Young hitters and loading up for safety

When coaching young newbies in the game, safety becomes a large part of your focus.  In the eyes of these coaches, if everyone goes home without blood on their uniform, it was a good day.  Coaching older players is a bit different.  Safety is not as much of a concern so you can afford to spend […]

Repost: Pre-season checklists

About this time last year I posted a set of checklists for coaches so that they can better plan their practices at the start of the season.  It was a very popular post in terms of readership so I thought I would re-post them for new readers who may not have seen them.  Each list […]

Drill tutorials

At the beginning of the season, coaches want to pack in as many drills as possible before games begin.   They have a ton to cover and not much time to work with.  Because of the rush, coaches often don’t take the time to teach and/or review how to specifically and correctly perform each drill. […]

The importance of learning to run the bases

Every year that I coached at the high school level I would start the season teaching my players how to correctly run the bases.  It literally was the very first thing we would do at the start of the very first practice after the teams are picked.  I’d take them around the bases stopping at […]

It’s time to train for speed!

In my neck of the woods, players have about one or two more weeks before their school tryouts begin.  Hopefully, players have been training their bodies over the last several months to prepare.   During these months players usually train to improve their overall size and strength.  With a couple weeks left to go, players […]

A tip for infielders as the offseason winds down

High school baseball in my area will be starting within the next two weeks.  Individual players and teams have been working out to prepare but in the Northeast those workouts have overwhelmingly been indoors.  The problem with that is that no matter how you work out indoors, it just isn’t the same as being outdoors. […]

Take two aspirin and …

One of the many challenges of being a teacher is dealing with the common question “I don’t get it.”  The challenge involves quickly coming up with another explanation, another analogy, a different phrase or set of words, etc. that the student can relate to in order to get them to understand the content.  Saying “Sorry, […]

Dugout cards: Helping batters improve their approach

Here are a few situations that I guarantee will get your coaching blood pressure up: A hard thrower enters the game for the other team and proceeds to throw every warm-up pitch high and out of the strike zone.  Your first batter swings and misses at the first pitch that is at his shoulders. A […]

Hands or head to the low pitch?

Last week I received another good question from a reader who asked “on a low pitch, some say to drop your hands to the ball.  Others say drop your head to the ball.  What do you teach?” Here was my response: “Often when it comes right down to it, both camps differ mostly on semantics as […]

Hitters: Be athletic when you land

One of the many challenges of working with younger players is trying to get them to make the most of whatever  their body has in terms of power, quickness, and overall athleticism.  One way we try to accomplish this for hitters is to put them in a good athletic position from the very start.  Wider […]

A college coach’s letter about showcases

About a year ago I wrote a post called the Showcase Dance.  I was somewhat critical of the ratings players get at these showcases and more importantly, how some players and parents interpret those numbers.  If you have not read that post, click HERE. The video below proves I’m not the only one who thinks […]

Tryouts: Know what an eight looks like

For most high school programs (all in Pennsylvania), tryouts are not too far away.  Programs all have their own way of evaluating players.  Having multiple coaches involved helps in terms of management but one challenge with using multiple coaches is that not every one of them evaluates players the same way.  Two coaches can see […]

The Belly Button hitting drill

A big thank you for all of you who have supported the site by purchasing my latest eBook “Time to hit!  50 drills to improve your hitting.“  You purchases go a long way in keeping the site ad free!  If you still would like to, you can access purchasing information HERE.  Info will always be […]

eBook: 50 Hitting Drills!

I am very pleased to announce my first paid product for the website!  It’s another eBook and this time it’s for Hitting!  It’s called Time to Hit!  Information about the eBook is below.  Thanks in advance to all who support the site by purchasing the eBook.  Your purchases will go a long way in making […]

Catchers – Learn from your pain

Although catching was never my primary position, I’ve done enough of it in games to know that it is tough on the body.  Foul tips off the shoulder and thighs, bouncing balls into your forearms, collisions at the plate, and many other painful events make catching a position many kids want to avoid. For those […]

Sweet 16: Warm-up drills for fielding

When you work with infielders indoors, you run into the problems of space and time.  You rarely have all the space you’d like and you never have enough time.  Below is a listing of fielding drills that I often do in progression to keep everyone moving and get them to focused on the core fundamentals […]

How to take a lead off second base

This video post is in response to a question sent to me by a reader who asked where his runners should be when they take leads off second base.  I may have done a written post on this a while back but I thought a video would help.  As you’ll see, where you take a […]

Hang in there!

Here at the Baseball By The Yard complex in my super secret location in SE Pennsylvania, we are once again under a winter storm warning.  We just got hammered with 10 inches of snow yesterday and it looks like more snow and ice to deal with today.   (On a side note, the face of […]

Catchers: Sway to the ball or reach?

The primary job for all catchers is to get more strikes for their pitchers.  As a result, the technique involved in receiving pitches is something catchers cannot practice enough. One debate among catching people is whether or not a catcher should reach for the pitch or sway to the pitch.  In today’s video post I […]