Pocporn Baseballs

America's favorite pastime may be baseball, but enjoying our Popcorn Baseballs might just be a close second. We've taken our delicious, secret-recipe Popcorn Balls and wrapped them in a baseball design cellophane for freshness...and for fun! Great for parties and for team snacks, too.

First and foremost when you select, or learn about a baseball drill for your players you must ask yourself the following two questions. First, "What is the purpose of this drill?" and second, "Does this drill help my players at this point in their development?"

There are an overwhelming number of good baseball drills, but only certain ones are the right fit for your players at this stage of their development.

So, how do you know what baseball exercises are the right ones?

Two ways...

1. Common Sense

2. Observation

Common sense

Let's start with common sense. If a drill looks dangerous, it probably is. Stay away. But this rule also applies to the level of your players. For example, if you're coaching nine year olds and you read about an advanced bat speed baseball drill, common sense tells you your players need to be working on fundamentals such as grip, stance, stride and of course the swing. Not advanced bat speed. This may seem like common sense, but you'd be surprised to see how often this rule is broken. Use common sense and do what's best for your players at that particular point in their development.

Also, remember even though you may have 12 nine year olds on your team, they may all be at a different point in their development and need separate baseball drills. While this is rare, chances are there will be 2-3 kids that are either way better or way worse than the rest of the pack. These are the players you have to tweak the baseball exercises with to keep their confidence up and help them to continue to excel.

Observation

Now onto observation. There will be many baseball drills that at first glance you'll be unsure of if they will help your players or not. This is where simple, old fashioned trail and error come into play.

If you think a baseball exercise is too advanced for your players, simply have your best player attempt the drill. Give him some time to adjust. If he can't perform the drill correctly after 8-10 tries then it's too hard for the rest of the team.

This can also work the other way too, although there are very few drills that are too basic, as a key to success is always doing baseball exercises that stress the basics. Get away from the basics and you get away from success. But there will be times that drills are too basic. For example, a college player shouldn't need to work on grip, although you'd be surprised! And there's nothing wrong with that if it's the case. Again, it's matching where you players are in their development with the proper drills.

But, if your least talented player doesn't get much of a baseball drill, then chances are its too easy for the rest of the players.

Consider The Source

While you certainly have to "consider the source" of where your baseball training information is coming from, I wouldn't put that much stock into it. Now, due to the fact that I'm considered the world's leading authority on baseball training information you would think my advice would be of the contrary. The thing is, I've seen way too many genius ideas from "just" volunteer youth-league coaches (and I say that with a smile!) and too many terrible and dangerous baseball drills from self-proclaimed "guru's" to feel any other way.

It's one thing to listen to an expert, just make sure you're asking the questions I covered above. And just because someone doesn't have expert-status stamped next to his name doesn't mean what hey have to offer is useless. Many times it's quite the contrary.

Follow these simple, yet underused techniques to get the most of out of your players by using the baseball drills that will be most effective and efficient for them at this point in their life. Hats off to you as you are molding young lives for the better.

Jon Doyle, MA, CSCS is considered the world's foremost authority of effective baseball training having worked with tens of thousands of professional and amateur ball players. His baseball training website is the largest site in the world of it's kind. Be sure to check it out and sign up for his FREE Baseball Training Newsletter.

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