Coaching Management VOL. XV NO. 7
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Coaching Management Baseball Edition Postseason 2007
CONTENTS
Vol. XV, No. 7
2
LOCKER ROOM
COVER STORY
Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Throwing Heat
Baseball takes swing at APR … High school and minor league teams work together … New study on Tommy John surgery published … MLB promotes diversity with youth clinics … High school revamps policy on player vacations … Bats debate update.
Q&A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Dennis Denning, Head Coach at St. Thomas University (Minn.), has had major success at both the high school and college levels. Here, he discusses transitioning from one to the other, his high expectations, and the nuances of NCAA Division III recruiting.
ADVERTISER’S DIRECTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
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The fastball is baseball’s glamour pitch. Teaching pitchers to throw it more effectively takes careful planning and a comprehensive approach to player development.
LEADERSHIP
Numbers Game
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Attracting new players to high school baseball is more challenging than ever. But with the right approach, you can get more and better athletes onto the diamond.
STRENGTH & CONDITIONING
Balance of Power
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Helping players work past their natural tendency to be right- or left-handed can improve their proficiency on both sides and develop them into more complete athletes. TEAM EQUIPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 WOOD & METAL BATS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 PRODUCT LAUNCH . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
HITTING & PITCHING AIDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 BASEBALL FIELD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 WEB NEWS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
On the cover: At the University of Tennessee, Pitching Coach Mike Bell helped Luke Hochevar hone his fastball. Bell and others discuss the fastball in our cover story, beginning on page 16.
Publisher Mark Goldberg
Marketing Director Sheryl Shaffer
Editor-in-Chief Eleanor Frankel
Marketing/Sales Assistant Danielle Catalano
Associate Editor Dennis Read
Circulation Director Dave Dubin
Assistant Editors R.J. Anderson, Kenny Berkowitz, Nate Dougherty, Abigail Funk, Greg Scholand, Laura Ulrich
Circulation Manager John Callaghan
Art Director Pamela Crawford
Production Assistant Jonni Campbell
Photo Research Tobi Sznajderman
Prepress Manager Miles Worthington
Business Manager Pennie Small
IT Manager Julian Cook
Special Projects Dave Wohlhueter
Administrative Assistant Sharon Barbell
Production Director Don Andersen Assistant Production Director Jim Harper
Advertising Sales Associates Diedra Harkenrider, (607) 257-6970, ext. 24 Pat Wertman, (607) 257-6970, ext. 21 Ad Materials Coordinator Mike Townsend Business and Editorial Offices 31 Dutch Mill 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 © 2007 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. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Coaching Management, P.O. Box 4806, Ithaca, N.Y. 14852. Printed in the U.S.A.
COACHING MANAGEMENT
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LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD Baseball Takes Swing at APR In an effort to increase academic success for its players—and stave off threatened schedule reductions—NCAA Division I baseball will soon see changes in the rules governing academic progress and scholarship allotment. The Board of Directors has passed a package of new
Rate (APR) scores. Players can earn up to two APR points for their team each season: one for being academically eligible and another for staying at their institution. The committee determined that although baseball players have traditionally done well in terms of GPA, the sport’s high transfer rate and the large number of players leaving for professional
ball teams could face penalties when a full four years of data are available and a squad size adjustment is lifted. Coaches have long advocated for an increase in baseball’s scholarship limit (currently 11.7) and have pointed to it as one reason for the sport’s high transfer rates. However, multiple efforts to raise the limit
problems for baseball players come from failing to have enough credit hours. Baseball players often take a lighter academic load in the spring, and because many play in summer leagues, they can’t use summer school to make up the credit shortfall before the fall semester and stay eligible under NCAA progresstoward-degree requirements. Instead, they use the fall semester to catch back up and regain eligibility, thus costing their team an APR point by being ineligible during the fall. To stop this practice, a new fall certification requirement has been added: Players cannot play in the spring unless they were academically eligible entering the previous fall. The rule also applies to transfer students, so mid-year transfers will not be eligible until the following spring.
NCAA Division I baseball teams have relatively high GPAs, but many struggle to meet Academic Progress Rate (APR) standards. New rules addressing scholarships and eligibility are aimed at boosting the sport’s APR. Above, UC-Irvine and Arizona State compete in the 2007 College World Series. rules, and while some have faced resistance, the overall picture of Division I recruiting and eligibility promises to be different after they begin to take effect Aug. 1, 2008.
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Teams are subject to penalties if their APR falls below a level that reflects roughly a 60 percent graduation rate. Based on the latest round of APR scores released in May, 46 Division I baseball teams, or 15.8 percent, are subject to scholarship losses, the second highest percentage among NCAA sports (behind football at 20 percent). The numbers could get worse next year, as one-third of Division I base-
have failed and no change is expected in the near future, so the committee had to find other ways to improve APR scores. The approved package focuses on four key areas: eligibility, retention, scholarships, and penalties. The rules will be phased in over a two-year period beginning Aug. 1, 2008. Eligibility: According to Dave Keilitz, Executive Director of the American Baseball Coaches Association and a member of the Academic Enhancement Committee, most eligibility
Retention: Baseball has been especially hard-hit by the retention portion of the APR, due in part to its historically high transfer rate. The new rules remove the one-time transfer exemption, forcing players who To see how baseball’s APR compares to other Division I men’s sports, go to: www.athleticmanagement .com/baseballAPR.htm.
AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS
The changes were initiated by the Baseball Academic Enhancement Committee, a group of presidents, conference commissioners, faculty athletic representatives, athletic administrators, and coaches formed last year by the Division I Board of Directors to address baseball’s low Academic Progress
careers hurt many teams’ APR scores.
Penalties: In addition to reducing scholarships for teams in all sports that fail to meet yearly APR targets, NCAA rules call for greater penalties when teams fail to meet APR targets over extended periods of time. These “historic” penalties, which will be implemented for the first time in 2008, include further financial aid restrictions, postseason bans, and even restricted membership. To supplement those NCAA penalties, baseball teams with a four-year average APR below 900 will be limited to 50 games and 119 playing days per season, 10 percent below the standard maximum.
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LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD transfer to a Division I school to sit out one year before being eligible to play. This change, which puts baseball in line with football, basketball, and men’s ice hockey, is expected to reduce transfers, thus increasing the sport’s APR.
fortable limiting a player’s mobility if he was receiving very little scholarship aid. (Currently there is no minimum.) So another rule requires schools to provide any player receiving financial aid with at least 25 percent of a full grant.
In addition, caps will be implemented on both total squad size and the number of scholarship players. Before the first game of the season, teams will have to cut their rosters to 35 players, only 27 of whom can receive athletic aid.
This new requirement could unintentionally drive some schools away from sponsoring baseball altogether. Schools that typically award small scholarships may find it hard to fund the 25 percent minimum. Or they may feel uncomfortable providing 25 percent scholarships to a handful of players while giving the rest nothing.
Scholarships: Previous attempts to remove the one-time transfer exemption failed, in part because coaches and administrators were uncom-
“The committee wrestled with the schools that have only four
or five scholarships,” Keilitz says. “We finally determined that we can’t throw out a good plan just because a few institutions haven’t made a strong commitment to baseball. I hope those schools will decide to add some scholarships, but that’s up to them.” Among coaches, reaction to the rules package has been mixed. Enough schools filed override requests on the rule establishing scholarship minimums and roster caps that the Board of Directors was forced to reconsider it in August. They left the roster caps in place, but reduced the minimum aid award from 33 to 25 percent and allowed schools to count all aid, not just athletically relat-
ed aid as originally specified. This new rule faces its own override period, and requests from 30 or more schools would put it before the board again. If the board sticks by its latest decision in the face of an override request, the rule would go to a vote of the Division I membership at the NCAA Convention in January, where a five-eighths majority would be needed to overturn it. Keilitz admits the road ahead may be bumpy. He says recruiting practices might have to be adjusted and it will become harder to take a chance on a marginal prospect, since each scholarship player will represent a significant investment. “Many
CORRECTION: In our Baseball 2007 Preseason edition, it was incorrectly reported in the Bulletin Board titled “The Crack is Back” that North Dakota state legislators made the decision to outlaw aluminum bats at the high school level in their state. The group that made the decision to do away with metal bats comprised the state’s baseball coaches, not legislators. We regret the error.
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programs won’t have to change a lot, because they’ve always been operating along these lines,” he says. “But those that bring in 35 or 40 guys and have 20 to 22 freshmen and transfers are going to have to make significant changes.”
have already been drafted. Divisions II and III will consider their own text-messaging regulations in the upcoming year.
In other NCAA news, Division I coaches may no longer send text messages to recruits. Previously, there was no limit on the number of messages coaches could send, leading some student-athletes to complain they were being bombarded with messages.
The bright lights, the perfectly groomed infield, and baselines painted just so—is there anything more exhilarating than playing at a professional league ballpark? A lot of your players probably dream of playing on a field like that someday, but for several Ohio high school teams, the dream has already come true.
Some coaches associations have voiced opposition to the new rule, and the Division I Board of Directors has indicated it would be open to future proposals that address text messages in other ways. Several new proposals governing electronic communications
Teaming Up with the Minors
The Dayton Dragons minor league club in Ohio offers area high school teams that can sell 250 lawn tickets to Dragons games the opportunity to play at Fifth Third Field. The experience comes complete with sta-
The single-A Dayton Dragons make an offer to area high school teams: Sell 250 tickets to our games, and you can play at our field. Covington High School and Newton High School took advantage, squaring off at Fifth Third Field May 6. dium music and team logos on the outfield display screen. The exchange program started after several high school coaches queried the Drag-
ons about playing a game on their field. The minor league team saw an opportunity for a win-win program, giving local teams a chance to experience their field while increasing
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LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD attendance at Dragons games. Now, during Dragons off-days and road trips, the stadium is occupied by high school teams and their fans. Twenty-two teams took advantage of the offer last year, and 38 did so this season.
builder,” says Fairlawn Head Coach Scott Mann. “You can spend time at a ballgame with people from your community and get to know them. For the kids to play at a professional stadium was a great experience.”
“We give each coach a guide form and a couple of ideas, but they sell the tickets however they’re comfortable,” says Jeff Stewart, Director of Ticket Sales for the Dragons. “The tickets they sell can be for any game—they could sell five for one night and 10 for another. And some schools choose to sell them all for one game and make it a high school night.”
Schools can even use the fundraiser to help boost revenue for their own programs. Lawn tickets for Dragons games are normally $7, but the Springboro (Ohio) High School team sold them for $10 to help pay for a recent trip to Florida. “We had every player among our three teams sell five tickets, and that alone took care of our 250 tickets and raised some money for us, too,” says Springboro Head Coach Mark Pelfrey.
That’s exactly what Fairlawn High School in Sidney, Ohio, has done in its two years with the fundraiser. “A community night worked out great because it’s a relationship
Mann says he hopes the program will become a model for relationships between minor league and high school teams
in other cities. “If high schools and minor league teams are willing to put the time in,” Mann says, “they’ll get nothing but positives from an arrangement like this.”
New Tommy John Study Published In the 33 years since the first Tommy John surgery was performed, countless pitchers from high school to the Major Leagues have sworn by its ability to resurrect careers. Now, for the first time, there is peer-reviewed research to support the notion that pitchers who undergo the surgery come back as good as new. In a study published in the April 2007 issue of the American Journal of Sports Medicine, researchers from the Penn Sports Medicine Center
looked at 68 Major League pitchers who underwent ulnar collateral ligament surgery (the procedure named after Tommy John) between 1998 and 2003. Of the 82 percent who returned to pro baseball, there was no statistically significant change in their performance as measured by ERA, walks, or average number of hits per inning pitched. Anecdotal evidence has long suggested that Tommy John surgery is an effective treatment for pitchers who suffer ligament damage. In fact, some pitchers have even said they perform better after the surgery than before. “It felt so good when I came back, I said I recommend it to everybody … regardless what your ligament looks like,” former Chicago White Sox reliever Billy Koch jokingly told Baseball Digest.
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So can Tommy John surgery actually improve a pitcher’s performance? No, says Dr. Glenn Fleisig, Research Director at the American Sports Medicine Institute. He says it’s the rehab process—not the surgery itself— that gives pitchers a boost.
Clemson University pitcher William Bond is one of five Tigers who have undergone Tommy John surgery in the past five years. A new study shows that pitchers come back as good as new after the procedure, and the rehab process can even improve their performance.
“When performance improves after Tommy John surgery, it’s usually due to a combination of three things,” Fleisig explains. “First, the rehab exercises don’t just strengthen the elbow ligament, they also strengthen the muscles of the pitching arm—in many cases making them stronger than before. Second, if a pitcher was overusing his arm before his injury, taking time off after surgery gives his body the rest it badly needed. And third, a lot of pitchers re-assess their mechanics when they come back from surgery, and they may end up improving their pitching motion.”
All those factors have one important thing in common: A pitcher doesn’t have to undergo surgery to take advantage of them. “A healthy pitcher can do the same things and just skip the injury,” Fleisig says. “Any good strength and conditioning program for baseball pitchers will incorporate the same basic exercises as a post-Tommy John surgery rehab program, and a stronger arm can often lead to improved performance. “Coaches should also assess whether their pitchers are being overused,” he continues. “Even those who aren’t injured might be underperforming because they’re not running on a full tank. Many pitchers try to ignore fatigue and pitch more than they should, and that not only hurts performance but also makes them more susceptible to injury. Sometimes, backing off a bit is all they need.”
