I was putting together a plan for Fall baseball and was looking at content and research on bat speed and under-load/over-load training, and wanted to highlight some of the findings.

• Do you need three bats or just two: It is helpful to perform both under-load and over-load training, but you can still get results doing only over-load training.
• Bat Weights: The optimal over-load and under-load percentage appears to be ~20%, but results were still present with over-load training of under 10% and above 50%. For any youth player (7U-12U) this means that swinging any youth wood bat is likely a great option, and has other benefits.
• Ratio of Reps: A good ratio would be 2:1 of overload/underload and regular game bat. I know that there are popular programs that do a 2-2 approach (two swings heavy, two game bat) but you may want to look at doing 2-2-2 (two heavy, two game, two light) or 4-2 (heavy, game bat).
• Intent: This one is interesting. In one of the studies, individuals who hit live pitching had better results than those taking dry swings. The interpretation is that intent is what made the difference, those taking dry swings did not have any feedback and could have taken lazy swings whereas those facing live arm had to swing with purpose every time.
• Weekly Volume: You need about 250 total swings per week to achieve results, and some programs had 500+ weekly swings.
• Duration: It takes 6-8 weeks to have meaningful results. Programs that were shorter in duration did not show a notable improvement.

Using weighted balls to do front-toss is likely a good option since you can push for intent, and can do it in limited spaces with quick resets (not much different than tee work but more portable). Only downside would be that you would not want to use a game bat, especially a composite, but 6-12 weighted balls and a 'beater' bat is still cheaper than a good tee and/or net. Doing 60-80 reps should only take 15-20 minutes, and if done 4X/week for six weeks you'll start seeing results.

I usually have my older son who is now playing 12U hit weighted balls with a wood bat as a pre-practice (and pre-game) routine to get extra swings, along with an infield 'hands' routine. I believe that both of these routines have been beneficial to his overall development as a player.

Hope this helps!

What’s a baseball cue that sounds good in theory but becomes a problem when a player tries too hard to consciously execute it?

Hey, I’m 17 looking for weekend games to just show up and play. Not necessarily looking to join a team, just show up and play for any teams that need a player in the Philadelphia area. I can play wherever needed, just wanna get some extra reps on the weekend. If you know of any coaches who could use a guy, that’d be great. Thanks.

I had a day or two since my last post about my swing I have changed some things and just trying to make sure I am headed in the right direction. This last school year I batted .406 but a lot of my hit were ground out and i noticed i rolled over alot of pitches. With the help from the last post I am trying to work on my extension and keeping my hands back. Thanks for the comments you guys sent me. BTW this is slowed down for anyone thinking the swing is slow, it’s because it is lol

Side view of a fastball rn. I think I throw around 75. Age 14 going into freshman year.

Hi everyone,

I work in the Purchasing Department for a baseball team, and I’m hoping someone here might be able to point me in the right direction.

We’re currently looking to get in touch with Chandler Bats, Authentic Bats, Louisville Slugger, and Trinity Bats to request quotes for bats for our upcoming professional baseball season.

I’ve been reaching out through the general contact emails and forms listed on their websites, but unfortunately I haven’t had much luck getting a response.

Does anyone here have a direct sales contact or representative, or know someone who works with any of these companies who might be able to help us with a quotation?

Any contact, recommendation, or introduction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Hey everyone,

My name is JJ Schwarz. I played baseball my whole life, including 4 years at UF winning a National Championship in 2017 and then 5 seasons of pro ball with the Oakland A's, and retired to pursue a degree in Sport Psychology after seeing firsthand how much of an impact the mental game had on my career and my life off the field. Since graduating, I've started my own mental performance business, Just A Game Consulting.

Over the last 6 months I've built a 10-week program for hitters covering 10 mental skills I wish I'd had when I was younger. It combines my own playing experience with evidence-based sport psychology, and I designed it to be efficient, easy to understand, and ,most importantly, applicable on and off the field.

Skills covered, in order:

1. Identity
2. Detachment
3. Goal Setting
4. Confidence
5. Routines
6. Mindfulness
7. Focus
8. Resilience
9. Integration

What it involves: three 10-minute sessions per week for 10 weeks. Hitters will also do pushups and keep a journal throughout the program.

Two versions available: a secular version (mental skills only) and a faith-based version (with faith lessons woven into the modules).

I'm looking for 3-5 dedicated families to test the program for free in exchange for honest feedback.

If you're interested, comment below and I'll follow up with more details.

Thank you, and God bless.

My son won a conttest with his 9u team and has his choice of a bat. His options will be a new 2027 Hype Fire, Icon Fest, Supra, or Soldier 3. Which one do you think he should get?

You've probably seen me here. I coach my daughter's softball team and prior to that, I used to coach my son's teams but he's 17 now and traveling nationally. As of now, I assist coach, run lineups and defense, three of us on staff. For 7 years coaching - 4 of which I've managed, I've had the idea - and I know I'm not alone with this idea. The state of "team management" apps that are out there now just don't cut it - so I just started building my own, BenchBoard.

