Stay tuned for updates.

My guess is that we will see a low scoring fight until a huge inning opens it up by California but you will most certainly see some defensive gems
by the Chinese Taipei team.

Watching with a youth player(s) makes it a lot more fun… and insightful too… you get an idea of how those little minds work and can find some great keys to helping them develop their game too.

BTW:
I apologize for not posting of late… sometimes work gets in the way of my baseball-life.

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The 2009 Little League Baseball World Series will welcome 11-12-year-olds from around the world. Sixteen teams will compete for the World Series championship.

The World Series championship game can be seen live on ABC at 3:30 p.m., on Sunday, Aug. 30. ABC also will televise the International Championship Game on Saturday, Aug. 29 at noon, followed by the United States championship at 3 p.m.

The 2009 World Series will be the third operated under the eight-year television contract agreement with ESPN/ABC. Five games will be televised on ABC. This will be the fourth year that all of the World Series games will be televised in high definition. For the eighth year since the tournament expanded from eight to 16 teams in 2001, every team will have games on national television.

All 32 games of the World Series will be televised again this year.

Thirteen World Series games will be televised on ESPN and 14 will be televised on ESPN2. In addition, the ESPN family of networks will carry all eight of the U.S. Regional Championship finals in the Little League Baseball division. The U.S. regional finals have been televised by ESPN and ESPN2 every year since 1997.

Baseball Tips supports Little League Baseball and offers several Little League-approved training products for you to enjoy and to help improve your game!

http://baseballtips.com/littleleague/index.html
Little League-approved Training Products – link

I truly believe that on the field, the game becomes about 3 things:

1. Handspeed
2. Footspeed
3. Batspeed

I also believe that NOT every player is born with the quick twitch muscles necessary for these 3 important traits to become second nature on a ballfield… Much of this can be taught and learned… through a players years of training.

There are plenty of little “cheats” that players can be taught and sometimes will figure out on their own.

Watch The Japanese Players I swear that every Japanese ballplayer I see in America is at least Major League Average in all of the 5 tools in which ballplayers are measured (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration).

I doubt they were all born that way…they were trained… and Japanese practices are legendary for their attention to detail. (Note that Japan beat the world in the 2009 World Professional Baseball Classic, with Korea taking 2^nd place.)

Time Everything  All of this is the primary reason why I believe that you need to time everything from catchers throws down to 2^nd base (the most violent throw in baseball, so limit the numbers that you test during any session), to the time it takes your pitchers to deliver a pitch from the stretch to the number of seconds it takes each of your players to reach 2^nd base from where they take their lead on 1^st base… (that’s what those stopwatches hanging from 1^st base coaches pockets are for)… now you know.

By timing everything… then working on improving specific areas  of your game or that of your players… over a season or off season, newfound quickness will be achieved… and that is how you stay on the field.

Here’s some quickness tools I swear by: Our Pancake Training Glove found at http://baseballtips.com/training-aids/fielding/pancake-glove.html will quicken up any infielder or catcher forcing them to improved quickness through better footwork and allowing the hands to work together for turning those double plays and relays and pick offs and steals that catchers must defend against!

My Team’s Game We had 4 pancake gloves on 4 infielders where we placed them in a line with the 1^st player 1 step behind 2^nd base on the shortstop side.

I underhand toss from a knee or on bucket #1, perfect feeds to these “shortstops” and they would in turn find the bag with their feet and quickly trap (you can’t and shouldn’t catch), transfer the ball to the throwing hand and then throw on the 1^st Baseman who simply refilled empty bucket #2 with these completed throws. Note that we emphasized the 1st basemans proper footwork too.

What you Will Need 36 Baseballs, 1-2 Coaches Bucket (hold 50 balls), 4 pancake gloves, 1- 1^st baseman, 1-2 coaches.

The Building Block Steps                                                                     Make It A Game – players love to compete Each successful game-speed catch & throw receives 1 point.