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LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD H.S. Revamps Vacation Policy
Doucette, Athletic Director at Hamilton-Wenham.
policies from parents and coaches.”
behind is the one who gets penalized.”
For many teenagers, the thought of going away on a family vacation during spring break evokes images of long, stuffy car rides and fighting with siblings in the back seat of the family minivan. For high school baseball players, the experience can be extra painful if it causes them to miss practices and games.
That all changed this spring when a more lenient policy went into effect. Under the new rule, athletes who go on vacation are eligible to resume playing as soon as they return to school. Doucette says the policy was developed by a school council headed up by the principal and including a couple teachers and a handful of parents. The council decided student-athletes shouldn’t be penalized for spending time with their families.
Hamilton-Wenham Head Baseball Coach Doug Hoak is not a fan of the rule change, however. Because he is now the one who decides when his players will be allowed to take the field again, he says coaches feel added pressure to make the right decision.
Hoak says he can also envision the rule opening coaches up to parent complaints. “Say a family has two boys playing two different sports and they decide to take both kids with them on vacation,” Hoak says. “What happens when they return and one coach lets one brother play right away while the other coach sits his brother for a couple of games? You can only imagine how that’s going to upset those players and their parents.”
In years past at Hamilton (Mass.)-Wenham Regional High School, school rules dictated that players who went away on holiday were penalized upon their return by having to sit out the same number of contests they missed before being allowed to practice or compete. “That was tough because in many cases the kids didn’t have a choice—they had to go with their parents,” says Don
“In talking to parents, my sense is that there has never been a happy medium in terms of a policy everyone liked,” says Doucette, who recently completed his second year at Hamilton-Wenham. “Athletic directors get a lot of complaints about vacation
“When a starting player returns from vacation after missing a number of games and practices, he’ll expect to be able to practice for a couple of days then reclaim his position,” says Hoak, adding that players who leave for a week can miss as many as four games. “Do I put him back in the starting lineup and take out a kid who stayed behind, played in those four games and practiced every day? If I do that, the kid who stayed
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Hoak says he will likely lean on the rule of thumb provision that the school council included with the new policy. Though it is clearly up to a coach’s discretion as to when a player may return to play, the policy’s rule of thumb says that if students are gone four to
COACHING MANAGEMENT 8/22/07 12:26:55 PM
six days, they should practice for at least three days before competing. If they’re gone for three days or fewer, they should practice for at least two days before competing.
ban. Easton spokesperson James Darby says today’s metal bats are manufactured to conform to Ball Exit Speed Ratio (BESR) standards mandated by the NCAA, NFHS, and other governing bodies.
Bats Debate Update
Those BESR standards say the ball must rebound off a metal or composite bat at a maximum miles per hour in the mid-90s— the same speed produced by a ball hit on the sweet spot of a wood bat. “We make them [metal bats] to specifications the associations set,” Darby told the Associated Press after the council’s initial decision.
RICHIE MALDONADO
Despite the best efforts of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, next spring, metal bats at the city’s public high school games will likely be as extinct as Ebbets Field. The decision was made this spring when the New York City Council voted to override Bloomberg’s veto and uphold its earlier decision to ban the use of metal bats throughout the city. Following the council’s decision, opponents of the new law, including bat manufacturers and USA Baseball, filed a federal lawsuit to block the
The New York City Council has passed a citywide ban on metal bats, which will affect high school teams next year unless a federal lawsuit succeeds in overturning it. Above, Elbel Estrella bats for Queens Vocational and Technical High School.
When New York City public high schools make the switch next season, they will join a small group of leagues and states that already prohibit metal bats. Beginning last season, North Dakota high schoolers swung wood bats
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LOCKER ROOM BULLETIN BOARD exclusively. Wood bats also made a comeback at a number of high schools in Illinois this spring, as the Illinois High School Association took part in a five-conference feasibility study funded by the NFHS. In the study, participating schools were given 18 wood bats in a variety of sizes to use in conference games. After each contest, coaches from participating schools reported on the bats’ effect on run production, when and how they break, and any batted-ball injuries. Researchers from Illinois State University are now analyzing data from approximately 500 games and 20,000 at-bats.
MLB Promotes Diversity
JUAN OCAMPO/DODGERS
This spring, as the baseball world celebrated 60 years since Jackie Robinson’s first Major League Baseball game, many sportswriters noted an unsettling fact: Two generations after Number 42 broke the color barrier, fewer and fewer African-Americans are embracing baseball. Today, less than nine percent of MLB players are black Americans, down from 17 percent in the mid ’90s and 28 percent in 1975. The divide is even more striking at the college level—the United States Sports Academy recently reported that only 4.5 percent of current NCAA baseball players are African-American. Hoping to reverse that trend, baseball supporters are working at the grassroots level to break down the sport’s new barrier—accessibility—particularly among urban youths. In April, the city of Philadelphia announced it would become a leader in that effort with the creation of a state-of-the-art youth baseball academy at its Scanlon Recreation Center. In partnership with the Philadelphia Phillies, MLB, and the nonprofit Philadelphia Youth Organization, the city will establish a year-round baseball training
A new MLB-sponsored youth baseball academy in Philadelphia will follow the lead of the Urban Youth Academy, shown above, which combines tutoring with baseball training to promote the game among inner-city children. The academies are part of an effort to increase minority participation in baseball. facility aimed at city youths in grades six through 12.
Braves Foundation, Braves players, and MLB.
“We want to make baseball more accessible to inner-city kids, and we’re really excited about what this academy will have to offer,” says Leo Dignam, Program Director for the Philadelphia Recreation Department. “We’re going to have a new synthetic turf outdoor field, an indoor area that’s large enough for fielding practice, a weight facility, batting tunnels, and some unique amenities like computer-aided swing analysis equipment.”
“In urban areas across the country, there are not enough opportunities for young people to be exposed to baseball,” explains Jimmy Lee Solomon, MLB’s Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations. “City planners have decided it’s easier and cheaper to put up basketball courts than baseball fields, and that trend has produced new hurdles to participation.
The academy will also house several classrooms for afterschool tutoring and SAT prep courses. “We’ll not only be teaching baseball skills, but also helping to motivate and prepare young people for college,” Dignam says. The Philadelphia academy will follow a model created by the Urban Youth Academy, which MLB opened in 2005 in Compton, Calif. Atlanta followed suit last year by opening a similar academy that’s supported by the Atlanta
“At the Urban Youth Academy last year, we had 2,000 kids ages eight to 17 attend our after-school and weekend programs,” Solomon continues. “They participated in three basic curriculums: baseball instruction, which includes clinics run by current and former major leaguers; baseball vocational instruction, which covers everything from groundskeeping to umpiring to photojournalism; and an educational component, in which we offer SAT and ACT tutorials and have grad students teaching mathematics, chemistry, reading, writing, and English classes.”
The Compton academy is a brick-and-mortar extension of MLB’s RBI program (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities), which was founded in 1989 and now has affiliates in more than 200 cities worldwide. Last year, more than 120,000 young people participated in RBI programs, which combine baseball training with academic tutoring in conjunction with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Solomon hopes more urban baseball academies will spring up in the future. “Our dream is to have as many academies as there are Major League clubs,” he says. “That may be a bit overambitious at this point, but I think in the next 10 years we’ll see more of them popping up. And the more we build, the bigger the impact.” To learn more about Major League Baseball’s RBI program and how you can help the growth of innercity baseball, visit: www.mlb.com/mlb/ official_info/community/ rbi.jsp.
COACHING MANAGEMENT
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Q&A
Dennis Denning St. Thomas University (Minn.)
Few coaches have won as many games at the high school and college levels as Dennis Denning, Head Coach at St. Thomas University (Minn.). Denning began his career as an elementary school coach and teacher before taking the reins at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in Minneapolis. In his 17 years there, the Raiders won six state Class AA titles while posting 378 wins and only 76 losses. Following the 1994 season, Denning was lured away by the opportunity to coach at St. Thomas, his alma mater. He has gone 447-135 in 13 seasons there and his .770 winning percentage ranks second among active NCAA Division III coaches. In 2001, he was named the ABCA Division III Coach of the Year after leading the Tommies to their first
CM: What is your coaching philosophy? Denning: I’m a tough coach because I expect a lot from my players. But most of my philosophy centers on developing good human beings. I don’t have a lot of rules because I think they can back certain kids—or even the coach—into a corner. If they have to be told what makes a good human being, they don’t belong in our program. It’s important to remember every player is different. Sometimes kids are going to break the rules and they need a little support then, too. That’s when we discuss what happened and help them work on making the right decisions.
Division III title. St. Thomas has qualified for the Division III playoffs in 10 of Denning’s 13 seasons, including three trips to the Division III World Series. Denning conducts numerous clinics for local youth coaches throughout the year and won the 2007 William Peterson Friend of the Game Award, given by the St. Paul Saints minor league baseball team for contributions to baseball in St. Paul. In this interview, Denning talks about leaving the high school level for college, the importance of having high expectations, and recruiting in Division III.
Secondly, I want us to win some baseball games and represent ourselves well. I want every kid to have a good presence about himself. What does that mean? It means we dress alike. We all come to the park to be competitive. When things go badly, we maintain control instead of losing it. Our players also need to have a good presence in the classroom, which means never missing a class or getting behind in their work. I also stress a strong work ethic. If you love the game, then it won’t feel like work, but it takes a lot of effort to stand there swinging at soft toss balls over and over. How do you help players learn to project the right presence? I let them know my high expectations for them. One big expectation I have is that nobody leaves the field after practice until we have everything fixed up and ready to go for the next day—batting cages, pitcher’s mounds, everything. Our kids all stay and do their work, then everybody leaves together. We don’t Junior catcher Matt Pexa was selected as an NCAA Division III third team AllAmerican. Coach Denning sets high expectations for his players both on and off the field.
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allow anyone to leave early unless they have a class. If you set high expectations and stick to them, the kids will rise to meet them. But I don’t set goals like winning the Division III World Series or anything like that. Our goal is to always play as hard as we can and be competitive. How do your expectations affect scheduling? We play the toughest schedule possible. I want my players to experience close games. If you don’t have a chance to lose, that’s not going to be a good game. We’re willing to lose because sometimes kids learn more by losing than they do by winning. How do you help players when they fail to meet your expectations? Let’s say a kid gets caught drinking. There’s no alcohol allowed on campus, but they’re in college and they’re probably going to drink. Before the season starts, I tell them that if they get in trouble, I want to hear it from them first, not from the dean of discipline. When they are in trouble, I make them explain exactly what happened. I want to know how they acted. Did they give security officers a hard time or did they treat them with respect? Did they damage any property? Did they get in a fight? Then I tell them, “You’re a representative of our team and our school, and I don’t want the baseball program to be dragged through the mud. But the most important thing you need to be concerned with is the way you’re representing yourself.”
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Q&A I’ll also talk with the dean of discipline and get his opinion. Then we set our own parameters and it usually doesn’t happen again—I’ve never had to kick a kid off the team. But I accept that they’ll make some wrong choices. Part of college is growing up and making their own decisions and sometimes they’ll make bad ones. Why do you hold so many clinics? We have a lot of youth coaches in this area who devote a great deal of time to young kids. Anytime you have a group of people like that who are trying to give kids the chance to play, I’ll do what I can to help them out in return. When I work with these coaches, I try to impress on them the impact they can have on their players’ lives. I tell them not to worry too much about teaching the baseball part of it. They have an opportunity to work on kids’ values. They don’t have to know that much about baseball to be able to give the players a chance to enjoy the game, be accepted by others, and learn what it means to be a team player. What led you to move from coaching in high school to college? I had been at Cretin-Derham Hall for 17
years and won six state championships in my last 10 years there. The competition wasn’t very good and after a while it’s just not as much fun coaching if you’re so much better than the other teams. Then I was offered the job at St. Thomas without applying. They were a mediocre team at the time, so I welcomed the challenge of making them better. I really do believe that change is good for you. Some people stay in the same spot for 30, 40, even 50 years, but I’m not that kind of person. I like a little change. How do you approach recruiting? I try to recruit Division I-level athletes who want to get a great education. I ask every kid who wants to come here, “What are the five most important things in deciding where you’ll go to school?” A lot of them say baseball first, and that’s the opposite of what I want to hear. I tell them, “The first thing on your list should be your education. Baseball should be no higher than five. If baseball is number one, don’t come here. What if you don’t make the team? What if you break your leg and can’t play? There are more important things than baseball.”
What do you look for when evaluating talent? Catching and throwing is the number-one thing. A lot of people just look for hitting, but to play here a guy needs great defensive fundamentals. If someone is solely a hitter, they can play when they’re hot, but when they’re not hitting well, they’re probably going to have to step aside. We do a tremendous amount of repetition to stress defense. Just for groundballs, we’ll have them do countless reps on their backhand, their forehand, charging the ball, and playing it off to the side. We go through every situation we can think of over and over again. Is it difficult to compete for that talent against Division I and II schools? Yes. I lost my top five recruits this year because they got Division I scholarships. Sometimes kids just like the idea of getting an athletic scholarship. Even the Division II schools play up the difference between levels in the recruits’ minds. They’ll tell a kid, “Why would you play D-III when you can play D-II?” But our record against Division II teams is 30-6, so there’s really not much difference. Most area Division II teams won’t schedule us anymore.
