Greg Anderson, Barry Bond Baseball Trainer,is banned from youth baseball – his son’s youth team, that is.

Anderson, who already served nearly three weeks in federal prison earlier this year for refusing to testify against Barry Bonds in the home run king’s perjury and obstruction of justice trial, has been banned from coaching his son, Cole’s, Burlingame, Calif. 11-12-year-old youth baseball team.

Anderson had coached in the league for five years before he was recently told to stay off the field and out of the dugout. He continued to coach the Capital Electric team from behind a chain link fence during the recently concluded regular season but won’t be allowed to coach Cole Anderson in the Burlingame Youth Baseball Association’s upcoming all-star game.

According to Anderson’s attorney, Paula Canny, Bonds’ former trainer, who has now served more than a year in jail for refusing to testify against Bonds in the BALCO grand jury proceedings as well as three months’ prison time for his role in BALCO, Anderson is being punished for his one-time association with Bonds.

“Greg’s a great coach. He was willing to volunteer and be of service. Instead, people have condemned him,” said Canny, who calls the situation “pretty tragic.”

According to a source, after a New York Times article about Anderson’s coaching role appeared on May 21, several parents affiliated with the league worked together to pass a bylaw preventing convicted felons from coaching. In the article, another coach, Burlingame real estate attorney Dave Cauchi, was critical of Anderson being selected to coach in the league.

“I wouldn’t want that person coaching my child because of his association with steroids,” Cauchi told the paper. Calls to Cauchi’s cell phone and work phone were not returned.

The BYBA is an independent, all-volunteer organization not tied to Little League. BYBA president Mike Brunicardi declined to be interviewed by the Daily News but was quoted in the Palo Alto Patch website saying Anderson could apply next year, although he will have to go through a vetting process, which includes a background check.

Victor Conte, the BALCO founder, said of Anderson, “Greg’s concern is that his son is in the middle. What kind of message is this? Greg has taken his punishment. You have to learn about forgiveness, too. That’s the message that’s being lost right now.”

If you are going to coach and manage you better have a lot of patience. And, as soon as you can you better learn to say something good about a player after you have had to get on to them.

http://coaching-youth-baseball.com/

Youth baseball Hitting Tip

Do You Hear What I Hear ant Youth Baseball Games?

Professional instructors use phrases like:

“Swing It, Let It Fly, Get  Ready, Let me see your best swing ”

Fact is, in youth baseball today, parent coaches will teach youth baseball hitters to be  late on almost all swings. Youth baseball coaching usually teach strategies like:

“Make It Be there”

“Wait for a good One”

“Don’t Help Him Out”

“Now lay off that High One”

“Be Patient”

“A Walk is as good as a Hit”

All these  strategies cause hitters to be on defense. They kill the main component of good hitters and that is to build confidence so they can swing aggressively.

Youth Baseball Hitting Tip

Your coaching skills dealing with hitters will be unsurpassed if you can get across this one baseball coaching tip.

Get your players to hit the ball out in front of the plate. You be the judge when players start delivering like magic.

This is proven to dramatically boost batters reaching the outfield more often.

If practicing in the batting cage with a batting tee. Always set the tee at least 12 to 36 inches in front of the plate.

Coaching  youth baseball can be extremely rewarding. But you have to learn to accept and embrace the many challenges that may arise. Being prepared and expecting these situations can make coaching youth baseball more fun for the coaches,players and the youth baseball parents.

Four tips to consider before you start coaching youth baseball:

1. Not all kids will be good youth baseball players. Be prepared to figure out how to include all kids in practices and games. The way this is handled varies by age group. Finding ways to patiently correct kids and encourage them, without giving false compliments, can be hard. Be honest but caring.  Make goals for everyone to learn something and succeed.

2. Parents. Ouch, managing  parent expectations can be hard from the beginning. Don’t wait until parents are upset or getting too involved to correct communication. Set some ground rules before the season begins. Let the parents know what they can do to help, how they should approach you with concerns, and how to act at practices and the games.

3. Local Little League Rules. Be sure you have an excellent understanding of the rules before you start coaching. Many parents and players have  frustrating experiences with coaches who are unclear about the rules.

