THE PLAYERS I WORK WITH SUCCEED:

Since 2008, every High School Varsity Senior baseball player that I have worked with, has gone on to play college baseball the following year. In 2015 alone three players I worked with earned scholarships to play D-1 baseball: Jimmy Ramsey (Minnetonka) Univ. of Oregon, Jake Irvin (Bloomington Jefferson) Univ. of Oklahoma), Michael Jensen (Holy Family) Univ. of Oklahoma, and for a fourth player Jon Koch (Hopkins) although had some interest from D-1 colleges, made the terrific decision to go play baseball at Southwest Minnesota Sate University.

(NOTE: See testimonials. Because most importantly, it’s not what I say about my instruction that matters, it’s what others that I have instructed have to say about my instruction and its impact on their baseball careers.)

- Because the reality is it doesn’t matter what an instructor’s batting avg. was, or ERA in a past career.  Why? Because no instructor will be asked to come in and pinch hit, or come in from the bullpen to close the game out for your baseball player. Only one thing matters when choosing an instructor: Can they teach your baseball player to hit and pitch exceptionally well. Good, good doesn’t cut it and shouldn’t be settled for.

PERSONALIZED INDIVIDUAL ATTENTION:

I’m not against clinics and camps for players to learn some basic drills, and see if baseball is something your child is interested in. However, once you get past the basics and have a ballplayer really interested in gaining as much skills in hitting or pitching as quickly as possible, there is no substitute for one-on-one training with an instructor that can now teach at a pace and style that spends each and every minute tailored to a specific player’s needs, abilities and goals.

• Group instruction may seem to be saving you money, but that’s often not true. A player winds up rushing from instructor to instructor, or a coach that needs to teach like micro-wave cooking, a few minutes with each player. A coach only has one set of eyes to cover 12 or 8 players at one time. It never allows enough supervised repetitions under their critical eye to design a strategy that really sees dramatic results in a period of time that can bring results to the upcoming season.
   

• I will always be their instructor, and never substitute a different instructor as larger training facilities will frequently do.

PROVEN EFFECTIVE AND SAFE TECHNIQUES UTILIZED AND BASED ON ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY:

1. Yes baseball is a grand old game, but just because a technique worked in the 1900s, doesn’t mean we should only instruct that way out of ‘tradition’ or ‘respect for the game’, or worse, ‘If it was good enough for me, it’s good enough for you’ when more advanced, precise, and effective methods have been developed.
    

2. The use of high speed film, motion capture suits to measure physical movement, stillness, balance, weight distribution, computers, high tech devices to measure mass and velocity, and an understanding of bio-mechanics, availed me the ability to observe and measure baseball movements such as hitting, throwing, and pitching, and measure the effects of head stillness, weight transfer, grip, and hand path to the ball in hitting. For pitching, the combining of the upper and lower half of the body, the slot the arm travels in delivering pitches, teaching mechanics that are safe and can be repeated with practice, over and over again. All times keenly aware which pitches can be introduced and executed by a pitcher at whatever age.

I CAN GUIDE AND TRAIN YOUR BALLPLAYER IN EVERYTHING THEY’LL NEED FROM STEP ONE TO THEIR GOAL:

How?

Constantly learning, growing, and advancing towards success and a goal:
 

1. Recognizing when your child needs instruction: I’ve seen players with well-meaning parents, or players by themselves, shove token after token into the batting cage machine swing at dozen balls. Day after day, token after token. The sad part is it’s like the movie ‘Groundhog Day’. From the first token to the last one, it’s one pop up after another, or swing and a miss, or ground out. Why? Because although they think it’s just more swings they take is the answer. WRONG. It’s correcting the players swing until its line drive after line drive. If you don’t believe that’s possible, come and let me show you.
    

