Three stages of a sprint

I hope you enjoyed yesterday’s interview with Coach Jay Jones.  If you
didn’t hear it, click HERE.  During the interview, he mentioned three
 stages or parts to a sprint.  He explained it by saying it’s like the gears of a car.  You have to get the most out of each gear before putting it into the […]

Improving foot speed

If speed is so important in baseball, why don’t many players specifically train to make themselves faster?  They spend a lot of time improving handwork and glove work to improve the quickness of their catching and throwing transitions.  They hit the weight room to improve strength, bat speed, and power.  They may run some sprints […]

Website updates

Just wanted to pass on some updates from the Baseball By The Yard website. The comments section of the posts are now working.  Up until now there was a very annoying error message that appeared for those trying to comment on a post.  Please feel free to comment now on any post you wish.  I […]

Best gift for a young player

If you are a player or parent/coach of a player, you are probably hoping the holidays are good to you in the way of baseball.  I’ve always felt that if a player wants to go far in the game, a lot of it will have to do with his work away from the field.  If […]

2B Double Plays Part 4

Today is the last of the four part series on double plays for second basemen.  Often you will see MLB second basemen line up behind the bag on double plays.  This last part explains how they do it and more importantly, why many do it that way. I hope they were useful!   &nbsp

2B Double Plays Part 3

Happy Thanksgiving!! Today it’s backing off the bag and common mistakes second basemen make in the process.

2B Double Plays Part 2

2B Double Plays Part 1

Here is Part 1 of 4 videos on double plays for second baseman.  This part focusses on the footwork of coming across the bag to turn the double play.   NOTE: Coming across the bag is a good option for second basemen when the feeds are coming from a farther distance – deep shortstop and […]

Trout or Cabrera

The Great Political Divide has spread to baseball.  Not between Democrats and Republicans but between people on the field (players and coaches) and Sabermetric people.  If you’ve been following Major League Baseball closely over the past few years, you had to have noticed the increased emphasis on Sabermetric calculations on the worth of players.  A […]

Ideas for interviews?

In the next few weeks I will be doing a few podcast style interviews with a local scout, a professional manager, and a person who is very knowledgeable about NCAA Clearinghouse regulations and college admissions.  I want to make sure I ask questions that are of interest and value to my readers.  If there is […]

Getting pitchers ready for the season

The other day I received a great question from a reader.  Because many coaches deal with this issue, I asked permission to use the question and my response in a post.  The reader was willing so here it is! Reader: I wanted to know if you have any advice on how to transition our pitchers […]

Stool drill for fielding

If you are a Phillies fan, you probably saw a number of photos like the one to the right showing second baseman Chase Utley rehabbing from his recurring knee issues.  He missed a number of games early this past season but that didn’t stop him from working out to keep himself sharp while decreasing the […]

Indoor long-tossing

One of the goals of baseball players, especially pitchers, is to build arm strength during the off-season months.  In my opinion, one of the best ways to do that is a good long-tossing program.  A while back I interviewed a guy named Alan Jaeger (www.JaegerSports.com) who has become somewhat of a guru for long-tossing.  If […]

Base stealing – tennis ball drill

Here is a drill that can be easily done indoors during these colder months.  It’s a drill that focusses on a base runner’s starts when attempting to steal.  Good base stealers get good jumps and this drill teaches and improves this very basic need for runners. To do the drill, have a runner get a […]

Being a one percent-er

This past campaign season, much was made of the 1% of people at the top of the economic ladder.  One mistake many of their critics make is having the belief that the 1% got to where they are by accident.  Surely some have inherited their fortunes from their ancestors but most got there based on […]

Use your voice to focus the mind

How many of you can listen to someone talk and be thinking of something totally different than what the person is talking about?  If you are a guy, you better have your hand up because I think men are hard wired to do this.  Now … While you are talking about something, how many of […]

Election 2012

People are waking up today to find that the President of the United States has been re-elected in this year’s Presidential race.  On one side there will be cheers and the other tears.  Such is life. As a social studies teacher, I follow politics fairly closely.  What always amazes me is how many people on […]

Coach them everyday

I had lunch with a friend of mine yesterday who was a very accomplished coach in a sport other than baseball.  He said when it came to practice, he had a slogan he adhered to.  It was, “every player, every day.”  What he meant by that was he would make it a point to coach […]

How and Why

There is a quote that I like which says, “The person who knows HOW will always have a job.  The person who knows WHY will be his boss.” It’s a good quote for the business community but in my opinion, it also has a coaching angle. This time of year players and their parents usually […]

Don’t neglect your catchers

Here’s a YouTube video I came across that shows some Yankee catchers working out in Spring Training.  It’s a long video so click through it to get the idea of the two drills.  Here are a couple comments to think about as you watch. 1. Hitting balls into the dirt for a blocking drill is […]

Hurricane Sandy

No game today! My parent’s house is the second roof down on the right.  This photo was taken on the morning before the storm landed.  Will be checking it out this weekend. Cross your fingers for us!