The Raleigh Reds Team

Archive for November, 2007

Jim Bain asked:




Baseball is a sport which was not meant to be played inside, but at times the weather just won’t cooperate and forces us inside to practice. This is especially true during pre-season, or Spring Training as the big boys call it, when the dust and rust on last years’ skills need to be knocked off your players.

It’s important, as the Coach, you maintain a repertoire of inside drills to call upon when forced inside. These drills and exercises, if performed correctly and with enthusiasm can become an excellent starting point for your outside practices. So let’s review a few drills which will get your season off to a good start although it’s not under ideal playing conditions.

Building endurance should be an initial factor to address whether practicing inside or out, and the confines of a gym is actually excellent for this. Wind sprints are still one of the best endurance building drills you can have your players perform.

Depending on the size of the facility, a school cafeteria is usually smaller than the gym, have your team perform sprints from one side of the area to the other. Again, depending on the size, you may have them run 10 sprints, rest then 10 more, or 20 sets. It’s up to you.

Developing and retraining arm strength and accuracy is another important aspect which can be addressed inside. For this drill, divide your team into pairs, having them face each other approximately 30′ apart and have them kneel on their throwing knee. In other words, if they are right handed, kneel on their right knee. Have the players play catch.

This drill, by removing the lower body’s participation, will allow the players to concentrate solely on their upper body and arm mechanics. Make sure the players use proper arm motion and follow through with their hand ending at the opposite hip. This drill will increase arm strength, motion and accuracy.

Hitting off a Tee is an excellent drill to develop hitting mechanics and eye to ball coordination. For this drill you’ll be required to have an indoor batting net cage, a batting tee, rubber coated baseballs and a throw down rubber home plate.

A coach should be dedicated solely to watching and instructing hitters as they perform their BP. It’s much easier to prevent a bad habit from developing than it is to correct a bad habit once it has developed.

In the event you can not obtain the netting, the drill can be performed with a whiffle ball and bat and hitting tee. The whiffle ball must be of high quality, in order to endure the constant hitting, and have holes or slots, not a solid ball. A standard whiffle ball bat should be used, not an oversized fat barreled bat.

The reason ball must have holes is two fold, one it won’t travel quite as far when hit, but the main reason is, when struck correctly the ball will produce a whooshing sound as the air travels through it. If the ball is not struck correctly, the ball will still travel, but the sound will not be produced. The goal is to hear the sound as consistently as possible, as that means the bat is making proper and solid contact with the ball.

These drills are a very small sampling of hundreds of available indoor drills which will help your players prepare for the upcoming season.

Mike Selvon asked:




From just about any type of information that is available today through the media and from online sources, boxing news is the best way to stay on top of the happenings in the wide and varied world of professional and amateur boxing.

It is interesting to note that professional boxing has evolved into one of the very few sports that has definitely been instrumental in the development of what is now known as sports entertainment. And in some cases, the boxing news reports and media hype is partly entertainment in and of itself as well.

Just a quick look at the amount of attention and hype that swirls around any major professional event of this sport makes it clear that this is a powerful and popular spectator sport franchise. And, the boxing news helps to keep the interest high with its own versions of hype and gossip.

Interestingly, this professional sport is one of the sports that enjoys some of the most intense coverage. And, with an array of colorful characters, intriguing anecdotes and bazaar incidents, this sport news rarely lacks in sensationalism.

And, it seems the sports fans of this professional sport just cannot get enough of the boxing related trivia and other interesting tidbits. They love to read and watch anything they can get from the boxing news.

Not only that, but it seems that many professional boxers choose to live life to the fullest and often are in this sport news, not just for their accomplishments in the boxing ring but also for other reasons that cross over into their personal lives in many instances. It often seems the athletes actually seek out things they can do to bring this extra attention to them.

For fans who want to know the full inside scoop about their favorite professional boxer, match-ups, bouts, its history or statistics, there is a wide range of news publications such as boxing magazines, that are available in the marketplace.

Such magazines delve into the personal lives of the boxers in addition to the extensive coverage they give to the sport and events. They also cover much of the day-to-day happenings in the sport and are also quick to cover any available gossip about the individual boxers, especially those most popular at the moment.

Some of the boxing news magazines are primarily devoted to those fans who are most interested in keeping up-to-date on the upcoming fights, results of recent matches and the current ratings for the various fighters and their statistical information.

Other focused magazines on this sport provide more news regarding trends in the sport, reviews of different venues and professional boxer interviews, sometimes going into great depth.

Still, other magazines concentrate more on the analysis aspect after the fights, boxing trivia and on introducing the new personalities who are emerging into the sport.

Regardless of what kind of boxing news you are most interested in, you will no doubt be able to find just the right magazine or internet web site that can supply you with the information you most want to delve into.