Youth-Athlete's Sport Blog

Using pitching machines for batting practice sometimes get a bad rap because they are used to throw the ball down the middle of the plate or they cannot throw at game speed.  While this may be true, it is not the pitching machines fault - it is just a tool.  In this post I recommend ten benefits and tips to more effectively use a pitching machine during your batting practice. More...

Your core is the part of your body that connects your legs and feet to your arms and hands.  In proper hitting mechanics, the bat speed generation phase occurs when you body moves from the loaded position through the swing and bat-ball contact.  This requires that the power from the initial forward movement started by legs to transfer through the core and hip rotation to the hands on the bat.  Not only does the batter want an efficient power transfer through the core, but also wants the core to add additional power to increase the bat swing speed.  So, what type of core training is needed to increase your bat speed? More...

Wood bat tournaments and leagues are gaining in popularity both at the youth as well as the adult level.  There are many reasons for the resurgence so let me give you seven of them.  More...

What is the performance of a baseball bat or softball bat and how is it measured?  Bat performance standards are set and regulated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), Little League, USSSA, and Amateur Softball Association (ASA) in the United States and many countries around the world.  Bat performance measurements for non-wooden bats are used to bring the game back into balance between offense and defense and to maintain the sport's safety due to high batted-ball speed as new metal bat technology evolves.  The study of bat performance gets interesting when you realize that their is not a common test or testing methodology between all these organizations, such that batted-ball speed (BBS), bat performance factor (BPF), bat exit speed ratio (BESR), and bat-ball coefficient-of-restitution (BBCOR) are different measurements trying to accomplish the same goal.  More...