.

teams. Green has already been invited back for next year.

Conlin was optimistic going into the 2003 season because he had four solid junior pitchers who’d been starting on the varsity squad since they were freshmen and had been developed by then-Pitching

he had spent with the Phillies from 1993-98. Conlin had previously developed a rapport with Green when the ex-pitcher spoke at Conlin’s summer baseball camp.

“He said he would love to do it, but that he needed to talk with his boss at Fleet Financial to find out if it would be okay to be out of the office every afternoon from March to May,” Conlin says.

“He worked things out with his boss and was our varsity and j.v. pitching coach for the entire season.”

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Hiring a Major League Assistant If you ever have the chance to hire an ex-big leaguer for your coaching staff, be sure you have the right one, says Craig Conlin, Head Baseball Coach at Germantown Academy in Pennsylvania. “You have to know what you’re getting. You have to lay out exactly what you want for the program and what you’re looking for as a head coach,” Conlin says.

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Having a big-leaguer at practice every day didn’t present an authority problem, Conlin says, mostly because of Green’s mild-mannered style with his pitchers. Conlin quickly delegated the pitching staff completely to Green.

“A lot of times I’d just say, ‘Tyler, do what you need to get done today with your four guys. Just take them down to the bullpen,’ and he was pretty much on his own,” Conlin says. “The other coaches and I just wanted to get out of his way and let him do what he thought he should do.”

Conlin advises other high school coaches who might have a chance to tap a former big-leaguer’s services to make sure the prospective assistant is committed to the task. “I do understand that there are some players out there who don’t have coaching experience and just want to come in and tell stories from the old days,” he says.

“That might would work for a couple of days, but after a while the kids would tire of that.

“You need to have a coach who will really bring a knowledge of the game and will work with and push the kids,” Conlin continues. “I think that when the players realize that this coach is putting the time in and has their best interests at heart, they’re going to work.”

The key to Green’s involvement, Conlin says, was making the time commitment for the whole season. Green lives and works nearby and has been able to devote the time coaching requires. “If they have too much of a work commitment off the field, it’s not going to work,” Conlin says.

GETTY IMAGES/EZRA SHAW

This approach worked for Conlin this past season as he took on retired pitcher Tyler Green as pitching coach for his conference-champion squad at the last minute. The team went 25-6 and finished third in The Philadelphia Inquirer ranking of southeastern Pennsylvania high school baseball

The players were excited, Conlin says.

They’d all heard about him, and many had seen him play in Philadelphia. “In the beginning, they were a little overwhelmed and blown away by the name recognition,” Conlin says, “but he also Tyler Green, a pitcher for the Philadelphia brought a Phillies from 1993-98, recently finished his great wealth of first season as an assistant coach at Germaninformation, town Academy in Fort Washington, Pa. drills, and pitching knowledge that he passed Coach Toby Fisher. Then, on to the kids. He had drills within three weeks of the first that just blew the kids away.” game, Fisher notified Conlin he’d been offered the pitching Green hadn’t coached formally coach job at Temple Universibefore, but except for some ty, a position the former colearly uneasiness, he taught lege hurler couldn’t pass up. well, Conlin says. “Without having coaching experience, I Conlin started brainstorming think he was a little overfor possible replacements and whelmed by the numbers at hit upon Green, who’d settled first, certainly at tryouts, when in the Philadelphia area after we had 30 or 40 kids trying arm injuries cut short his out for two teams. But once major league career, which we broke it down to just the

pitchers, and certainly in oneon-one situations, he was phenomenal.”

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bulletin board Crowded House College baseball programs are always looking for ways to fill the stands at their home games. At Georgia Tech, the key has been expanding its fan base in the local community through a series of between-innings promotions that have brought more fans to their games.

the head of a bat, run 20 yards to a baseball tee, and try to hit a ball with a whiffle bat. The first one to hit the ball earns a free pizza.

erties, an outside company that owns the multimedia rights for Tech’s athletic sponsorships. Every year, ISP pays Tech a fee for the sponsorship rights and recoups that fee through payments from individual sponsors like Costco.

The Tech Trivia Contest, featuring questions about Georgia Tech baseball, with the winner getting a meal at a local restaurant.

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Parkview High School, two of Georgia’s leading high school programs.

The double-header drew almost 9,000 paying customers, far more than the 2,500 people who typically come to see

Guess the Time of the Seventh-Inning Stretch, where fans have until the end of the second inning to predict the exact time of the visitor’s last out in the seventh inning. Whoever makes the closest guess wins a tray of hot wings.

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“Our games are very familyoriented,” says Georgia Tech Head Baseball Coach Danny Hall. “We really target that market heavily, because if we can get them in the park once, we’ll get them a second time, just because it’s such a great experience.”

Borrowing promotional ideas from minor league baseball, the Yellow Jackets have a costumed mascot named Buzz, who walks through the stands during home games, playing with young children and leading fans in cheers.

Between innings, Tech involves the crowd in promotional competitions on the field, led

by Chris Cowan, Georgia Tech Operations and Communications Specialist, and his team of marketing interns. In past seasons, they’ve offered: The Costco Roll for Rubber, where students and adults see who can roll a tire the farthest, with the season winner taking home a set of tires.

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The Delta Derby, where four contestants race cardboard horses along the outfield wall, and the winner receives two round-trip tickets on Delta Airlines.

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Friday Night ’80s, where fans identify the artists and titles of four ’80s pop songs, submitting their answers during the seventh-inning stretch. The correct entries are put into a random drawing, and the winner gets a stay at an area hotel.

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■ The Dizzy Bat Race, where two contestants spin around

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■ Baseball Bingo, where fans are given bingo cards on their way into the stadium, and mark off specific numbers, depending on where the ball is hit, every time the Yellow Jackets come to bat. Whoever reaches “bingo” first wins a replica team jersey.

Kids cross the plate after running the bases at a Georgia Tech game. The Yellow Jackets have taken a family friendly approach to their home contests, holding a series of between-inning contests and events to create a fun atmosphere.

■ The Strike Zone Contest, where contestants have two chances to throw a bowling ball down a portable lane, with strikes and spares winning the whole crowd a free game of bowling at a local alley.

“We want to make sure there are things to keep people interested between innings,” says Cowan. “We see these contests as in-game entertainments that make the atmosphere a little more enjoyable, especially for kids.

People don’t necessarily come to see the Dizzy Bat Race, but the promotions are an added attraction that give people another reason to come back.”

The promotion ideas come from Cowan and his staff, but the actual execution is done

by International Sports Prop-

Although it’s impossible to determine how much the promotions have affected attendance, the crowds are clearly excited, cheering for the promotions and shouting encouragement to contestants on the field. “It definitely helps fans feel involved in the game, and it probably helps with attendance, too,” says Hall. “It’s a way for us to give something back to the people who support our program.”

In an even bigger gesture of support, record numbers of fans came to the first Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Baseball Classic, which pitted Tech against long-time rival, the University of Georgia. Held at Atlanta’s Turner Field on May 13, the event also included an afternoon game between Lassiter High School and

Tech play on a good night.

The event raised $65,000 for Atlanta’s AFLAC Cancer Care Center, which plans to apply the money towards the purchase of an intra-operative MRI machine for its Brain and Spinal Cord Tumor Program.

Work on the benefit started three years ago with a concept from Hall, who consulted then University of Georgia Head Baseball Coach Ron Polk, and his successor, David Perno.

Together, the coaches agreed to commit their teams for a season-ending benefit, and approached Shelton Stevens, Director of the Children’s Sports Network, which hosts 35-40 events each year to benefit Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, one of the largest hospitals in the nation.

Stevens handled the rest of the details, working with the network’s grassroots volunteers to sell tickets in the community; the Atlanta Braves organization, which donated use of the stadium; the University of Georgia athletic department, which included the game as part of its season ticket package; Georgia Tech, which hosted ticket sales by student groups at its last 10 home games; the Atlantic Coast Conference, which helped arrange television coverage from Fox Sportsnet South; the Brain Tumor Foundation for Children, which provided logistical support; and radio station Star94, which assisted in promotions.

“It was a very good first-year effort, and next year we plan to do a lot better,” says Stevens, who hopes to draw 30,000

attendees to the 2004 rematch.

“Our goal is to make this the largest single college baseball game in the country.”

“It felt like a natural partnership, to have the two best college baseball teams in the state play at Turner Field and have the proceeds benefit Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta,” says Hall. “It’s a winwin situation.”

Besides giving his team the thrill of playing in a major league environment—which they already experience every other year when they face the Braves in an exhibition contest —Hall expects his program to benefit from the increased exposure of a television broadcast and from fans’ association of the team with such a worthy cause.

“It was a very emotional experience for all of us to see these kids who are struggling with cancer, and to walk out on the field with them for the national anthem,” says Hall.

“There was a huge lump in my throat, and I’m sure our players felt the same way.

“The only negative about the game,” he continues, “was that we lost.”

Non-Wood Bats Allowed in Mass.

The long-raging battle over non-wood bats in Massachusetts high school baseball took another turn this spring.

During a May meeting, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Council (MIAC) voted down a proposal that would have mandated the use of

wood bats during regularseason play beginning in 2004.

Last fall, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) Baseball Committee, which sets the rules for the state tournament, voted to require the use of wood bats during the 2003 state tournament. As described in the 2003 Preseason Edition of Coaching Management Baseball, the initial ban was spurred by a May 2001 incident in which a high school pitcher was injured by a batted ball.

However, many MIAC members—superintendents, athletic directors, principals—were not convinced that non-wood bats posed a safety issue.

Before rejecting the proposal to require wood bats by a 12-5 vote, the MIAC reviewed findings from MIAA’s Sports Med-

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bulletin board icine Committee, Baseball Committee, and Board of Directors as well as several interested parties—including bat manufacturers, coaches, and parents—on both sides of the issue.

“I can’t speak for the committee members, but there’s a sense that having been turned down for a regular-season change, they will go back to allowing non-wood bats for the 2004 tournament,” he says.

“It doesn’t make sense to keep one set of rules for the regular season and another for the playoffs.”

Wetzel points out that wood bats will still be legal. “We anticipate several of the leagues that changed to wood bats for this season

Teams like Athol High School (above) were required to use wood bats during the 2003 Massachusetts state playoffs, but non-wood bats will be allowed during the 2004 regular season.

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Circle No. 6

PETER MACDONALD

A lack of data showing that non-wood bats cause more injuries and the potential cost of wood bats during a state budget crunch were cited as the main reasons for the negative vote. “It appears that the safety question was the primary issue for most of the committee and probably had the most influence on their vote,” MIAA spokesman Paul Wetzel told the Boston Globe shortly after the May vote.

“And there clearly were other questions for those that voted to reject the change, including financial and aesthetic.”

The MIAA Baseball Committee will meet again this fall to set tournament rules for 2004.

Given the MIAC’s recent ruling, which stands for two years, Wetzel expects that the Baseball Committee will allow nonwood bats to be used in next year’s tournament.

will continue to use them,” he says, “but to what degree remains to be seen.”

Baseball rule books will see little change for 2004 as both

Rule Changes for 2004

Many schools and leagues had switched to wood bats during the 2003 regular season in anticipation of a tournament run. “The MIAA is gathering data on statistics and breakage from tournament teams and leagues that used wood bats,” Wetzel says.

“We’d like to know what their experience was.

Anecdotally, I heard a number of people say the kids got to like using wood bats after awhile.

They broke some bats in the beginning of the season, but then they learned how to hit with them.”

the NCAA and NFHS made mostly editorial revisions and clarifications to existing rules rather than adding new ones.

A list of the most significant changes follows.

NCAA Changes ■ The obstruction rules have been standardized so that play will not be stopped because of obstruction. Play will continue following the obstruction and any penalties will be enforced once the ball becomes dead.

■ A defensive player will be allowed to warm up as a pitcher during a coach’s trip to the mound, as long as both the pitcher and receiver are already in the line up. If that player becomes the pitcher, he will also be allowed the normal eight warm up pitches.

■ Umpires have the discretion to call a pitch a ball or strike anytime they feel a batter gets hit by a pitch through his own intentions. Previously, a batter had to stick his body outside the batter’s box for the hit by pitch call to be overturned.

■ Except when coaching the bases, coaches will be allowed to wear any team-

issued jacket when they visit the field of play, even if it’s not the same color as the team’s jerseys.

NFHS Changes ■ If an umpire inadvertently calls a batted ball foul, the play is ruled a dead ball. Previously, the umpire had the discretion to determine whether or not the batter could have been throw out before reaching first or if other runners could have advanced.

■ Teams may not be in liveball territory while their opponents are taking infield practice before the game.

■ Coaches are now allowed to have a stopwatch in the coach’s box.

More information can be found at www.ncaa.org and www.nfhs.org/rules-baseball.htm.

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Circle No. 8 COACHING MANAGEMENT

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Jayson King Franklin Pierce College

In five years as head baseball coach at Franklin Pierce College, Jayson King has turned around a previously struggling program, leading the team to a 126-97-1 record, including its first two 30-win seasons. In 2003, he guided the Ravens to the Division II College World Series semifinals in their first NCAA tournament appearance.

Since coming to Franklin Pierce, where he is also the head coach of the women’s volleyball team and director of the baseball camp, King has seen three of his players selected in baseball’s annual draft, the first athletes in school history to be picked by a major sports league. And for the fifth straight year,

CM: To what do you attribute your team’s success?

King: There was a good mix of upper classmen and lower classmen, with a great nucleus of younger guys who could come off the bench and a strong group of older guys who could help the younger ones along.

What did you do to turn your program around?

It started with recruiting good players and instilling an attitude that we’re going to work hard every day to maximize our practice time. When I first came here, it was a losing program, and the fact that the school had never won a title was a real obstacle. Our biggest challenge was convincing good players to buy into my vision to change that, which we accomplished this year.

the Ravens set a record for single-season wins, earning King the ABCA/Diamond NCAA Division II Northeast Region Coach of the Year award and the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association Division II Coach of the Year award.

No stranger to rebuilding struggling programs, King spent two years at UMass-Boston, where he piloted the Beacons to a school record for wins. Before that, King was a four-year letterwinner for the Framingham State College baseball team, Assistant Baseball Coach at Springfield College, Assistant Athletic Director at Mount Ida College, and Head Coach of the Bourne Braves in the Cape Cod Baseball League.

In this interview, King talks about turning around a losing program, reaching the College World Series, and developing his philosophy of coaching.

How do you motivate your players?

