Put your workout schedule on paper
Know when you're going to workout and what part of your game you will be targeting. You will never make serious progress if you do not attack your weaknesses.

Find a partner to workout with. Be sure he is as committed as you are
You will have to do much of your work alone. Someone else who will be as committed as you are is a great way to both push each other to do more.

Never miss a workout
Sickness or emergencies are of course reasons to miss your workout. However, to miss a workout with the idea of making it up later is not legitimate. Remember, any day you miss a workout..your opponent didn't.

Make your workouts tough mentally as well as physically
Practice in worse than game day conditions. Mentally rehearse pressure situations in your mind. By conditioning yourself to react properly to a tough situation in practice, your mind, body, and muscles will react more quickly and with the correct response in the game.

Get the right equipment
Save your allowance and go out and earn what you will need to buy the right equipment for the drills you will need to do. Don't tell me you are too good to get out and work. If you are a top-notch college player and get selected to play in one of the collegiate wood bat leagues around the country, guess what you will do besides playing baseball? That's right, they find you a job.

Expect to go through flat spells
You will go through times when you feel you are not making progress or, even worse, you feel you are going backwards. This is normal and is something every serious player goes through. Press on. Work through these valleys. Your biggest gains lie just on the other side.

Your biggest breakthroughs come from isolated practice on your own. Your natural tendency is going to drift toward minimal effort. Go against this inclination. Everyday you must do something that will get you closer to your goals. Everyone has the same twenty-four hours in a day. It is how you choose to spend your time that makes all the difference in the world.

A Guide to College Baseball and Beyond - Only $39.95 Bobby McKinney, a scout for 15 years with the Pittsburgh Pirates, has taken his years of life experience and compiled the most complete reference guide to the making of a college or professional player. His book is used as a reference manual at countless camps and clinics around the country and Bobby speaks to thousands of players on college campuses throughout the year.   206 pages "An extremely fact filled book that will be helpful to those who are educating themselves regarding the college baseball process. A tremendous resource for players, high school coaches & parents. The points on hitting are outstanding."   - Jeff Guy, Georgia Tech

Collegiate baseball's all-time winningiest coach (1,630 wins) shares wisdom from his book, available exclusively at BaseballTips.com

Getting to the Ace Pitcher in the First Inning
More runs are scored in the first inning than in any other. This has been true throughout the history of the game. Why? Game tension! As the pitcher first crosses the white line to warm up, he is trying to concentrate and hone into his pitching rhythm. It takes some pitchers longer than others; there is no set pattern. It was said that if Steve Carlton could survive the first inning he'd pitch a complete game.

The same is true of Greg Maddux, whose 6.17 ERA this year in the first inning is his worst of inning any pitched. In 2002, Maddux had a 4.50 ERA in the first inning, 0.82 in the second, and 1.69 in the third. In 2001, he had a 5.45 ERA in the first inning despite 17 wins and an overall 3.05 ERA.

Use this idea to your advantage on offense. When you are going against a top-flight pitcher, a good strategy in the early innings is to score early, or you might not get to him at all. Take pitches in the early innings trying to draw walks and play for that big inning. The bunting game is another way to get to the other team's ace, especially in poor weather conditions.

Another critical time for pitchers is that final inning. The last three outs cause more tension, and pitchers have a tendency to try too hard for those final outs. On occasion you will see a pitcher get a little wild. You have to recognize this and react accordingly. On offense you have to take pitches until you get the trying run to home plate. On defense you many have to go to the bullpen if wildness has entered into the picture.

You Are Never Out of the Game
My primary offensive philosophy is that we never have enough runs. Along with this idea, I also teach my players that we can always score enough runs to win. In other words, if we're ahead we try to score more, and if we're behind we know we have the means to catch up. In this sense, we are never out of the game.

Vince Lombardi said that he never lost a game - it's just that he sometimes ran out of time. He had faith, and his players had faith in him, his system, and themselves, that they could always come back to win when they fell behind.

I refine this concept by telling our players that when we are behind our immediate goal is to get the tying run to home plate. Teach these concepts in practice during game condition pitching so your players believe in themselves. In this way, they will fully understand what it takes to "never be out of the game."