Softball Coaching

Instead of out-drafting, out-signing, and out-trading their rivals, baseball's best minds have turned to out-developing opponents, gaining greater edges than ever by perfecting prospects and eking extra runs out of older athletes who were once written off. Lindbergh and Sawchik take us inside the transformation of former fringe hitters into home-run kings, show how washed-up pitchers have emerged as aces, and document how coaching and scouting are being turned upside down. The MVP Machine charts the future of a sport and offers a lesson that goes beyond baseball.

There are many baseball guides out there; what makes this one different? From Coach to Coach guides are age-specific, and include only the essential drills appropriate for your players. The guides focus on a manageable number of practice plans for each skill category: base running, throwing, hitting, and fielding. You won't be buried with hundreds of drills, wondering which ones work best.

When I was an assistant coach, some coaches treated machine pitch as another ho-hum year of t-ball, and other coaches treated machine pitch like the high school sectional championships. When I took over as head coach, I aimed to split the middle and shepherd the players from the lower stakes of t-ball to the higher stakes of Little League. So, I experimented with every aspect of coaching a machine pitch team throughout the season. Even though I was constantly tweaking things, we played better than most opposing teams. If any team looked better than us, I focused on closing the gap.