To be successful, you need guys who are self-motivated. But even then, they’re all motivated in different ways, so we try to figure out what makes each of them tick and work with each player within his individual framework. The motivation comes when guys figure out what they need to do to succeed and the coaches are there to help them make it happen.

for our college, and then we try to find the right guys for our program. When I first got here, I told prospective players two things: Number one, coming to Franklin Pierce was a chance for them to play every day, and number two, it was an opportunity for them to build something as a team. Now that we’ve been successful, it’s easier to talk to people about our program.

How do you recruit players who’ll be excited to play in Division II? First, we try to find guys who are right

People know that three of our guys have been drafted, and that gets them motivated, too. They’re three guys in three

What’s your coaching philosophy?

The main thing is simple hard work. I’m a demanding, aggressive coach who wants to get the best out of his athletes. I look for hard workers and hard-nosed players.

My goal is to make them better, and that’s what we focus on every day.

How do you set goals for your athletes?

Every year, we have each player write down his individual goals and team goals.

Then I talk to each player individually about the things they’re trying to achieve, and I talk to the whole team about my goals. This year, my goals were to get to the conference tournament, the NCAA tournament, and the World Series. And every day of the season, we worked toward those goals.

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Franklin Pierce College won the 2003 NCAA Division II Northeast Regional and reached the College World Series semifinals in its first postseason appearance.

Circle No. 9

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Baseball: Grand Slam Nutrition

By MARJORIE HAGERMAN, M.S., R.D., L.D. Visiting professor at the College of Medicine, Ohio University (Athens, OH) and nutrition consultant to the men’s U.S. National Rowing Team

Players at all levels of baseball need to excel at throwing, hitting, running and catching.

That calls for a sound training program. Today, baseball coaches and athletic trainers are facing an unfamiliar training concern – players who report overweight. Lugging around excess fat baggage can reduce a player’s speed and agility, diminish endurance and make hot weather more uncomfortable. Where should overweight players start?

Reaching Appropriate Playing Weight

1.

Base weight-loss goals on the percent of body fat, measured by an experienced professional. Weight-forheight charts and body mass index tables, suggested for the general population, are not appropriate for athletes who routinely carry heavier weights because of greater muscle mass. Either desirable or goal fat percentages for professional baseball players are: Position

Recommended Percent Body Fat

Pitchers and Catchers

approximately 12%

Infielders/Outfielders

approximately 10%

5. All effective changes take time. Start early in the off

season and expect weight loss to be about 1/2 to 1 pound per week. That rate is safe and can usually be maintained until the desired weight and percent body fat are reached.

6. Caution! Players should never dehydrate to lose

weight. An athlete who loses just 2 percent of body weight through dehydration (3 pounds for a 150 pound player), can drop 8 to 10 percent in performance. All players, including those trying to lose weight, should drink often and on a schedule, to replace sweat losses.

According to the National Athletic Trainers' Association, athletes should:

✓ Drink before a practice or game – 17 to 20 oz fluid 2 to If body fat percentage is high, it can be reduced. The athlete needs to consume less energy (calories) from food and expend more energy through additional activity.

3 hours before and another 7 to 10 oz fluid 10 to 20 minutes before playing

✓ Drink during your workout or competition – at least 7 to 10 oz fluid every 10 to 15 minutes

2. To consume fewer calories, reduce foods that are high in sugar and/or fat. Some fat is necessary to provide a feeling of satiety or fullness, which prevents hunger from returning too soon. However, over indulging in sweets and high-fat snack foods (cheese, ice cream, chips, pizza) can send total calories soaring.

3. Balance eating throughout the day and avoid oversized portions of any food. Include breakfast and lunch to avoid becoming ravenous at dinner. Follow the Food Guide Pyramid and eat at least the minimum number of servings from each of the five food groups.

4. To increase calorie expenditure, do additional walking, running, stair climbing or cycling. Endurance activities will use some of the calories ingested, rather than storing calories as added fat. Resistance training is also important to maintain lean muscle tissue.

✓ Drink after you've finished exercise – at least 20 oz fluid for every pound of lost weight

Choose a sports drink containing carbohydrate and adequate electrolytes (check labels for those providing about 14 grams of carbohydrate in 8 oz of fluid) to provide muscles with energy as well as fluid. The carbohydrate and electrolytes in sports drinks, (which are not present in water) provide athletes in stop-and-go sports, like baseball, greater endurance and power over the whole game. Sports drinks also taste good, so players tend to drink more and hydrate better.

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&

different organizations, and they’re all living out a dream. I’m really happy for them, and I talk to them every other week or so.

What was the program like at UMassBoston when you started coaching there?

It was similar to Franklin Pierce. They had a losing reputation, and some people said I was crazy for taking that job, because the team would never get any better. We gradually improved, but there were some obstacles that were hard to overcome. For one, we were in a really competitive conference. But the hardest thing was that the school didn’t have any dorms, so we weren’t able to draw players who wanted a four-year residential experience.

How has your time as an Assistant Baseball Coach at Springfield College and Assistant Athletic Director at Mount Ida College helped you as a head coach?

As far as coaching styles and techniques, I’ve learned from all the people who have coached me and have molded everything

I learned into my own philosophy. And as an administrator, I learned how an athletic department should run. I learned what to do once I got into coaching, and how I’d be held accountable. I also learned some of the administrative things that are necessary in my job now, such as fund-raising and compliance.

What’s been your most effective strategy for raising funds at Franklin Pierce?

The team usually raises around $600 for our southern trip, and each player on the team has to help with that. Also, we fundraise to help buy equipment and supplies, mostly by selling ads in our media guide and holding a couple of clinics that have raised some pretty good funds.

What do you focus on in the baseball camp?

We run two weeks of camp that we promote mainly through advertising in local newspapers and word of mouth. We focus on teaching the game and seeing how much our players can improve, just like we do with our college players. As coaches, we love to see players improve.

How has your coaching style evolved over the years?

Well, I’m definitely not laid-back, but I’m a little more laid-back than when I started.

I’m better at understanding players and figuring out all the different personalities I have to deal with on the team. And I enjoy the process of coaching a little more, just making sure that the job at hand is always being done.

What’s the hardest part of your job?

Well, the weather certainly plays tricks with us, being in New Hampshire and always getting more snow than everybody else. But I try not to focus on things like weather. I just try to think about the things that I can control. For practices, we’ve got an indoor dome, and we’re in the process of getting a new field.

What’s the best part of being a coach?

Coaching is a really rewarding job for me, because I love being involved in the two sports I coach, and I love being around college kids. I get a chance to teach people, see them progress as players, and grow as individuals. That’s definitely the most rewarding part of my job.

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Circle No. 11 COACHING MANAGEMENT

15

BY KENNY BERKOWITZ

W

Looking

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Azusa Pacific University Head Baseball Coach Paul Svagdis, who was tabbed 2002 ABCA Division III West Region Coach of the Year when he worked at Pomona-Pitzer Colleges. “But there’s a lot he can teach me about coaching philosophy, maintaining a positive outlook, holding kids accountable, and working within the mission of the institution. If you observe someone who’s been successful, you can learn to translate that success to the baseball field.”

Making Introductions When Svagdis arrived at Azusa Pacific, his first objective was to meet the rest of the school’s coaching staff. So he made a point of introducing himself to his colleagues, socializing with coaches at lunch, and absorbing strategies for succeeding in his new environment.

“It’s important to understand your university and what guidelines you have to follow to fit into their mission statement,” says Svagdis. “The sooner you can understand that, the sooner you can start developing a strategy to be successful. What is the institution all about?

What’s it looking for from its athletics program? Every coach here is someone I can learn something from.

“If you want to be successful, you have to learn by asking questions,” continues Svagdis. “You have to be personable, be an extrovert, and integrate yourself into the department. It may take a little while, but you’ll find that people are willing to help—it’s in our nature as coaches.”

When he first came to the University of Houston, Head Baseball Coach Ray Noble went to another coach in the department for advice about turning around a team with discipline problems.

Since then, he’s learned to rely on his fellow coaches for help, taking note of their strengths and making sure to recognize their areas of interpersonal expertise.

“We’re all in this together, and that’s why we all need to respect what everybody does and keep the lines of communication open,” says Noble. “Sometimes

that’s tough, because we’re all so busy.

But you never know when somebody else has gone through the same experience you’re struggling with, and how much they could help you through it.”

With all the coaches he had to meet, Svagdis took it slowly, gradually letting relationships evolve over time. “There’s a fine line between asking questions and being a real pain in the tail,” he says. “Sometimes I’m as straightforward as telling another coach, ‘I’d love to sit down and talk with you about the things you do to be so successful.’ Other times, I’m more casual. I may happen to be at lunch with another coach and the conversation turns to athletics. My purpose then really isn’t to dig for information.

It’s to help generate collegiality in the department.”

Some coaches may be reluctant to approach others for help, often because they either don’t want to be a bother to the other person or because they don’t want to look like they don’t know what they’re doing. But Noble believes it’s important to fight that kind of thinking.

“When you show interest in other coaches and other sports, you gain a certain amount of respect among your peers,” says Noble. “If you take the attitude that, ‘Hey, I’m a guy that doesn’t need anybody’s help,’ then when you find yourself at a low point and you do seek somebody’s advice, they may not feel like helping you.”

At Notre Dame, Mainieri meets informally with other coaches on a regular basis and has lunch at least twice a week with Fighting Irish men’s ice hockey coach Dave Poulin, sharing information about their teams. Though there’s little useful discussion about specific techniques—“It’s hard for me to relate to anybody who wears skates on his feet,” says Mainieri—the issues that come up most often are ones that every coach has to deal with, no matter the sport: how to distribute scholarship money, work with Kenny Berkowitz is an Assistant Editor at Coaching Management.

NCAA PHOTOS/CLIFF WILLIAMS

ith all that baseball coaches have to do in and out of the playing season, it may seem that there’s little time to waste talking with coaches of other sports. After all, what good is a basketball coach going to be for your base runners? How is a golf coach going to help your hitters? And how could a football coach improve your pitching staff?

But no matter where you coach, there are colleagues in your department perfectly positioned to help you take your team to the next level. All you need to do is apply their lessons to your game.

“When you talk with coaches from other sports, it’s amazing to see how similar their jobs are to ours,” says University of Notre Dame Head Baseball Coach Paul Mainieri. “Every coach on our staff is willing to share ideas with each other, and it’s become a great support system for all of us.

“Obviously, from one sport to another, the technical skills are going to be different,” he continues. “But many other issues are the same, and as soon as you start using the resources around you, you’ll see you’re not an island.”

Coming from different backgrounds, coaches of other sports can help you find unique solutions to baseball’s physical challenges. The best of them can be enormously helpful in sharing information about conditioning, exercises, and workout drills. There are basketball coaches who have some of the best agility drills in sports and track coaches who understand the mechanics of running better than anyone else in college athletics.

Even more importantly, tapping into the community of coaches within your department can provide the support you need to tackle the hardest parts of your job: effectively managing your program and dealing with student-athletes.

“From the standpoint of Xs and Os, there’s not a lot I’m going to gain by sitting around with a football coach,” says

COVER STORY

For Help When searching for ways to do your job better, you need simply look around you.

There are countless opportunities to borrow ideas from other coaches who may know little about baseball, but lots about coaching.

COACHIING MANAGEMENT

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COVER STORY

difficult parents, and handle disgruntled players.

“Even though his athletes play a different game with different skills, there are certain things we have in common,” says Mainieri. “We can still compare notes with each other, and we talk about the structure of our teams, the dynamics, the leadership. I learn from him, and he learns from me.”

“You can learn from anybody,” says Eastern Connecticut State University Head Baseball Coach Bill Holowaty. “I’ve been coaching for 35 years, and I’m still learning. I learn from players, broadcasters, and coaches. When I think of coach-

only athletes to lose their confidence, so other coaches can often suggest ways you can help a player get his edge back.

“By the time an athlete finishes high school, his skill is 60 to 70 percent developed,” says Holowaty. “The development we can give them in college is in the mental and emotional aspects of their game. I probably spend 70 percent of practice time teaching them to develop their minds and control their emotions.

That we can learn from other sports.”

“If I have a player with a specific problem, let’s say he gets down on himself too easily,” says Noble, “I may go next door and ask the volleyball coach,

BY THE BOOK WHEN THE HOUSTON COUGARS HIT A ROUGH SPOT AT THE BEGINNING OF LAST SEASON, HEAD BASEBALL COACH RAY NOBLE REACHED FOR INSPIRATION FROM AN UNLIKELY SOURCE: A LONG-RETIRED BASKETBALL COACH. “John Wooden had such a tremendous run of success that people don’t remember that his early teams at UCLA weren’t very good,” says Noble. “So when I started to have some doubt about whether I was handling our team the right way, I read a lot of his stuff. I tried to reference what he did at those difficult times, and I saw that no matter what happened, he always went back to his roots, to the core values of what he really believed in.

es in other sports, the first thing that comes to mind is organization.

“Football practices are very well organized, which is an extremely important skill for baseball coaches to learn,” he continues. “It’s especially important here in the Northeast, where we do so many of our workouts indoors. You have got to be very organized with your time and learn to use your space very efficiently.”

At Central Connecticut State University, Head Baseball Coach Charlie Hickey compares notes with Head Softball Coach Mandy Roczniak, taking advantage of her experience in running indoor preseason practices. “They have an edge in holding indoor practices, because their field is smaller,” says Hickey. “So we’ve talked about the ways their practices are structured to emphasize teamwork, and I’ve started to add some variations of those drills to our baseball practices.”

Another area where there is extensive overlap between sports is in their mental approach. Baseball players are not the

“That really helped me get through the hardest part of our season,” he continues.

“John Wooden was one of those guys who wasn’t afraid to ask questions, who always sought other people’s advice. So I talked to some friends here in Houston, coaches and former coaches, and they were a tremendous help as well. As coaches, we have our own type of fraternity, and during the rough times, we can really help each other out.”

‘What’s been helpful for you in the past?’ Any time you can consult somebody who has been in this field for a long while, you stand to gain a tremendous amount of wisdom.”

Borrow From The Outside While other coaches on campus are readily available sources of information, don’t limit yourself to coaches you share office space with. As a teenager growing up in Miami, Mainieri knew he wanted to become a baseball coach. Since then, he’s learned from some of the best in the game. But some of Mainieri’s most valuable lessons came from outside the sport: football coach Don Shula, his childhood inspiration, who was a source of support when Mainieri started his first college coaching job at St. Thomas University.

“He was phenomenal, because he understood that the best quality in a coach is knowing your players,” says Mainieri, who coached Shula’s son,

Mike, in high school, and got to know him well when the Dolphins practiced at St. Thomas. “You have to learn what their strengths are and put them into situations that give them the best chance to be successful.

