To Play Up, or Not to Play Up?

By Phil | October 5, 2012 |

In response to my original post, a parent of a 14U travel player comments on the relatively non-competitive nature of 16U softball in their region. She goes on to indicate that many good 14U players skip right up to the 18U level which, in their area, is mainly showcase softball. She asks: a) Should her daughter play up? and b) What type of team should she look for if she is not quite ready to be seen by college coaches?

These are excellent and compelling questions and, although there are no simple answers, I hope my perspective will be helpful to the may players facing similar choices.

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Softball Off Season Leg Strength Program

By Joe Bonyai | October 4, 2012 |

Preparation for the spring season starts NOW. Here is a five-month leg strength development program for middle school and high school softball players. It requires only the athlete’s bodyweight and one additional piece of equipment that can be purchased through our store.

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14-inch Training Softballs: Good or Bad?

By Carly | October 1, 2012 |
Worth 5-Tool Training 14-inch softball

Last week I received an email from a reader asking my opinion of 14-inch training softballs for pitchers. Personally, I’m not a fan of using oversize softballs for training, but the 14-inch softball is a tool used by a number of pitching coaches, and so you’ll probably come across conflicting opinions about them. Today we’ll take an in-depth look at their purpose and the effects they have on pitchers. Hopefully it will help you decide whether the 14-inch training softball is right for you.

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Recruiting Camps: Good, Bad or Indifferent Part 2

By Phil | September 28, 2012

As a follow-up to last week’s post on “Recruiting Camps: Good, Bad or Indifferent?”
I received two excellent questions, the answers to which may be relevant to many of our followers.

The first question refers to a multi-talented player who pitches for her high school and travel teams, but only pitches at around 60 mph. In addition, she is an outstanding hitter and fielder. The father of this athlete is concerned that showcasing as a pitcher might not impress college coaches sufficiently to get them to stick around long enough to see her other considerable abilities.

What follows is an answer which should apply to any prospect under similar circumstances.

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Add 2-4 MPH to Your Fastball in 10 Minutes

By Joe Bonyai | September 26, 2012 |

How do you warm up? Do you jog out to the fence and back? Follow that up with toe touches and shoulder circles? If that’s the case you are under-preparing your body, and seriously undermining your performance. Warming up might be the last thing you want to spend time on (that goes for you too, coaches), but I’m here to demonstrate how you can literally turbo-charge your athletes in just ten minutes.

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A Practice Model for Pitchers and Catchers

By Carly | September 24, 2012 |

If you really want to reach your maximum potential as a pitcher or a catcher and help your team as much as possible, pitchers and catchers from the same team MUST practice together. We love dedicated parents and siblings who catch for their daughters/sisters, but pitchers who never throw to their catchers during their workouts leave so much potential untapped, and the same goes for catchers.

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Recruiting Camps…good, bad, or indifferent?

By Phil | September 21, 2012 |

Every season our older, more advanced students, mainly pitchers, ask the same question: Should I register for a recruiting camp? This is a much more complex issue than it would appear, especially since my answer will likely be different for pitchers than for hitters and fielders.

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How Catcher Framing Can Make or Break a Game

By Carly | September 17, 2012

A particular play in the Yankees-Orioles game on September 6th reminded me how a single strike call can make or break a game, and how important a catcher’s influence can be in getting calls. Want to learn how to use this to your advantage?

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