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BY ABIGAIL FUNK
T USED TO BE THAT MAJOR LEAGUE SCOUTS WERE THE ONLY PEOPLE AT BASEBALL GAMES HOLDING RADAR GUNS. But not anymore. Now, radar devices are found in the hands of college pitching coaches during bullpen sessions and high school head coaches at practice—even Little League coaches have them. So it’s hard to blame pitchers for focusing on what speed they just clocked: After all, they’re just trying to keep up. “There is an obsession with velocity,” says Vanderbilt University Pitching Coach Derek Johnson. “Last year there were more 100 mile per hour pitches thrown in the big leagues than in any year prior. And the up-and-coming generation of pitchers have better arms than their predecessors from 10 years ago. The expectation of having a faster fastball is a big part of the reason young pitchers are feeling pressure to throw harder and throw harder earlier in their careers.”
THROWING HEAT The fastball is baseball’s glamour pitch. Teaching pitchers to throw it more effectively takes careful planning and a comprehensive approach to player development. Billy Milos, a Midwest scout for the Minnesota Twins, agrees the public has a fascination with high velocity pitches. “It’s become all about power,” he says. “What do people want to see in baseball? They want to see homeruns and triple-digit pitches. Fans are certainly enamored with the ‘wow’ factor of the fastball.” But the fastball’s appeal is more than seam deep. “A pitcher must have a fastball that’s at least good enough to set up his other pitches,” says Mitch Pruemer, Pitching Coach at Hoopeston (Ill.) High School and a former NCAA Division I pitcher. “I don’t think a college player has to necessarily be able to go out and throw 90 or 95 miles per hour on every pitch, but he can’t expect to get by throwing fastballs that are 75 to 80 miles an hour either.” So how do you keep your pitchers’ fastballs up to speed? Is it a stronger arm? Accelerating their delivery? Perhaps a longer stride? And how do you work with your pitchers to optimize their pitching performances? These are questions pitching coaches, a strength and conditioning coach, and a Major League scout help answer here. Abigail Funk is an Assistant Editor at Coaching Management. She can be reached at: afunk@MomentumMedia.com.
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Luke Hochevar worked with University of Tennessee Pitching Coach Mike Bell to improve his fastball, and it paid off when Hochevar was selected first overall in the 2006 MLB draft.
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Speed Matters The simple definition of velocity is distance divided by time—on a radar gun, miles per hour. But a great fastball is about more than just speed. Several factors make for an effective fastball, including how and where it is released from the pitcher’s hand and how fast it appears to be traveling. However, just like in real estate, the most important factors are location, location, location. “A well-spotted fastball is the best pitch in baseball,” says Brent Kemnitz, who has spent nearly three decades as Pitching Coach at Wichita State University. “I want all of our pitchers first and foremost to have a two- and a four-seam fastball they can spot anywhere they want. And we work from there, adding a straight changeup, then a slider or a curveball. But we always work from the fastball. It’s the platform for all the other pitches.” Dick Mills, a former MLB pitcher, private pitching coach, and co-author of The Science and Art of Baseball Pitching, agrees that a fastball is the most important pitch in a pitcher’s repertoire.
“However,” he says, “if he can’t put it where he wants in the strike zone and instead just throws it right over the plate, batters will eventually catch up to it— even if the pitch comes in at 100 miles an hour. You want your pitchers throwing as hard as they possibly can, but they have to be able to locate it, too.” University of Tennessee Pitching Coach Mike Bell trains pitchers for greater velocity by telling them to ignore everything else—including accuracy—at least at first. “I’ll say, ‘Okay, this is a velocity bullpen today. When we’re warming up, I don’t care where you throw the ball, but you have to speed it up,’” he explains. “I’m not worried about hitting an exact spot—I may split the plate in half and ask him to hit the inner or outer half, but we’re teaching the arm to be quick, not precise at this point.” Likewise, for pitchers whose fastball has velocity but lacks command, he’ll ask them to focus on placement alone. “If a guy is having problems hitting the corners, I’ll have him slow down his pitches and put the ball exactly where I tell him,
Is a decent fastball a prerequisite for a pitcher to make it to the big show? “There is a threshold for pitchers to be able to move up,” says Billy Milos, a Midwest scout for the Minnesota Twins. “The average right-hander in the Major Leagues is throwing 90 miles an hour, and left-handers maybe a little less. If a pitcher wants to make it to a big league bullpen, he has to have above average velocity.
not worrying about how hard he’s throwing,” Bell says. “Once he can do that, we’ll add more velocity little by little until he’s back up to his previous speed.” At Vanderbilt, Johnson worked with closer Casey Weathers—a former outfielder who started pitching after his first season of junior college ball—in 2006 to speed up his fastball. As a result, Weathers went from throwing in the mid 80s the previous year to the mid to upper 90s this past season. The added velocity definitely helped his stock rise: An unsigned 25thround draft choice of the Detroit Tigers in 2006, Weathers was selected in the first round (eighth overall) this June by the Colorado Rockies. “Casey had a good arm, but he wasn’t very aware of what his body was doing,” Johnson says. “He knew he needed to make some changes, and that’s a critical first step. A guy has to really want to throw the ball harder. Casey was very methodical in his delivery and that’s why he had good command of his pitches, but he needed to alter his style to be more athletic.”
has something in his delivery that I can’t measure,” he says. “His pitches could be appearing faster to the batter than they really are, or he might have a sneaky delivery so the batter can’t see his release very well.” While the pitcher with great intangibles may ultimately be a better prospect, Milos admits that player is always a harder sell. “It’s much easier for me to go to my management and say, ‘You have to look at this kid because he throws 98 miles an hour,’ than to say, ‘This kid only throws 84, but there’s something about him,’” he says. “Because speed is a tangible factor, it can pretty much sell itself.”
“However, at the same time, 98 miles an hour is only a great fastball if it plays as 98 miles an hour in a game,” Milos continues. “If he’s hitting the backstop with it, that’s no good. He needs to have what we call fastball usability. Another After 13 years of scouting, Milos says he’s still learning pitcher with a fastball six miles an hour slower, but who can how to identify those little intangibles. “History shows that deceive the batter with location, different release points, and there will always be a pitcher who has the perfect body, by changing speeds, has a more usable fastball.” the right delivery, and everything I know tells me he’ll be great, but he never improves,” Milos says. “And there Milos calls these factors the intangibles, and they can will also always be a pitcher with a funny looking delivery, make all the difference between a successful pro and a where everything tells me he won’t improve at all, but he washout. “If I see a pitcher getting batters to swing time comes out of nowhere to be extremely successful.” and again but none of them are connecting, that pitcher
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Milos agrees, saying that it may sound silly at first, but a pitcher absolutely has to want to throw harder. “It’s having a throw-hard mentality,” he says. “There are ‘finesse pitchers’ out there who just try to mix up their pitches and locate them well, but they lack a certain amount of aggressiveness, and that usually hurts them. One of the first things I suggest discussing is your pitchers’ mental approach to throwing the baseball harder.”
hurdles and hip rotations for hip mobility improvement. For upper-body and back flexibility, stick stretches are common in the Notre Dame weightroom. The Fighting Irish pitchers do weight training year-round, but much less of it during the season. “Our in-season lifting program has a lot to do with regeneration,” Joseph says. “The day after a live bullpen session or a game, our pitchers work with light plates and use tubing for shoulder prehab work, just to get the
Developing The Tools A desire to change is so important because for most pitchers, building a better fastball will require adjustments both on and off the mound. There are many different philosophies on improving a pitcher’s fastball, but most include some form of strength and conditioning. Mike Joseph, Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for baseball at the University of Notre Dame, centers his training philosophy for pitchers on fullbody workouts rather than focusing on just building a stronger throwing arm. “As a rule, pitchers are not as athletic as position players or athletes in other sports because often all they’ve ever done since they were kids is pitch,” Joseph says. “Their agility, movement, balance, and coordination may not be on par with the rest of the team. Their arms may be in great shape, but developing lower-body and core strength will help them improve their fastball because that’s where a pitcher’s force and momentum come from. “The athletic trainer and I look at our pitchers’ mechanics and combine our observations with the pitching coach’s to create individualized programs for each pitcher,” Joseph continues. “If we know someone should be able to throw harder, but he exhibits poor flexibility in the low back and hamstrings, that’s probably preventing him from coming straight down the mound in his delivery. He’s probably falling off to the side of the mound, which causes his fastball to lose momentum before he even lets go of the ball.” Improved back and hip flexibility allows for faster hip rotation, which helps build momentum before the release. Joseph isn’t a fan of static stretching to improve flexibility, so he has his pitchers do a lot of dynamic stretching work instead. The pitching staff performs medicine ball work in warmups, and uses Untitled-1 1
blood flowing. We place more emphasis on lower-body work for power and explosion from the whole body, not just the arms and the core.” Kemnitz has his pitchers play catch and do long toss drills during practice to improve strength. “I believe that throwing a baseball the right way is the best way to improve,” he says. “It builds up the arm. I know there is some dispute on whether or not long catch will help improve velocity, but it at least builds
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arm strength, and there are certainly benefits to that.” Master Mechanics Mills feels that strength training and long toss drills, while helpful in strengthening the arm, shouldn’t be the only weapons in a pitching coach’s arsenal. In his view, it’s much more important to address
“Another key part of the pitching motion is stride length,” he continues. “The longer his stride, the more of a rubber band effect he’s creating. Look at the explosiveness Nolan Ryan had as a pitcher—he moved his body very quickly into an exceptionally long stride. His stride length even exceeded his height. The further a pitcher can extend his
“One of my top priorities when I’m evaluating a pitcher is seeing whether he develops forward momentum ... When a pitcher is on the rubber, you want him to always be moving toward the plate, never sideways. Why go in any direction other than toward your intended target?” a pitcher’s mechanics on the mound than his performance in the weightroom. “A pitcher’s body is like a big rubber band,” Mills says. “To throw a maximum speed fastball, he has to be able to stretch as many muscles as he can, as quickly as possible.
body before putting his front foot down, the greater the momentum he creates.” So what should you focus on when evaluating a pitcher’s delivery? A smooth motion with no hesitation is an ideal starting point. “There are certain
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standards we look for,” Bell explains. “Having a leg draw, pelvic tilt, or scapula load in a pitcher’s upper body are all problems. The legs, trunk, and torso are the strongest parts of the body, so I want to make sure they’re being utilized to the fullest extent possible. Pitchers who can use their whole body effectively, not just their arm, will throw harder and last longer.” Mills says that power is only effective when pointed in the right direction. “One of my top priorities when I’m evaluating a pitcher is seeing whether he develops forward momentum,” Mills says. “When a pitcher is on the rubber, you want him to always be moving toward the plate, never sideways. Why go in any direction other than toward your intended target?” Kemnitz places a lot of emphasis on how the ball leaves a pitcher’s hand. “I want to see a clean ball rotation coming out of the hand,” he says. “If the ball jumps or hops out because the hand is on top of the ball instead of behind it, he’s interrupting a clean path to the strike zone and losing velocity.”
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It’s no secret that every pitcher’s body and delivery are different, so some aspects of coaching the fastball are more art than science—such as figuring out what needs fixing and when it’s best to let a pitcher stick with what’s working. “I’ve heard of coaches cloning their pitchers so their deliveries look exactly the same, and I don’t think that’s right,” Kemnitz says. “You have to work with each one to figure out what his strengths are. You may not be able to figure that out right away, but eventually you’ll see it.” Milos, who has seen pitchers of every size, shape, and delivery style, agrees. “Even the arm slot a pitcher uses shows tremendous variety,” he says. “The conventional wisdom is that the hard throwers come from the high three-quarter slot, yet there are pitchers—like Jake Peavy of the San Diego Padres—who throw from the mid to low three-quarter slot and have just as much velocity. If something works for a pitcher, and he still has velocity and control, don’t make him change his style.”
