43Drills Forum: Last 35 Posts

admin on "Avoiding Serious Injury While Avoiding an Inside Pitch"

admin — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 08:46:32 +0000

The concern of being hit by a pitch affects almost any inexperienced ball players. Young pitchers seem to have little control, while still being able to throw hard. This combination gives many kids, coaches, and parents concern of stepping into the hitter's corner. This concern of being hit by a pitch affects their power to produce a better swing and stepping into the box. In addition it rapidly reduces trust and enjoyment of the game. The younger they are, the great of risk is that they will recoil when a pitch is thrown at them. Often they seek to step out of the batter box or back away. This puts them in a akward position to get hit strike in the face in the front. Once a batter has been strike a few times, it can be a hard to cover come such experiences in the batters box.

One idea of dealing with the concern of being hit by a pitch is to educate kids with a appropriate techique. Often inexperienced kids that are fearful of getting hit by a pitch will usually bail out. This idea is not going to work towards any successful at bat. If their concern is good enough they are likely happier about not getting hit by the pitch than they are tragic about being out. By teaching the proper mechics of how to proper react to a inside pitch thus placing stress on the dangers of doing it incorrectly. This method is best described as placing or picking up something directly on behind their back foot reaching with their opposite hand. Example would be for a right handed batter they would be reaching or twisting so their left hand would be going towards their right foot to pick something off the ground. This method protects the face of the system and the cheek. It too puts the rear in a stance that allows the baseball to glimpse away, which hurts often little than an immediate setback.

You can practice this method as a station during batting practice use as follows. First part of times you make on it, have a coach standing about 10-15 feet off from the batter in the hitter's corner. Suggesting that you start off with tennis balls or wiffle balls even. Start by tossing the baseball quietly over the home, the hitter should not sway. Then begin moving the baseball inside. When the batter thinks he will be strike, he should move his torso off and away from the ball. Rather than giving the kids instructions about how to twist their backwards and where to hold their bat, etc. we suggest to have them move and pick something off the ground directly behind them or on their back foot. This forces the position and body to move off and dodge downward. Children at this age seem to pick this idea up quickly and are able to repeat it easily.

As the kids continue to pratice this idea of protecting themselves from the pitch. The next step to this drill is throwing some of the balls over the plate and some that they have to dodge. On the balls over the home plate, have them have or step like they are going to swing. If during the exercise, the batter starts stepping out of the batters box or tries to back away improperly pause the drill and have them keep their position. Show them where the baseball can strike them in this stance and request them if they believe it will hurt worse getting hitting in this stance or in a stance where they are best protected. When a batter is comfortable of the proper techinque, they will get more trust confidence stepping in the batters box.

Please let us know if this helps any.

Educazione on "Avoiding Serious Injury While Avoiding an Inside Pitch"

Educazione — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 12:29:59 +0000

Working with little kids – 8 to 10 year-olds -- is fun but all too often they don’t have the skills to perform the physical tasks of baseball yet. Sometimes the results can be comical but there are also times when their lack of training can be downright dangerous. Avoiding an inside pitch is one such time.

As a Little League umpire, I see a wide variation in the quality of pitching at all levels of play but the pitching at AA can be especially erratic. This leads to a lot of inside pitches and the younger players don’t yet know how or have the confidence in themselves to correctly get out of the way of pitches that are coming at them.

Does anyone have a good source for teaching young players how to bail out and do so in a safe manner? One of the folks here did point me to http://www.amherst.edu/sports/current/mantle/0624_tipoftheweek.html and although the information is all valid, it is geared toward upper level players. I’m seeking something that I can give to AA coaches to help them teach little kids how to judge a ball coming in, turn their vulnerable body areas away from the ball, and bail successfully.

Thank you.

SgtRumble on "Soccer Drills"

SgtRumble — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:43:12 +0000

This is a simple drill we call the Ivan in soccer. We basically divide the team into groups of 5. They are all given a soccer ball and have to dribble it in a specified area on the field. The goal is to keep your ball in play and knock the others out of the area. The winner from each group then meets in the final and whoever is left wins. This is great for improving dribble skills and footwork in soccer.

SgtRumble on "Quick Hit Drill"

SgtRumble — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:37:29 +0000

I will have to try it out this season. Thanks

SgtRumble on "What about @ home drills?"

SgtRumble — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:20:34 +0000

Actually the best thing to do is to get the parents involved. I have coached several sports and I always find it best to relay what they need to do to get better and the parents usually make it happen.

SgtRumble on "Core Strength Training"

SgtRumble — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:18:07 +0000

I would recommend in checking out the Bigger, Faster, Stronger workout program. This is a standard in most athletic programs.