Step #1 – Perfect Feeds 3 rounds – half speed for teaching & tweaking purposes 3 rounds – ¾ speed for confidence 3 rounds at game speed* Then refill bucket #1

Step #2 – Low Feeds 3 rounds – half speed for teaching & tweaking purposes 3 rounds – ¾ speed for confidence 3 rounds at game speed* Then refill bucket #1

Step #3 – High Feeds 3 rounds – half speed for teaching & tweaking purposes 3 rounds – ¾ speed for confidence 3 rounds at game speed* Then refill bucket #1

*This also means to go beyond game-speed levels for older players…you can always make it a do or die situation…complete with utilizing your stopwatch for the fastest times. It’s the Fun-Stuff and the makings of the web gems they see on ESPN!

Summary Notes: Adjust # of attempts & degrees of difficulty based on you players skill & age level.

Our Awesome Pitch Back Backyard Trainer – Remember those pitchbacks that you have seen for years? Most of them are junk but the idea is awesome and loads of fun for single player quickness training.

I had more fun with my own son, even up through High School by going out to the backyard and playing a game we made up that had about the same rules as tennis or racquetball.

Our Pitch Back found at http://baseballtips.com/field-equipment/screens-and-nets/pro-rebounder.html and Rookie Pitch Back found at http://www.baseballtips.com/rookierebounder.html models allow work and play with ground balls, long drives and even short pop ups.

Our Game We simply threw and caught, where all bobbled or mis-played balls added a “run” to the throwers score…1st to 11 is the winner… and you must win by 2 (ratcheting up the competition when you are at your weakest and most tired).

A great cardio and skill drill/game that would allow even a dad to sweat, compete & dive to make game-saving catches                  (FYI – My kids nickname for me was “Old Man River”)… niiice!

In Summary:                                                                                              You may never be closer to your own child than when you are doing something fun in baseball…it goes so quick, you don’t want to miss a thing. These drills are really just fun…they just happen to be the drills that produce quicker ballplayers… Always strive to find ways to make these times fun!

Here’s a Great FREEBIE for you:

Join over 15,000 baseball families around the globe and subscribe to our FREE Baseball Tips Newsletter (don’t forget your baseball-friends too)

Its a quick read to some awesome information that we email each week. No Junk, no spam and you get to read the latest in training baseball and fastpitch players and the newest in training equipment too…coup0ons come often enough to make it worth the read.

Here’s a newsletter subscription link: or if does not work with your browser…

http://baseballtips.us1.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=fcce39a80b0615297abbf4374&id=8140ff7ff5

see you next time                                                                                                                     –JP

The Number 1 Reason Kids Quit Baseball Is…                                                                   THEY SAY IT’S NO LONGER ANY FUN!

Please Watch This 30 second video clip…You’ll either cringe or LYAO but you can’t help  feeling the kids point… Great little actor; I wonder if he can hit?

Little Leaguer Goes Off On His Dad

Please read the comments below the video clip… not so funny.
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I got this info from the only major study done where 130,000 players were interviewed (not that the results are astounding…parents generally understand this just because they are parents…kids just do not like doing what they don’t want to do or what they feel they are not good at).

BUT, there’s a point in that, as parents, maybe we can influence our kids (and out teams) to have a bit more fun and perhaps stay in the game long enough for them to love it more!

And believe me if you will… the kid who is having the most fun on a ballfield is the kid that’s playing well!

If We Improve – They Improve! We ask our kids and players to continue improving by practicing new and existing skills so shouldn’t we adults be asking the same of ourselves?

Lets All Get Better At This… Hey, its our free time too and if we have more to offer our kids & our ballplayers, we will all be better for it!

Here’s Some Free Ideas! Have you found our 200 Baseball Tips Free Training Articles on how to improve your batting, pitching, catching, fielding & coaching?

It’s a great resource for all age players  their coaches & parents too!

Here’s The Link: http://baseballtips.com/instruction.html

Free Is Good! Keep Learning & Spread the Word. Knowledge indeed is power! More of our players can & should play baseball at a higher level.

All Lessons Have Importance… Some You Can’t Succeed Without! Of all these lessons that we  parents, coaches and ex players try to pass on to current ballplayers, there is one that may or may not sink in… it’s about how fast a ballplayers life moves. You get good or you get gone. Sometimes it’s the player’s choice, and more times its not.

You Just Don’t Want To Waste Your Opportunities! Every player must prepare for his last game…and that includes dads as well. (OK, the little guys should really just be having fun… after all, this is play time). But as a player grows into a young ballplayer, and if this is their choice of sport…doing your best really becomes a lot of whats fun about playing the game anyway.