Roll The Tape When it comes to teaching proper mechanics for an effective fastball, most coaches agree that a picture, or a series of pictures actually, is worth a thousand words and then some. “Most kids are visual learners,” Bell says. “I could talk to my pitchers about technique all day, but when they actually see themselves, it’s much easier for them to understand what is and is not working.” At Wichita State, Kemnitz videotapes all of his incoming pitchers, then puts the film away until the pitcher comes to him for help. “If you try to change them right away and tinker with their delivery and they don’t have immediate success, they’ll think, ‘My way was better’ and revert back to their original form,” he says. “If they come to me asking for my help, I have a much better time working with them because that’s when they’re really open to my suggestions.” Bullpen practice sessions can differ from game performances, so it’s important to look at video from both settings. Game-day nerves can be a big
Pitching
part of the equation because they can influence a pitcher’s mechanics, but if you can show your pitcher exactly what his ideal delivery looks like during bullpen sessions, he’ll have a better chance of duplicating those mechanics in a game. “Sometimes, guys exhibit different habits in their bullpen sessions than on the mound,” Milos says. “It’s great to have your kids practicing indoors during the winter, but you also need to see them outside and in game situations. It’s like trying to fix them without really seeing what their flaws are. You need to scout them first.” “However you get your pitchers to develop, you have to make a constant effort to do it,” Kemnitz says. “My philosophy for teaching pitching is based on three things—movement, control, and velocity. Movement comes first, then control, and velocity last, but certainly not least. My pitchers and I don’t have a say in how baseball has developed. Velocity has become a major part of the game, and we have to keep up.” ■
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LEADERSHIP
BY JERRY KREBER
NUMBERS GAME
T
he landscape of American sports has changed drastically in the last 20 years. With football and basketball now dominating mainstream culture, many coaches have observed baseball slipping into the background. Once called America’s pastime, baseball has struggled to keep people interested—especially young people. Slumping participation numbers among teenagers, lower TV ratings for the World
Attracting new players to high school baseball is more challenging than ever. But with the right approach, you can get more and better athletes onto the diamond.
Series, and declining baseball equipment sales all testify to the decline. So what’s causing this? Some people blame the game’s slow pace, especially when compared to football, basketball, and newer extreme sports. Others blame Major League Baseball for not marketing the sport properly. And some say money is the problem—fully equipping a baseball player is expensive, not to mention facility costs. A few years ago, a noted pop culture professor summed
it up this way in the Wall Street Journal: “Baseball is just not as big a part of American kids’ life anymore … It’s no longer exactly cool.” Despite all this, I still believe baseball is the greatest game in the world, and that with the right approach we can attract many more players to high school programs. As an assistant coach at Omaha Central High School, Nebraska’s largest urban school, I worked alongside my fellow assistant coaches and Head
Jerry Kreber is a former Assistant Baseball Coach at Omaha (Neb.) Central High School, where he coached from 2000-2006. He is currently an Assistant Baseball Coach at Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa. From 2004-07, he served as an Associate Scout for the Cleveland Indians. He can be reached through his blog, Baseball Ideas, at: www.baseballideas.blogspot.com.
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Coach Scott Hodges to do just that. By changing our approach to instruction, organization, and promotion, we turned a program that was struggling to field three teams (j.v., varsity, and reserve) into an organization with a player surplus. I believe any coach can use our methods to get more high school students interested in playing baseball. Low-Stakes Learning In high school, many would-be ball players stay away simply because they lack experience and sport-specific skills. This can be true even for the school’s best athletes—a star wide receiver doesn’t want to go to baseball tryouts and embarrass himself because he can’t catch a fly ball. To attract these students to your program, you must give them opportunities to develop baseball skills in the off-season,
practices have to. Young people want to be constantly challenged in a fast-paced environment, and you can provide that in your program. In his book A Season on the Brink, John Feinstein explains how Bobby Knight switched drills every five minutes during basketball practices at Indiana. Knight held players’ attention all practice long, with no one simply “going through the motions.” For years, baseball coaches have been guilty of running long, drawn out practices, and that’s a turn-off for today’s athletes. You need to be creative and dynamic when structuring practice sessions, and plan drills that teach basic fundamentals or reinforce specific skills in an up-tempo style. With constant transition, players don’t have time to dwell on their mistakes—but they are motivated to learn
Players experience anxiety and distrust when they can’t predict a coach’s behavior from one day to the next. By remaining optimistic and supportive, your players will be more confident, and other students looking for a positive athletic experience will be drawn to your program. in a supportive environment where they feel it’s okay to make mistakes. While I was coaching at Central, we instituted an off-season program based around small skill-building groups. Each day, two separate groups of four players would come in and work on baseball skill development. Since this was during the winter sports season, we scheduled the workouts in the morning so they wouldn’t conflict with after-school basketball practice (that helped us to court the school’s best athletes, some of whom played basketball). We put the groups through drills that focused on simple things like throwing, swinging the bat, and strength and conditioning. Most of the activities involved healthy competition between teammates, and the athletes enjoyed working hard to outperform one another while developing a baseball-specific skill set. I believe this preparation encouraged more students to show up when team tryouts rolled around, while also giving us a running start into preseason practice. Energize The Game It’s true that baseball games can move slowly, but that doesn’t mean your 24
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from them. They will maintain a positive attitude about baseball if they are around coaches who always keep things moving. Also, when the pace is fast, each player has time to get in more reps. And perhaps most importantly, the players have fun, even if they’re not mastering everything right away. At Central, one way we energized our program was with the Purple, Silver, and Black Workout Series. This practice sequence engaged every member of our squad as they rotated through various offensive, defensive, and base running activities. To set up the progression, our players split into three groups, each designated by a different school color. Since our varsity and j.v. squads practiced together, we had the perfect number of players for three separate teams. Each team had a nine- or 10-man lineup, with one player working primarily as a pitcher. On the same practice field, the teams would perform different drills. For instance, the Purple team would assume defensive positions, working on the tandem relay to third base or home plate. While the Purple team worked on specific defensive situations, the Silver team served as base runners and worked on
reading situations from the base paths. At the same time, the Black team would be in the hitting tunnels sharpening their offensive skills through batting practice or other static offensive drills. We usually had the teams switch stations every seven minutes or so, and we would vary the drills from day to day depending on what skills we wanted to reinforce. By keeping the stations moving quickly, players were constantly focused and energized, and coaches were able to provide better instruction because they could concentrate on their team’s specific goals for the drill instead of dividing their attention between hitting, fielding, and base running. Hone Their Skills Throughout my entire coaching career, I have never met a player who wanted to struggle. If a player is unsuccessful at a skill and doesn’t experience improvement, he is likely to lose motivation to keep practicing that skill. Players need coaches who can take their abilities to the next level and show them how much they’re improving. Many unsuccessful teams have talented athletes, but their coaches are afraid to deviate from traditional training methods. A lot of “old school” coaches believe repetition, repetition, and more repetition is the way to improve: Go to the cage and hit 100 pitches, and if that doesn’t help your hitting, go do it again. But the vast majority of the time, that won’t help the struggling player see any improvement. As players develop new skills, they should be able to see tangible evidence of their progress. Any time you can measure the results of a drill, do it, and use those measurements to show athletes their improvement. So how can you channel your players’ athletic ability and turn it into baseball ability? Part of the answer is using the right tools and techniques. Proper linear hitting is a good example—athletes with good coordination and agility can master this skill, even if they didn’t grow up swinging a baseball bat. Major League hitting instructor Charlie Lau made linear hitting popular in the late 1970s. This hitting style utilizes a player’s body weight, physical strength, and momentum through the moment of ball contact. As opposed to rotational hitting, it focuses on linear movements during the swing to capital-
LEADERSHIP
ize on players’ natural physical tools. Outlined in Lau’s book, How To Hit .300, this strategy also has the advantage of greatly boosting players’ confidence. During the winter of my last season at Central, our players also started using underweight/overweight training for bat speed development. Groups of four players performed swings with heavy and light bats, applying maximum force to each swing. At the end of each training session, players received 10 soft-toss flips. Standing approximately 30 to 40 feet away from the gym wall, they tried to redirect the ball into a line drive. Players recorded how many line drives they produced each time, and the results were plotted on a line graph. By seeing their individual graphs, players received immediate visual feedback, which served as motivation to continue working. Players not only compete against the graph, but against their teammates as well, and the intensity of healthy competition can push players to a new level of success. Another good example is the V-cut defensive system. This allows highly agile
athletes to utilize their strengths and doesn’t punish them for a lack of experience. It forces fielders to take an angled path to the ball, lining them up with first base by the time the ball enters their glove. Not only does this help players read the ball’s speed, spin, and bounce pattern, but it also increases their throwing momentum toward first. By building momentum with their lower body, it puts less pressure on the arm to produce a quality throw across the infield. Keep It Positive If you were a high school athlete and you felt surrounded by negativity on your team, how long would you stick around? This sounds like common sense, but in my experience, staying consistently positive is one of the most important things a coach can do to both recruit and retain players. Coaches set the tone for the entire team’s attitude. Of course, creating a positive atmosphere is easier said than done. Many students enter high school without having experienced much athletic success, and
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they suffer from a lack of confidence. Others may have had negative coaches in the past, giving them a general resentment for a coach’s authority. To break this cycle of negativity, you must rely on positive encouragement and reinforcement to motivate players. Eventually, your attitude will spread throughout the team, and you’ll build a bridge of trust between your players and yourself. How do you make this happen? One of the biggest keys is consistency. Players experience anxiety and distrust when they can’t predict a coach’s behavior from one day to the next. At Central, all the coaches made a conscious effort to be even-tempered in our behavior. Of course, there are bound to be highs and lows throughout the year, and no one expects you to have the exact same demeanor every day. But by remaining optimistic and supportive and not dwelling on negatives, your players will be more confident, and other students looking for a positive athletic experience will be drawn to your program. Another way to create a healthy, posi-
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LEADERSHIP
tive atmosphere is by communicating openly with your players. At Central, we ended each season with personalized written player evaluations. Each player received a detailed description of his strengths and weaknesses, along with a comprehensive plan for how to improve
It’s also important to build a family environment on the team. High school students naturally seek out nurturing situations where they can feel a sense of belonging and increase their self-esteem. Indeed, this is a major reason why many participate in sports in the first place.
At Central, we provided our players with lots of different clothing items to display their involvement in our program. Having all the players wear one of these items to school on game days is a great idea—it creates a buzz in the hallways and puts your team in the front of students’ minds. before next season. Even though these documents were totally honest, I did make an effort to expand on each player’s strengths. By focusing on the positive, each individual could enter the off-season believing he could build himself into a better ball player, no matter what had happened the previous season. That way, returning players would continue in the program and display a positive attitude for younger players to emulate.
Every season at Central, our players attended a dinner at one of the coach’s houses. It was always a fun event—we’d play basketball and ping pong, or watch a movie, or just sit around and talk. After we ate, each player would stand and say a few words about the team. They would talk about what they felt the team could achieve that year, or what they felt our greatest strengths were. Sometimes, there would be a theme. Last year, the
players spoke about why our team would make the Nebraska state tournament for the first time. Looking back, I believe these verbalizations helped our team accomplish that goal. Coaches always spoke at the dinners as well, expressing their thoughts about the team’s potential and what needed to be done to reach it. Everyone left these events feeling great about what they were a part of and motivated to work toward our shared goals. Network With Other Sports A high school baseball coach’s best friend should be the school’s football coach. With their large rosters and prominence in the athletic department, football coaches can be a great asset for recruiting players to try baseball. In Nebraska, track and field and baseball both compete in the spring. Even though a lot of football players participate in track, some just aren’t interested. Baseball is a great alternative for these players, especially if they are top-notch athletes looking to diversify their skills.
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COACHING MANAGEMENT
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LEADERSHIP
It’s not a coincidence that in the Omaha area, the schools with the best football programs also tend to lead the baseball scene—in fact, the Omaha World-Herald’s 2006 final poll ranked three local schools in the top five for both sports. Moreover, if circumstances allow, baseball coaches should try to help out with the football program in some way. Being an assistant on the football coaching staff can allow you to establish good relationships with talented athletes long before your season rolls around. That way, when spring arrives, players will be more inclined to give baseball a chance.
ment and retainment. Being a successful team leader isn’t just about knowing the game—it’s also about knowing how to get people interested in the game. High school students have countless activities and diversions competing for their time, and unlike in days past, coaches can’t assume players will gravitate toward baseball just because it’s baseball. To attract fresh faces to your program, you have to be a salesman to those who are not yet on your team and an energetic, skillful leader to those who are.
At Central, we constantly evaluated ourselves as a coaching staff to make sure we were fulfilling those two roles as completely as possible. By assessing our program annually, we were able to improve our outreach efforts and make baseball an attractive option for many athletes. ■ The author would like to thank all the coaches in the Omaha Central baseball program from 2000-06 for their roles in shaping the ideas in this article, especially Head Coach Scott Hodges and Assistant Coach Andrew Wane.