SgtRumble on "LB Drills"

SgtRumble — Sat, 17 Feb 2007 05:14:48 +0000

This is a drill I always use to help teach linebacker's good solid footwork in the off season. I usually do this during strength training. Mark out 4 places that are about 6 ft across in a row on the floor. I then have them line up and side step across and touch every marked spot on the floor going back and forth in reps of ten.
I found this to help in eye hand coordination and keeping the proper stance as well as moving from side to side. Its a simple drill but very effective.

Deckhand on "Quick Hit Drill"

Deckhand — Fri, 09 Feb 2007 21:19:03 +0000

Heres a drill to increase the strength and quickness of batsman for some quick hits.

Tosser will kneel on one knee, to the side of the hitter and 12 feet in front. The hitter should stand 12 to 15 feet from a screen with his bat in a ready position, and the ball gets tossed underhanded with a fast speed within the strike zone of the hitter. The hitter swings hard at the ball, and after every hit the bat should immediately be returned back to the ready position.

admin on "Core Strength Training"

admin — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:15:39 +0000

Core strength training is a must these days in basketball. Core strength training involves working your entire core section (all abdominals and back), but the key is strengthen in a way that gives you complete body control, total body balance, and complete body strength.

Core strength training programs are really all about body control, body balance, and when it really comes down to it all it's just all about BALANCE! Though, your bodies balance must cames from the core of your body. It's your abs and back that is core behind you having body control and balance.

It is the core of your body that connects your upper body to your lower body. But it is much more than just an "connection" that you don't have to worry much about. Just take a minute and think about the all motions made by a NBA player or just any basketball player in a typical basketball game:

- Leaping up while being pushed from behind to grab a rebound
- Reaching for a loose balls on the floor
- Twist side to side to grab passes or rebounds
- Power dribble while backing down your opponent with complete total body balance
- A tie up when trying to twist and take the ball out of an opponent hands

When you really start looking at the game of basketball most of the action on the court, involves your core (abdominals and/or back). This is why it's so important to give this part of yourself (your core), proper attention, and the proper training.

Though, it's not just going through the motions of strengthening your core body, it's a specific type of training that has a wider effect. The stats show us by having a stronger core, you actually give yourself better overall body balance, and better overall body strength. A strong core allows your upper body work properly with your lower body, in balance, rather than in a separate fashion. Which with a stronger core, can in return help prevent injuries that could happened from an unbalanced body.

Core strength training involves training many different muscle groups all at once, while at the same time, working on the total body balance:

Core strength training uses exercise balls, BRT (Burst Resistance Training) Professional Exercise Balls, or Stability Balls!!
Exercise balls, BRT (Burst Resistance Training) Professional Exercise Balls, or Stability Ball with DVD are all great ways to train your core, train for balance, and strength your core muscle group. Doing any regular exercise such as dumbbell bench press, military press, leg lifts, wall squats, and crunches using the exercise ball help strengthen your core, and build body balance. This type of core strength training helps train your muscles, but also overall total body balance and movement.

Let's try to give you the full picture here: let's say you backing down your opponent while power dribbling with your back to the basket and the defender on your back. Think about how many multiple actions are going on while all this happening on the court all at the same time, but no action really is isolated. So your dribbling the ball hard using your arm (using your abdominals, forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulder muscles, etc.) you should be getting low backing into you opponent almost like a squat position (now your using things, hips, calves, and lower back). You should also be making some what contact with your back again your defender which he should be giving you a good resistant to not get to the basket so he is pushing back probably right at your core body. That's a lot of different actions happening all at one time. And you need to have complete body control, balance, and strength all working together to get the goal accomplished of scoring while backing down your defender.

No movement in any sport led alone the game of basketball is a complete isolation of one muscle, so it makes sense to train muscles game like. The traditional way of lifting weights were to focus on large muscle groups in a way of isolation (not true isolation, but an effort at isolation nonetheless). Core strength training, and body-balance training takes the new effective approach, and for good reason.

Train using Medicine Ball
medicine balls give you even more game like core strength training. While using medicine balls to do crunches, squats, and other stability core strength training

Train using BOSU balance trainers
BOSU Balance Trainer(seen in the video above) is an outstanding balance, stability and agility trainer and currently one of the most popular fitness accessories available. BOSU Balance Trainerare great piece of core strength training equipment for the same reasons they force you to work out on total body balance (and all the above reasons).

BOSU trainers
can be used for such things as doing:
- Quickness/agility footwork drills
- Push-ups
- Bicep curls
- Squats
- Medicine ball drills
- Crunches and other abdominal exercises

admin on "What about @ home drills?"

admin — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 04:54:31 +0000

Nah... That seems weird to me. Just call it homework and be done with it. They know what to do.

admin on "What about @ home drills?"

admin — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 08:13:37 +0000

Kind of like homework... Send drill info home with a player with the expectation they practice using that drill during the week?