“He also showed me that attitudes change,” Mainieri continues. “When Shula started coaching back in the early ’60s, if you told a player to jump, he was going to ask you, ‘How high?’ Well, when you got into the ’70s, players’ reactions were a little different than that, and Shula learned how to respond without compromising what he believed in. If it’s not going to get the best effort out of your players, you can’t do things the same way you did them 10 or 15 years earlier.”

Your own experiences from other sports can be extremely helpful, too.

Holowaty has taken lessons from several different sports and used them to help improve his teams’ mental approach.

In high school, Holowaty learned about aggressiveness from his football coach, who drove his athletes to pursue excellence both on and off the field. In college, when he decided he wanted to become a basketball coach, Holowaty learned a whole new lesson about the mental aspects of the game. And he’s brought both of those philosophies to his baseball team.

“If you can’t control your mind, you can’t play in the big time,” says Holowaty. “It’s like in basketball, when you’ve got a foul shot, and you’re thinking, ‘If I miss the shot, we lose the game.

If I make it, we win.’ That’s where you have to control your mind, because that kind of thinking is not being in the now, which is exactly what both basketball and baseball coaches have to teach.

“You have to play in the now, not in the past, not in the future,” continues Holowaty. “Last season, we were a young team, and our emotions were like a yoyo. One day we were up, the next we were down. We were one game away from going to the Division III World Series, and instead of thinking about the game, we were thinking about the plane ride. And we lost it right there.”

“Playing in the now” means learning to control the emotions that get in the way of delivering your best performance, and Holowaty teaches it, similar to a golf coach, through concentration and visualization. “It’s like when a good

COACHIING MANAGEMENT

19

COVER STORY

golfer makes a bad hit,” says Holowaty.

“He takes a piece of grass and throws it into the wind. So I tell our pitchers, ‘If you make a bad pitch, reach behind the mound, pull up a blade of grass, and drop it into the wind. Let it go. It’s over, done with. Then readjust and refocus.

Visualize what you need to do.’ That’s controlling your emotions, and we work on it all the time.

“Emotional maturity is extremely important to teach to your athletes,” continues Holowaty. “They have to emotionally understand what they have to do. We call it dugout-to-dugout hitting and bullpen-to-bullpen pitching.

They have to emotionally prepare themselves before they go out there.

They have to understand that sometimes they’re going to fail, and sometimes they’re going to succeed.”

Physical Methods Most of what you can learn from other sports and coaches involves the management aspects of coaching or the mental side of baseball. But don’t overlook

opportunities to lift ideas for improving your players’ physical skills as well.

To Holowaty, most sports are interconnected: Lacrosse is like basketball, and basketball is like soccer; throwing a football is almost the same as throwing a baseball, and hitting a golf ball is similar to hitting a baseball. So he’s worked with track coaches to study the mechanics of running. He uses golf drills as a way of teaching his hitters the importance of having a short, compact swing, training them to use their whole body to drive the baseball and holding their right elbow close to the hip, just as they would on the tee.

Through talking with other coaches and observing their practices, Mainieri has learned new techniques that he’s been able to adapt for his baseball team.

One breakthrough came when he was head baseball coach at the United States Air Force Academy and realized a basketball coach could help keep his runners from being picked off first base.

“I was dealing with the question of how to get a jump off first,” says

Mainieri. “You want the base runner to get a good lead, but not lose the ability to go back to first base if the pitcher makes a move. And I started to think of a basketball guard playing defense, because he has to be ready to go either left or right, depending where the shooter goes. So I consulted Reggie Minton, who was our basketball coach at the Air Force Academy, and it made a real difference.

“I learned that it was important for a guard to keep his toes pointed outward in his stance,” continues Mainieri.

“That allows him to jab step in whichever direction he needs to go. I applied that technique toward base stealers, getting them to open their stance slightly, instead of crossing their left leg over their right leg. And that’s how we’ve been doing it now for the last 10 years.”

At Christopher Newport University, Head Baseball Coach John Harvell has taken a similar approach, learning to mix exercises from other sports into his baseball workouts. “If I see a drill that I think will work, I’ll implement it with

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Circle No. 14

COVER STORY

my team,” says Harvell. “Like jumping rope, which they do a lot in basketball.

It’s just as good for baseball, because it builds agility in your fielders and endurance in your pitchers.”

For conditioning, he gives his team football-style exercises with steps and ladders—anything to develop quickness, foot speed, and agility. “When it comes to arms, legs, back and shoulders, we do pretty much the same exercises as the football team,” says Harvell. “The only difference is the amount of weight: They’re trying to build bulk and mass, while we’re just trying to condition the muscles.

“There’s no question that it’s paying off,” continues Harvell. “Our pitchers have stayed fresh the whole year.

They’ve been able to last longer in games, and with proper rest between starts, they’ve been able to come back to the mound without any injuries or drop-off in their performance.”

Preparing his team during many short, cold, wet, New England springs, Holowaty has learned to get the most out of non-baseball facilities. Working on a racquetball court, he teaches his pitchers the mechanics of throwing strikes with four walls and a rubber ball.

Then, using a badminton racquet, he shows them the physics of a drop shot, and trains them to do the same thing with a baseball and a changeup. Instead of concentrating on a target, the court gives them the chance to work on their form, teaching themselves the feel of the pitch as it leaves their hand.

Practice Play At Central Connecticut State University, where the Blue Devils have been setting team records for wins, they don’t just borrow exercises from other sports.

They borrow the whole game. “I’ve always felt that playing games is one of the best ways to teach your athletes, so we play two-hand touch football during the off-season,” says Hickey.

“Instead of running around a track, which is boring, we have competitions,” he continues. “Playing a variety of other sports helps bring out our kids’ competitive nature, which is what brought them here in the first place. It develops their skills without boring them with the same old baseball drills.”

Hickey believes games of touch football have helped improve his players’ communication skills and heightened

their sense of teamwork, while games of racquetball have increased their quickness and agility. But most important to Hickey, especially at a time when so many of his student-athletes have grown up focused on one sport, these types of team practices have given his athletes the chance to play again.

“The things they learn from playing football and basketball may sound simple, but they’re absolutely essential,” says Hickey. “Mastering a new set of

skills has given our team an added sense of versatility. And they have fun doing it, which is why it’s such an effective way to learn.”

Hickey remains on the lookout for any other unorthodox approaches that might work just as well for his team.

“When you’re around people who’ve been successful, you learn to listen,” adds Hickey. “You learn what other people believe in, and that makes all the difference in the world.” ■

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COACHIING MANAGEMENT

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B A S E B A L L

P L A Y E R

PLAYER OF THE YEAR

iaSntewart B y D a v e Wo h l h u e t e r

When New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi was introduced to Ian Stewart at Yankee Stadium on Sept. 10, it was a meeting between one of today’s top sluggers and one of baseball’s future power hitters. But the similarities between Giambi and Stewart extend way beyond their slugging prowess.

Both players are the same height: Giambi is 6 feet, 3 inches and 230 pounds, while Stewart, a third baseman, is 6 feet, 3 inches and 205 pounds. Both are from Southern California. And more importantly, both share a passion for the game, have a tremendous work ethic, are leaders in the clubhouse, and place high value on giving back to their community.

It’s for these reasons that Stewart, a recent graduate of Westminster La Quinta High School in Garden Grove, Calif., is the 2003 recipient of the Hammer Strength Baseball Player of the Year Award. The award was established in 2001 to honor a high school baseball player who exemplifies the type of outstanding qualities and determination displayed by Giambi.

Nominations were submitted from high school coaches around the United States. The candidates were considered based on their qualities in the areas of academics, leadership, dedication, and integrity.

Stewart, who was selected in the first round of this summer’s Major League Baseball amateur draft (the 10th player

taken overall) and signed by the Colorado Rockies, was presented the award at Yankee Stadium. Also, in Stewart’s honor, Hammer Strength will award Westminster La Quinta High School a piece of equipment of its choice from the Hammer Strength line.

Stewart’s head coach, Dave Demarest, who has compiled 645 wins in 30 years of high school coaching, said, “Ian is a very disciplined kid on and off the playing field.” Demarest continued, “I’ve coached Ian for four years, and I can’t remember a negative comment by his friends, peers, teachers, or opposing players. After games, you would see kids from other teams come up to him and shake his hand and talk to him. I wish I had a dollar for every time an opposing coach would say that Ian was not only a good player but a class act.”

Stewart says his favorite part of the game is hitting, and he does it well. He was named Louisville Slugger National Player of the Year and selected to the Baseball America All-America team.

In his home state of California, Stewart was Garden Grove League Player

of the Year, Orange County Register Player of the Year, Los Angeles Times Player of the Year, and Southern California State Player of the Year.

“I love to hit in the cages or take BP,” said the left-handed batter. “Anytime I can hit, it is awesome. I have perfect baseball hands, with plenty of calluses and blisters.” This past spring, Stewart helped La Quinta High finish No. 3 in the country with a 30-2 record. The team won the Southern Section Division IV championship with Stewart batting .462 and setting Orange County records for home runs (16) and RBIs (61).

For his high school career, Stewart set Southern Section records with 40 home runs and 170 RBIs. His high school credentials earned him a scholarship to the University of Southern California, but his real goal was professional baseball. “Ever since I was five or six years old, I’ve dreamed of becoming a Major League Baseball player,” he said. When the opportunity arrived, he jumped at the chance.

La Quinta High school assistant coach Jim Doyle, who became Stewart’s personal hitting coach, said, “His mentality is what makes him such a great hitter, not just for power but for average as well.

Ian’s mind is really what has pushed him over the top as a hitter.

“He is primarily a team guy,” Doyle continued, “and he has been the most liked player on our team. He normally

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leads by his actions on the field, but this year he became more vocal when his leadership was needed.”

Although blessed with natural talent, Stewart has also earned his accolades through hard work. “He was a pretty good hitter after his sophomore year,” said Doyle, “but I told him if he wanted to increase his power, he was going to have to hit the weight room. In one year, he gained about 25 pounds, hitting the weights four to five times a week. He knows how much weightlifting can help him progress to the elite group.”

After signing with Colorado, the firstround draft choice was invited to Coors Field to take some batting practice.

Hitting in a group with all-stars Todd Helton and Larry Walker, Stewart swatted 16 balls out of the park in about 50 swings. One ball went into the upper tier on the third level, and that feat is even more impressive when you consider that Stewart is still making the adjustment to hitting exclusively with a wood bat. “This was a tremendous experience,” said Stewart. “Actually being there and taking live BP with the players and interacting with them was awesome.”

Helton, who has been known to get on the younger players, gave the rookie a few gibes. “He’s a cool guy, and we talked a lot,” said Stewart. “We’re kind of similar players, or at least the way we hit. Larry Walker was real nice, and Preston Wilson and Charles Johnson were great.”

Stewart is the first high school position player Colorado has drafted in the first round. Assigned to Casper (Wyo.) in

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A W A R D

the Pioneer League, Stewart was hitting .304 in the first 35 games and led the team in home runs with seven. He was second on the team in RBIs (23), hits (42) and runs (25).

Stewart’s discipline will be tested even further as he works his way through the minors to the major leagues, but Demarest feels he is up to the challenge.

He said, “Ian plays the game at a very even keel, which is a key to succeeding in pro ball and going on to the minor leagues. He basically leaves each at bat at the plate, each ground ball as it happens, and moves on.”

When asked if he can make it to the major leagues, Stewart emphatically said, “Yeah!” By the same token, when asked to describe himself, Ian voiced, “Hard worker, dedicated, coachable, humble, honorable.”

Last summer, Ian got a taste of what it’s like to travel and compete against topline competition when he played for the United States Junior National team. He was up for the task, batting .448 with three home runs, two doubles, and eight RBIs at the IBAF World Junior Championships in Canada.

And Stewart’s trip to New York to meet Giambi ranks right up there with his experiences on the U.S. team. The 2003 award winner said, “The trip was just incredible. Just knowing all the great players who have played at Yankee Stadium and all the history behind the place, and the chance to actually step on the field and meet one of the great sluggers of today was awesome.”

RUNNERS

When he makes it big, Stewart has some other goals to achieve. He said, “I want to set up a charity fund for special education kids or just any kind of needy kids.”

Since elementary school, he has worked with autistic children. “I worked with these kids through junior high,” he explained, “and my high school has one of the best special education programs in Orange County. It’s just fun interacting with these young people. I take it seriously working with special education persons because they are really cool people once you talk to them and spend time with them.”

Stewart received additional experience in this area last summer. During the USA team tryouts in Joplin, Mo., for the World Championships, Stewart signed up to work with handicapped kids. “He’s the type of kid who likes to give back to the community,” said Doyle.

Demarest sums it up the best. He said, “Probably Ian’s best strength is that he is a better person than he is a baseball player, and he is a pretty darn good baseball player.”

UP

The selection of the Hammer Strength Baseball Player of the Year Award was a real challenge once again this year because of the outstanding quality of the pool of candidates. The following are other finalists who deserve honorable mention recognition, including their achievements on and off the field:

JOE AYERS, Juneau Douglas High School, Juneau, Alaska.

Coach Jim Ayers. A senior shortstop who is attending Stanford University this fall, Ayers was one of the state’s leaders in RBIs, doubles, and stolen bases. He was a four-year starter and a member of the National Honor Society— he had a 3.97 GPA. Ayers led his team to its first state championship in 2002.

TAYLOR HARBIN, Travelers Rest High School, Travelers Rest, S.C. Coach Ric Smith. A junior shortstop who was a Hammer

Strength Award runner-up for the second consecutive year, Harbin batted .464 last season with 10 home runs and 28 RBI, set a state career record for home runs (43), and was named Peach Blossom AAA Player of the Year. He also excelled in the classroom with a 4.0 GPA. Although a junior, Harbin has made a verbal commitment to Clemson University.

KYLE KINLER, New Iberia Senior High School, New Iberia, La. Coach Eric Morrow. A senior third baseman who was hitting .493, with a slugging percentage of

.746 after 26 games this spring, he’s been called a “Charlie Hustle” guy who is a vocal leader. Kinler carried a 4.0 GPA and earned first-team composite Academic All-State honors in football last fall.

BRAD ROCCO, Woodland Hills High School, Pittsburgh, Pa. Coach Ron Leith. A senior shortstop/pitcher who had an excellent career but was bothered by an ankle injury in his final season, Rocco was named to the all-section team during his junior season while hitting .429. An honor student every year since elementary

school, he is enrolled at Allegheny College this fall.