Make Baseball “Cool” Again Remember the pop culture professor at the beginning of this article who said part of baseball’s problem is that it’s “no longer exactly cool”? Well, I think any good high school baseball team can prove him wrong. By promoting your program the right way and making your athletes excited and proud to be on the team, I believe baseball can capture the attention of many new athletes. High school students tend to pay attention to what their peers are doing. Teenagers love wearing attire that makes a statement about who they are and shows that they’re part of a special group. When they look around in the halls of your school, do they see baseball players proudly sporting team apparel? At Central, we provided our baseball players with lots of different clothing items to display their involvement in our program. Every student who participated in our off-season program received some type of team gear, even if they didn’t make the roster. Prospective players might receive a T-shirt, a sweatshirt, or a pair of athletic shorts. This way, they could display our program’s logo with pride, and show support for the team at the same time. Those who made the squad collected additional items, such as coats, pullovers, and warmup suits that could be worn around school or in the dugout. Having all the players wear one of these items to school on game days is a great idea—it can create a buzz in the hallways and put your team in the front of students’ minds. A Big Job All the advice in this article fits into one overarching concept: Today’s baseball coaches must be proactive and creative when it comes to player recruitCircle No. 123 COACHING MANAGEMENT
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STRENGTH & CONDITIONING
BALANCE OF POWER
D
Helping players work past their natural tendency to be right- or left-handed can improve their proficiency on both sides and develop them into more complete athletes. BY VERN GAMBETTA O YOU REMEMBER THE FIRST TIME
you tried to do something athletic with your nondominant hand? For me, it was shooting a layup left-handed as a kid. It was a disaster. That was my introduction to lateral dominance, and I’m still intrigued by the concept today. Technically, lateral dominance is the preference for one extremity or a half of the body over the other. It is a fancy term for saying someone is right- or left-handed—but it means a lot more than simply identifying which hand a person writes or throws with. Unless they are ambidextrous, every athlete is more proficient with one side of their body than the other. In baseball, a player’s dominant hand is one of
his defining characteristics. Pitchers are either righties or lefties and batters stand on one side of the plate or the other. It’s also a huge part of game strategy. But lateral dominance plays a role in so many other aspects of the game, and overcoming the preference to favor one side can lead to performance enhancement. Why Is It Important? There are several reasons why lateral dominance is important in training your athletes. The most obvious is that an underdeveloped limb or side of the body can limit performance. No matter which arm your fielder is throwing with, if he can move both arms and both legs with equal proficiency, he gains an advantage over the athlete who cannot. An infielder will
benefit from having superb coordination on both sides of his body, allowing him to move well to the right and the left. Another clear reason for addressing lateral dominance in training is that if an athlete progresses through his career only using the dominant limb or the dominant side, he runs the risk of overuse. Through repetitive stress, a structural or functional imbalance can occur and lead to injury or impaired performance. I’ve seen plenty of pitchers with overuse injuries in their pitching arms. Vern Gambetta is the President of Gambetta Sports Training Systems in Sarasota, Fla., and a frequent contributor to Coaching Management. His daily thoughts on training athletes can be viewed on his blog at: www.functionalpathtraining.blogspot.com.
COACHING MANAGEMENT
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But there are also some less obvious reasons why you should pay attention to this concept. In particular, it is often the nondominant side that performs the function of deceleration. Think about your shortstop running toward second base to field a ground ball, step on the bag, and throw to first to turn a double play. As he approaches the base, he uses his dominant leg to position himself for the throw. If his body is off balance as he makes his approach, his nondominant leg will play a huge role in decelerating and stabilizing his body. If that nondominant leg needs to shift at the last second to avoid a base runner sliding in, it needs to be strong enough to do so safely and effectively. Otherwise, performance will suffer and injury may result. There is also the idea that training the nondominant limb may improve performance with the dominant limb. This concept is called bilateral transfer. For example, an athlete who has one leg in a cast can do strength-training exercises using the non-injured leg to help keep the injured leg strong. The technique has been used in rehab for years and the positive implications are obvious. The question is, can it also work for performance enhancement? We are talking about the same body and the same nervous system, so logic tells us that it should work when training a healthy athlete. Unfortunately, no research has been conducted on the concept. But anecdotally, I have found it can be effective. When I was the Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Chicago White Sox from 1987 to 1996, we experimented with having our pitchers play catch using their nondominant arm the day after they pitched in a game. Their dominant
arm was usually pretty sore from pitching the day before, so we wanted to work their opposite arm and take advantage of bilateral transfer. The results were hard to measure, but those pitchers who committed to the exercise liked it and felt it helped their dominant arm. Having used bilateral transfer exercises for several sports, I’ve observed heightened awareness and improved coordination on the dominant side after having worked the nondominant side. Janis Lusis, former world record holder and multiple Olympic medalist in the javelin throw, is right-handed, but he used to end each throwing workout with 10 to 20 easy-effort left-handed throws. He said the exercise helped hone his balance and coordination. Obviously this needs to be studied further, but I am convinced there is merit to the concept. Development Of Dominance To understand the larger concept of lateral dominance, it’s helpful to examine it as it relates to growth and development. In this field, laterality refers to the conscious awareness that there are two sides of the body. Through movement experience during growth, children become increasingly aware of their right versus their left side and develop patterns of dominance. Between the ages of five and seven, these patterns really begin to reveal themselves, although research has shown that a preference for use of the right or the left hand is not permanently established until age nine or 10. Foot preference, however, seems to be established by age five. Therefore, the ideal period for children to develop bilateral movement is during the so-called “skill hungry years”
Practicing synchronization of movement will heighten body awareness and improve coordination of the nondominant side. Here are some examples of these simple exercises: ■
Perform circles with one arm and punches with the other. Quickly switch arm movements after about 10 reps.
■
Jump forward and backward with both arms overhead moving side to side.
■
30
Stand in place and rotate the hips clockwise and the head counterclockwise.
COACHING MANAGEMENT
of six to nine. This does not mean that we should train young athletes to be ambidextrous—not at all. Rather, we are simply attempting to develop nondominant limb skills with the goal of enhancing the efficiency of the entire body. How does this concept work neurologically? In motor learning, as in all learning, the brain needs to receive information in order to develop. The body provides that information to the brain, which processes the data and turns it into signals that trigger the appropriate movements. The brain has two hemispheres: the logical left brain, and the right brain—what I call the perceptual side. Optimal learning occurs when there is rapid communication between both sides. The term for this is cross-lateral control. One book on the subject that really opened my eyes is The Dominance Factor, by Carla Hannaford. This book approaches the concept of lateral dominance from the viewpoint of a learning disabilities specialist, but the implications for sports performance enhancement are intriguing. Hannaford goes beyond just identifying dominant arm—she identifies dominant eye, ear, and foot. She also talks about how these dominance patterns interact to provide information to the brain. An obvious way these ideas cross over to athletics is examining how a dominant eye affects the way an athlete tracks a ball. A more subtle concept, however, is how dominance patterns affect the manner in which an athlete learns. It can be very helpful to know if an athlete processes information better using auditory cues or by receiving visual cues, or if processing complicated feedback will be difficult. The book also made me think about how important it is for all areas of the
■
Dribble a basketball with each hand using equal effort.
■
Dribble two balls with unequal effort—hard with one hand and soft with the other.
■
Dribble two balls of different dimensions. For example, bounce a volleyball in one hand and a basketball in the other.
■
Catch and throw with the nondominant arm.
■
Kick with the nondominant leg.
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STRENGTH & CONDITIONING
brain to be in sync when processing information. According to Hannaford, “The optimal learning state is one of whole-brain integration. In this state, both hemispheres are equally active all the time, thus accessing all sensory information and effectively communicating, moving, and acting on information.” As coaches, we know that our most effective practice sessions occur when an athlete is totally focused, with every muscle of their body eager to respond to stimuli. The more we understand how the brain works, the better we can train our athletes to achieve this focus. If therapists can teach students to overcome disabilities rooted in certain brain dominances, we can teach athletes to overcome lateral dominance and enhance performance. Training Both Sides I am not saying we should train the right-handed pitcher to throw left-handed, or devote half our training to developing the nondominant side—that would be a waste of time. Ultimately, most athletes must perform optimally with their
dominant limbs, so everything we do in training should focus on enhancing skills in those limbs. However, I feel that spending a small amount of time training the nondominant side of the body will help achieve this overall performance goal. The obvious question, then, is when and how much should the nondominant side be trained? The answer depends on the athlete and his training and performance goals. The first step is to assess whether the athlete has major problems caused by lateral dominance. You can do this through observation and testing. Tests should be agility-based and force the athlete to move both right and left. If deficiencies due to lateral dominance are affecting the athlete’s play, find out why they are better at going in one direction than the other. Is it a strength imbalance? Does a prior injury limit their ability to move to one side? Is it a problem with motor perception? To remedy this situation, it is necessary to find the cause and systematically address it. This requires a specially designed pro-
gram for each individual athlete. If lateral dominance is not causing major problems but you’d still like to improve an athlete’s nondominant limb proficiency, I suggest adding small doses of nondominant training to their workouts. Most of this training can be classified as remedial work and can be implemented as part of warmup or cooldown. I have also found these types of exercises are good “homework” for athletes to do between practices and can be as simple as throwing and catching with the nondominant hand. I wrote earlier about getting both sides of the brain to work together. A great way to achieve this is through cross-lateral physical movements—where limbs coordinate with their counterpart on the other side. The simplest form of cross-lateral movement is crawling, done using both arms and both legs. I include crawling as part of every warmup and add a specific crawling module to my coretraining workouts. Examples include bear crawls and Spiderman crawls. For coordination training, I incor-
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COACHING MANAGEMENT
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porate work that involves the nondominant side in novel tasks, not just the sport skill exercises. I am not seeking a direct transfer with these everyday exercises, but practicing synchronization of movement that heightens body awareness and awareness of the nondominant side. These unrelated movements will open neural pathways and wake up the nervous system (See “Coordination Drills” on page 30). A good place for your players to work toward bilateral transfer is in the weightroom. Obviously, this kind of exercise is not feasible for every workout, but I use it where it fits. The idea does, however, require a whole paradigm shift on the role of strength training toward enhancing coordination and the efficiency of movement patterns. This type of work does not improve heavy lifting, but it is more functional because it develops more useable strength. For example, have athletes do an alternate dumbbell press instead of a two-arm press with a bar. Lunges and single-leg squats can be used for the
lower body. This will facilitate lateral transfer while also achieving standard strength gains. In core strength and stability training, it is very important to work both sides of the body in a balanced way. This does not take any extra effort—it just means setting up your drills to focus on both sides equally. It’s also a good idea to examine some everyday things athletes do that affect their lateral dominance. For example, base runners always run counterclockwise around the bases. To achieve greater balance, simply have them do a portion of their training—such as their daily warmup and cooldown runs—in a clockwise direction. This helps train the side of the body not normally used to give the runner balance when rounding the bases. Or, like the Olympic medalist javelin thrower, they could end practice with some easy-effort throws using their nondominant hand. These simple exercises can help them work toward the bilateral transfer that will help make them wellrounded athletes.
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Lastly, remember that lateral dominance is not just about training left and right body movements, but also about other nondominant patterns of movement. Therefore, work the following movement combinations into workouts where appropriate: ■ Right/Left ■ Forward/Back ■ Up/Down ■ Over/Under ■ Clockwise/Counterclockwise ■ Side and Diagonal. Training both sides of the body will ultimately enhance total movement skills. Doing so doesn’t mean you have to revamp your practices or workouts, it just requires thinking about going to “the other side” in your program design. It will open new movement territory, enhance body awareness, and help your athletes explore the body’s potential. ■ A version of this article was previously published in Training & Conditioning, a sister publication of Coaching Management.
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No
Barrel won’t flake
NEW Product Launch Stromgren Polar Gear™ Cold Weather Shirt (model 1258RLP) Unique features: • Antimicrobial fabric • Specially designed cold-weather pitching shirt with raglan sleeve and mock turtleneck • Compression sleeve fabric reduces arm and elbow fatigue
Absolute Swing Bat Unique features: • Available for youth and adult baseball and softball athletes • Includes exchangeable weight ends for strength and conditioning workouts • Small one-inch bat barrel is excellent for eye-hand coordination drills
Benefits for the user:
Benefits for the user: • Helps reduce fatigue in the throwing arm • Available in black, royal, and navy stock colors with many custom color options available • Available now from team sporting goods dealers
• Excellent biofeedback tool that allows athletes to key into all the dynamic components involved in swinging a bat by providing auditory, visual, and proprioception input, while also helping to condition and train specific muscles • Comes with an instructional DVD that offers tips and drills to help your players experience maximum performance improvement
Stromgren Supports 800-527-1988 www.stromgren.com
Swing Science 888-SWING-08 www.AbsoluteSwingBat.com
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Bac-Shield™ Unique features: • “Fills the gap” by making your hygiene program more effective • Inhibits reproduction of harmful microbes • Active ingredient chitosan has a long history of safe, effective applications Benefits for the user: • Use it for laundry, locker rooms, surfaces, mats, equipment—practically anywhere bacteria is present • Inhibits the growth of odor-causing bacteria, fungi, mold, and mildew
Adams USA 800-251-6857 www.adamsusa.com Circle No. 517
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MultiSpread™ 320 Ground Drive Unique features: • 1 1/4-cubic-yard heaped capacity unit is priced to fit your budget • Two-wheel ground drive • Patented widespread beater system Benefits for the user: • Larger capacity means fewer loads • Ground drive uses both wheels for better traction • Multi-directional beater for even spread distribution (60 to 72 inches)
Earth & Turf Products, LLC 888-693-2638 www.earthandturf.com Circle No. 518
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Hitting & Pitching Aids Aer-Flo, Inc. 800-823-7356 www.aerflo.com The patented Bunt Zone™ Infield Protector-Trainer features color-coded target areas built into a quality batting practice turf protector. It teaches batters where to bunt successfully for hits or sacrifice plays, plus pull-hitting and hit-and-run targeting—never bunt into the red “pitcher’s triangle.” It gives instant performance feedback. Sizes are available for all infields, including softball and Little League fields. The industrial vinyl-polyester mesh is spike resistant. Grommets and low-profile stakes are included. Circle No. 519 BK Productions 316-978-3636 www.brentkemnitz.com Pitching–the Mental Game, a 42-minute CD, offers insight into the mental aspects of pitching used by Wichita
State Pitching Coach Brent Kemnitz. In his 30 years as the Shockers’ pitching coach, Wichita State has developed a reputation as one of the nation’s top pitching schools. He shares knowledge and techniques that you can incorporate into your program. Get motivated and let your mind be your biggest strength. Circle No. 520 Zingbat 866-ZINGBAT www.zingbat.com Zingbat™ offers the Trainer Series product line. This economically priced version of the regular Pro Series Zingbat is ideal for youth players. The Trainer Series teaches batters basic swing mechanics. The Composite Zingbat Trainer is available in one length and weight
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Batting Cages Protective Screens Back Stops & Barriers Nets Pitching Machines Custom Sizes Available
The new and improved Instructo-Swing was developed to help hitters practice and learn how to swing a bat the correct way. By training with the InstructoSwing, the “good habits bars” help the hitter develop the correct path to the ball. The new angle adjustment feature assists hitters in developing the type of swing that produces line drives, hard ground balls, and fly balls that carry. Circle No. 522
(not designed for ball contact)
Take a solid swing to feel the full impact of our revolutionary patented sliding-weight mechanism. • • • •
Catalog Image
• •
Shop Online at: www.spinets.net South Padre Island Nets, Inc. 2001 Amistad Dr. San Benito, TX 78586 USA
GameMaster 859-746-9800 www.gamemasterathletic.com
WARM-UP & TRAINING BAT
Call for a Free Catalog Toll Free: (866) 243-6387 • •
(30 inches, 17 ounces), while the aluminum Pro Series can be customized to meet your team’s specific length and weight requirements. Call today for a free instructional CD or video. Circle No. 521
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Tel: (956) 276-9598 Fax: (956) 276-9691 Toll Free Fax: (866) 421-9691
Increases Bat Speed Builds Muscle Memory Encourages More Practice Swings Promotes Arm Extension Trough the Hitting Zone Amazing Ball-to-Bat Contact Feel All-Season Training (Indoor/ Outdoor) Can Be Used By Players of All Skill Levels (Professional, Collegiate, High School, Youth) Used for Both Baseball & Softball
Nutter Sports (div. of NMC, Inc.)