4. Attitude. Positive attitude is important in all aspects of life especially in sports and youth baseball.. Set expectations with the kids up front. Let them know behaviors that will not be acceptable and the penalties for those behaviors. Make sure you enforce your penalties, even if it costs the game. Kids need to learn how to play for a team, not themselves.

If you have decided to take on the responsibility of coaching a youth baseball team, you should be commended. Being prepared for what lies ahead will help you succeed in coaching a winning team!

In order to be the best possible baseball player, training should happen year-round and be a joint effort between the coach, the player and the parents. Get more FREE tips to improve youth baseball performance, and links to youth baseball drills at http://coaching-youth-baseball.com.

Long Toss for youth baseball pitchers

Long Toss should be involved in your pitchers practice routine, including youth baseball pitchers.
There is a benefit to playing long toss for pitchers and the other youth baseball players too. Long Toss is used by by everyone in the higher levels of baseball and youth baseball players should too. Long toss helps the arm get in shape and builds arm strength for the season. Its also used a day after pitching routine to stretch out the muscles and reduce soreness after pitching. If done properly, long toss can benefit all players on a youth baseball team.

Proper Way To Long Toss

The proper way to long toss is to not go as far as you can but to max out at about 120 feet for younger players and about 150 feet for high school baseball players.

The ball should have a slight arch and it doesn’t matter if the ball makes it all the way as long as the players are getting toward target and stretching out those muscles we use for throwing and pitching without changing mechanics.

After about 90 feet the player should use a slight crow hop to gain momentum.

You should limit your long toss time to about 10 throws after each mark using  4 or 5 marks.

Pitching Drill | Youth Baseball Fun Pitching Game

This is more of a youth baseball pitching game than a drill. But we think it is a fun addition to a practice and wanted to share this youth baseball pitching game.

Here is a good youth baseball hitting drill

WIFFLE GOLF BALL SOFT TOSS: Do this in groups of 3 or 4, with the coach soft-tossing; one player batting and the rest fielding the balls and returning them to the bucket. Have the hitter take their normal stance, inward turn, and stride, and then hit the wiffle golf balls as you toss them. You can make it more challenging by having your hitters use a 1.5 foot broom handle instead of a bat. This forces the hitter to really “SEE” the ball, by keeping their head (both eyes) down on the ball, in order to make contact. Really emphasize the “head down” aspect by making them keep their heads down, even after completion of a proper follow-through.

I do this in addition to regular soft toss( my favorite youth baseball hitting drill)  I like to call soft toss “Focus on the Ball” and the golf ball wiffle ball toss “Super Focus” youth baseball hitting drill

Who wants to be a better hitter in 1 week ?

The Problem: Rolling the wrist on contact

Here is a great baseball hitting drill and what problem it corrects.
Baseball hitters often roll the bat on contact for several reasons. First, they are coached to do so from the earliest age on. This method of training will never allow a hitter to maximize his/her ability, only resulting in ground balls and ‘outs.’

Baseball Hitting Drill |The Super 8 Hitting Solution: “Land the Plane”

To avoid rolling the bat, the batter’s bottom hand should face down, with the top hand facing up when coming in contact with the ball. For visualization, instruct batters to imagine the bottom hand landing the plane, and the top hand crashing the plane.

To increase your hitter’s batting speed, try this “Landing the Plane” baseball hitting drill:

• Starting with bottom (lead) hand
• Stance position, bottom hand (lead hand) starts at shoulder point.
• Palm open, facing down.
• Players other hand on hip.
• Front heel lifts, player loads.
• Hips rotate square to pitch—hand at shoulder moves straight to front of body, where hands would be while bat is in contact.
• Hand remains palm down.

To increase your hitter’s batting speed, try this “Crashing the Plane” youth baseball hitting drill:

• Move to top (power) hand
• Same stance but with palm open, facing up and forward.
• Hips rotate square to pitch, hand will move to same location, but with palm up.

As with any youth baseball hitting drill, repetition is key. So do the drill again, incorporating these enhancements:

• Put both hands together, but with bat added, starting at the shoulder area.
• Move bat into contact (hands should be in same position as before.)
• Open your hands while in contact position.
• Top hand should be open, palm up, under bat.
• Open bottom hand, palm down, over bat.

