Youth Baseball DVD Series

Throwing & Catching

Disc 1, 41 minutes [buy individually]

Focuses on developing skills for the youth players of America, ranging from 4-year-olds up to the junior high school level. Coach Johnigan covers proper throwing mechanics and the correct techniques for catching fly balls, line drives, or thrown balls. He repeatedly stresses the importance of playing a good game of catch, which is often overlooked by coaches at all levels. This DVD will develop a plan of action for coaches that will prevent players from using bad habits and poor fundamentals.

Hitting Mechanics & Drills

Disc 2, 40 minutes [buy individually]

Hitting is perhaps the most difficult skill to perform in all of sports. In fact, at the Major League level the failure rate is 74%. In this DVD, Coach Thompson simplifies the 4 skills that will develop successful hitters and covers the phases of the swing from start to finish. Thompson focuses on creating balance throughout the swing, eliminating unnecessary movement, getting a good pitch to hit, and swinging downhill. He also demonstrates 16 hitting drills designed to improve the mechanics of youth league athletes.

Pitching Mechanics & Drills

Disc 3, 35 minutes [buy individually]

Coach Smith's pitching DVD is focused on developing mechanics for youth league pitchers. He works with youth players to teach them basic, yet important concepts such as stretching and arm care. He discusses warm-ups and key components of the delivery, and the bulk of the DVD contains a series of basic delivery drills that will allow you to teach pitchers from ages 7 to 16.

Team Defense

Disc 4, 57 minutes [buy individually]

Offers youth league coaches a team defensive plan and approach, with progressions in several different areas. Coach Thompson starts with the three factors that every player needs to consider on defense: 1) Always think ahead (anticipate); 2) Communicate with other fielders; 3) Anticipate back-up plays. These fundamentals are then applied to numerous defensive situations your team will encounter. Thompson explains each play using animated diagrams, which are followed by live demonstrations.

Baserunning & Sliding

Disc 5, 44 minutes [buy individually]

Contains ideas and drills on baserunning, starting from the crack of the bat. Techniques and drills for sliding are thoroughly covered, as Coach Johnigan shows how to teach the figure four, hook and head first slides. This DVD teaches fun and safe ways to be effective on the basepaths. The drills are easy to implement into your practices, and by using the correct techniques players won't get hurt as much, making their fear of sliding disappear.

How to Run a Youth Baseball Practice

Disc 6, 55 minutes[buy individually]

A complete DVD on practice organization for youth league coaches. Best suited for players from ages 8-15, the comprehensive practice schedule outlined is ideal for youth teams that have only two adult coaches and limited opportunities to practice. By keeping things moving, focusing on the most important issues, and being creative, the practice plan showcased is exactly what youth coaches desire. As an added bonus, Coach Thompson goes over the traits needed for each position in the field, what type of hitters you want batting in each position (1-9) in the line-up, and offensive and defensive signs.