June 07, 2004
Hitting Advice
From the resource I told you about last time, eteamz (www.eteamz.com), I ran across a really good idea for a hitting drill that I can pass on to you.Most of you know of using golf ball size whiffle balls, like the golfers use, for batting practice to help you concentrate on a smaller target, thus making the real ball look like a beach ball coming up there, this one coach took that even further.
He used mini-marshmallows! When I told my wife about it, she said they'd get dirty and you couldn't eat them. Obviously, not a hitting fanatic like us. We spend hundreds on bats, batting gloves, and even batting cages (go here if you want more info about batting cages) so what's a few cents of wasted marshmallows that they keep telling us are bad for us anyway.
It's Tournament Time
Around our area it's playoffs and tournament time. Here's some advice for any of you in charge putting on a tournament and coming up with a schedule. If it's a bracket type tournament for either single or double elimination there is only 1 way to make those tournaments turn out right if you have an odd number of teams.Here's a good example where someone had five teams in the league and wanted to have a double elimination tournament and felt that they'd give the #1 seed a bye and let the other teams play one another, but this is the misconception everyone has about seeded tournaments.
To make them come out right they have to be derivations of 4,8,16,32,64, etc. There is no other way to make it come out right.
For this scenario, you'd need to give 3 byes to teams #1, #2, and #3 while having teams #4 & #5 play each other for the right to play team #1, with numbers 2 & 3 playing the other game. The rest of the tournament would proceed as if it's an 8 team tournament with byes where the teams 6, 7, & 8 would be.
If you had 9 teams it would be 7 byes and one game for the 8th and 9th seeds.
And yes if you had 65 teams it would be 63 byes and one playoff game for teams #64 & 65 (like the NCAA does for March Madness).
Baseball & Softball on TV
As promised, here's the NCAA college baseball TV schedule:
All TV LISTINGS are Eastern Time (ET) and are subject to change. Please consult your local listings or check back with this page as updates are posted frequently.
http://www.ncaasports.com/broadcast/tv
Fri 6/11 2 p.m. ESPN Live Baseball Super Regional Game Window # 1
Fri 6/11 4 p.m. ESPN2 Live Baseball Super Regional Game Window # 2
Fri 6/11 7 p.m. ESPN Live Baseball Super Regional Game Window # 3
Fri 6/11 10 p.m. ESPN Live Baseball Super Regional Game Window # 4
Sat 6/12 Noon ESPN2 Live Baseball Super Regional Game(s) Window # 5
Sat 6/12 1 p.m. ESPN Live Baseball Super Regional Game(s) Window # 6
Sat 6/12 7 p.m. ESPN2 Live Baseball Super Regional Game(s) Window # 7
Sat 6/12 10 p.m. ESPN2 Live Baseball Super Regional Game(s) Window # 8
Sun 6/13 Noon ESPN Live Baseball Super Regional Game(s) Window # 9
Sun 6/13 3 p.m. ESPN Live Baseball Super Regional Game(s) Window # 10
Sun 6/13 6 p.m. ESPN2 Live Baseball Super Regional Game(s) Window # 11
Sun 6/13 9 p.m. ESPN2 Live Baseball Super Regional Game(s) Window # 12
Mon 6/14 1 p.m. ESPN Live Baseball Super Regional Game(s) Window # 13
Mon 6/14 7 p.m. ESPN2 Live Baseball Super Regional Game(s) Window # 14
Thurs 6/17 3 p.m. ESPNews Live CWS Press Conference (portions)
Fri 6/18 2 p.m. ESPN2 Live CWS Game 1
Fri 6/18 7 p.m. ESPN2 Live CWS Game 2
Sat 6/19 2:30 p.m. ESPN Live CWS Game 3
Sat 6/19 7 p.m. ESPN Live CWS Game 4
Sun 6/20 2 p.m. ESPN Live CWS Game 5
Sun 6/20 7 p.m. ESPN2 Live CWS Game 6
Mon 6/21 2 p.m. ESPN2 Live CWS Game 7
Mon 6/21 7 p.m. ESPN2 Live CWS Game 8
Tues 6/22 2 p.m. ESPN2 Live CWS Game 9
Tues 6/22 7 p.m. ESPN2 Live CWS Game 10
Wed 6/23 2 p.m. ESPN2 Live CWS Game 11
Wed 6/23 7 p.m. ESPN2 Live CWS Game 12
Thurs 6/24 1 p.m. or 7 p.m. ESPN2 Live CWS Game 13 (if nec.)
Thurs 6/24 7 p.m. ESPN2 Live CWS Game 14 (if nec.)
Sat 6/26 7 p.m. ESPN Live CWS Champ Series Gm 1
Sun 6/27 3 p.m. ESPN Live CWS Champ Series Gm 2
Mon 6/28 7 p.m. ESPN Live CWS Champ Series Gm 3 (if nec.)
TEAM USA Softball is doing their warmups for the Olympics and some of their games will be televised
The complete schedule of USA Softball Women’s National Team games on ESPN and ESPN2 follows:
Date Time (EST) Network
Tuesday, June 8 2:00 PM ESPN
Wednesday, June 16 1:00 PM ESPN
Thursday, June 17 8:00 PM ESPN2
Sunday, July 4 1:00 PM ESPN2
Tuesday, July 6 3:00 PM ESPN
Friday, July 9 3:00 PM ESPN2
Sunday, July 11 1:00 PM ESPN2
Sunday, July 18 1:00 PM ESPN2
Sunday, July 25 1:00 PM ESPN
Sunday, August 1 1:00 PM ESPN
If you haven't signed up for your Free 7 day hitting lessons make sure you visit here.
Observations from the Women's College World Series
I was challenged by one coach to report on the hitting styles I saw at the college world series.What I saw was 2 good hitting styles both in evidence, both producing hits and homeruns and both producing poor swings and poor executions of what the batters had been taught (either style).
So the battle is going to continue to rage on in softball circles as to whether rotational hitting is the wave of all future hitting theory or if the methods I have taught all this time along with the likes of world class hitting coaches will either prevail, or share their spot along side rotational hitting methods.
To learn more about an interview I did with one of the nation's top hitting coaches, Phil Bruder, go here.
Tell me what else you want to know
Are there any other questions you'd like to know or to talk about? Please e-mail me, I'd love to hear from you. Maybe we'll answer them next time. The link to write to meWelcome to the new subscribers, we had sign ups from Sweeden, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Canada, as well as the U.S. this month!!
I want to help as many kids (adults) as I can. If you could help me by passing this newsletter on to your teammates or anyone you know that could use the help we're offering here, please forward this to them. Thanks in advance. Or if you'd like to post any of my information on your website, just e-mail me for permission and I'll be glad to get it to you in a format that will fit your site.
Talk to you next time.
Coach Andy