Baseball Coaching and Training Equipment Blog

Welcome to the Coachesbest.com official baseball coaching and training blog. Our free baseball coaching articles, drills and tips will help your improve your baseball training and baseball practice. Our daily posts and archives provide you with tips to help you plan your baseball practices and baseball workouts. Make sure to save or bookmark this site to your favorites for future visits. Good luck to your team!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Product Spotlight: Derek Jeter Hurricane Hitting Machine


If you are looking for the "Edge" to give your player or team a "definite advantage" over the competition, you can stop looking! You have found it, the Derek Jeter Hurricane Baseball Hitting Machine by ProPerformance Sports! 100% Guaranteed to improve skill, batspeed, hitting confidence!

It will definitely help get more basehits, hit more linedrives, score more runs and win more games! Infact we back this machine with one of the best product guarantees in the sporting goods industry.

We back the Derek Jeter Hurricane Baseball Hitting Machine Machine with the ABSOLUTE BEST WARRANTIES and 100% MONEY-BACK GUARANTEES in the industry! If you have questions, we can help! We will gladly answer an questions that you might have.
We want you to buy the perfect machine for your needs! Call 1-877-431-4487 now! Buy your Hurricane Machine for less at CoachesBest.com.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Pitching Machine Versatility by Carl Fogle

While pitching machines are most often thought of as tools to aid in batting practice, there are other situations in which the right pitching machine can be an invaluable tool for the results-oriented coach or manager. Many modern pitching machines can be set to throw groundballs and fly balls which can be a great help in many situations — two of which we discuss below.

Tryouts:

From little league to high school ball, tryouts are a necessary but sometimes overwhelming process where literally hundreds of hopefuls must be evaluated in seconds apiece. Most tryouts are set up in stages — a groundball stage, a fly ball stage, a batting stage, and a pitching stage — where characteristics such as arm strength, running speed, agility, fundamentals, and power are judged. How best to judge all of these elements quickly and accurately? Consistency.

As any coach who has tried to hit hundreds of fly balls or grounders with a fungo can tell you, consistency is not something easily achieved by a person. That’s where a pitching machine like the Jugs Lite-Flite or Jugs Combo Machine comes in. By setting up a pitching machine like these two at each of our hypothetical testing stages, each individual can be consistently judged by the same set of criteria as everyone else. Let’s take the groundball stage as an example. By setting the Jugs Combo Machine to throw grounders instead of pitches (a snap given its 360 degree swivel design), each player can be sent the exact same grounder. This allows for quick and accurate evaluation where it is easy to judge a player’s speed, reflexes, and mastery of baseball fundamentals. How is this player’s hand speed versus that player’s? Does this player properly set his feet and position himself well to take the grounder? With the right pitching machine, these questions become simple to answer with some basic observation and your draft picks will become obvious.

And the same technique can be used at all of our tryout stages. Throwing the same fly ball repeatedly quickly reveals which players can properly read the ball’s flight path and who has the best foot speed. And a pitching machine’s presence in the batting stage goes without saying. Do you want to throw 2,000 pitches in a tryout to evaluate bat speed, rate of contact, and power? We didn’t think so. A pitching machine in a tryout is a tremendous asset in determining who is a natural outfielder or infielder, a power hitter or an Ichiro because of their consistency and versatility.

Practice:

As in any sport, repetition is the key to mastery for the young baseball player. To properly teach the fundamentals of fielding groundballs, for example, it is largely a matter of numbers and familiarity. The player who has fielded 10,000 groundballs has an advantage over the player that has only fielded 1,000. And because of a pitching machines consistency, speed, versatility, and flexibility, achieving these numbers is much easier than trying to hit all those grounders and fly balls yourself with a bat.

Furthermore, just like in the tryout situation, being able to throw the same grounder at every player on your team allows you to quickly evaluate strengths and weaknesses and where your knowledge of fundamentals can best be applied. Is that player afraid of the ball? Is that player standing flat-footed and waiting for the ball instead of attacking it? With the right pitching machine and techniques, these questions are soon answered and your team is that much stronger because of it.

This article is just an overview of how a versatile pitching machine can help a team go from pretender to contender. We will discuss drills and more specific techniques in forthcoming articles, but if you’ve just been thinking as a pitching machine as a tool in batting practice, we hope that this article has given you some ideas as to the many applications of a great machine like the Jugs Combo Machine for any municipal league, team, or individual player.

