The First 15 Minutes…

The start of each practice and before every game we have our players go through physical AND mental preparation that we call active warmup. We believe this time is critical to get our players’ bodies ready and get their minds focused. The following video clip is from a clinic presentation I did in Ontario earlier this year that details our baseball active warmup process.  (NOTE: to see the entire presentation, sign up for our newsletter and, once you confirm your subscription, you’ll be taken to a page with several clinic presentations).

If you’d like a DVD of all of the exercises and activities we include in our active warmup routines, we are giving it away as a bonus to anyone who purchases, from this website, the All Access program that Championship Productions released in 2011.

As I announced last week to our newsletter subscribers, Championship Productions came in during our Fall 2010 baseball practice and shot three days worth of video to create a behind-the-scenes look at how my staff and I run practice for MS State Baseball.

These practices, as with all of our practices, are high energy, innovative, fast-paced, and structured to be time efficient and challenge our players to continuously improve. We’ve included sessions on hitting stations, pitching delivery, individual and team defense, base running, and overall team building. There are also in-depth team sessions where I cover defending AND creating the big inning as well as video review from several Fall intersquad scrimmages.

Our entire coaching staff was involved, so you’ll see segments and hear commentary from me, Butch Thompson, Lane Burroughs, and Nick Mingione.

I think you’ll find a lot of valuable concepts as well as drills that you can plug into your baseball program.

When I release new products, I generally like to give an incentive during the launch – usually in the form of a limited discount period. For this DVD series, we are restricted on the sale price and can’t offer it for a discount. However, I do have a bonus for everyone that buys it from our website. I’ll send you a training DVD of our active warm-up – what I call the most important 15 minutes of every practice. You’ll see the exercises, drills, and situations we put our players in to prepare them physically AND mentally for a highly focused, productive, injury free practice.

We are turning the active warm-up DVD into a stand-alone product. You can get it now, for free, when you order a copy of the All Access DVD from our product catalog.

Latest Training DVD Now Available

In Prescription Hitting Drills, I give you more of my very best hitting drills from 19 years of coaching hitters. We use these drills daily to prepare our hitters to compete at the highest level of Division I baseball.

Included are warm up and tee drills to allow hitters to improve on their own, and then progressing to front toss, live BP, and pitching machine drills that can be done with a coach or hitting partner.

The drills focus on creating situations to challenge hitters so that uncomfortable hitting situations become comfortable for hitters, enabling them to deliver when it counts during competitive play.

The order page for Coach Butch Thompson’s Bullseye Pitching Drills DVD is now live.

Go here for the order page.

In the following video, Coach Thompson talks about a few of his favorite drills from his Bullseye Pitching Drills DVD. You’ll see clips from the DVD including the complete footage for both variations of the 2 catcher drill.

If you haven’t signed up previously, please enter your name and email address in the form below. We’ll use it to send you an email later this week when the DVD goes on sale. In addition, Coach Thompson is putting together a report just for those who have signed up for the email list.

Check out this quick video I shot with my pitching coach, Butch Thompson.

I’ve gotten the first shipment of Wall Ball DVDs and we are now finally taking orders.

Click here to go to the order page.

Wall Ball Preview #2

We are expecting the first shipment of Wall Ball DVDs any day now. As soon as we get them we will send out an email update letting you know when you can place your order – if you haven’t already done so, give us your name and email address in the “Wall Ball Info Signup” form in the sidebar to make sure you get the announcement email (remember to confirm the signup by clicking on the link in the confirmation email).

Meanwhile, enjoy the following preview from Wall Ball. In this clip, you can see a drill we use to allow our middle infielders to work on double plays by themselves. We love drills that allow players to work on their own.

Wall Ball Preview #1

Here’s a clip of one of my favorite fielding drills from my upcoming Wall Ball DVD.

One of the things you have to correct the most is when a player gets into a situation where there is an opportunity for fear or an opportunity for injury, especially to the face, and the body reacts by pulling off the ball. So, on any ground ball, we use the expression, “put your face into the glove.” We want to eliminate any fear and put the player’s head in a great position to see the baseball.

Many times, players will rush through the fielding phase and pull their head off of the ball either out of fear or simply because they are in a hurry to make the throw. This drill really helps keep the head locked down.

Executing the Drill

When the ball touches the player’s glove, the glove is out front, and their face is in very close proximity to the glove, have them stay in that position – we do not continue through to the throwing phase. Then, coach says “Go!” or “Now!” and at that point, have them continue the play by moving their feet toward the target and delivering the ball.

We turn it into two separate phases: glove contact and making the throw.

This drill breaks the two phases down, allowing the player to first cleanly field the ball before continuing on to finish the play with a good throw as they move toward their target.

Here’s the clip from the DVD…

Feel free to add any comments on this drill below.

Stay tuned for some more preview clips from Wall Ball.

Today has been very busy. I’m in Nashville to present Wall Ball to the Tennessee State Coaches Association. I’m traveling back late so that I can make it in the morning for our high school winter camp.

For my fellow coaches in Tennessee, if you’d like to get a copy of my presentation slides or would like more information on my upcoming Wall Ball DVD, please sign up for the email list below.

For any coaches interested in getting a copy of those slides, here’s a different signup form to get on that email list.

Once you sign up and submit your information, you’ll need to click the link in the confirmation email in order to verify that we can send you stuff.