Lifting the Front Elbow

I received an email recently from a player who said he was having trouble controlling his lead elbow on the swing.  He referred to it Back of the bottom hand facing forward, lead elbow under control as “chicken winging” which is basically lifting the lead elbow too much before and/or during the swing. As he said, this tends to make his top hand “lazy” and hurts his path to the ball as well on the swing. Here are the two recommendations...

Read More

Let Me Try That Again

One of the biggest challenges a coach faces is figuring out how to create game-like pressure in practice.  We all know there are players Sorry, no do-overs come game time. who perform well in practice but seem to become an entirely different player once the game starts.  However it’s done, amping up the pressure during parts of your practice can be a positive thing for your team. One of the many ways to do that is to not allow players...

Read More

The Toughest Outfielder

Probably the toughest job for a third base coach is deciding when to send the runner home and when to hold him at third base.  I’ve done a couple written posts on that topic and even created a video or two as well. This past winter I spoke at a coaching clinic where the keynote speaker was current Pittsburg Pirate third base coach Nick Leyva.  He answered a lot of questions from the audience.  One was, “How do you know when to send...

Read More

What a Game!

Man oh man, did we get to see an amazingly exciting game on Sunday! The Red Sox were playing the Cleveland Indians and it was quite the game! The Sox had a slow start, letting in a few runs early in the game. But the Sox hung in there! By the 9th inning, it wasn't look good. But the Cleveland pitcher was getting tired and sloppy and suddenly the Sox were within 2 runs and the bases were loaded! The whole stadium was on their feet and cheering...

Read More

Important Health Lessons from the NBA Finals

For the NBA fans among us, watching this year’s Finals has been a thoroughly satisfying affair. ESPN called the highly unpredictable Game 6 “one of the greatest NBA Finals games of all-time”. Yet as we head into the last game of a hugely exciting season, it’s difficult to ignore the health and wellness of each team’s players given the amount of physical stress we witness every night they meet head to head. It’s no wonder so many of these star...

Read More

Celtics’ KG, Pierce, & Terry To Nets

The Boston Celtics just made a deal that nobody, in a million of years, would have thought have happened. They dealt forwards Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett and guard Jason Terry to the Brooklyn Nets for forwards Gerald Wallace and Kris (Kardashian) Humphries, G MarShon Brooks, and a host of other players. The only reason why his trade shocked the heck out of me because I thought that Paul Pierce and KG were going to retire in Celtic green. Pierce...

Read More

2013 NBA Free Agency Frenzy Update And Opinion

Where in the world is D12 headed? invalid at this point. Names such as Dwight Howard, Josh Smith, Andre Iguodala and more don't necessarily bring the word "scrubs" to mind, does it? Not to mention there are already TONS of names off of the board. How about my man Kevin Martin? Yup, he's gone. Martell Webster's returning to WAS. Reddick was traded to LAC. Tony Allen is going back to Memphis. And the Pelicans are in hot pursuit of Tyreke Evans......

Read More

NBA Free Agency Update.

It’s already been a week since the NBA’s free agency has started. So far, there have been a lot of shocking moves going on. Well, here are the notable contracts being inked: Paul re-signs with Clippers: “I’M IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” is what Clippers PG Chris Paul tweets after he signs his contract for 5 years/$107 million to stay with the LA Clippers. English: NBA player Chris Paul answering questions at a youth basketball camp. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) Martin...

Read More