About The Author
Carl Fogle is a longtime baseball coach at the high school and community college level. He is also the webmaster of
http://pitching-machines.us and a leading expert in the use of pitching machines in the development of young baseball players.

Baseball Pitching Machine For Less at Coachesbest.com

Jugs Pitching Machines Bata Pitching Machines

Heater Pitching Machines

Iron Mike "Arm Style" Pitching Machines

Thursday, October 9, 2008

DVD: "Hitting Drills & Techniques" by Marty Schupak


One of the Youth Sports Club's newest releases: Hitting Drills & Techniques provides some of the most creative hitting drills and techniques for the youth player, including a comprehensive breakdown of the swing.


Coach Marty Schupak has compiled some of the most productive and useful drills he has used over his 16-year youth-baseball coaching career. In addition, former baseball professional and nationally known hitting instructor, Bobby Woods, takes part in this video to teach his highly productive theories.


Covers: The grip, The batting stance, Weight transfer, Bunting, The stride, Fun Games, The inside-out swing, and Bonus Tips.


Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Product Spotlight: Jugs Small Ball Pitching Machine


Focus small, hit big


If the toughest thing to do in sports is hit a round ball with a round bat, try it with a ball half the size. Practicing small removes the fear factor for younger players and forces hitters of all ages to track the ball from the release point to the impact zone. The smaller size promotes mental concentration, especially when used in conjunction with a small diameter bat.

The Jugs Small Ball is a soft, polyurethane foam yet its markings make it look like a real baseball. Limited flight is suitable for use indoors and out.
  • Heavy-duty steel frame & legs
  • Adjustable legs for realistic delivery height for both baseball & softball
  • Simulates speeds up to 75 mph
  • Throws fastballs, overhand curves, fly balls and ground balls
  • Included automatic 25 ball feeder releases balls every 5 seconds
  • Note: Balls as shown in the feeder are not included.
  • Recommended for ages 7 and up
  • Operates on 110V, for information on battery charge
  • Drill book included
  • 1-year warranty

Small Ball Jugs Pitching Machine

Friday, October 3, 2008

Product Spotlight: Advanced Skills Tee



Used by over 2000 high schools and colleges!The AST (patented) is unlike any other swing trainer available.
Designed to help experienced players perfect their bat skills and begining players to learn proper mechanics, a forward arm and outside swing barrier simultaneously eliminate both "dipping" and "casting". And, the height adjustable (24"-40"), movable arm positions the ball anywhere across the strike zone to realistically represent inside and outside pitch locations. Use the AST to build a compact swing, keep the "hands inside the ball" and develop a "quick" bat. Use it to increase bat speed and learn to "hit the ball where it's pitched". Includes a two-year warranty!

Why the Forward Arm?

In fact, the question should be "Why not a forward arm?". You don't hit the ball over the center of the plate (as traditional batting tees suggest). You make contact in front of the plate. But there are two other equally important reasons to use a forward arm design:

1. The forward arm eliminates "dipping" or dropping the hands and trailing shoulder to lift the ball with a "looping" type swing. If you "dip" with the AST, you hit the back of the arm. It forces you to take the bat straight down to the ball, leveling the swing at the point of contact.

2. The forward arm also pivots and rotates to place the ball on the inside or outside of the strike zone. Then, the arm points in the direction to drive the ball based on pitch location (i.e. pull the inside pitch, go with the outside pitch to the opposite field . . . "Hit the ball where it's pitched").

What is the Purpose of the Outside Barrier?

The outside barrier eliminates "casting". It keeps you form swinging "long" and helps you "keep the hands inside the ball". If the bat or arms are extended prematurely the bat head will slap the flexible upright barrier post. For years coaches have set a tee adjacent to a fence or screen to force hitters to compact their swing.
The outside barrier does the same thing except it is a lot more effective. It rotates around the tee to accommodate LH or RH hitters and it moves along with the forward arm to help you keep the hands "tight" when you are working on inside and outside pitch locations. With the outside barrier you are forced to rotate the hips and torso and extend the hands only at the point of contact. It produces a "quick" bat and more power as well.