Some Books?

Haven't read those two, coach, but I do have a couple I"d highly recommend:

1- The Baseball Coaches Bible, put out by the ABCA. Great book, articles on every topic by the legends of baseball (Kindall, Bertman, Gillespie, etc.). Very informative.

2- If you like ideas in every area (practice organization, off-season ideas, skills/drills, etc.), I like "Developing a Successful Baseball Program" by Richard Trimble, and "Coaching Baseball Successfully" by Andy Lopez.

**I have more if you are interested. I have more books than video, so I"ll go the other way and ask you....What are some videos that you use and recommend?

I have had Spanky's book for quite some time. Went to a clinic/holiday camp of his back aways at Northern Illinois University with my then little, now big guy. Good general info book on pitching. Although look as I might, I couldn't find anything on scapula loading.

Coach, I probably have about 30+ videos and really, not many of them are very good. I do get bits and pieces but I speaking in terms of whether I would buy them again after I've lost them. I am a firm believer in off season lifting and plyos. I wouldn't want to be without the Strength Training for Baseball Series from the Coaching Staff/Trainer at the University of Miami. Coach Morgan at the University of Indiana has an outstanding series of tapes. I think I enjoyed and got the most out of his Catcher's Series. I believe it is called The Catcher The Carburetor of the Team. I really like refreshing my mind on the "Hard Curve" because it is essentially what I call a slider. The Power Curveball by Coach Shooppe from the University of Miami is very good viewing. Coach Delmonico from Tennessee has an outstanding series of tapes. I've not found a bad one in the lot.

Coach Knight, you probably get the brochure from the Championship Books and Video Products Co. I would say that I have either gotten my videos from them or from clinics.

Coach Knight, if I could, I'd make one more recommendation. We are currently changing our computer system here and I will install a viewing program that will upgrade our ability to view and edit video while also giving us the ability to burn CD's etc. I think that this is the way to go if you have enough of the other. It gives us the ability to see exactly what a kid is doing and how we can help our kids out. Our tech people chose a package that they believe will help all sports programs. I will see how it works but I know that there is an outstanding program out ther that I will probably still buy. I don't want to promote that since I think somepeople on the site might do that stuff.

The McFarland book is a definite. Other MUST HAVE pitching books are The Pitching Edge by Tom House, The Act of Pitching by John Bagonzi, and the Louisville Slugger Complete Book of Pitching by Doug Myers. There are others, but these are among the best.

The books that Coach Knight mentions are all quite good. Another similar book is Maximizing Baseball Practice (or something like that) by Winkin.

I have the Pitching Edge by House. I use it all of the time. Problem is, I think I left it at the I-70 Baseball Clinic since I took it there and it didn't come home.

what do you guys think of Ron Polk's "Baseball Playbook"? I seem to be getting alot out of it for my 14U team.

I really like Andy Lopez's book, not so much from a technical standpoint, but his values and the way he runs his teams.

Really like Rob McDonalds catching video but the coach my son's working with now is having him do things differently so I don't know what to think anymore.

I just bought McFarland's book. I didn't expect much (I kinda collect this stuff anyway), I was very suprised. It is basic and general, but, whats important is that it is written in an easy straight forward manner. I would highly recommend this one to players as a refrence book. Of course Tom House's book is a must, yet it is not an easy read for players.

On the non-physical side - I would recommend "Fear Strikes Out - The Jimmy Piersall Story".

"Heads-Up Baseball: Playing the Game One Pitch at a Time" by Ken Ravizza and Tom Hanson provides hepful insightinto the mental aspects of the game. Didn't Yoga say the game was half physical and the other 90% mental?
I have alot of other non-baseball books but I have not read them yet.

I like the book " Coaching Pitchers " by McFarland, it is a very good read for those not up to speed on pitching. I think Ron Polk's book is a good one, I think the books by Delmonico are good ones, and I have many more that I have gained incredible information from.

I like Jim Morris video " How to Run a Championship Baseball Program" , I like the video I got for Christmas by the ex-coach on San Diego State...Coach Dietz. I also have many more videos that I consider well worth the money I have paid for them.


Scooter P

Ditto on the McFarland book.

Was a great help when I wound up having to call pitches last year in a WS tournament.

I need to amend my first posts. We have both the SPEED and STRENGTH videos produced by people at the University of Miami. The Strength Video is good if you haven't been around a weight room much. IT IS THE SPEED VIDEO THAT IS OUTSTANDING.

CoachB25

I don't need the weight room stuff (got it covered). However, I would love to have the video/DVD on speed from U of M. How do I go about getting it?

When I started coaching LL Minors, I was completely in the dark. I realized right away that if I expected the kids to get better, I needed to get better. I started reading everything I could get my hands on that I (a novice) could understand.

The best book that I found, which I still refer to, is "Coaching Baseball," by Bragg Stockton. I use it quite a bit for fastpitch softball, as well. Of all the stuff I have bought over the years for baseball and softball, this book was the best investment.

I confess I haven't read his books, although, his complete video series was given to me as a gift. The info. isn't bad, but, oh the pain......this guy is sooooo boring. He has this monotone voice, he repeats himself on camera and I don't believe he has an outline or idea what he is going to say next. It is about as bad an instructional video/videos as I ever witnessed (not just baseball).

quote:

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Originally posted by Savannah:
CoachB25

I don't need the weight room stuff (got it covered). However, I would love to have the video/DVD on speed from U of M. How do I go about getting it?

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Go Here! They send out a brouchure every year to Coaches and I get one each fall when school starts up. We have ordered a lot of our video collection through them.

http://www.champonline.com/miamstrentra.html

MTH- I have the Winkin book - it is excellent as well.
GoMo- Polk's book is another one - add that to the list, CoachB25!

**I'll tell you another one I bought recently. It is called "Winning State", and it is by Steve Knight (ironic, huh?), a former powerlifting champion.
Great mental training, talking about visualization and positive self-talk. The mental side of the game is the most overlooked, IMHO...We all say 90% of the game is mental, yet we spend 100% of practice time working on the other 10%....interesting to think about, isn't it?

no one's familiair with the Polk book??

GoMo-
I mentioned my support of Polk's book in the post above yours - I like it a lot...and Polk is one of the best clinicians in the business.

oops!! didn't see it. yes, the eyes are starting to go... thank god nothing else yet!!


I ordered 15 of the Polk books to give to my kids this year, and will be giving them weekly reading assignments. We just won't have alot of field time to practice, and I'd like to find out which of the kids loves the game that much that they would read this book. I hope its alot of them!