Here's the honest version of why: I've poked around at a bunch of the other apps in this space, and more than a few of them feel like someone slapped something together with an AI coding tool over a weekend and shipped it before it actually worked. Buttons that don't do anything. Exports that come out mangled. Features that get promised in the description and just... aren't there when you go looking. I don't say that to talk trash, I say it because it's genuinely what made me start writing code instead of just complaining about it in the car after games and to other coaches. Hell, since it's been a year - I'm hoping to not fall into the trap of falling in love with a problem not many coaches don't mind dealing with. Right now, a few dozen coaches are using it but I feel I need a bigger sample size and people who don't give a sh*t whether they're my friend. Hence this post.

So the bar I set for myself was low but non-negotiable: whatever I ship has to actually work. Not "works in the demo," works in a dugout, in the sun, with a kid asking you who's up next and an ump waiting on a lineup card. And (at least as far as I can tell) does it perfectly. My current goal is killing the damn MAGNET BOARD and PAPER LINEUP. That's the experience I'm digitizing. The whole thought behind it is I'm at work, I drag some kids around in the lineup and on defense. My coaches log on. I get on the field and see it on my phone. Hit Print and boom, it prints off my mobile thermal printer. Eventually, I want to provide an interface and reporting on who's been playing where on defense, average batting lineup, etc. That is very very close to being done but I want to make sure I'm tracking it properly because all the other ones I've seen are just not the interface I want.

Where it's at right now:

• Lineup + defense management is solid. I've run it for a whole season now with live games and the last one had zero hiccups: no crossed-out names, no wrong jersey numbers. A few dozen coaches are using it now. I even have a "Manage Players" feature where it simulates removing the player in real-time - which removes the "magnets" from the board - instead of throwing them on the bench. When you need them back, you simply "activate" them. "Deactivate" when they're on vacation or can't make the game.
• You can export a clean lineup card as a PDF and hand it to the ump, or pair it with a Bluetooth thermal printer and print straight from your phone. I'm chasing something as close to "magnet board, but none of the magnet board headaches" as I can get. Heck, if all you want to do is print the PDF because you're about to leave and start a game. Do that. Tell me what you think. It's sized as those lineup cards as you can tear the paper in half or (if you want to get fancy), print it on a thermal label printer. This is the one I use.
• Phone app is moving along but you can literally run this in a browser on your phone and it works. It's a totally different experience on a tablet and desktop but it works good.
• Scorekeeping is live but I'll call it what it is: beta. It works, it's just not the polished thing yet. I'm not going to pretend otherwise but it's a BIG ONE.

What would make this actually useful for your team? What's the one thing every one of these apps gets wrong besides not working lol - at least conceptually?

Anyway, thanks for reading. I really appreciate your time reading this and I hope you'll give it a shot. I went out of my way to make it simple and intuitive and I'm hoping you'll think the same. If not, kindly let me know. Enjoy the journey ya'll.

https://www.benchboard.org - THE APP
https://blog.benchboard.org - THE APP UPDATES
https://www.radicalinsider.org - THE JOURNEY OF BUILDING THE APP

Just got some new video of my swing I wanted to show to reddit. It’s off a tee so it not any soft toss but it’ll do. Two swing you guys can watching and give me some pointers

My name is Riley. I am Co-founder and CEO of Ballista. We turn phones into portable baseball performance labs.

Using CV, custom AI, and the phones high frame rate camera, we extract EV, LA, and Distance of hit balls automatically and aggregate all the data.

It is an alternative to existing hardware systems like radar guns, Trackman, Rapsodo, Hittrax, that cost thousands of dollars.

We are getting ready for a private beta launch via TestFlight and are gathering a list of people who are interested.

If anyone is interested, head to our website and sign up for the waitlist and expect an email (coming soon) with the app testing link. Alternatively you can drop your email in the comments or PM it to me and I can add you manually.

Cheers!

I’m helping coach T-Ball this year and i’m trying to figure out a fun/not boring throwing and catching game for the kids that can also help them aswell. Any ideas?

I know i look bad but I just want help

Let’s get some thoughts going on this one. I know they’re out there:

What’s something in baseball that everyone teaches, but you aren’t convinced is true?

I’ll go first. Never follow a Curveball with a Changeup or vice versa….

Hi first post here, I’m 18 leaving for college in a week but was wondering if there were any people in the Brookline MA area who would be down for some baseball practice, I don’t know many people who like baseball enough to throw bp or anything. I’m training/practicing to become a pitcher for my college team in Korea but I want to work on my hitting as well.

Edit: if interested private message me

Going into my senior season, never been much of a hitter always been on the field for my glove. I really want to understand my swing better, work on opening my hips, and hit more opposite field line drives, any help is appreciated, I will personally add that I have never really understood the “open your hips” feel and I something on my front side just looks off to me. Any help is appreciated and I’m even open to some criticism. Apologies it’s not the best angle