Meet Bill
I started coaching youth baseball in the Sherman Oaks/Studio City local recreation and Pony League Baseball in California back in 1991. Baseball in California is what hockey is in Minnesota. Our family moved to Minnesota back in 1994. I head coached my sons in both the Hopkins Area Little League and Glen Lake Mighty Mites programs, before eventually coaching a number of travel and elite teams for the Babe Ruth program ending in 2003.
During that 12 year period coaching, I spent many hours every week studying everything baseball. This included high speed film performance analysis, biomechanics, martial arts, hitting, pitching, books, videos, study video of games, at bats, pitches, stop capture motion recording, physics, balance, leverage, etc. Throughout, I didn’t hesitate to attend coaching camps, and approaching coaches at the college level both in California and here in Minnesota. I learned some are very knowledgeable, and giving of what they know, and a few whose idea of an open mind is a ‘head wound’. As I coached season after season, I experimented with what I had taken in. I kept what proved out as worthy, and discarded what I found wasn’t, at least in the evidence I observed. While in Los Angeles I was given the chance to test baseball actions such as hitting or pitching, in a laboratory type setting where I could quantify the merit of the range of hitting and pitching theories.
What I discovered, much of the evidence brought to light ran counter to what had been accepted by many as the most advantageous way to hit or pitch a baseball.
HAVING A DREAM ISN’T SPECIAL. WHAT IS SPECIAL? A FOCUSED RELENTLESS EFFORT — PUSHING FAR BEYOND WHAT YOU THOUGHT WAS POSSIBLE — AQUIRING AND REFINING THE UNIQUE SKILLS NEEDED TO SUCCEED — AND THROURGHOUT IT ALL REFUSING TO SURRENDER SHORT OF REALIZING THAT DREAM…NOW THAT, THAT IS TRULY SPECIAL.
- Coach Bill
I then designed the best drills and instruction to pass these skills on to hitters and pitchers in the most timely and concise manner, that will become a motion or skill the player can perform repeatedly and instinctively in game conditions with exceptional results.
In 2005 I made a full time commitment leasing space at a local baseball training facility. I instructed six days, 32 hours a week, Jan – March. The best indication of how effective my coaching methods were, was that despite never having more than three players from the Minnetonka Babe Ruth program in a given year (between 2005 to 2009) out of 112 players in the program each year, I had three of those players win the batting titles in that five year period. Not only that, in 2007 I didn’t work with any players in the program. In other words, despite working with roughly 2.7% of the players in the program, in the four years I worked with a player(s), those players won 75% of the batting titles. (Mike Burke, 2005, *Matthew Hooks, 2006 and Spencer Shaver, 2009.) That’s not all, all three hit over .500.) A feat made more impressive when you factor it that both Mike and Matthew had never hit above .265 and .250 respectively, despite having worked with hitting instructors in the past. (For related information, refer to pictures and testimonials.)
Despite being approached about coaching at the High School level from area high schools, I declined only because I prefer
the ability to work with both baseball and softball players from around the entire twin cities area, surrounding suburbs, and the occasional player that traveled hours to get a session in, versus being restricted to train the players of one specific high school.
I am so confident in the quality and effectiveness of my instruction, I’m offering a chance to see how my hitting, and or pitching instruction can help improve your baseball player’s skills, for an introductory hourly rate for the first hour of only $60. I know once you see, and your child feels, in this new approach, they’ll want to continue with sessions to reach their diamond dreams!
Players who went on to play College baseball after working
with me:
2009 Chris Anderson (St. Scholastica)
Max Forster (St. Johns University)
2010 Kyle Dalton (Concordia College and a college
All American)
Bill Gregg (St. Johns University)
Taylor Nelson (North Dakota State)
2011 Brian Vomhoff (Bethany Lutheran)
Evan Reed (Gustavus Adolphus)
2012 NO SENIORS
2013 Erik Craemer (Stout)
2014 Jimmy Cron (St. Olaf)
Alex Mord (St. Johns)
2015 Cole Haglund (Augsburg)
Jake Irvin (Univ. of Oklahoma)
2016 Jon Koch (Southwest Minnesota State University)
2017 Jimmy Ramsey (Univ. of Oregon) (HS grad 2017)
Michael Jensen (Univ. of Oklahoma) (HS grad 2017)
