Youth-Athlete's Sport Blog

Considering purchasing a new bat for the 2009 season?  The 2008 off-season brought about many new bat rules, but surprisingly, Little League and USSSA did not adjust their bat performance factor (BPF) requirement down to 1.0.  Here is a summary of the changes: More...

Softball players want to develop their throwing arm strength need to consider using weighted softballs as a training aid.  Underloading and overloading training techniques have been shown in several scientific studies to increase your throwing velocity by 4 to 6 mph when used consistently during a 10 week training period.  Weighted balls, when used correctly, can develop a player's arm without incurring either short term or long term damage and, in fact, it has worked better than the traditional "long toss" method previously used.  Here is how I worked this technique into softball practices.  More...

This is a shooting drill, like the rebounding box-out drill, where the players are trained to follow their shot for the rebound.  When a player shoots it is common for the shot to either go too far and hit the back of the rim or come up short and hit the front of the rim.  When the shot is too short, the rebound comes back in the direction of the shooter.  If the shooter follows their shot, they can be in position to recover the rebound.  The baseline shooting drill re-enforces the "follow your shot" behavior. More...

So you took the off the winter season and now need to get back into game shape quickly.  Marc Dagenais, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), used his experience coaching Olympic and college athletes to put together 21-Day Express Shape-Up Workout eBook.  More...

Many baseball players, especially pitchers and catchers, who want to develop their throwing arm strength will consider using weighted baseballs as a training aid.  Conversely, as a parent or coach, you want to make sure that the health of your player's arm is not jeopardized and damaged.  Youth coaches can use weighted baseball to develop every player on the teams arm without incurring either short term or long term damage and, in fact, it has worked better than the traditional "long toss" method previously used.  Here is what I did and how this technique is worked it into practice.  More...

Against man and zone defenses, a very common offensive move without the basketball is a V-cut that is used to either setup the man defender for a screen or to turn the zone defender's head.  Several years ago, I was coaching a 5th grade basketball team and we were struggling with having our shooters come off screens and quickly shoot the jump shot before the defense would recover.  We developed this basketball shooting drill to teach the players to come out of a V-cut ready to receive a pass in a coiled (or triple threat) position and quickly elevate, instead of receiving the pass, then coil, and finally elevate.  The latter was too many movements that took too long and allowed the defense to recover before the shot was taken. More...