A Lesson Learned… and my own real-life example My son was a prototypical 2 hole hitter in both High School and college. He had the consummate leadoff guy in front of him through his junior year of HS ball. His name is/was Tim Battle.

Timmy 2, as his mother called him (Timmy 1 being dad) had an electric body at 6′ 1″ and 185 lean p0unds. With Big League speed & arm and some power that he would grow into rounded out his tools; making him a Yankees 3rd round pick back in 2003.

Big League skills… and now he has been released.

The bottom line is that he may or may not be done, but no matter the age and no matter the level of skill, Timmy 2 and the rest of us are all day to day on a ballfield, so it just makes sense to make the most of our opportunities.

So play hard all the time, get better and work on your weak points! Have some laughs and take lots of pictures because before you know it… it may all be memories.

1 More Personal Note… I am now closer to my own son, now age 23 and out of the game. Even closer than when he played… go figure. We are now negotiating to buy a ballpark full of tournament fields that we both may have an opportunity to tend, and grow so we can pay it forward… Hope to see your boys out there someday… wish us luck!

OK, and yes, it really was tough for me to let it go 2 seasons ago… anything that means this much to you should, or at least might contain some pain… with love and passion comes risk.

But, its all good.                                                                                                                       Play Hard…its more than just a warn-out saying!

Later                                                                                                                                                                –JP

I know a scouting director who even passed on Derek Jeter, in part due to his being a Michigan kid! And he loved the kid, his family, his skills and his make up… Go figure!  But, it happens.

Some Examples Here’s an example of potential competition that a frozen state kid faces (remember, all teams in each area have the same weather, right?) If a 12 year old travel ball player in Florida has his 1st game of the spring season January 15, that same player would start around mid- late February in Georgia… just one state away. How about that same player in New Jersey? maybe April 1…if there’s no snow on the ground from a late storm?

Now that’s tough.

Try this one…when my son’s college ballclub headed to Florida from Tennessee, they had already played 12 games and teams from their conference in Texas had played 18. Yet some teams they matched up with were playing their 1st game of the season…right there in Florida!

One  coach from Illinois (who’s team hit the snot off the ball in their opening game) shook his head in amazement at how well they did hit. He told me that no practices had included live hitting on the field until that very game!

So, can you win if you are at this disadvantage? Absolutely…but we are talking about averages and odds…and it is just tougher with this disadvantage.

But you know who tends NOT to have a disadvantage? Pitchers!                      They can get their work in in the gym…it doesn’t seem to be a big difference-maker!

The Inaugural Under Armour All America Baseball Game was held at Wrigley Field last August. 36 rising High School seniors were chosen out of the 450,.000 HS players across the country.

1 player came from each of the following cold weather states/provinces:

Canada, New Jersey, Washington, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Utah, Maryland, N. California.

The other 27 were from below the Mason-Dixon Line… the South and the deep South!

The College World Series On the college level, there are great programs in all size schools in all parts of the country but when you get to the big schools in Division 1 (aka D1)…look at the 8 teams who competed in the College World Series (CWS) that just ended:

	LSU
	Arkansas
	Virginia
	Cal St.

	Texas
	ASU
	UNC
	Southern Miss

Since most are state schools, most draw players from their region yet there are still blue chip players on those rosters from up North. So, it can be done but…  many yankee players travel south to play at these premium baseball programs, further diluting the northern talent pool.

Is There A Lesson Here? I’d say it is more than an observation but if there is any to be learned is that all players should strive to do their best and find ways to become the best they can be. Its easy to say that you love to play the game but it is the truly honest player who searches inside himself/herself and decides how much they are willing to do… for themselves.

The Great Thing About This Game… is that you get judged everyday so there’s always the chance that it could be your career or your ticket into the college of your dreams, maybe saving your family a ton of money as well.

Its your game, its your fun… so its ultimately your decision.

Remember, everyone plays their last game… some of the best pro players I ever saw never got out of A Ball (one of the lower levels).

You have to earn the right to continue playing each season so please do it to the best of your abilities and keep learning…because this game is played from the neck-up!

And, its a blast to do anything well!

See you next time                                                                                                                     –Coach JP

BTW: We review and offer great baseball training aids for the next gen of great baseball players at www.baseballtips.com.