MARC SAWYER, Canterbury School of Florida, St. Petersburg, Fla. Athletic Director David Smith.

A senior first baseman who was one of the top hitters in Pinellas County, he led the county in home runs (seven), and was batting .493 with 24 RBIs after 25 games this spring. As a sophomore, he led Pinellas County in batting (.561).

He ranked second in his senior class with a 3.93 GPA and is enrolled at Yale University on a full academic scholarship.

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www.barry.edu/hpls Circle No. 16

MANAGEMENT Ohio State University captain Christian Snavely (36) greets teammate Steve Caravati at home plate.

THE RIGHT STUFF

Whether you select them yourself or leave it to the team, your captains can make or break a season. Some top coaches talk about what they look for and what they expect from their captains.

JAMIE SABAU

S

ome good teams have six or more. Others don’t have any. Sometimes they’re chosen by the players only to be removed for breaking the rules. Other times, they’re chosen by the coaches, but never earn the respect of their teammates.

Team captains can’t make a bad team good, but they can determine whether a team gets the most out of its talent. Consider the role they play: The best of them can bring a team together like no assistant coach ever could and serve as a conduit of communication between players and coaches, while also relieving you of some basic chores and team oversight

during practices. The worst can create dissent and resentment from within a team and bring about its very demise.

While the importance of team captains can vary greatly from team to team, it’s a subject that coaches should consider carefully, from why to have captains to the roles they play. Once you’ve made these decisions, you can then determine the best way to choose your captains and then develop them to best fill their given roles.

Why Have Captains?

Rule 1, Section 1, Article 1 of the NFHS Baseball Rules Book states that each team must designate a captain, but, unlike in some sports, the duties

BY GUILLERMO METZ are largely ceremonial. By rule, captains can provide the team’s line-up card and communicate any special ground rules as announced by the umpire, but otherwise, the rules book treats them the same as any other player. Some coaches don’t even name regular captains (see “What’s In A Name?” on page 27), instead rotating pregame responsibilities among the players or handling those duties themselves.

Bill Brunner, Head Coach at Father Ryan High School in Nashville, Tenn., and 2002 Region 4 Division I High School Coach of the Year, used to be one Guillermo Metz is an Associate Editor at Coaching Management.

COACHING MANAGEMENT

25

MANAGEMENT

of those coaches who saw little use for captains, preferring to control everything himself. Now, he’s one of many coaches who believe that despite having limited formal responsibilities, captains play a key role on their teams. So much so that he designates all his seniors as captains.

“Whether consciously or not,” Brunner says, “it’s important to a team that the senior captains set the pace in everything from practice sessions to the attitude they’re going to show up at a game with, and even the attitude they’re going to have on the bench. Your team is going to be a reflection of what your captains bring in terms of attitude, work ethic, responsibility, accountability, and being supportive.”

“I think a captain is essential,” agrees Al Snider, Head Coach at Dexter (Mich.) High School. “If a player has a problem, they need someone they can go to before coming to the coaches. I look at them as a liaison between the players and the coaches.

“To me, the captains are there more for the younger kids,” he continues.

“They help them fit in to how things work around here. I try to communicate with the kids on a daily basis, but sometimes they need a peer to go to.”

Other coaches believe that designating captains helps establish roles on the team so that certain players don’t always feel pressure to step up when they may not want to. “I think it’s important to give them a designated leader as opposed to having players think about whether it’s their turn today to take on that role,” says Rick Steen, Head Coach at San Ramon Valley High School in Danville, Calif., and 2002 Division II National High School Coach of the Year. “Sometimes the better players on the team feel pressure to be the go-to guy or the rah-rah guy, and they may not feel like doing that. They just want to go out there and do their thing rather than lead the team.”

Role Play Just as there are several schools of thought about the importance of captains, there are differing views on what a

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Circle No. 17

captain’s role should be. Even those who agree on how much weight a captain should carry disagree on exactly what their assignments should be.

Since captains are often seen as leaders by their peers, they can provide a different avenue of communication between the players and coaches. Some coaches even see this as a captain’s primary purpose.

“If players have a problem and they don’t want to go to the coaches, they can go to the captain,” says Steen, “and he can act as a mediator and either give them some useful advice, as a peer, or, if necessary, bring it to our attention.

They don’t have to name names; we may be able to give them some general advice to pass on.

“I also use them as a sounding board,” he adds. “After a game, I’ll talk with them about what we did right and what we did wrong. Sometimes we’ll talk about what we need to do at practice to remedy some of our shortcomings on the field. I might ask them, ‘The last two games we’ve committed five or

MANAGEMENT

six errors. What can we do at practice to work on that?’”

There are several pragmatic ways that captains can help out, as well. Steen, for example, will have his captains handle the opening session of practice by leading the warmup and stretching exercises.

Brian Horvath, PhD, who as head of Horvath Performance Fitness Athletic Consultants trains high school athletes and speaks nationally to coaches about improving their interscholastic sports programs, suggests having captains assist

he’s a senior and he’s done it before.”

At Dexter High School, Snider combines the two approaches by including the captains in all areas of the program.

“At our preseason meetings, before we go to Florida for our week of spring training, I get together with our captains and go over what they’re expected to do while we’re there, and what they’re expected to do once we get back,” he says. “The seniors get to pick the big activity we go to while we’re in Florida. So I’ll have the captains make

W H AT ’ S I N A N A M E ?

S

ome coaches avoid the whole question of how to choose their captains by not having captains at all. “Quite simply, we don’t have them,” says Joe Cook, Head Coach at Bishop McGuinness High School in Oklahoma City, and the 2002 Division III National High School Coach of the Year.

“I don’t think that by artificially making some kid ‘captain,’ they become a captain.

I think your team leaders will naturally emerge without someone giving them a title.”

Vic Belger, Head Coach at Creston (Iowa) High School (who retired this summer after 35 years in the dugout) agrees. “I’ve never had captains in baseball,” he says. “I’ve had them in other sports, like basketball, but I think baseball is a sport where you often have natural leaders who stand out.

A lot of times, that person becomes your leader.

“I don’t think there are necessarily arguments against having a captain,” he continues. “But ideally, someone will step forward and lead the team. It may be that in different situations different players will take a leadership role. For example, I had a player who got a little too excited at an

with uniform management and making sure all the players make the bus on time.

Brunner asks different players to take on leadership roles in different situations. “If our pitching staff is doing some work away from the other players during practice, I’ll assign a senior pitcher to lead the pitchers in a certain drill or to set up and lead a certain practice,” he says. “If we don’t have enough coaches to cover every group, one of our seniors will take the infielders and work on groundball mechanics, since

umpire and a couple of the players right away spoke up to him. The guys who felt they could take on that situation did.”

Cook looks for leadership based on seniority. “I do treat our seniors differently than I do our juniors or sophomores,” he says.

“I might ask a senior for an opinion—for instance, I might ask the seniors, ‘Do you think the fact that we’re swinging wood bats in the off-season is helping us?’ I would never ask a junior or sophomore that.”

Bill Brunner, Head Coach at Father Ryan High School in Nashville, Tenn., takes a similar approach, but formalizes it by making all his seniors captains. “If you have six seniors, on average, there might be two or three who might be more natural leaders than the others,” he says. “But I don’t draw a distinction between them.

“I think the entire senior class is important,” he adds. “Every man is as important as everyone else in terms of setting an example for the rest of the team. And, when you designate two or three out of a class of six as captains, the other seniors tend to feel slighted, or they’re not looked upon by their teammates as being on the same level as the designated captains.”

the calls, set up the connections, set up support people—they pretty much make our Florida trip happen.

“Also, I include them in any ordering of equipment so they get an idea of what the other side of coaching looks like,” Snider continues. “And if there’s going to be a situation where a player needs to be disciplined for any reason, I make sure one or both captains are in on it, so they understand what’s going on and so that the player in question feels like he has some representation.”

The captain’s roles may even change from year to year depending on the team’s goals and makeup. “You have to think about what the team represents,” Horvath recommends. “If you have a team that’s all about winning, you need to get a captain who’s going to keep the team focused on winning. If your team is focused on getting kids out there, playing, and having a good time, you’ll want to find a team captain with those values.

Obviously, teams are generally somewhere between those extremes, but the point is to find someone who will further the primary goals of the team.”

Take Your Pick Once you’ve made a list of the ways you’d like to use team captains and what you’re going to look for in them, the next step is deciding how to choose them. There are more ways to choose captains than you may immediately realize, and while no one way is right for everyone, some will work better for you than others.

Some coaches look at the roster and make a unilateral choice. That method may work for some, but Horvath warns against a common mistake many coaches make. “Often, a coach will pick the most outstanding player,” he says.

“That’s not necessarily a good idea, because he may not have the leadership skills the team needs.”

Chuck Apap, Head Football Coach at Walled Lake (Mich.) Central High School, has set up a formal interviewing process for determining his football captains that is similar to what the players will face when they apply for jobs. “Each player who’s going to be playing on our varsity team can submit a letter of intent,” says Apap, who also coached baseball earlier in his career. “And in that letter we expect them to tell us why they want to be a captain, and what they have to offer to the team. They also have to give us a resume telling us all the things they’ve done. Those can cover a lot of different things. Some guys go all the way back to grade school, and that’s fine.

“After we get their resume and letter of intent, we set up half-hour interviews, where they need to be dressed in a coat and tie,” he continues. “They meet with a board of coaches who have a set of questions we ask the players.

‘How would you handle this situation?’

‘What would you do if you caught one

COACHING MANAGEMENT

27

MANAGEMENT

of your teammates drinking alcohol?’

And so on.

“Then we meet as a coaching staff and go over the interviews and the letters and resumes and try to select the top two to four. If we’re impressed with other candidates, we make them what we call positional leaders. For example, we have a positional leader for the offensive line, defensive line, running backs, linebackers, defensive backs, and receivers. So, we get six other positions of leadership from those interviews.” Although baseball doesn’t require as many ‘positional leaders’ as football, Apap says it should work well there, too.

Horvath leans toward having the athletes choose the team captains, but stresses that the coach should retain veto rights. “I don’t think the coach should leave that kind of position to chance,” he says. “Obviously, the team should have some influence on who the captain is, but he should ultimately be appointed by the coach. The best way to go about it is to have a team meeting at the beginning of the season where you

ask the players who they think the captain should be, with the understanding that the coach has the authority to exempt certain players and make the final decision.”

That’s the approach Steen has had success with. “We have a preseason meeting at my house right before our first league game where they choose two captains by closed ballot,” he says. “So, we’ve already played eight or nine games. Before that meeting, I have all the seniors and returning lettermen take turns being captains, so we have a sense of who’s interested in that position and able to carry it out.”

Like with any good election, Steen does try to sway the voters to pick his top candidates, although he doesn’t actually partake in any ballot stuffing. “Sometimes the voting has to be helped a little bit,” he says. “If we think there’s someone who stands out as a leader, we try to campaign for them. About two weeks before we elect captains, we start planting the seeds and talking about the kinds of things we’re looking for in a captain. So

we can subtly lead them to think about a specific person.”

Snider uses a combination of the coach-selection and player-selection processes. “We have a meeting before we go to Florida where we talk about the trip and our goals for the year,” he says. “At that meeting, all the players vote for two kids to be captains. The player with the most votes is automatically one of the captains. Then, the coaching staff gets together and we decide who the next best captain would be. We end up with two captains that way. The kids don’t know which one the coaches picked and which one the team picked.”

For that second person, Snider and his assistants take a look at who else was nominated by the players and the needs of the team. “We try to balance it out,” he says. “When we do specialty work, sometimes the coaches aren’t there right away, and the captains can get things started. So, if the players chose an infielder, we might try to pick an outfielder, as long as he meets the qualifications.

“We only had one year where the

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Circle No. 18

28

COACHING MANAGEMENT

MANAGEMENT

person the team picked didn’t really meet our criteria for captain,” he says.

“That year, we sat back down and reviewed the definition of a captain and really stressed to the kids what we were looking for.”

If you’re going to let the team choose the captains, it’s important to make sure

He only has one strict rule for that person. “They have to have good academic standards—they’ve got to have a 3.0 or above,” he says. “Players who are in the National Honor Society, for example, are the people we’re looking for.”

“It can be kind of scary to leave it up to the players,” Steen says, “but once

If you’re going to let the team choose the captains, it’s important to make sure they realize that it is not a popularity contest or a vote to determine who is the team’s best player. they realize that it is not a popularity contest or a vote to determine who is the team’s best player. When selecting captains, Snider counsels his players on what they should be looking for.

“Leadership,” he tells them. “Someone you can trust; someone who, if you have an issue or problem, you can go and talk to them no matter what it’s about, be it playing time, coaching decisions, whatever. Somebody you have confidence in.”

you set the stage and let them know what they should be looking for, they can figure out for themselves who would make the best captain. Nearly 95 percent of the time they’ll pick the guys we would have picked ourselves.”

One question that often comes up when choosing captains is whether only seniors should be considered. The answer depends on who you ask. “We’ve only had one junior picked as a captain,” says Snider. “He’d been on the

team since his freshman year and was well respected by his fellow players, and we didn’t have any problems.”

Apap had a different experience. “I ran into some trouble with that last year when I picked an underclassman as a captain,” he says. “During the interviews I had asked another young man, who I had great respect for and who I had tagged as a captain, what he thought of the other players we were considering. And he was real clear with me. He said, ‘Coach, knowing this football team, you need to pick seniors.’ I fluffed that off. I didn’t really take it very seriously, but I should have. He was 100 percent on target. They wanted seniors; they didn’t want juniors telling them what to do. I should have listened to him. The other kids just didn’t respect him and he wasn’t able to be an effective leader, even though I believed he had what it takes to be a great captain in every other respect.”

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MANAGEMENT

For one thing, there are almost certainly players on your team who would make great leaders with some encouragement and assistance. For another, even natural leaders can use some help sometimes.

But what can you do to help your captains be great leaders?

“That’s probably the most critical component, and it’s one that coaches often overlook,” Horvath says. “There are a number of things the coach can do to foster his captains’ leadership skills, and it starts with communication. Good coaches will pull the captains in periodically, give them updates on things they need to know, without unloading on them about their personal feelings about other players.

“Whenever they need some assistance from the coach, they should be able to talk to him,” he continues. “At the very least, they should meet once a week, even if it’s just informally for five or 10 minutes before practice.”

One good way to establish your captains as leaders is to include them in discussions of game strategy. “Pull your

assistant coach and your captain in and say, ‘Listen, tell the players today we’re going to focus on A and B, because we’re going to be playing tight in the infield,’ for example,” Horvath says. “And let the captain have some say in that.”

