Posted on: September 30, 2009 by admin
If your kids are having that passion to play baseball but don’t know to play it the right way, then its your duty to teach them how to play it the best way. Baseball is not just about swinging the bat rapid fast. There are a lot of things to learn about swinging the bat. Even then, its not over as we have said earlier – it’s not just about swinging the bat. If your kid is serious about playing baseball, then you should start training him as soon as possible. For that you may either keep a coach or you may teach him yourself (if you know the basics of baseball and a little bit more).
If you are a baseball fan, then you would have surely heard about Mickey Mantle, who is a famous baseball player. It is said that he swings bat almost hundred times a day. He does that left handed as well as right handed. Well, that’s how experts do. They are experts and they will be experts in all manners. For that they should put in a lot of efforts which won’t be even seeing or realizing. We see their performance during matches, but we don’t go and find how much they practice for it. So, it’s all about practicing. Unless and until you don’t practice swinging your bat and doing other such things related to baseball, you won’t become a good baseball player.
If you are planning to teach your kid the basics of baseball yourself, then you may follow the tips that we are gonna mention here.
First of all your kid should learn how to place the feet. It should be kept shoulder width apart. After that, its time for positioning the bat. It should be kept back and should lie about 5-6 inches far from your ears. Don’t forget to keep the elbows upright. Position yourself this way and show it to your kid. Ask him to position the same way. And if can’t, then you should make him do it. After 2-3 rehearsals, he will be fine. From then on, he will be doing it without anyone’s help.
Posted on: September 24, 2009 by admin
Have you seen pitchers throwing curveballs? Don’t you also want to learn the technique behind throwing curveballs? The key is to make the hitters confused with your throws. So, you should mix curveballs often. A good pitcher’s throws won’t be of curveballs more than 20 % of the times. It will be around 15 % for most of the pitchers. So, your intention should not be to throw curveballs all times. You won’t be successful in that case. You should be unpredictable to the hitter. And that is why pitchers throw curveballs in the middle. Again, throwing curveballs all times, would make you predictable and smart hitters won’t miss such opportunities. So, once you learn to throw curveballs, you should use it only when needed, and not too often.
If you don’t know the basics of throwing the ball fast, then you should learn it first. Then only you should attempt at throwing curveballs. Otherwise you’ll end up risking your arms – you may hurt your arms badly in that case.
Throwing curveballs is all about placing fingers on the ball the right way. Things will be easy once you learn how to place the fingers. Also, you should learn using which all fingers you should put pressure on the ball. Thus grasping the ball with your fingers has a lot to do with curveballs. Let’s look closely, what it is all about.
Your index finger should be placed on the opposite seam of the ball as your thumb. After placing your index finger and thumb this way, the ball will look as if it is split in half by the two fingers. Next, pressure should be applied on the ball. Don’t put any pressure on the ball using your index finger. It should be kept without any pressure on the ball – as if it has been kept to rest on the ball. Apply medium pressure on the ball using your thumb and middle finger. That’s it, only three fingers are needed in this process and its all about positioning them and applying pressure with them on the ball.
Posted on: July 19, 2009 by admin
Learning baseball is not just about learning the physical skills that we can see. It’s also about learning and improving mental skills. But it’s not that easy as learning physical skills. That’s because unlike physical skills, mental skills even if we improve it, we won’t be seeing results quickly. It may take time, and even then we won’t realize that it is because of the mental skills that we have improved. But, that should not keep you quiet – you should learn the mental skills for it’s important for a baseball player and has good impact on the overall skills of the player.
There is nothing much to learn and it’s pretty simple. If you are ready for it, then you can start practicing it from this moment itself. It’s all setting goals. And for that you should learn three different steps consisting of broad goals, action habits and process goals. This type of a planning is important, because it will help you to find a route to becoming a good athlete. Now that we have understood the basic things, let’s look at them briefly.
Broad goals are those which will make us perform better from one season to the other. We’ll see improvements in us through seasons. And for that you should set goals that you should be doing by the end of each season. The best time to set the goals is at the beginning of each season. So you are getting a lot of time to accomplish your goals. There is no need to do any rush -but just to concentrate on your goals. You can improve your batting average, fielding percentage etc through broad goals. Thus these are concerned with goals that can be measured.
Next is about process goals. These are goals that you should be set for accomplishing your broad goals. You won’t be able to improve your broad goal skills without practicing and doing certain things. And these things come under process goals.
Action habits is all about things that you should be doing on a daily basis. You should keep some targets that you should be doing daily. And you should do everything that you should in order to accomplish them. For example if your process goal is all about improving your hitting speed, then you daily action habits should be something like spending at least 30 minutes in the batting cage hitting curveballs.
Posted on: July 11, 2009 by admin
There are a lot of things to consider while choosing a bat. It should be according to your needs and requirements. Also it should be so that it doesn’t violate the league rules in which you are playing. That means, selecting bat should not be done considering just your comforts, but you should look into the rules as well. Well, rules are not always against the comforts of hitters. So, there won’t be problems often. Let’s look into some of the things that you should take into consideration while choosing a good bat for hitting the ball harder and longer.
Length of the bat has a lot to do with the performance of the player. If the length is too low, it will surely be easy to hit the ball. Swinging would be easier than ever. But there is a disadvantage as well. With a short bat, even if you swing the bat at great speeds, at the right time, you might not be able to hit the ball if its little bit far from you. And this way, you’ll be missing our opportunities one after the other. So, choose one which will allow you to cover the necessary area that should be targeted. Don’t think of moving in the crease for hitting the ball. You should be able to hit the ball from where you are. So, choose one which will make you do just that.
Next thing to consider is about its weight. A heavier ball will fly the all longer than a lighter one. But it won’t be easy to swing it that easily as a lighter one. But if you are a powerful guy, then you’ll be able to do it. But what if you are not that powerful? Hey, don’t worry, lighter bats also have their own advantages. With a lighter bat, you can adjust things easily and can make a contact with the ball more often.
The last thing to consider is regarding the type of the bat. You can get bats made of wood as well as aluminum. Wooden bats are heavy while aluminum bats are light. But you won’t be able to choose the one that you need from the two until you read the rules. Rules may sometimes allow just one of the two. So either of them could be forbidden in some matches.