Tip: Finish the swing successfully by making the top hand continues under the bat, through contact, and first extension. The bat will finally roll as it comes to the second extension position, just before stroke completion.

By using the Super 8 Hitting System baseball hitting drills described here,  hand action is greatly improved. The batter is not swinging to contact but snapping at the point of contact, yielding a remarkable and measurable improvement in contact and speed.

About the Author
Learn more about these youth baseball hitting drills and other proven methods for improving batting speed by visiting the Super 8 Hitting System—a bestselling baseball training web site and instructional video package, which includes many free youth baseball drills and tips.

Coach Joe Brockoff, a Division I Head Baseball Coach for Tulane University for more than 19 years, and former minor league player for the New York Yankees, has sent 45 baseball players to the pros and coached thousands of college level and youth players using his proven Baseball Hitting Drills—which is guaranteed to increase batting speed or your money back. Coach Brockoff’s unique youth baseball hitting drills have increased many players’ batting average by more than 200 points.

Youth Baseball Hitting Drills

Who Else Wants To Be a Better Hitter in 1 Week ?
Explosive Hitting Package

Hitting off the tee

One of the most effective youth baseball hitting drills is hitting off the tee. One reason is this baseball hitting drill is appropriate for all ages of baseball players. It is a perfect youth baseball hitting drill station. That being said don’t just use it as an extra station and let players whack away. Many coaches do this and it is ineffective. Players should be focusing on fundamentals and developing those hitting skills in all youth baseball hitting drills.

Why is it an effective youth baseball hitting drill ?

The tee is the best solution for just about any hitting problem. When we talk about “keeping it simple,” that’s just what the tee does. It always throws a perfect strike and never tries to deceive the hitter. Whether a hitter is having an issue with their stride, the timing of their weight shift, or just about anything, the tee provides a solution that allows the hitter to slow everything down and work on each aspect of the swing piece by piece.

Objective of this baseball hitting drill

When working off the tee, the objective is always to work on repetitions of a quality swing. Typically, you want to set the tee up so it replicates where you would be making contact with a pitch thrown right down the middle. That’s why you set the tee up out in front of your body, because that’s where you want to make contact to drive the ball to the big part of the field.

Set Up for Hitting off the tee youth baseball hitting drill

Here are a few different scenarios for setting up the tee to work on youth baseball hitting ..

The Corners – it’s great if you can drop the tee right in front of home plate (not on home plate) and actually stand in the batter’s box to take your cuts. This gives you a good reference point to move the tee to the inside and outside parts of the plate.
When moving to the inside part of the plate, you want to move the tee further out in front of your body because you need to connect earlier on inside pitches.
For the outside corner, move the tee back more – hitters must wait longer on outside pitches and hit them deeper in the zone. Setting up at home plate to work on hitting inside and outside pitches also helps to show the hitter where the ball should go – try to pull inside pitches and try to slap outside pitches the other way.  (Notice we don’t always try to pull the ball as many coaches and parents think )

High-Tee – For hitters who struggle to stay on top of the ball and hit a lot of weak pop ups,  place a bucket under the tee. This will raise the point of contact to the highest part of the strike zone, where a hitter won’t be able to generate any really power unless he or she manages to stay on top of the ball.

Big-Ball Tee – For hitters who struggle to swing through the ball, we sometimes place a soccer ball or other large ball on the tee (it helps to place a plunger, upside-down, in the base of the tee in order to easily hold the larger ball in place). Players have to really shift their weight and swing through the ball in order to hit it with any authority off the tee.

Conclusion
When you set a tee down or have a station for youth baseball hitting using the tee, be sure  and give your players specific things to work on: weight shift, hitting out in front, a level swing, coordinating the timing between the lower and top-half of the body, etc. DO NOT simply let your hitters blast away on the tee without putting any thought into it. That just wastes everyone’s time.

Who Else Wants To Be a Better Hitter in 1 Week ?
Explosive Hitting Package

Youth Baseball Hitting Drills are very important .Everyone loves big hits and getting on base in youth baseball. Here are some tips from Coach Brockoff to help your youth baseball player be a better hitter.