Affordable Quality Products to Play Hard
(740) 928-6025 www.warm-upbat.com
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Hitting & Pitching Aids Swing Speed Radar™ 888-542-9246 www.swingspeedradar.com The Swing Speed Radar™ from Sports Sensors is a small, inexpensive Doppler radar velocity sensor that measures the swing speed of baseball and softball batters. The Swing Speed Radar helps players develop optimum bat speed for distance and quickness, and bat control for consistent ball contact. The Swing Speed Radar provides real-time velocity feedback that assists players, coaches, and instructors in measuring performance improvement and troubleshooting swing mechanics. Circle No. 523 Glove Radar® 888-542-9246 www.gloveradar.com The Glove Radar® is a small, inexpensive, and accurate microwave Doppler radar device that attaches to the back of virtually any baseball or softball glove. It “sees” through the glove and
measures the speed of a ball thrown from any distance, just before the ball is caught. The Glove Radar can withstand softball impacts of more than 75 mph and baseball impacts up to 100 mph. Take it from Ken Griffey, Jr.—The Glove Radar is the ideal aid for developing the throwing skills of infielders, outfielders, pitchers, and catchers. The Glove Radar is a big hit among coaches, players, and parents, and it costs much less than most radar guns. Circle No. 524 Joyner Technologies, Inc. 770-867-1957 www.AllstarBP.com Joyner Technologies received the ABCA’s 2007 Best of Show award for its technologically advanced Allstar Ace 5000®. This programmable multi-pitch video simulator features Sports Tutor’s HomePlate pitching machine and SurePitch synchroniza-
tion system, making it an ideal baseball training tool. Coaches can choose from a wide variety of pitch types with different speeds and different locations, and also film their own pitchers. This video simulator is easy to operate with a remote start/stop and simple setup. Exciting lease options are available to accommodate all budgets. Circle No. 525 Master Pitching Machine, Inc. 800-878-8228 www.masterpitch.com The Iron Mike pitching machine features a throwing arm that lets batters see a full wind-up before the ball is pitched, allowing them to better develop the fundamental skills 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 a remote control, and carry a manufacturer’s warranty. Circle No. 526
START ONE.
MEASURE PITCH SPEED AND
SPIN
The DIAMOND STREAK
Fall 2007
Precise Reliable Immediate SPIN RATE Feedback A powerful tool - dramatic results for pitchers developing breaking ball pitches.
(866) 414-3040 RevFire.com Measure the Spin z Master the Spin tm
LIFE IS A SERIES OF LEFT TURNS™ 800.524.1236
www.ringor.com
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Hitting & Pitching Aids PIK Products Corp. 877-845-7845 www.pikproducts.com www.baseballtrainingaids.com The patented EZ Tee is lightweight, durable, and portable. The legs fold for EZ storage—no more clunky home plates. Use it with a golf-size Wiffle™ ball for sharpening handeye coordination, or with a baseball or softball. The friction collar makes for EZ adjustment. The rubber topper is flexible so it won’t damage game bats. It allows the hitter to strike the ball more cleanly, so the tee stays upright. The EZ Tee was voted Best New Product at the 2007 ABCA show. Circle No. 527 The Arm Strong from PIK Products helps develop proper fastpitch and overhand throwing mechanics and increases arm strength. It includes
an instructional DVD with six easy exercises to help you build a stronger throwing arm. The Arm Strong is easy to use and will safely train muscles for more power, velocity, and accuracy. The “real feel” rotating ball handle teaches proper full-arm circle throwing mechanics and provides instant error feedback. Multiple bands are included for ideal resistance training. The Arm Strong can be used indoors or out. Circle No. 528 RevFire 866-414-3040 www.revfire.com Easier to use than a radar gun, the RevFire measures the spin of pitches as well as the speed. It has been adopted by college programs across the countr y, and coaches who use it report dramatic results, such as
improved effectiveness of breaking pitches once pitchers are given spin rate feedback. The RevFire is quickly becoming standard equipment among high school programs, private instructors, and serious pitchers. Circle No. 529 Sports Attack 800-717-4251 www.SportsAttack.com The exclusive design of the Hack Attack baseball pitching machine allows the hitter to see the ball clearly all the way through the feeding motion, acceleration, and release, just like with a live pitcher. The Hack Attack throws unmatched rightand left-handed
BOOST INCOME POTENTIAL! Add quality stadium chairs to your outdoor facilities. Generate added income by selling “The Best Seats in the House” at a premium!
Huron High School Huron, OH
Series 3000 Stadium Chairs Both Floor and Tread Mount
Stadium Chairs: Blow Molded or Injection Molded PHONE: 800-552-9470 FAX: 716-549-9011 www.seatingservices.com
QUALITY STADIUM CHAIR MANUFACTURER Circle No. 135
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Hitting & Pitching Aids Major League fastballs and breaking pitches by simply changing the speed of the wheels with three dials, eliminating time-consuming adjustments of the throwing head. Circle No. 530 The Junior Hack Attack from Sports Attack is designed to develop serious young players. Its exclusive three-wheel vision allows the hitter to see the ball clearly all the way through the feeding motion, just like with a live pitcher. For developing hitters, nothing is more important than timing and vision. With just a quick turn of the dials, this machine can throw fastballs and breaking pitches. Circle No. 531
Sports Products Consultants 800-474-8243 www.timit.com
Sports Tutor 800-448-8867 www.sportsmachines.com
Are radar guns obsolete? Accurately keep track of pitch speeds from pee wee to pro with the patented ScoutWatch™. You just press and release on each pitch. It features an automatic pitch counter, time-downthe-line, and umpire mode. This product is used by pro and college scouts at functions where radar is prohibited. ScoutWatch is just one of the many great products available from Sports Products Consultants. Save $10 when you use the promo code “CMMAG” on your order form. Circle No. 532
The HomePlate pitching machine from Sports Tutor is the first programmable pitching machine designed for both batting cage and on-field use. You can store up to eight different pitches—including fastballs up to 90 mph, curveballs, changeups, sliders, and more—in eight different programs, with only seven seconds between pitches. The programmed pitches in the HomePlate can be thrown sequentially for specific hitting drills, randomly for game conditions, or in a way that simulates an opposing pitcher. Choose the 80-ball auto-feed model at $6,495, or the hand-feed model at $4,495. Circle No. 533
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ADVERTISERS DIRECTORY CIRCLE NO.
COMPANY
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Aalco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Adams USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Aer-Flo® . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 AXIS (EP Minerals) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Beacon Athletics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Beam Clay® . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 BetterBaseball . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 BWP Bats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Cages*Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Cardinal Publishers Group . . . . . . . 14 Diamond Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 eFundraising.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Fuller Five (Diamond Dirt) . . . . . . . . . . 26 Game-On Field Conditioner . . . . . . . 9 GameMaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Glove Radar/Swing Speed Radar . . 21 Heying Company (Infield Drag). . . . . . 50 Hoosier Bat Company . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Jaypro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC Joyner Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 M.A.S.A. Products (catalog) . . . . . . . . 7 M.A.S.A. Products (Fence Guard) . . . . 45 Master Pitching Machine . . . . . . . . . . 8 Measuring Plate (AKH Sports) . . . . . . . 8 Nutter Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Old Hickory Bats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
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Aalco . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Adams USA (Bac-Shield) . . . . . . . . . . . Adams USA (Chest Protector) . . . . . . . Adams USA (Leg Guards) . . . . . . . . . . Aer-Flo (Infield Protector-Trainer) . . . . . . Aer-Flo (Wind Weighted tarps) . . . . . . . Beacon Athletics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beam Clay® . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BetterBaseball (baseball supply) . . . . . BetterBaseball (Easy Auction) . . . . . . . BK Productions (Pitching by Brent Kemnitz) . Boathouse Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BWP Bats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cages*Plus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cardinal Publishers Group . . . . . . . Country Stone (Infield Topdressing) . . . Country Stone (Warning Track Mix) . . . Diamond Pro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Earth & Turf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EP Minerals (AXIS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . EP Minerals (PlayBall!) . . . . . . . . . . . . Fuller Five (Diamond Dirt) . . . . . . . . . . Game-On . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Game-On (Red) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . GameMaster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Glove Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Heying Company (Infield-Drag) . . . . . Hoosier Bat Company . . . . . . . . . . . Jaypro (Dry Line Field Markers) . . . . . . . Jaypro (Safety Protector) . . . . . . . . . . . Joyner Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . M.A.S.A. (Fence Guard Lite) . . . . . . . . . M.A.S.A. (White Line Markers) . . . . . . . Master Pitching Machine . . . . . . . .
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Personal Pitcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 PIK Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BC Pitching by Brent Kemnitz . . . . . . . . 21 PlayBall! (EP Minerals) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Pro’s Choice Field Products . . . . . . . 4 Promats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Qualite Sports Lighting . . . . . . . . . . 19 Redfield by Country Stone . . . . . . . 46 RevFire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Ringor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Russell Athletic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 ScorePAD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Seating Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Soft Touch Bases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Southern Athletic Fields . . . . . . . . . 32 SPI Nets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Sports Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBC Sports Tutor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Stabilizer Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Turface Athletics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Universal Sports Lighting . . . . . . . . . 3 VPI Sports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 WeatherBeater® . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Xvest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Zingbat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
PRODUCTS DIRECTORY
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Measuring Plate (AKH Sports) . . . . . . Nutter Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Old Hickory Bats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PIK Products (Arm Strong) . . . . . . . . . PIK Products (EZ Tee) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Power Systems (Bola Trainer) . . . . . . . Power Systems (L-Bands system) . . . . . Pro’s Choice (Rapid Dry) . . . . . . . . . . . Pro’s Choice (Select) . . . . . . . . . . . . . Profile Products (Pro League® Red). . . Profile Products (Quick Dry) . . . . . . . . Promats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Qualite Sports Lighting . . . . . . . . . . RevFire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ringor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Russell Athletic (NXT) . . . . . . . . . . . . Russell Athletic (Ventilator jersey) . . . . Seating Services Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . Soft Touch Bases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Southern Athletic Fields . . . . . . . . . SPI Nets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sports Attack (Hack Attack) . . . . . . . . Sports Attack (Junior Hack Attack). . . . Sports Products Consultants . . . . . Sports Tutor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stabilizer Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stromgren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Swing Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Swing Speed Radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . Universal Sports Lighting . . . . . . . . VPI Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . WeatherBeater® by Colorado Lining . . Xvest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Zingbat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Company News
Reduce Sports Injuries by Keeping Your Fields in Top Shape Bannerman offers four aerators with widths ranging from 18 inches to 15 feet. Extend your aeration program throughout the season with the use of core tines, slitter tines, and fracture
Testimonial
Game-On Launches New Sports Field Soil Conditioner In case you haven’t heard, Game-On is a new sports field soil conditioner available in the marketplace. The product line includes soil conditioners, drying agents, and a brick-red topdressing product. “After renovating our toughest fields with Game-On, all I can say is wow!” Jack Castle Department of Recreation & Parks Columbus, OH Here are just a few more satisfied Game-On customers:
tines. Drain off excess surface water and reduce extreme compaction without surface disturbance. Your fields will stay safer and healthier, and they’ll be ready to stand up to continuous use throughout long sports seasons. When Bannerman’s customers aerate, seed, topdress, edge, groom, or line their facilities, they do it with confidence. When your players’ safety comes first, look to Bannerman. The company has been performing sports turf magic for nearly 50 years, helping athletic field managers save time and money while maintaining safe and attractive facilities.