Coach JP’s                                                                                                                        Quick Baseball Tips on Baseball Player & Coach Training

What I’ve Learned From Baseball… in 40 years of trying! Here’s a few of my Baseball Tips for Youth Coaches… regardless of the level you coach or play… Enjoy!

· I have found that few 10 year olds grasp the concept of competing and winning… keep em having fun while learning the game!

· I have found that around half of 11 year olds grasp the concept of competing and winning.

· I have found that most all 12 year olds grasp the concept of competing and winning… the stings and lessons of winning & losing are a new experience.

· Make the last 10 minutes of every practice fun…even better, find fun ideas, fun drills and fun games that involve sucking oxygen…. puppies love to run!

· My First Rule on Pitchers – Pitchers should be pulled one batter too soon rather than one batter too late! I made & broke this rule twice & got my team beat…twice! – a slow learner!

· Draft Athletes…why? Your team becomes much more versatile and able to overcome a key injury and other unforeseen problems…. its a long season!

• Learn as much as you can about pitching!                                               Aside from the fact that so much of your team’s success rides on your pitchers… it is the biggest area of the game where you can effect your players PRESENT AND FUTURE HEALTH! Take it seriously.

• There is only one reason to be coaching baseball… for every single player you coach. Make them all “your kids” no matter what the age group!

HELP: I would like to become a better resource for you. Do you have any thoughts or recommendations on what I might include in these blog posts? I am learning, have a head-full of great stuff to share with you and don’t want to become more junk in anyone’s inbox… email me at coach@baseballtips.com

Finally: I really want you to see all the new innovative products that we will be adding to BaseballTips.com as early as next week. It’s exciting for those who get what it takes to help today’s modern player to improve & become next-level-players! …and don’t forget our 200 FREE Baseball Tips Instructional Articles  on the site itself.

So, it should make perfect sense that whatever age you are… you should be more interested than anyone else in improving and being the best you can be. Ok, I’m done with the scolding <g>

The reality is that you know yourself best and can really help yourself even more than you think. Here’s some easy tips to help you repeat what it takes so that you can make more solid contact consistently.

Check These Out:

♦ Use “coaching-points” to check, observe & correct yourself.

♦ Highlight your most important items below. You won’t memorize all this.

NOTE:  Learn to check yourself from the feet up, every time!
This will keep you from missing certain parts of the swing and more easily allow you to remember all the details. Using a full length mirror is a great way to see yourself  completely…be careful with swinging and ask first before getting both of us in trouble.

The Rest Position – How does it look, how does it feel? Are you comfortable? Is your weight about 40% front foot and 60% back foot? Are you on the balls of your feet with your weight bearing on the inside of your slightly flexed knees and again, the balls of your feet?

Hands about 4-6″ from your body? Tall backside? Head equal distance between both feet? Eyes level, so both eyes see the ball?

The Load Position – Take a negative move (this is when you “load” with your hands moving toward your back shoulder) with hands held high (at the top of the strike zone). Are your hands lose on the bat? Tight slows your muscles though they will naturally tighten when you go to contact.

Can you feel the slight pull of muscles from your torso and upper body.like the winding of a spring?

Keep your stride shorter rather than longer! Hands go toward the back of your body while front foot strides toward pitcher (some coaches will call this ‘walking away from your hands’).
NOTE: Your weight should now be 80% on the back foot and only 20% on the front foot with knees slightly flexed.

The Contact Position – Are you up on the toes of your back foot?
Is your front foot slightly open at a 45% angle with FRONT KNEE BRACED AND LOCKED?
Are your hands in a palm up and palm down position? Head still and between both legs like a stick man drawing?

Are your eyes focused at the point of contact?

Finish – Are you hitting off a firm front side with your front knee locked?
Are you still balanced with head between both legs and not lunging forward?
Is the bat completely wrapped around your back?

One More  Thing … Is your head still at contact? That’s a biggie!

Guys, this is great stuff and can be made even better by printing this out and taking it with you the next time you hit. Keep it simple…and don’t be surprised if you improve by using any of this!

Want more? Here’s a quick link to our 200 FREE baseball instructional articles to help you train better and improve quicker! Go To http://www.baseballtips.com/instruction.html

Keep Swinging! See you soon!

–JP