Apap takes a more formal approach, enlisting the help of the authorities on the subject. “We share some of the things in John Maxwell’s books—The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork—with our captains and try to help them process and learn how to be leaders. We don’t overload them with 21 things at once, but we talk about each one a little bit and give them thoughts throughout the season. We also have regular captains meetings, and I’ll ask them, ‘On this one quality of leadership, leading by example, how is that coming for you? Can you do that? What does that mean?’ If they can’t answer, I’ll talk with them and even suggest that they read the books.”

Some players will take more naturally to a leadership role than others. While it’s tempting to rely on the natural

leaders, it’s important that you make sure all your captains are involved with leadership duties. “We had six guys in our last senior class,” Brunner recalls.

“Two or three of them were more vocal and more obviously leaders, but it can kind of backfire if you keep calling on those guys. We had a pitcher who’s quiet by nature, but he’s a senior, he’s a hard worker, and he’s shown a lot of maturity.

So I did things to bring him along as a leader. I gave him some responsibility he may not have otherwise stepped forward to take and some assignments to draw that leadership ability out of him.”

Horvath agrees that the entire system of choosing and using captains has its hazards, but says that if done properly, it’s well worth it. “High school captains are tricky because they walk a fine line between leadership and peer pressure,” he says. “If you pick the wrong captain, you’re setting yourself up for a lot of trouble later in the season. The good news is that if you do get a good captain, it can really generate some great cohesiveness for the team.” ■

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STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

W

hen people talk about pitchers, they usually talk about arms. “Wow, he has a strong arm!” “Look at his arm motion!” Sure, great pitchers must have great arms, that is a prerequisite. But it’s just as important they have great leg and torso strength because the legs and torso put the arm into the optimum position to deliver a pitch.

Since the body is a linked system, all the links must be coordinated to work together in an optimal sequence for athleticism to come forward. This is as true for a pitcher as any other athlete.

So, a sound pitching conditioning program should be built from the ground up, segment by segment, training component by training component.

Perhaps no activity in sports is surrounded by more myths and unnecessary limitations than pitching.

Considering what we now know from a scientific perspective about pitching, it is amazing to see how little progress we have made in conditioning the pitcher.

Understanding the demands of pitch-

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ing and basing a program on these demands will produce the most effective pitching conditioning program.

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

31

STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

are the main determinants of success, but velocity is often emphasized in a conditioning program.

However, a proper program takes into account not only the ability for a pitcher to increase the speed on his fastball, but also his ability to maintain velocity and control as the game progresses. It should also strive to increase strength throughout the entire pitching motion, eliminate mechanical flaws in the delivery, lessen injuries, and improve agility. A complete pitching conditioning program should address all of the following components: Balance: Dynamic balance is a key component of sound pitching mechanics.

Without good balance, the pitcher will have difficulty with consistent control.

Good agility and body awareness are also necessary to be able to effectively field the position. Improving dynamic balance can be accomplished during warmup and lateral speed and agility sessions.

Strength/Power: Successful pitching demands a high level of leg and trunk strength, along with arm and shoulder strength. In formulating workout plans, I break down strength work into four areas: lower body, upper body, plyometrics, and core strength, which must all be accounted for.

Conditioning: Pitching is a highpower-demand activity that is alactate anaerobic in terms of energy system needs. This means that, contrary to common myth, there is essentially no lactate buildup in pitching. The actual pitching action occurs in a very short amount of time—only 0.15 seconds elapse from the time the front foot contacts the ground until the ball is released. The primary source of fatigue in pitching is neural, not metabolic.

Therefore, distance running to build up endurance is not needed. In fact, it is counterproductive. Numerous scientific studies have shown that distance running significantly detracts from explosiveness, and a loss of explosiveness will result in a decrease in velocity. A better alternative is to build specific stamina for pitching using the following methods: ■ Short-Speed Endurance: short, intense sprints with 45 to 60 seconds recovery.

■ Intensive-Tempo Endurance: runs at 80 to 90 percent of maximum effort at lengths of 100 to 120 yards, with 45 seconds rest between runs. (The goal should be to bring the time of the run 32

COACHING MANAGEMENT

down each week while maintaining the prescribed rest interval.)

■ Extensive-Tempo Endurance: runs at 70 to 80 percent of maximum effort for 30 seconds. For example, have players complete a 30-second run at 70 percent effort, followed by a 30-second recovery jog. Build up to a set of 12 to 18 of these. Finish with a 10-minute steady cool-down run.

■ Strength Endurance: as the game progresses, the power endurance demand increases. Strength endurance can best be increased through circuit routines.

Throwing: It is very important to build functional arm strength, and long tosses are a great way to do this. My rule of thumb is two long-toss sessions per week. In-season, the volume should be kept low. Note that the ball must not be lobbed, but thrown on a line with some velocity. Eventually a pitcher with a good strength and conditioning base should be able to effectively throw 10 to 15 times at 280 to 300 feet.

Table 1 GETTING WARM The following is a sample warmup program for a pitcher: GENERAL WARMUP

Jog three to five minutes Mini-band routine ■ Sidestep ■ Walk: forward/back ■ Carioca ■ Monster walk Hip mobility ■ Crawls ■ Hurdle walks Basic rotations ■ Walking wide twist x 20 ■ Walking tight twist x 20 ■ Walking over the top x 20 ■ Walking figure eight x 20 Leg swings Skip 2 x 30 yards Sidestep 2 x 30 yards Carioca 2 x 30 yards Backward run 2 x 30 yards High skip 2 x 30 yards SPECIFIC WARMUP TO THROW USING TUBING Dynamic protraction/retraction Dynamic scarecrow Backstroke (swim) Backhand (tennis) External rotation (90/90 standing position), 1 x 10 regular, 1 x 10 plyometric Triceps extension (standing from wrist flick position), 1 x 10 Finger flicks

Some coaches use overweight and underweight baseballs to improve velocity. This method works, but I have found that it is most effective with pitchers who already have a good training and work-capacity base. It is not for beginners. Various studies have shown that the range of weights for the balls should be 10 percent over and under a regulation-weight ball. That works out to be around four to six ounces.

What about opposite arm throwing?

Yes, it can help. If the pitcher is righthanded, have him occasionally play catch left-handed. There is a cross-transfer effect that will have a positive carryover to the dominant arm. We have often used this with injured pitchers to allow them to keep throwing.

Injury Prevention: The pattern of injuries incurred by pitchers is very well documented—the shoulder and elbow are high-risk areas, followed by the low back and groin. Injury prevention should be accomplished through flexi-

Table 2 MEDICINE BALL ROUTINES The following core work is done every day in the off-season and preseason.

Follow a similar routine in-season, but with a lower volume.

TOTAL-BODY THROWS

Single-Leg Squat & Throw x 10 each leg Over the Back Throw x 10 Forward Through the Legs x 10 Squat & Throw x 10 WALL THROWS

Overhead Throw x 20 Soccer Throw x 20 Chest Pass x 20 Standing Side to Side x 10 each side (cross in front) Standing Cross in Front x 10 each side Around the Back x 10 each side ROTATIONS (WITH PARTNER)

Standing Full Twist x 10 each direction Standing Half Twist x 10 each direction Half Chop x 10 each way Seated Side Throw x 12 each side Solo Medicine Ball Sit-Ups (two positions, right & left) x 5 reps

STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

bility/mobility exercises and remedial shoulder exercises.

For the shoulder exercises, use dumbbells that allow the athlete to work through a full range of motion with good control. There is no limit to the weight of the dumbbells—reps and rhythm of exercise determine the load. Here is a sample of remedial shoulder exercises: ■ Prone Lateral Raise x 10 ■ 90/90 External/Internal (prone) x 10 ■ Side-Lying External Rotation x 10 ■ Supra Raise x 10 ■ Protraction/Retraction x 10 ■ Shrug x 10 ■ Dynamic External Rotation: 3 positions (prone, side-lying, upright) x 3 Testing & Evaluation: The guiding principle is to keep it simple but consistent. I use power tests like vertical jump, standing long jump, over-the-back medicine-ball throws with a three-kilogram ball, and an agility test.

Periodization As with any strength and conditioning program, periodization (breaking the training schedule into distinct parts

with different goals) is the key to the effectively training pitchers. Traditionally the majority of a pitcher’s work has been concentrated in the off-season, with the in-season devoted to a minimal maintenance program. Contemporary thought, however, is that a planned program should distribute work throughout the year to allow the pitcher to build his training from phase to phase during the year.

The first step is to determine which season (spring or summer, for example) has the greatest priority. Next, determine the number of projected starts or relief appearances, then look at logical divisions where the emphasis can be changed. For example, for the first third of the starts, the training can still have a volume emphasis; the next third, reduce volume and raise intensity; and the last third, keep intensity high and volume very low.

Context is a key element of the planning process. What you do today must be a logical extension of what was done yesterday and should lead to tomorrow’s workout. The same holds true from week to week and month to

HomePlate

month in the context of the overall goals of the program.

Planned variation is also essential to progress. One of the biggest problems with baseball is that there is little variation in the routine throughout the year.

Pitchers do the same things each day.

The movements are not as varied as other sports, and there is a lot of dead time between the action. Without programmed systematic variation, the pitcher will soon reach a level of stagnation or fall prone to overuse injuries.

Variation can be accomplished by constructing rotating cycles in-season and sequenced blocks in the off-season.

Each cycle in-season and block in the off-season should have a different theme and slightly different means of implementation.

Also, be sure to take the individual athlete into account. The high school freshman will do less than the senior, and the player’s role on the team can be a factor. For example, a pitcher may play another position on the days he is not on the mound. Some elements will remain constant, but the volume, inten-

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STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

sity, and frequency should vary depending on the particular athlete.

Here are some overall tips for developing programs for different cycles: Off-Season: A typical off-season plan would run Monday through Saturday with Sunday off for recovery. Every day starts with a warmup, balance work, and core work. Warmup and core work are shown in Tables One and Two (on page 32). Balance work consists of: ■ Pitcher prayer, hold 10 seconds.

■ Dip and separate, 10 reps.

■ Dip and touch, 3 reps at each position (side, front, back).

We do plyometrics and strength train the legs and back on Mondays and Thursdays. Strength training for the legs and back consists of exercises such as squats, lunges, step-ups (forward and lateral), jump squats, dumbbell rows, and front pulldowns.

On Tuesdays and Fridays, we work on agility and strength train the upper body.

Upper-body work includes incline pushups, combo I (curl and press), combo II (nose in armpit), dumbbell bench presses, rhomboids, front crosses, and swimmers.

Table 3 IN-SEASON WORK The following is a suggested in-season program for pitchers who start every fifth day.

DAY ONE Warm up to pitch with medicine ball and tubing exercises Pitch in game Cool down with remedial shoulder exercises DAY TWO Core Work: medicine ball rotations Structured Long Toss: just get loose Aerobic Work: 20 minutes, choice of modes Strength Training: legs & back (work the legs heavy on this day in order to allow more time for recovery before the next start) DAY THREE Warm up to pitch Bullpen day Lateral Speed & Agility Repeat Crossovers

Shuttle Runs (5-10-5) Footwork (Ladder) ■ Forward 2 In ■ Forward 1 In ■ Lateral 2 In ■ In/In, Out Remedial shoulder exercises to cool down Strength Training: upper body Core Strength: medicine ball wall throws DAY FOUR Core Strength: total-body throws Short-Speed Endurance 3 to 4 sets of 4 x 50 yards at 85 to 90 percent on 60-second cycle, 3 minutes between sets Plyometrics ■ Tuck Jumps ■ Side to Side ■ Ice Skater ■ Cycle Jumps ■ Pitcher Squat Jumps ■ Jump-Ups Strength Training: legs & back (low volume) DAY FIVE

Core Work: rotations and twists Sprints Strength Training: light upper body

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

Circle No. 24

STRENGTH & CONDITIONING

This is followed by a stretch-cord routine (reverse flys, nordic rows, pec flys, and punching, each x 20 in a circuit style).

We also do throwing work on Tuesdays and Fridays. The key is to make sure athletes are throwing, not pitching.

Have them throw a variety of different objects, such as softballs, footballs, or even rocks. Whatever is fun for them! As the season approaches, obviously more work should be done on the mound.

Wednesdays and Saturdays are for conditioning. As mentioned above, this should include anaerobic work.

Preseason: Our preseason strength work uses the same exercises as the offseason, but we increase the sets on some of them. When training the legs and back we place the squat, lunge, step-ups, and jump squat into a circuit. We start with two leg circuits and add one circuit per week until the athletes can do five circuits without stopping (20 reps of each exercise, except for 10 reps of jump squats).

In-Season: Strength and conditioning during the season should build on what has been developed in the off-season and preseason, then stabilize as you get toward the end (see Table Three on page 34).

Gradually, over the next few years, we began to discourage icing and replaced the ice with a structured cooldown designed to improve blood flow to the shoulder and elbow to speed recovery. A typical cooldown consists of 10 to 15 minutes on a stationary bike or a light 10-minute run, and remedial shoulder exercises (one set of 10 reps).

If dumbbells are not available, three to four tubing exercises would work. Using cooldowns instead of ice, we found less

soreness and quicker recovery.

All that most people see when they watch an outstanding pitcher is a great arm. But the best way to give them that arm is to develop their skills in a well thought out program. By considering all the components, and fitting them into an effective year-round plan, you’ll get the best out of your pitching athletes. ■ A version of this article also appeared in our sister publication, Training & Conditioning.

Warming Up No matter what cycle of the year, a proper warmup is absolutely essential, both to prevent injury and enhance performance. It should be active, involve the whole body, and take a minimum of 15 minutes. However, it can be an individual routine that each pitcher develops (see Table One on page 32).

Perhaps the biggest mistake young pitchers make is throwing to warm up.

The idea is to warm up to throw, not to throw to warm up. The warmup should include core work, a tubing routine, and coordination and movement exercises to warm up the whole body. Once these steps have been completed, the pitcher is ready to begin throwing.

The cooldown is also important after pitching. When I began as Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox in 1987, icing was very prevalent. It seemed every time a pitcher picked up a ball he had to ice afterwards. I noticed a common complaint the next day—they were stiff and sore.

As I began to question the efficacy of icing, I could find no research basis for icing a healthy limb.