Bannerman Ltd. 41 Kelfield St. Rexdale, ON M9W 5A3 Canada 800-665-2696 (U.S.) 800-325-4871 (Canada) info@sportsturfmagic.com www.sportsturfmagic.com
Ashland University - Ashland, OH Osceola Sports Complex - Kissimmee, FL Cuyahoga Community College - Cleveland, OH North Baltimore High School - North Baltimore, OH Mt. Vernon Nazarene - Mt. Vernon, OH Cleveland State University - Cleveland, OH Shaw High School - East Cleveland, OH Grove City Parks - Grove City, OH Pike High School - Indianapolis, IN Clay Junior High School - Carmel, IN Pickerington Youth - Pickerington, OH Dublin Scioto High School - Dublin, OH Sportsfields, Inc. - Chicago, IL Westerville Central High School Westerville, OH City of Independence, OH Mendota High School - Mendota, IL Westerville North High School Westerville, OH Recreation Association of Highland Hinckley, OH Pickerington High School Pickerington, OH Ridgeville Christian High School Springboro, OH
Game-On 8900 Hemlock Road Cleveland, OH 44131 888-593-0395 Fax: 216-524-4069 www.hayditegame-on.com
Company News
Athletes Stay Active with Cho-Pat’s Dual Action Knee Strap “Just thought I would drop you a note. Several years ago, I had knee replacement surgery as a result of too many hours on the tennis court. As a part-time tennis teaching professional, the pain was almost overwhelming, even after the surgery. I bought one of your Dual Action braces a few months ago (I have tried every brace on the market), and I can’t tell you what it has done for my comfort as well as my game. I am playing competitively again and can chase down balls with confidence and without pain. This is the greatest thing since graphite tennis racquets. I just ordered another one! Thanks.” M. John Velier Las Vegas, NV “I’ve been using the Dual Action Knee Strap for nearly a month now, and I’ve gone from only being able to take brisk walks to comfortably following a walk-run routine. I’ve been diagnosed with chondromalacia patella, and the knee strap offers excellent comfort during exercise and added stability and support, so I can enjoy my workout pain-free. Thank you.” Dorothy Tagan “Several months ago, I purchased a pair of your Dual Action Knee Straps. I’m happy to report that they are the finest of several different kinds of straps I’ve tried. They provide just the kind of support I need. I’ll be looking forward to using them when hiking in the Canadian Rockies in a few weeks.” Arthur Jensen New Wilmington, PA
Cho-Pat, Inc. P. O. Box 293 Hainesport, NJ 08036 800-221-1601 sales@cho-pat.com www.cho-pat.com COACHING MANAGEMENT
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Baseball Field Aalco Mfg. Co. 800-537-1259 www.aalcomfg.com
fact, it can be put up or taken down in just 10 minutes. All Beacon systems are designed to meet your needs. Circle No. 536
Baseball Coaches and Facility Owners who demand quality workmanship, superior performance, and aesthetically pleasing design depend on Aalco for custom interior and exterior baseball equipment. Family owned since 1946, Aalco has more than 100,000 installations worldwide. The company’s ProWall and Batter’s Eye systems require little to no maintenance and can withstand the toughest conditions. Aalco’s GrandSlam Batting Cage is an industry leader used by top baseball programs in the country. Circle No. 534
BetterBaseball is a total baseball supply house, specializing in nets and batting cages that are custom cut to any size you want. The company provides quick, friendly customer service. BetterBaseball supplies everything, including bases, plates, mounds, gear, and hardware. All team equipment needs can be found easily online, or you can call the company toll-free for more product information. Circle No. 537
Aer-Flo, Inc. 800-823-7356 www.aerflo.com
Cages*Plus 866-475-9148 www.cagesplus.com
Wind Weighted® baseball tarps are virtually windproof. These rain covers for the mound, home plate, and the bullpens have steel chain in their edge hem, so wind cannot get under them. They stay down in high winds without stakes or sandbags. They’re also easy to install, remove, and store. Tough, waterproof vinyl-polyester fabric is treated for UV rays and mildew. These patented tarps are protected by a threeyear factory warranty, and they’re widely used by high schools, colleges, and even Major League teams. Circle No. 535
Since 1998, Cages*Plus has been offering affordable, portable, durable, and safe batting cages that are easy to set up. Everything is included except the 10-foot frame poles, which are available at your local hardware store. As an added bonus, the cage comes with a complete L-screen. The cage can be used indoors or out, and uneven ground is not a problem. The unique design, with the net hung over the frame, results in very little abrasion and wear and tear on the net. Once it’s set up, you won’t believe that your program ever got by without it. Circle No. 538
Beacon Athletics 800-747-5985 www.beaconathletics.com The Tensioned Batting Cage by Beacon Athletics is designed for indoor or outdoor use. Its design accommodates space restrictions, bleachers, and stage areas. It’s ideal for outdoor use because it can be taken down during inclement weather. In
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COACHING MANAGEMENT
BetterBaseball 800-997-4233 www.betterbaseball.com
Colorado Lining 888-546-4641 www.weather-beater.com Protect your field with WeatherBeater’s® athletic covers. The company’s products include field covers, sideline covers, infield shields, windscreens, event flooring, gym floor covers, custom logo printing, and more.
WeatherBeater, by Colorado Lining, has more than 28 years and half a billion square feet of experience converting plastics for various industries. For literature and more information, call today or visit the company online. Circle No. 539 Country Stone 309-787-1744 Redfield Infield Topdressing by Country Stone is used on the skinned areas of baseball and softball fields as a topdressing and conditioner. Excellent for improving aesthetics, Redfield reduces compaction and crusting caused by the hardening of clay, silt, and limestone, especially in high-traffic areas. With its natural color, Redfield will not fade or permanently stain uniforms. It works well in conjunction with calcined and vitrified clays, and is available in bulk or by the bag. Circle No. 540 When searching for a warning track that looks good, plays well, and is easy to manage, look no further than Redfield Warning Track Mix by Country Stone. This 100-percent natural aggregate provides an excellent transition zone between the turf and the fence, making the ball more visible from a distance and serving as an effective warning for players. Redfield can improve the aesthetics, playability, and manageability of any field. Redfield Warning Track Mix is available in bulk. Circle No. 541 Game-On 888-593-0395 www.hayditegame-on.com Game-On is a sports field soil conditioner that will not break your budget and will provide excellent results. It is a lightweight, expandedshale product that absorbs more than 20 percent of its weight in water. Game-On is more durable than clay products and tends not to break down into
Baseball Field fine particles. The Game-On product line also includes Game-On Red topdressing, Game-On warning track mix, and Game Dry drying agent. Game-On is available both in bags and in bulk. Circle No. 542 Game-On hits a home run with Game-On Red topdressing. Game-On Red has a brick-red color and gives your field that professional finishing touch. It offers a more consistent bounce, and the deep red color allows your infielders to see the ball more easily. Game-On Red is available in bags and in bulk. Circle No. 543 EP Minerals, LLC 800-366-7607 www.epminerals.com Use AXIS® premium soil amendments in your turf root zones to add porosity, air
and water holding capacity, and water availability for a healthier and more resilient turfgrass system. AXIS absorbs up to 142 percent of its weight in water. Virtually all of its water is made available to the turf roots as needed, reducing irrigation costs by 30 percent. Made from 100-percent calcined diatomaceous earth for strength, AXIS will not break down or float in the soil. Circle No. 544 PlayBall! infield conditioner from EP Minerals is made from 100-percent calcined diatomaceous earth for maximum durability. Because of its low density, large pore space, and 10-percent-by-volume application rate, you can effectively condition more field for less money. PlayBall! is highly absorbent, soaking up as much as 130 percent of its weight in water. Use it in your infield mix to permanently reduce compaction, increase drainage, and create a more playable surface. You can also use it as a topdressing for puddle control and protection against rainouts. Circle No. 545
Fuller Five Landscape Supply 888-749-2880 www.fuller5.net Fuller Five Landscape Supply provides Diamond Dirt athletic surface products for baseball and softball fields. The company’s products include warning track materials, infield fine mixes, infield conditioners, infield quick-dry products, and topdressings. These products provide a smooth and safe infield playing surface that retains adequate moisture to decrease dust while allowing quick drainage and absorption. Visit the company’s Web site to check out its Red Infield Conditioner, Red Absorb, Red Mound Mix, Red Infield Fines, and Red Warning Track Material. Circle No. 546
Home Run, LLC d/b/a
HOOSIER BAT COMPANY Fast becoming THE name for bats. We have what the players want!
WOOD FUNGO Guaranteed Never Flakes • No Taping Required
GAME BATS Major League Stock • Minor League Stock
WOODFORCE 2000 Hickory Hitting Area- No Taping Required Game Use Approval for Short Season A and Rookie League NCAA BESR Certified 28 B.P. 3-Piece Bat for One Hand, Soft Toss and T drills
ORDER YOURS TODAY Fax 219-465-0877 • e-mail:baseball@netnitco.net 1-800-BAT-ERUP (228-3787)
www.hoosierbat.com The Bat used by Frank Thomas for his 500th Home Run Circle No. 139
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Baseball Field Heying Co. 712-756-8847 www.infield-drag.com
Jaypro Sports, LLC 800-243-0533 www.jaypro.com
Restore and maintain your infield quickly and easily, and keep granular infields level, well-groomed, and in safe playing condition with the PR72 Pro Groomer™ Infield Drag. It levels infields, warning tracks, granular running tracks, and more by cutting off high spots and filling in low areas. It can be used to mix in new material or to break up hard, compacted surfaces. It saves labor, reduces water puddling problems, removes weeds, and more. This six-foot-wide unit has no need for hydraulics or a three-point hitch. It can be pulled with a variety of towing machines. No tools are needed to make adjustments, and it is available with a manual or an electric lift. Circle No. 547
Jaypro’s Professional Pitcher’s Safety Protector is a versatile 7’ x 7’ L-shaped net that accommodates left- and righthanded pitchers and works well with both pitching machines and live-arm delivery. It is constructed of heavy-gauge 1-5/8” (outside diameter) galvanized-steel tubing with a durable, attractive green powder-coat finish. Heavy-duty galvanized legs provide extra rigidity. The unit is black and comes with a weatherproof #42 knotless doublesided slip-on nylon net. It is shown with the optional wheel kit. Circle No. 548 Jaypro’s Dry Line Field Markers provide crews with the precision control needed for two-inch or four-inch lines. The field markers include 11-gauge steel containers, handle-mounted control levers for
instant on/off, half-inch steel axle bushings and drive shafts, and oversized foam rubber hand grips. They are available in 25-, 50-, and 65-pound capacities, and heavy-duty models are available in 50- and 100-pound capacities. Each unit is protected by an 18month warranty. For more information, call Jaypro or visit the company online. Circle No. 549 M.A.S.A., Inc. 800-264-4519 www.masa.com www.sportsadvantage.com M.A.S.A. has welcomed the new Fence Guard Lite to its family of fence guards. The Fence Guard Lite is priced for the tightest budgets. It pro-
By
Athletic Field Division
Warning Track Mix
Topdressing and Infield Conditioner Deep colored REDFIELD improves moisture control and field compaction issues while achieving true ball play and providing easy maintenance. Works in conjunction with calcined and vitrified clays.
Used by Pro teams for its superior performance in stability, drainage and aesthetic appeal with a natural color that will not fade.
