We're talking Hitting

1. Talk to the Coach This Saturday

2. Hitting Secrets of Babe Ruth

3. My thoughts about the US Softball Gold Medal Team

4. A Free Hitting Game for you

Talk to the Coach

I've been writing this newsletter for over a year now. If you're new - welcome. But other than those of you who attended my live webinar, you haven't had the chance to hear me speak, take lessons from me, or ask the questions you wanted to.

Many of you have taken advantage of the free hitting lessons via e-mail but you may still have a question or two that isn't so clear, or maybe about what another coach is telling you that differs with what I've been telling you. What do you do about that and who's right?

Well, this Saturday, Sept. 4th at 9 a.m. Pacific Time (That's 12 noon Eastern or follow this link to get your time). You have a very special opportunity to work with me personally right over the phone!

So here's what you need to do to join others on the call - follow this link to the sign up page where you will find the instructions and I will follow up with an e-mail so you have all the instructions to log in and I'll be talking to you live.

Hope to see many of you there! Here's the link again to sign up.

Hitting Secrets of Babe Ruth

So who would know how to hit a baseball the best? If you could pick one person to learn from regardless of era, who would it be?

Regardless of whom you picked, Babe Ruth's name would come up in most of your minds at least within the 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th pick. If not, I don't know why not :) With a lifetime average of .342 and 714 home runs, he's at the top of almost every offensive category there is in baseball.

What if you could find some secret writings that he wrote up right after the 1927 world series (the year he hit 60 home runs)? How much would you pay to hear those tips?

I have found such a resource for you. I purchased it right away after I saw it was available and read it straight through. Although the finder of these papers advertises them as hitting tips, there are really only 3 chapters devoted to hitting. He's talking hitting, pitching, base running, conditioning, thinking the game, and some of the fun they had.

When I teach lessons, I try to make sure my students come away with a new thing learned or at least something that they were reminded about that will help them.

For less than a cost of a lesson, you'll get many, many things that you'll learn from this great hitter and a whole lot more. To see about this Babe Ruth info, go here.

My thoughts about the US Softball Gold Medal Team

This happened after the world knew the US was now beatable after losing 3 straight games in the 2000 Olympics to Australia, China, and Japan.

I really attribute their dominance to 3 or 4 things, but most of those things came down to coaching.

There was a change in coaches from the traditional Women's fastpitch coaching in the past to the College coaching philosophies of current day, led by Mike Candrea, many time NCAA champion coach for the University of Arizona.

He implemented 3 new items for sure.

1) Team building to get superstars to work together as a team regardless as to what they were used to doing. They had Navy Seals training. Now that's not traditional. (As an aside, I have a cousin who's a former Navy Seal who was recalled to train the Navy Seals for Iraq. How hard-core do you have to be to teach Navy Seals?) This got them to work as one unit. I think you saw this when they put the spotlight on Jenny Finch, but she graciously deflected it back to the sport and her teammates.

2) They did mental conditioning and physical conditioning that went down to training their eyes. How's this idea as far as unique? They shot tennis balls out of a cannon at 150 miles per hour and asked them to pick off the brand and number off the ball! At first they couldn't do it but they said they eventually could. So how fast does 70 mph look after 150?

3) They were open to new hitting techniques, combining the quickness/slapping/running games of their left handed speedsters with some stronger power strokes for their power hitters. I will be attempting to get more information for you on this as I will be talking with Mike himself later on.

A fourth thing that bonded the team together is really a sad story, but I think it did aid in their bonding. That was they all experienced the death of Mike's wife a week or two before going to Athens. She was with the team as team mom, and she suffered a brain anuerysm and was gone before the weekend passed. Our prayers and sympathies go out to the Candrea family. To see the dominant hitting stats of each player on the softball team, go here.

A Hitting Game for you

Again, welcome to the new subscribers.

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.