Circle No. 25 COACHING MANAGEMENT

35

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PERFORMANCE POINTS HAMMER STRENGTH Strength Training For The Multi-Sport Athlete

By Mike Shinbski, M.S. CSCS, Assistant Football Coach/Head Strength Coach, Princeton High School, Cincinnati, Ohio Deion Sanders, Bo Jackson, Charlie Ward, Quinn Buckner, Jim Thorpe, Michael Jordan: all great athletes. All multi-sport athletes. They are the exception rather than the rule for college and professional sports. But for the high school coach having the multi-sport athlete on your team is the rule rather than the exception. On most athletic teams 65-80% of high school athletes play two or more sports during the high school calendar year. Then on top of that throw in summer leagues, recreational leagues, and it becomes very common for the high school athlete to be going from a fall sport, to a winter sport, to a spring sport.

Hopefully at your school, your entire athletic program works together and encourages every athlete to participate on as many athletic teams and extra curricular events as possible. Hopefully, you do not have to work with coaches who try to keep “their” athletes involved only in their sport. The high school athlete should not have to choose their “best” sport to compete on. That will be handled at the next level by college coaches where they will naturally weed themselves out due to size, strength, speed and ability restraints.

Problems do arise for most multi-sport athletes when it comes to being involved in a strength training program. Most coaches still do not do their teams justice when it comes to their strength training programs. How do they juggle the teams practice time, which is so precious and limited to begin with, with film review, new plays, old plays, play review, special team situations, study table and drills? Usually one of the first areas to be thrown out is strength training. Or, the multi-sport athlete plays football and basketball hears from his football coach “...you need to lift weights and gain 10-15 lbs. of muscle so you can play varsity next year”. Then he hears the basketball coach tell him “...you should not lift anything heavier than a basketball this summer, anything heavier will throw your shoot off.”

What is the athlete to do? Naturally he wants to please and believe each coach that he plays for. The following are some suggestions that might help your athletes and athletic program reach it’s true potential: 1. Persuade your school to hire a strength coach. Someone who likes and wants to work with athletes in your school’s weight room, not just the football players. Someone who believes in what he is doing for your athletic program and athletes.

2. Convince your athletic department that your school should be using just one strength training program for the entire athletic department. Your athletes will only have to learn one system or method of training, not two or three.

3. Your strength training program should promote injury prevention— slow, steady increases in strength, improvement in deficient strength areas, and safety! Too many of your athletes will get hurt or injured during competition—you do not want or need to get anyone hurt in the weight room.

4. Increase the training time availability of the weight room. Not only should you establish set training times for teams to use the weight room during the season and off-season as well. The weight room can and should be accessible during physical education classes, before school with early bird workouts, and after practice.

5. In-season strength training should be a priority with your coaches.

The majority of your injuries are going to occur during the season—not the off-season. This is where you also lose games, so your athletes need to be strong during the season. You also have complete control over your athletes at this time.

6. If you are training a multi-sport athlete who cannot get to the weight room on a regular basis, teach them how to strength train with manual resistance strength training exercises. These can be done anywhere and anytime.

7. Most athletes will have some type of barbell set at home. With proper instruction, this could be another training site for your athletes when they cannot get to the school weight room. Cincinnati legendary high school football coach Gerry Faust started Moeller High School’s first weight room in the basement of one of his assistant coaches. Make good use of what you have available and build your program from there.

8. It is best to train three days per week rather than zero. It is best to train two days per week rather than zero. It is still better to train one day per week rather than zero. “Seven days without strength training makes one weak.”

9. A leg press done for a football player will have the same training effect as one done for a basketball player. Remember that strength training exercises are a general application to sport.

Strength training exercises are just that—strength training exercises. It is up to the athlete and the coach to take that strength developed from doing that exercise and develop it into a skill through the daily use of drills and practice.

STRENGTH TRAINING FOR A PURPOSE Basic Strength Primary Muscles Training Exercise Developed A) Hip and Back Buttocks, lower back, hamstrings Buttocks, quadriceps B) Leg Press C) Leg Extension Quadriceps D) Leg Curl Hamstrings E) Side Lateral Raise Deltoids F) Seated Press Deltoids, triceps G) Pullover Latissimus dorsi H) Lat Pulldown Latissimus dorsi I) Bench Press Pectorals, triceps

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Circle No. 26

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CHO-PAT, INC. (800) 221-1601, www.cho-pat.com Cho-Pat’s Forearm Support secures and supports forearm muscles that are over-exercised or strained during athletic activities such as baseball or tennis, activities where one repeatedly extends the arm and applies force. The strap applies compression at the forearm to absorb and dispense pain-causing forces, easing stress on the forearm muscles and their attachments and reducing inflammation.

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MARKWORT SPORTING GOODS (314) 652-3757, www.markwort.com Reduce the possibility of injury or death while your child plays confidently. Tough polyethylene dome absorbs impact energy and forces it away from the heart.

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PRO LOOK SPORTS (800) PRO-LOOK, www.prolooksports.com “Just wanted to let you know that we received our uniforms today. They look fantastic. Thanks for everything. The kids are extremely excited. I will be in touch regarding my summer team.”Keith Williams, Head Baseball Coach, RutgersCamden. If you want to feel the same way about your team’s uniforms, call Pro Look Sports. Go Pro. Circle No. 55 on Reader Inquiry Card

Pro Look Sports has become the fastest growing team sportswear company in six years for one reason: fully custom, quality uniforms.

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RINGOR CORPORATION (800) 746-4670, www.ringor.com The Ringor 4430 Diamond Ace Turf Shoe has an all-leather, water repellant upper and is designed for all field and turf conditions. It features Ringor’s R.E.S.T.—Reactive Energy System Technology™—insole, for running shoe quality and comfort. Ringor adds extra cushioning with the R.G.P.— Ringsorb Performance Grids—for even greater comfort. Colors include Black, Navy, and White.

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

SCHUTT SPORTS (866) 4SCHUTT, www.schuttsports.com Schutt Sports’ 2800 Elite Batter’s Helmet for high school, collegiate, and professional play offers quality with a two-year warranty. It combines elements of Schutt’s Football Helmet System to provide for the ultimate in comfort and fit. Available in an unlimited number of Pro Gloss® paint finishes, including Gold and Silver Metallic Flake and new Kandy™ finishes. The helmet is also available with custom bill and shell painting.

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Schutt Sports’ Slide-Rite™ is a great tool for teaching sliding and diving skills. This product is in use by most Major League Baseball clubs and is made from durable cordura with an open-cell foam cushion inside the mat. It is available in Standard (42" x 12’) and Pro (53" x 14’).

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TALENT SPORT (405) 360-5733, www.talentsportinc.com Talent Sport offers Worth Allsport AllWeather Xtra-Dri® Power Shirts. The long sleeve, mock turtleneck moisture management fabric transfers all moisture away from the body preserving energy for better performance. The Xtra-Dri Power Shirts are available in style: W1515.

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X VEST (800) 697-5658, www.THExVest.com “I have found the X Vest to be an excellent tool for providing overloads

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X Vest has a new weight configuration and it’s heavy, 84 pounds of heavy. The new X Vest known as the Fire Fighter model was developed strictly for the Fire Fighter and their rigorous training. It has the same basic design as the original X Vest but internally it has a new weight configuration allowing for 84 pounds. Because of its ability to adjust weight like the original X Vest numerous individuals from bodybuilders to the military are buying them.

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Check out www.AthleticBid.com

Catalog Showcase POWER SYSTEMS, INC. (800) 321-6975, www.power-systems.com Since 1986 Power Systems has made it a number one priority to become a leading supplier of sport training, health and fitness products. Its new 2003 catalog is reworked to provide the best possible resource for all your training needs.

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Circle No. 27 COACHING MANAGEMENT

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Hitting & Pitching AMERICAN ATHLETIC, INC. (800) 247-3978, www.americanathletic.com AAI Batting Tees are constructed of tough polyurethane, the same material used in pitchingmachine balls. This construction makes the AAI Tees the toughest on the market. Solid polyurethane stems allow for constant pounding and will last significantly longer than standard tees. Stem height adjustment is 201/2” to 37”. Call American Athletic for more information.

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ATEC (800) 998-2832, www.atecsports.com As the Official Pitching Machine of Major League Baseball, the Hitting Streak®, from ATEC, is the ideal training tool for every level of performance.

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FUNTASTIC SPORTS (877) 375-0315, www.funtasticsports.com The Rotor Twin, from Funtastic Sports, is a swing trainer/hitting station that players enjoy using because it provides a realistic hitting sensation and feedback on every swing. With proper swing plane and solid contact, it spins like a top. Poor swing or contact produces an erratic spin. Use it indoors or

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GLOVE RADAR® (800) 589-3805, www.gloveradar.com Turn any ball glove into a radar speed gun with Glove Radar®, featuring improved sensitivity, from Sports Sensors, Inc. It’s the ideal aid for developing the throwing skills of infielders, outfielders, pitchers, and catchers.

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

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Hitting & Pitching operates utilizing Doppler radar, like conventional handheld radar speed guns. It is not an impact sensor or timer.

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JAYPRO (800) 243-0533, www.jaypro.com Jaypro's Grand Slam Professional Batting Cage offers heavy-duty construction and a full line of features.

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Circle No. 69 on Reader Inquiry Card Jaypro's new Professional Pitcher's Safety Protector protects your pitcher during batting practice. It is an excellent choice for professional, collegiate, or high school use. It features a durable powder coated finish, heavy-duty stable legs, and a slip-on nylon net. For more information, visit Jaypro's Web site or call the company.

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NEW TRAINING DEVICE HELPS DEVELOP THROWING SKILLS! Doppler radar provides accurate speed measurements of balls thrown from any distance!

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

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American Athletic, Inc. . . . . . . . . . 21 ATEC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Bannerman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Barry University . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Beacon Ballfields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 BetterBaseball. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 ChartMine (Competitive Edge) . . . . . . 43 Cho-Pat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Designer Dirt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Diamond Pro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 eFundraising.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 ESPN The Magazine . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Eversan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC Gatorade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Gebauer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Glove Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Granada Pitching . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Hammer Strength . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Heying Company (Infield Drag) . . . . . 15 Jaypro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 M.A.S.A. Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Markwort Sporting Goods. . . . . . . 47 Master Pitching Machine . . . . . . . . 47 Midwest Baseball Academy. . . . . . 51 Millcreek Manufacturing . . . . . . . . 20 Muhl Tech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Partac/Beam Clay . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 PowerLung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Pro Look Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7 Pro’s Choice Field Products . . . . . . 26 Promats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Ringor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Rotor Twin (Funtastic Sports) . . . . . . . 45 Schutt Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Seating Services, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . 45 Signature Fencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Sports Attack. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBC Sports Tutor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Stalker Radar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Swift Stik (PIK Products) . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Swing Speed Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Turface (Profile Products) . . . . . . . . . . BC Turfco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Vantage Products Int’l. . . . . . . . . . 29 Victory Custom Athletic. . . . . . . . . 52 WeatherBeater (Colorado Lining) . . . . 40 Xvest. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 ZingBat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

For Quicker Response, Request Information From Advertisers On-Line at

MomentumMedia.com

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Call 800-221-1601 (toll free) or 609-261-1336 or visit www.cho-pat.com to learn more about Cho-Pat’s innovative sports/medicine devices.

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42 COACHING MANAGEMENT

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COMPANY

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American Athletic, Inc. . . . . . . . . .

ATEC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Bannerman (Ballpark-6) . . . . . . . . . . .

Bannerman (Diamond Master). . . . . . .

Barry University (Movement Science) . .

Barry University (Sport Management). .

Beacon Ballfields . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

BetterBaseball. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

ChartMine (Competitive Edge) . . . . . .

Cho-Pat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Designer Dirt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Diamond Pro. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Eversan (outdoor scoreboards) . . . . . . .

Eversan (wireless scoreboards) . . . . . . .

Funtastic Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Gebauer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Glove Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Granada Pitching . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Heying Company (Infield Drag) . . . . .

Jaypro (batting cage). . . . . . . . . . . . .

Jaypro (Pitcher’s Safety Protector) . . . . .

M.A.S.A. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Markwort Sporting Goods. . . . . . .

Master Pitching Machine . . . . . . . .

Millcreek Mfg. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Muhl Tech (Advanced Skills Tee) . . . . .

Muhl Tech (Power Bag) . . . . . . . . . . .

Partac/Beam Clay . . . . . . . . . . . . .

PolarCool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Power Systems (catalog) . . . . . . . . .

PowerLung . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Pro Look Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Pro Look Sports (custom, quality uniforms) Pro’s Choice (Pro Mound) . . . . . . . . .

Pro’s Choice (Soilmaster Select) . . . . .

Promats (protective padding) . . . . . . .

Promats (SKYDEX) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ringor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Schutt Sports (Batter’s Helmet) . . . . . .

Schutt Sports (Slide-Rite) . . . . . . . . .

Seating Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Signature Fencing (FenceTopper). . . .

Signature Fencing (SportPanel) . . . . .

Sports Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Sports Tutor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Stalker Radar. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Swift Stik (PIK Products) . . . . . . . . . . .

Swing Speed Radar . . . . . . . . . . . .

Talent Sport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Turface (Pro League) . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Turface (Profile Products) . . . . . . . . . .

Turfco (Edge-R-Rite) . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Turfco (Mete-R-Matic III) . . . . . . . . . . .

Vantage Products Int’l. . . . . . . . . .

WeatherBeater (Colorado Lining) . . . .

Xvest (Don Chu) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Xvest (Fire Fighter model) . . . . . . .

Zingbat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40 40 45 45 50 50 45 38 50 38 45 46 46 46 40 50 40 41 46 41 41 51 38 43 46 43 43 46 51 39 51 38 38 46 46 47 47 38 38 38 48 48 48 43 44 44 44 44 38 47 46 49 49 44 49 38 39 44

Hitting & Pitching MASTER PITCHING MACHINE (800) 878-8228, www.masterpitch.com The “Iron Mike” Pitching Machine, from Master Pitching Machine, features a throwing arm that allows the batter to see a full windup before the ball is pitched. This allows the batter to properly develop the fundamentals used when facing a live pitcher. This capability makes the “Iron Mike” the preferred pitching machine of professional and amateur players and coaches. All machines are self-feeding, include an 80-foot remote control, and carry a manufacturer’s warranty.

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MUHL TECH (888) 766-8772, www.muhltech.com The Advanced Skills Tee, from Muhl Tech, is quickly being recognized as the most versatile teaching tee available.

Molded of durable polyurethane, the forward arm and outside barrier enforces a tight compact swing, eliminating “dipping” and “casting”. The unique brush cup ball holder (replaceable) has been proven to last 2 or more years under heavy use by high schools and colleges making the AST their choice as an everyday tee.

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TM

ChartMine

The Power Bag, also from Muhl Tech, has a unique design that allows a hitter to impact the heavy rubber bag yet finish the swing. This develops strength in the hands and arms and promotes a proper follow through.