2. Getting the right instructor: I’m not talking about the instructor who lobs one ball out of a bucket after another, and gives so little input and suggestions, you’d swear your child was taking a mime class. Or just as bad is the instructor who says, ‘Alright, get the next one,” for every failed swing and then when the player eventually makes solid contact the instructor says, followed by a ‘Thatta boy!’ The problem with that is your ball player won’t know what they did right or wrong. The truth is the wrong swing will make your child a worse hitter, bad practice does that.
    

3. Won’t just more practice make them better? What the player, or parent may not understand is that the cliché line, ‘Practice makes perfect,’ needs a qualifier. A teaching strategy. The player needs the right instructor to observe the baseball movement, demonstrate a technique that will correct it. Then through observation, suggestion, and repetition, that baseball movement will ultimately be corrected. Repeated practice using proper mechanics is what gets closer to perfect, and truth is there is no pitcher who never gives up a hit for a season, or a hitter who bats 1.000.
    

4. Which pitch is the most effective? How many pitches should they learn and be able to throw for strikes? Pitching grips is not one way fits all. The fastball, change-up or curve ball’s grip will vary by the size of the players hand, their age, and their sense of touch. How about hitting a ball, an uppercut swing, line drive, or chopping down swing? Does pitch count matter? Is it safe to throw curve balls at age 12? Is it safe to pitch year round? No. And on this matter, when someone tells you it is safe, is it because they’re right, or because you’re writing them a check to play baseball year round in their program? Also it’s not just pitching, repetitive stress injuries are the most common cause to ending baseball careers far too early. Hitting skills, machine or tee? And what about the other end of the journey? Does my son need to attend show cases to be noticed by college and pro scouts? How do scouts and college programs hear about stand out high school players? Should my son have a link that scouts and coaches can find to see footage of my son or daughter and access information about them such as size, fastball speed, batting average? Does it make sense to spend a lot of money for placement service or agent?

Becoming an accomplished baseball player is a long and wondrous journey that starts with that first baseball glove, ball and bat, and ends with dreams of stepping onto a high school, college or major league field.

Would you start a jungle safari without an experienced guide? No, you’d get an experienced guide who knows the dangers, types of adversary that they will likely face, the safest trails, is knowledgeable and has the proper equipment for a successful safari.

Well the journey in baseball is similar:

Safety: (Why are you talking about safety?)

• Because safety is far too often deliberately ignored or out of lack of knowledge of risk not addressed. Like your medical doctor, I’ve taken the time to research and study and understand the stress to joints (soft tissue), muscle and bone the body goes through in hitting, but most importantly pitching.
   

• Does pitch count matter? Yes, no matter what you hear from various color commentators, coaches and instructors, throwing and pitching creates their own unique stresses on the body.
   

• Does it matter at what age you throw a curve ball? Yes, I don’t care what somebody says about if it’s thrown correctly or not. First of all it isn’t necessary. Kids who focus on tricking hitters with a curve at age 12 and 13 aren’t developing a fastball that gains in speed and accuracy. The growth-plate in the pitcher’s throwing elbow needs to close. (As early as age 14, for sure by 15) If you don’t heed this advice you’ll wind up with a kid with a bad arm and out of baseball period no matter the position they want to play, and only having stories about how good they were in Little League, because that’s when their career ended.
   

• Is it wise to pitch year round? Overwhelming evidence says no. There are several reasons, and from many knowledgeable sources. (Sports medicine doctors, college coaches, and the many players and parents I’ve heard from that thought their son would defy the odds, and now due to injury or surgery, has created a real obstacle to fulfilling their child’s dream. The constant repeating of say throwing, pitching, or swinging a bat, causes repetitive stress injuries. Secondly, those who say it’s a great idea also collect payment for people paying year round, so they have a serious conflict of interest to say otherwise. First off, most mechanics even taught aren’t the safest in design. Even if the pitching mechanics are the best/safest, the repetitive stress alone will ultimately lead to injury.

Questions? A desire to schedule a training session? Send your e-mail to: theswingdr@gmail.com