Phone: (309) 787-1744 Fax: (309) 787-2755 www.CountryStone.com
Call Country Stone or your local distributor for more information Circle No. 141
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Baseball Field tects against chain link fence injuries, increases fence visibility, and can add beauty to any field. With the addition of Fence Guard Lite, M.A.S.A. now has three grades of fence guards: Premium, Standard, and Lite. All three feature exterior-grade UV-resistant polyethylene construction that is maintenance-free and designed to produce the longest-lasting fence caps available. Call or visit the company’s Web site for more information. Circle No. 550 M.A.S.A. carries a large selection of heavy-duty White Line Markers that are constructed for a lifetime of use. The company’s All Star Pneumatic Wheel version is its top-selling liner, with durable construction and unique features to meet even the toughest demands. For more than 20 years, White Line Markers have been respected as some of the most accurate and durable markers available. Call a M.A.S.A. representative for knowledgeable expertise to help you choose a marker that’s best for your organization and budget. For more information, visit the company’s Web site. Circle No. 551
make it the perfect topdressing to keep your infield smooth, safe, and resilient. For winning fields season after season, use what the pros use—choose Pro’s Choice Select. Circle No. 553 Beam Clay® 800-247-BEAM www.beamclay.com Beam Clay® offers FenceGuards™ protective covers for chain-link fencing. FenceGuards are available in six colors— safety yellow, dark green, red, white,
blue, and orange—and in premium, standard, and lite grades. These heavy-duty, UV-resistant polyethylene covers protect players from chain-link fence injuries and provide a neat and distinctive look for fencing. FenceGuards come in cartons of 10 eight-foot pre-drilled sections and include UV-resistant ties for securing every two feet to the fence. Circle No. 554
Pro’s Choice 800-648-1166 www.proschoice1.com Rapid Dry drying agent quickly wicks excess water away from your playing field and helps improve soil consistency. It’s not a dusty powder, and its granules are perfectly sized for both stability and absorption. Rapid Dry’s sand-like texture even improves footing on slippery surfaces. Just pour it on any wet spots and get back in the game, fast. When you need a game saver, you want Rapid Dry drying agent in the lineup. Circle No. 552 Pro’s Choice Select premium infield conditioner has a unique blend of particle sizes and a deep red color that gives your field the look of a professional ballpark. The small, uniformly sized granules Circle No. 142 COACHING MANAGEMENT
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Baseball Field Profile Products, LLC 800-207-6457 www.turface.com The first and only patented red calcined clay conditioner, Turface Pro League Red combines rich color with proven infield conditioning benefits to create superior sliding and fielding surfaces. Compared to other crushed aggregates, Pro League Red absorbs more water and requires half the tonnage to obtain half-inch coverage. Used by the Houston Astros, a 2005 World Series team, Pro League Red offers maximum rainout protection. Circle No. 555 After rain, Turface Quick Dry from Profile Products makes muddy, slippery conditions a thing of the past. It’s a perfect topdressing for before or during rain if you need to dry up field areas. Quick Dry will not cake,
become slippery, or turn your field rockhard. Not only does it keep surfaces from becoming muddy, but it also prevents the destruction of turf. Just apply Quick Dry to wet areas and rake it in for this product to work time and time again. Circle No. 556 Promats 800-678-6287 www.promats.com Z-clip attached Field Wall Pads from Promats are constructed of 3/4-inchthick exterior-grade (sealed) plywood and three-inch high-impact foam, and they’re covered in 16-ounce high-UV vinyl. This style of wall padding is used on concrete, masonry, block, or wooden walls. Because the vinyl is stretched tight and stapled to the back of the plywood, this product is ideal for applying advertising copy or logos directly to the pad surface. Circle No. 557
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Qualite Sports Lighting partnered with local officials in a growing community in Iowa to plan and install a lighting system within their limited budget. Randy Chiri, President of Granger Youthball in Granger, Iowa, says: “Qualite did exactly what they promised. The work was completed on time and the Qualite fixtures provide us with more light and better uniformity than is required by Little League lighting standards.” Circle No. 558 Seating Services Inc. 800-552-9470 www.seatingservices.com When Huron High School in Ohio wanted to convert its bleachers into grandstands with self-rising stadium chairs, they chose Seating Services’ Tread
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Qualite Sports Lighting, Inc. 800-933-9741 www.qualite.com
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Baseball Field Mount and Floor Mount Series 3000 Cardinal Model. There was only 24 inches of space per row, but with some slight alterations to the planking, the seats were a perfect fit. The gravity-tipped, blow-molded chairs meet safety codes while providing excellent comfort. This project was completed on aluminum, but the chairs are also ideal for wood, steel, or concrete. Seat widths can vary from 18 to 22 inches. Use them to create VIP seating for a great fundraiser. Circle No. 559 Southern Athletic Fields 800-837-8062 www.mulemix.com Southern Athletic Fields (SAF) specializes in a wide variety of quality products, including infield mixes, mound and packing clays, soil conditioners, calcined clays, dr ying agents, infield topdressing, warning track materials,
and field maintenance accessories. SAF is a one-stop source for athletic field needs. Circle No. 560 SPI Nets, Inc. 866-243-6387 www.spinets.net SPI Nets’ full-service net building facility offers the highest-quality nets at unbeatable prices. The company stocks and custom builds a wide variety of nylon and poly batting cage nets, protective screens, and deflective barrier netting products. All custom nets are guaranteed to be of the highest quality, built in the USA to meet all your needs. Call SPI Nets toll-free or go online to learn more. Circle No. 561
Stabilizer Solutions, Inc. 800-336-2468 www.stabilizersolutions.com Stabilizer is a natural soil binder that produces a firm, resilient playing surface while reducing dust and retaining moisture. Hilltopper mound and home plate clay combines lasting polymers and natural clays to make your mound and home plate areas flexible and stable. No water is needed—just tamp and play. Stabilizer Pro Gold infield mix adds life and resiliency while reducing dust and mud. It creates a long-lasting surface that requires little maintenance. Circle No. 562
Check out
www.AthleticBid.com to contact these companies.
The Choice of the Pros Customized Maple & Ash cut to your specs Training Bats & Fungos also available
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Baseball Field TXI/Diamond Pro 800-228-2987 www.diamondpro.com
Universal Sports Lighting 217-648-5201 www.uslnet.com
Soft Touch Bases 866-544-2077 www.softtouchbases.com
Diamond Pro offers a complete line of professional groundskeeping products: infield conditioners, calcined clay, mound and home plate clay, bricks, marking dust, and infield and warning track mixes. The company offers fast and convenient delivery. Diamond Pro’s vitrified red clay infield conditioner is available in bulk nationwide, and is easy to handle and apply. Truckloads are available in 10-, 15-, and 24-ton loads that save you both time and money. Create an all-around safe and professional infield playing surface for your team. Circle No. 563
The baseball field at the LaPlata County (Colo.) Fairgrounds features a lighting system Universal Sports
Soft Touch “progressive release” bases are designed to flex and absorb energy as a player slides into the base. In the case of uncontrolled slides, the “progressive release” action allows the base to flex until enough force is applied to “pop” the base free from its mount, unlike a stationary base. Circle No. 565
Lighting that maintains 50 footcandles of light in the infield and 30 footcandles in the outfield. Following IES design criteria, this field has a system that can provide consistent levels of light throughout its lifespan. The lighting system is environmentally sensitive—it includes internal controls that provide outstanding spill and glare control. Circle No. 564
Vantage Products International 800-244-4457 www.vpisports.com VPI offers the Big Bubba professional portable batting cage. The Big Bubba is one of the leading choices for high school, college, and professional baseball programs—and is available at considerable cost savings. Its heavy-duty aluminum construction, easy portability, and collapsible design make it the perfect backstop for any level. Measuring 18’ W x 12’ H x 22’ D, the Big Bubba collapses to only five feet high. Its unique dolly assembly at the rear and 16-inch pneumatic wheels make relocation simple. Circle No. 566 AKH Sports, Inc. 888-406-4347 www.hplate.com
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The Measuring Plate is perfect for all levels of play in baseball and softball. It’s easy to use and features a light1 2/1/07 2:22:22 PM weight double-wall design. Use it for pitching practice www.Infield-Drag.com and warmup, pitchTM er/catcher camps PR72 Pro Groomer The perfect machine Use to Maintain, and clinics for all for everyday maintenance of Infields, Warning Restore & Build ages, indoor trainTracks and much more! Keeps infields Infields! ing and practice, level, well-groomed and in safe playing and off-season condition for athletes. practice away from Controls Weeds, Deters Water the field. Advanced Puddling, & Saves Labor! uses include flat practice (baseball Levels, Smoothens, pitching), pitching rehab (all levels), and Mixes, and Breaks Up private instruction and training. It meaManual Hard Infields. sures 60’ 6” and is made with rugged or electric UV and weather resistant HDPE plastic PR72-E,166,b lift available. Complete info at www.Infield-Drag.com with adjustable fiberglass tape. Heying Co. 515 6th Ave. Alton, IA 51003 Ph. (712) 756-8847 Circle No. 567
Infield Drag
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Company Q&A
Using Pitching Machines to Improve Hitting at Cal-Berkeley David Esquer represents the best in college baseball—first as a player, then as an assistant coach, and finally as head baseball coach at the University of California-Berkley. As a player, Esquer was the starting shortstop on Stanford University’s 1987 national championship squad. As an assistant coach with Stanford and Pepperdine, he helped produce six NCAA postseason teams and one World Series participant. As Cal’s coach, Esquer led the Bears to the program’s ninth NCAA regional in 2001 while being named Pacific 10 Conference Coach of the Year in only his second season. Why did you decide to invest in a pitching machine? Last year, we really struggled to get runs. We decided to focus on hitting—on getting our average up. We think the feel of a real ball at contact is key in training. At the time, the pitching machine we owned wasn’t really effective. It rapidly wore out real leather balls, and they frequently got stuck in the machine. Players were frustrated by the constant interruptions. One of the first things that drew our attention to the Hack Attack was its ability to throw leather baseballs consistently and without any interruptions. Was that the only reason you purchased a Hack Attack?
Sports Attack P.O. Box 1529 Verdi, NV 89439 800-717-4251 Fax: 775-345-2883 info@sportsattack.com www.sportsattack.com
No, it was just what first got our attention. As soon as we got one in a cage, we found that many things made it incredibly effective. It’s far more accurate, especially with breaking pitches. It also lets you see the ball through the throwing process like live arm motion. Not only did delays due to ball problems disappear, but changing from fastballs to curveballs or left- to righthanded breaking pitches is very easy with the speed control dials and the elevation handle. There is no slow, awk-
ward, complicated process like we used to experience with our unbalanced twowheel machines. The third wheel on the Hack Attack changes everything. Exactly how do you use the Hack Attack in your practices? We now have three Hack Attacks. We set up a hitting station for each one in a circuit that we use daily, including for batting practice on game days. One station is for right- and left-handed curveballs, the second is for fastballs, and the third is where we move the machine up and hit against a short fastball without a stride to improve bat quickness. We just ordered a fourth machine for an additional fastball station with change-of-location. We want one on the field all the time, so we plan to buy a fifth machine for defensive and bunting drills. When we take a machine on the field now, we spend a lot of time on cut-offs, and it has allowed us to double our outfield work. We’ve never been able to get such quality repetition on hard-to-hit fungo work until now. The Hack Attack is a solid machine— is it easy to move around? It is the easiest machine to set up and operate that we’ve ever used. It moves quickly on and off the field. One player or coach can roll it anywhere. It used to be a struggle to get players to help set up and put away machines. That’s no longer a problem, and that is saying something. What results have you seen from using the Hack Attack? It has made a measurable improvement in our hitting—more than 40 points over the past two years. We credit much of our improvement to the Hack Attack. We think it’s the best investment in our team that we could have made.
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Calling Cards Here is what these companies are most known for:
For reservations, contact Choice Sports Travel. www.choicesportstravel.com
Cost-effective complete lighting systems for athletic facilities. www.uslnet.com
Providing top-quality field materials, maintenance equipment, and technical assistance. www.beaconathletics.com
“Creating a safer place to play” with protective wall padding. www.promats.com
An excellent strength-enhancing, power-producing conditioning tool. www.thexvest.com
Winning taste... Championship results. www.cytosport.com
A leader in innovative, quality sports training equipment. www.sportsattack.com
Accept “No Substitutions” for quality sports products. www.adamsusa.com
Save-A-Tooth by Phoenix-Lazerus is an emergency knocked-out tooth preserving system. www.save-a-tooth.com
Web News For Facility Seating Projects, Check Out E&D Online
Need Quality Equipment? Check Out the Rogers Athletic Site
E&D Specialty Stands has an impressive Web site that contains everything you want to know about grandstands and bleachers. View specs for permanent beam grandstands, angle frames, press boxes, and more. See photos of completed E&D projects, and read about all the services that the company offers. There is a page with information about the company, and a portfolio of its clients. E&D Specialty Stands prides itself on being forthright in its dealings with customers, representatives, and suppliers, and on conducting its business according to the highest legal and ethical standards.
Go online to see why winning teams turn to Rogers Athletic. The company’s user-friendly Web site directs you to all types of training equipment—for offense, defense, youth players, and even strength training. Also, for a limited time, see how you can get a Lev Sled in a custom color. You can also request a free training DVD and a Rogers Athletic catalog at the site.
www.edstands.com A Better Team Starts with Sports Attack At Sports Attack’s Web site, you will learn about every aspect of the company’s quality baseball, softball, volleyball, and tennis training equipment. The site begins by describing in detail what makes the design of its equipment unique and effective. There are detailed specs for each unit, as well as information on how Sports Attack stands up against the competition. The site also includes quotes from top coaches and a list of hundreds of customers from across the country, organized by state. Go online today and learn about the equipment that enables athletes at all levels to reach their full potential and helps coaches to develop championship teams.
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www.rogersathletic.com Enlighten Yourself at Universal Sports Lighting’s Site Universal Sports Lighting offers top-quality sports lighting systems. Visit the company’s Web site to find out why USL’s specifications are based on one factor—performance. The company says: “We welcome competition and offer an open specification so the customer can acquire the best performance for the investment.” Universal Sports Lighting offers excellent performance for sports applications worldwide. The site illustrates with photos and video clips the reasons why USL is an industry leader in providing cost-effective systems for professional venues and recreational facilities alike.
www.uslnet.com
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PIK offers the very best in training aids including the Swift Stik™, Bat Ax™, Grand Slam™, Arm Strong™, Head Down Trainers™, & EZ Tee™.
Contact your local team dealer or call 877.845.7845
www.pikproducts.com
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