Develop tree trunk strength at contact for more “pop” on the ball. Comes complete with mounting brackets to attach to most poles 3-1/2” or smaller. Larger brackets available on request. Weight plates may be added for more resistance.

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SPORTS ATTACK (800) 717-4251, www.sportsattack.com Sports Attack offers the Hack Attack Baseball Pitching Machine. This exclusive design allows the hitter to see the ball clearly all the way through the feeding motion, acceleration and release, just like a live pitcher.

This visual arm action signals the hitter when to stride and the angle of release, giving him an actual live arm sense of timing and location. The Hack Attack will throw unmatched right and left-handed major league fastballs and breaking pitches, including curve balls, sliders, sinkers, and knuckleballs. All this is

Award-Winning Electronic Pitch/Hit Charting for Baseball and Softball

• Chart pitching and hitting on the field using a PocketPC • Transfer the data to your desktop computer with ease • Standard stats PLUS incredible analysis not available anywhere else • Named “Top Product” by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper for 3 straight years • Used and recommended by 1/3 of all D1 teams including Stanford, Texas, UCLA & Arizona. Also used by USA Softball and top high schools

www.chartmine.net or call toll-free: 888-329-0722 Circle No. 34

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Hitting & Pitching accomplished by simply changing the speed of the wheels with three dials, eliminating time-consuming adjustments of the throwing head. It instantly switches to fungo work, pivoting in any direction, throwing grounders, long fly balls, deep line drives, towering infield popups and popups up and back for your catcher with real gamelike back spin.

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SPORTS TUTOR (800) 448-8867, www.sportstutorinc.com The new HomePlate machine from Sports Tutor is the first programmable pitching machine designed for both batting cage and onfield use. The HomePlate machine can simulate almost any pitcher you are likely to face. It can throw a 90 mph fastball, followed by a 75 mph curve, followed by a change-up, followed by a slider, with only seven seconds between pitches. You can store up to eight different pitches in each of eight different programs. The programmed pitches can be thrown either sequentially (for specific hitting drills), or randomly (to simulate game conditions). HomePlate sells for $4,995.

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STALKER RADAR (888) STALKER, www.stalkerradar.com The ultra-high performance Stalker Sport Radar Gun, from Stalker Radar, precisely measures the speed of a baseball when it leaves the pitcher’s hand, and it also reads the speed as it crosses the plate (these speeds can be up to 12 mph different). The Stalker is three times more powerful than any other sports radar gun, and can accurately clock pitches from over 300 feet away.

A new double capacity battery handle

is available that provides 7-40 hours of use between charges. About 90 percent of the major league baseball teams use the Stalker.

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SWIFT STIK (877) 845-STIK, www.swiftstik.net Swift Stik is the fastest way to improve your swing. This simple-to-use light-

weight training bat is great for baseball and softball and gives you hundreds of extra swings per day. You get results fast. It improves hand-eye coordination, builds muscle memory, isolates the sweet spot, and increases bat speed. Endorsed by professional hitting guru Mike Epstein, “This is, without a doubt, the best training tool I have ever used.” It is available in 34” and 30” sizes with a patented, adjustable foam “sweet spot”. It is packaged with an instructional video and four small polyballs. Use it with tennis, wiffle, or soft foam balls. Special coaches’ pricing is available.

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SWING SPEED RADAR™ (800) 589-3805, www.swingspeedradar.com The new Swing Speed Radar™, from Sports Sensors, Inc., is a small, inexpensive microwave Doppler radar velocity sensor that measures the swing speed of baseball and softball players.

The Swing Speed Radar aids baseball and softball players in developing their optimum bat speed for distance, quickness, and bat control for consistent ball contact. The Swing Speed Radar provides real time velocity feedback that assists players, coaches, or instructors in measuring performance improvement and in troubleshooting swing mechanics. Also works great for golfers.

VANTAGE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL (800) 244-4457, www.vpisports.com VPI now offers the Big Bubba Professional Portable Batting Cage.

The Big Bubba is the premium choice for high school, collegiate and professional baseball programs at considerable cost savings. The heavyduty aluminum construction, easy portability and collapsible design make it the perfect backstop for any level. It is 18’W x 22’ D x 12’ H and collapses to only 5’ high to limit storage space requirements. Sixteen-inch pneumatic wheels make relocation simple. Fortytwo feet of ricochet cushion minimizes ball rebound. Use the coaches’ observation bar for safe elevated viewing.

Call VPI or contact your nearest team sports dealer.

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ZINGBAT (866) Zingbat (946-4228), www.zingbat.com Zingbat™ has recently introduced the new “16 oz.” one hand isolation trainer. The batter can now practice lead arm and top hand drills to isolate proper arm path and hand action.

With each swing, the isolation trainer forces the arm to take the correct path keeping the hand inside the ball. The wrist must snap the barrel at the correct instant or the patented Zingbat™ “click” will occur before contact.

Coaches and players across the country are welcoming this new addition to the Zingbat™ line. Call for a free instructional video or see a demo on the company’s Web site.

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Check out www.AthleticBid.com to contact these companies.

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COACHING MANAGEMENT

Baseball Facilities BANNERMAN LTD. (800) 665-2596, www.sportsturfmagic.com Restore your diamond’s luster in 20 minutes or less. Bannerman Ltd. manufactures groomers that will level and care for baseball diamonds, warning tracks, and walking trails. The B-DM-6 Diamond MasterŽ has five grooming tools, including: Ripper Blade, Rake, Leveler, Roller, and Finishing Brush. Options available: Extension Wing Brush Kit, Hydraulic Tractor Top Link, 50-gallon Water Tank with spray nozzle, and Long Tine “Fluffing� Rake.

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When your players’ safety comes first, look to Bannerman Ltd., which manufactures groomers used to shape, level, and care for baseball diamonds. The BBP-6 Ballpark-6Ž model has five grooming tools, including: Ripper

Blade, Rake, Leveler, Roller, and Brush.

Accessories available: Extension Wing Brush Kit, Hydraulic Tractor Top Link, 50-gallon Water Tank with spray nozzle, and Long Tine “Fluffing� Rake.

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BEACON BALLFIELDS (800) 747-5985, www.ballfields.com Beacon Ballfields has introduced the new Beacon Streamliner 35 dry line marker. The Beacon Streamliner 35 features: a handle that easily collapses to 29� for easy storage; a molded plastic hopper with a semi-transparent cover for monitoring material; a variable chalk-flow control delivering

two or four-inch lines; and the best string-line guide in the industry.

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DESIGNER DIRT (800) 447-3214, www.designerdirt.com Designer Dirt’s Infield Conditioner is specifically developed for use on the skinned areas of Baseball and Softball Fields. By reducing infield compaction, increasing the surface drainage and keeping your players out of the mud, you are creating a safer all-around playing environment. The product’s great color has been designed to complement infield clays. Reduce your rainouts and allow your infield to dry faster by applying Designer Dirt Infield Conditioner.

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3TADIUM #HAIRS "LOW -OLDED OR )NJECTION -OLDED 0(/.% &!8 WWW SEATINGSERVICES COM

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Baseball Facilities DIAMOND PRO (800) 228-2987, www.diamondpro.com Diamond Pro offers a complete line of professional groundskeeping products; infield conditioners, calcined clay, mound & homeplate clay/bricks, marking dust, infield and warning track mixes.

The company offers fast and convenient delivery.

Diamond Pro’s vitrified clay red infield conditioner is available in bulk nationwide. It is easy to handle and apply. Truckloads are available in 10, 15, and 24-ton loads that save you both time and money. Enjoy bulk savings nationwide and create an allaround safe professional infield playing surface.

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complicated channel changes.

Interference-free operation with long distance communication capabilities means data can be transmitted over one mile with optional antennas.

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HEYING CO. (712) 756-8847, www.infield-drag.com The Infield-Drag™ grooming and maintenance machine by Heying Co. keeps your infields level and in optimal playing condition. It levels and grooms all in one pass. It breaks uphard surfaces with a chisel attachment. There is no need for hydraulics or three-point hitch. The Infield-Drag can be pulled with garden tractors, four-wheelers, or other machines. Contact the company for complete information and request free demo video.

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EVERSAN, INC. (800) 383-6060, www.eversan.com Eversan, Inc. offers an array of outdoor scoreboards, timing systems, message centers and video displays. Eversan’s major emphasis is producing energy efficient products that require low voltage and little maintenance; its outdoor scoreboards will run on a 12-volt battery. All outdoor scoreboards come with brilliant reflective digits, which are energy efficient and can be viewed in direct sunlight. Its wireless system with a 2.4 GHz spread spectrum frequency allows for simple installation with no cable hassles.

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Eversan, Inc. provides 2.4 Ghz digital spread spectrum wireless scoreboards, message signs, video displays, timers and shot clocks. High frequency-hopping data transfer eliminates cable clutter, reducing installation cost and set up time. This energy-efficient system is built with fully integrated microprocessor-controlled components and embedded radios. Auto scanning allows for no

46

COACHING MANAGEMENT

MILLCREEK MANUFACTURING (800) 311-1323, www.millcreekmfg.com Wet material is notoriously the most difficult to spread because of its tendency to clump and clog spreading equipment. Millcreek Manufacturing Co. has introduced the Turf Tiger™, a large capacity topdresser that applies sand/peat topdressing, compost, infield mix, soil conditioners, and other bulk materials even when wet. The Turf Tiger has a 7,500-pound capacity, and features a patent-pending SaberTooth™ spreading mechanism that applies wet material in a uniform 8’ to 12’ wide pattern, depending on material conditions.

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PARTAC/BEAM CLAY® (800) 247-BEAM, www.beamclay.com Partac/Beam Clay® makes mixes for infields, pitcher’s mounds, home plate areas, and red warning tracks that are used by more than 100 professional teams (including eight of the last 10 World Series champi-

ons), more than 700 colleges, and thousands of towns and schools from all 50 states and worldwide. Beam Clay offers more than 200 infield products from distribution centers nationwide, including regional infield mixes blended for specific climates and every state.

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PRO'S CHOICE (800) 648-1166 Pro Mound® packing clay from Pro’s Choice® is the choice of professional teams, universities, municipalities, and Little Leagues worldwide. When used at the mound and batter’s box areas, it bonds to form a solid sub-surface foundation that allows the pitcher and batter to dig in to establish firm footing without creating large wear holes.

Pro Mound installs quickly, and more importantly, lasts. Experience safer playing conditions and reduced mound and batter’s box maintenance by choosing Pro Mound. For more information, call Pro’s Choice.

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For premium performance and a color that will set your field apart, choose the Soilmaster Select Series from Pro's Choice. Scientifically engineered to meet daily maintenance challenges and give your field a professional look, Soilmaster Select is the true choice of groundskeepers around the league for building and maintaining winning ballfields. Available in four distinct colors (red, green, brown, and charcoal), the uniform granules in Soilmaster Select manage moisture and alleviate compaction to keep your field in top playing condition. Pro's Choice delivers a full line of sportsfield products for conditioning soil and infield mix, topdressing infields, quickly drying puddles, and revitalizing turf.

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PROFILE PRODUCTS LLC (800) 207-6457, www.turface.com For more than 40 years, PROFILE Products LLC has been the leading manufacturer of soil modification

Baseball Facilities products, including the TURFACE® line of infield and sports turf conditioners, and mound clay products. Patented TURFACE Pro League® conditions infield soils for exceptional moisture absorption, increased safety and maximized athletic performance.

PROFILE also offers TURFACE MVP®, which eliminates compaction, bad ball hops, and rainouts on skinned infields; TURFACE Quick Dry®, designed to absorb excess water during wet conditions and to become a part of the infield mix; TURFACE Gray and TURFACE Red, infield conditioners manufactured in gray and red tones for a non-glare surface for greater ball visibility; and TURFACE Mound Clay, the clay used to build mounds on leading professional fields in the major leagues.

Circle No. 94 on Reader Inquiry Card TURFACE® offers a complete line of infield conditioners featuring newly

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patented Pro League®.

Manufactured with smaller, uniform particles, Pro League® is the only patented calcined clay infield soil conditioner. Pro League® provides infield conditioning benefits creating superior sliding and fielding surfaces. Pro League is unmatched in drainage and absorption qualities for maximum rainout protection. Pro League® outperforms crushed aggregates by absorbing more water and conditioning the infield soil.

The preferred soil conditioner of many Major League groundskeepers, Pro League® is designed to increase safety, playability and drainage for baseball and softball infields at any level.

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PROMATS (800) 678-6287, www.promats.com Promats, the leader in stadium field wall padding with more than 350 major installations worldwide, intro-

duces a revolutionary new field wall pad utilizing superior SKYDEX™ Smarter Cushioning™ materials.

Promats field wall pads with SKYDEX technology are vastly more durable, almost 60 percent lighter, and able to absorb impact far better than standard pads.

Like all Promats products, Promats field wall pads with SKYDEX Smarter Cushioning can be customized for your stadium or arena.

Call or e-mail a Promats representative to learn more about this exciting new Promats product.

Circle No. 96 on Reader Inquiry Card Promats, Inc. has supplied protective padding for teams or stadiums with affiliations in Major League Baseball, Minor League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Football League, World Cup Soccer, Indoor Arena Football, College Baseball, College Softball, College

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Baseball Facilities Football, and Canadian League Football. Over 350 stadiums nationally contain Promats protective field wall padding products.

Each facility is unique in its requirements and Promats offers many different types of padding to fill those needs. Just give us a call and our staff will help you design a padding system that will work for you.

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SEATING SERVICES, INC. (800) 552-9470, www.seatingservices.com Seating Services, Inc. provides your stadium chair needs. The Series 3000 Cardinal Model blow molded chairs are gravity tip. They

have no springs and/or pins. This saves money in three ways: less expensive to manufacture, install, and maintain. The chairs have been designed for installation on concrete or steel/aluminum grandstands. Seat widths can range from 18” to 22”. A wide variety of colors and options make these an excellent way to make fans comfortable and provide VIP seating that can be used for fund-raising.

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SIGNATURE FENCING SYSTEMS (800) 569-2751, www.signaturefencing.com Signature (Fencing) Systems, LLC, offers its SportPanel® portable outfield fencing. SportPanel is a lightweight, weatherresistant, easy-toinstall outfield fencing system that enhances player safety, while providing a “stadium-like” feel at your next game. The panels come

All-Star Lance Berkman

complete with foam connectors and anchoring wickets, and foul poles are available for tournament play.

Circle No. 99 on Reader Inquiry Card Protect athletes and visitors against injury from dangerous chain-link fence using the FenceTopper® extruded chain-link fence cap from Signature Fencing.

Each eightfoot section fits over standard chain-link to provide a rounded safety surface, preventing scratches and cuts from collision or from leaning against exposed, sharp fencing. Use standard zip or wire ties to fasten each section to your fence. Once attached, FenceTopper not only provides safety, but is an attractive, professional addition to any field.

FenceTopper is available in multiple colors, including safety yellow, green, blue, red, and black. Team colors, facili-

Baseball or Softball

The New Amazing Tru-Toss Advanced Skills Tee Unique forward arm and outside barrier reinforces a tight compact swing. Eliminate “dipping” and “casting” with this highly durable polyurethane daily use tee. The best, most portable teaching tee available!

Muhl Tech 503 Ogden Wharton, Tx 77488

1-888-766-8772

The Power Bag Inspired by Lance Berkman, and designed to build strength and power at contact yet allow the hitter to follow through after contact. Raw power training at its best!

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The non-electric soft toss/pitch simulator that rebounds the ball from the ground up like a coach. Adjustable toss angle, speed and height allow the user to pitch the ball from front, side or back angles. The most versatile toss unit available. Use softballs, baseballs even plastic balls.

See our other highly effective, quality baseball & softball training aids at:

www.muhltech.com

Baseball Facilities ty colors, or themes can be matched, and sections can be alternated for dramatic effect.

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TURFCO MANUFACTURING (800) 679-8201, www.turfco.com The Mete-R-Matic® III Tow Type, from Turfco Manufacturing, is specifically designed for the uniform application of light, medium, or heavy top dressing to fine turf. It was the first top dresser to use the patented Chevron belt allowing it to easily spread all types of materials and moisture content. The Mete-R-Matic III or F12D model, with a six-foot wide, 22.5 cubic foot capacity, can be quickly filled with a front-end loader. Because it is a ground-driven system, there are no hydraulics, pumps, or engines. It can easily be turned into an overseeder with a few minor modifications.

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Unlike traditional rotary edgers, the Turfco Edge-R-Rite’s unique oscillating blade cuts turf without throwing debris, making it safer to use in hightraffic areas and easier to clean-up after. The edger eliminates spade or shovel edging and leaves a professional looking edge. The right angle blade edges golf course bunkers, baseball diamonds, or flowerbeds. Additional blades can be added to edge sidewalks, curbs, driveways, and to cut in drainage or install all sorts of edging. Depth control can be easily adjusted up to four inches.

The Edge-R-Rite is built with a solid steel frame and a traction assist drive.

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WEATHERBEATER® BY COLORADO LINING INTERNATIONAL (877) 448-2777, www.weather-beater.com Sometimes getting muddy is what it is all about and the only cover needed is

Netting And More

one to mark the sideline and coach’s box. Colorado Lining International has just what you need. The company’s Workhorse Sideline Protectors combine the durability of an 8 oz. spun bound polypropylene fabric with the user-friendly 10 oz. Foamed PVC. Both are white to meet NCAA regulations and are made in a variety of sizes to fit your field needs. Also available are WeatherBeater Basic Traditional and High Tech Sideline Covers, innovations only available through Colorado Lining. Best of all, many of the covers can be custom printed with your choice of images, allowing you to show school pride, honor a sponsor or just brag about last year’s state championship title. It’s just another reason the company says, “WeatherBeater ... anything less is just a tarp!” Contact your WeatherBeater Specialist for more information.

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On On The The Web Web $275

www.BetterBaseball.com OR CALL us @ 800 99 SHADE (74233) Circle No. 41

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More New Products BARRY UNIVERSITY MS IN SPORT MANAGEMENT (800) 756-6000, ext. 3494, www.barry.edu/hpls Barry University’s MS in Sport Management program can help you turn your passion for sports into a successful career. Barry offers a comprehensive curriculum with the right combination of theory and practice delivered by knowledgeable, nationally respected faculty. Its South Florida location provides an abundance of powerful internships in some of the most exciting sport-related venues in the country. Call today and inquire about Barry’s generous graduate scholarships and assistantships.

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Barry University’s MS in Movement Science offers a variety of specializations to prepare you for a future in athletic training, biomechanics, exercise sci-

ence, or sport and exercise psychology.

Whichever specialization best meets your needs, you will benefit from stateof-theart laboratory and research facilities, and knowledgeable, nationally respected faculty, and Barry’s ideal South Florida climate and location with access to challenging opportunities for graduate clinical placements. Call today to learn more.

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COMPETITIVE EDGE DECISION SYSTEMS (888) 329-0722, www.chartmine.net Developed in conjunction with Dean Stotz (Associate Head Coach, Stanford Baseball) and Jay Miller (Head Coach, Mississippi State Softball), ChartMine is the most advanced pitch/hit charting program available. Chart the game on the field and transfer the data to your computer. It provides standard statistics

and unbelievable pitching/hitting stats. If you want a Competitive Edge, you have to go beyond paper charting and simple electronic score keeping.

You need to mine the wealth of information that is hidden in your pitching/hitting charts.

Currently used by over 30% of D1 programs including Stanford, Fullerton, and UT Austin. ChartMine has been named a “best product” by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper the last three straight years.

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GEBAUER COMPANY (800) 321-9348, www.gebauerco.com Gebauer’s Instant Ice™ is a non-prescription, nonflammable topical skin refrigerant. Gebauer’s Instant Ice comes in either mist or stream spray cans. Both are ideal for the temporary relief of minor pain and swelling from

www.designerdirt.com PRODUCTS

ABOUT US

CONTACT US

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Products - Sports Overview Our solutions extend from the professionalism of our employees to the credibility of our partners

Solutions Infield Conditioner Mound Clay Clay Bricks Calcined Clay Top Dressing Calcined Clay Drying Agent Athletic Field Marking Dust Warning Track Mix Infield Mix Infield Mix Blend Turf Conditioner Designer Dirt Top Dressing and Specialty Sands Sports Equipment Catalog Field Maintenance Equipment Sports Field Diagrams

Solutions

Designer Dirt’s Infield Conditioner is specifically developed for use on the skinned areas of Baseball and Softball Fields. By reducing infield compaction, increasing the surface drainage and keeping your players out of the mud, you are creating a safer all-around playing environment. Our product’s great color has been designed to complement infield clays.

Reduce your rainouts and allow your infield to dry faster by applying Designer Dirt Infield Conditioner.

Call us at

1-800-447-3214 or email

contact@designerdirt.com for more information.

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More New Products sprains, strains, bruising, contusions, and minor sports injuries. Stream spray is also used for the temporary relief of muscle spasms.

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M.A.S.A., INC. (800) 264-4519, www.masa.com Cleat Cleaner from M.A.S.A., Inc.— Finally, a solution to cleaning all athletic shoes with cleats. Cleat Cleaners quickly remove mud and dirt, improve footing and mobility, reduce injuries and promote cleaner dressing rooms. Whether you are pitching, fielding or running the base paths, clean, lightweight cleats give you the firm secure footing you need for quick starts and stops, particularly when playing on a muddy field.

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POLARCOOL™ (888) 765-5732, www.rollseal.net On the practice field or during the game, when extreme heat conditions zap the performance and stamina of your athletes, turn on relief with PolarCool and “Defeat the Heat.”

Manufactured with sports teams in mind, PolarCool is simple to operate, easy to maintain and is built to last. Major football programs everywhere depend on PolarCool for their portable cooling requirements. With sizes to fit every need, PolarCool should be a part of your game plan.

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POWERLUNG, INC. (800) 903-3087, www.powerlung.com PowerLung® is the original and only

integrated exhale and inhale isolated, progressive resistance respiratory strength training machine for all athletes.

It is based on 80 years of medical research and has been proven to increase respiratory muscle strength—inhale and exhale. It’s been shown to improve Tidal Volume by more than 25 percent; Peak Exhalation more than 20 percent, Inhale Muscle Power more than 40 percent, Exhale Muscle Power more than 150 percent.

Studies show asthma sufferers may benefit from respiratory muscle training. A player’s body is only as strong as the weakest muscles—the respiratory muscles. Your team is only as strong as the weakest player—everyone needs PowerLung training for increased Oxygen. Use PowerLung for stamina and endurance, stronger core body muscles, and reduced heart and respiratory rates.

Oxygen is the Limiting Factor in Sports.

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SPRING TRAINING 2004

Host a program at your school and ear n up to $6,000!

Enjoy all the benefits of running a camp without any of the hassles...

What We Do:

What You Do:

Handle all registration through an easy-to-use web site, toll-free number, and PO Box in your local area.

Q Market the camp through newspapers, youth baseball groups and recreation departments within a 30-mile radius.

Q Provide you with a program template of proven drills and stations that covers K-12, including equipment and training aids.

Q Pay high school and college coaches in your area $20 per hour to work the camp, maintaining a ration of 6:1 or better.

Q Pay a site director fee up to $3,000.

Q Provide T-shirts, insurance, and training equipment that you get to keep.

Q

Q

Q

Q

Q

Secure the use of your gymnasium or field house for six Saturday or Sunday afternoons between January and May. Put together a staff of seven to 10 coaches from your school and others in the area and coach for six days. **Remember, we pay the staff.** Collect a paycheck as high as $3,000 (individual) or $6,000 (for your program).

Reap the benefits of running a low-cost camp (players pay just $95 for six days) that showcases your facilities, builds your program from the ground floor, and also puts money in your assistants’ pockets.

For more infor mation call (800) 669-6323, or email MBA President Marc Hoffman at marc@midwestbaseballacademy.com Our Success: Midwest Baseball Academy has run camps annually since 1988, offering programs in Ohio, New York, Connecticut, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. Our expansion to six locations in 2002 and 16 sites in 2003 makes us the fastest-growing baseball camp operation in the Midwest. Our 2004 plan includes 50 camps in 10 states, about 10,000 players, and more than a quarter million dollars paid to coaches like you.

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Web Connections ADAMS USA WWW.ADAMSUSA.COM Visit our Web site for Trace pads, Neumann gloves, Bolco bases, Bucks belts, the latest athletic equipment for youth through varsity, and information about youth clinics for football and baseball.

AMERICAN ATHLETIC, INC. WWW.AMERICANATHLETIC.COM The American Athletic, Inc., Web site describes AAI’s quality-driven design, engineering, and manufacturing capabilities and its world-class products for the sports of gymnastics, baseball, volleyball, and basketball, as well as for the sports construction business.

ATEC WWW.ATECSPORTS.COM Official supplier of pitching machines and training products to Major League Baseball ®. The world leader in baseball/softball training equipment for over 40 years—”The PROS’ CHOICE!”

BEACON BALLFIELDS WWW.BALLFIELDS.COM Beacon Ballfields Web site features include: Full catalog access with secure online order processing; field maintenance seminar information; articles, instruction

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guides, project recommendations, field layout information; and trade show schedules.

CHO-PAT, INC. WWW.CHO-PAT.COM Cho-Pat’s effective, dependable, and durable sports-medical devices help alleviate leg, foot, arm, and back pain. Highly recommended by physicians, trainers, therapists, and active individuals.

COLBOND, INC. WWW.COLBOND-USA.COM Visit the newly updated Colbond Web site for product information on natural turf protection products. New site features include downloadable technical information, on-line literature / sample requests, and “Ask the EnkaTech guy” burning product / application questions.

DAKTRONICS, INC. WWW.DAKTRONICS.COM For 35 years, Daktronics has provided visual communication solutions to thousands of customers all over the world. Daktronics is recognized as the industry leader for designing and manufacturing innovative scoring, timing, video, and animation display systems.

FAIR-PLAY SCOREBOARDS WWW.FAIR-PLAY.COM Check the latest brilliant innovations in scoreboard and message center systems.

Proven lamp and LED technology – plus wireless control systems for indoor and outdoor products. All from Fair-Play, America’s Scorekeeper for 70 years.

LIFE FITNESS WWW.LIFEFITNESS.COM/COMMERCIAL/HOME.ASP

Life Fitness recently launched a dynamic new Web site that makes it easier for customers to locate product information about the Life Fitness and Hammer Strength brands.

PRO LOOK SPORTS WWW.PROLOOKSPORTS.COM Pro Look Sports makes fully custom, quality uniforms. Their uniforms are made of the finest materials; constructed to your exact specifications. There are no additional costs for embroidery or soft tackle-twill lettering.

QUALITE LIGHTING, INC. WWW.QUALITE.COM Information about Qualite’s full line of sports lighting systems is found on the Web site, including the PRO-Series, Gold Series and International, along with Qualite’s exclusive MDS (Maintenance Diagnostic System) and automatic light control, ReQuest.

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A Difference You Can See ™

Now you can have it all with the NEW Hack Attack!!

Better than a two-wheel machine for vision.

Hack Attack has a three wheel design, the hitter never loses sight of the ball.

Better than an arm machine for a sense of timing.

It’s almost human; life-like ball release follows the path of the pitcher’s arm, giving the hitter a realistic sense of timing and location.

Better than an arm machine for a variety of pitches thrown.

The throwing head stays in place requiring only the changing of the speed of the wheels to throw any series of breaking pitches with extreme accuracy and speed.

Better than a two-wheel machine in ease of operation.

No cumbersome adjustments!!

Moving to fungo work takes only seconds; pivots instantly for flyballs, line drives, grounders and pop-ups Sports Attack creates professional performance using 35 years of pitching machine design experience. If you want to be the best next season…buy the best.

Call for more information and a product demonstration: 1-800-717-4251 www.sportsattack.com

With the three-wheel design, the hitter never loses sight of the ball

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EDISON FIELD – Home of the Anaheim Angels

TURFACE – THE #1 CHOICE

FREE VIDEO – $49.95 VALUE!

Groundskeepers from Major Leagues to High Schools rely on TURFACE more than any product to maximize the safety and performance of their athletes through wet springs and dry summers.

Mail your request today to receive your TURFACE Sports Field Maintenance Video featuring Major League and NFL groundskeepers with complete maintenance instructions. This offer is valid for a limited time.

TURFACE in the field will dramatically improve your playing surface. We guarantee it!

To receive your video, send us your Facility, name and UPS address along with a check or money order for $6.95 shipping and handling made out to PROFILE Products LLC, 750 Lake Cook Road, Suite 440, Buffalo Grove, IL 60089.

Allow 2 to 4 weeks for delivery.

Our commitment to coaches and sports field managers is shown through our major sponsorships of the ABCA, STMA, HSBCA and the NFCA.

KEEPS AMERICA PLAYING

TM

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★1-800-207- 6457★ www.turface.com