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Practice Perfect Baseball - American Baseball Coaches Association
Practice Perfect Baseball
by American Baseball Coaches Association
NEW, 256 pages
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About Practice Perfect Baseball
Successful seasons don’t begin on opening day. They begin long before, in the cages, gym, locker room, and practice field. There, consistency, execution, and teamwork form the foundations of powerhouse programs and championship titles. While most coaches understand the importance of practice, far fewer have perfected it year after year, team after team.
In Practice Perfect Baseball, the game’s premier collegiate coaches share their approaches, experiences, and philosophies on every facet of practice. This authoritative guide goes beyond the stretches and drills straight to the heart of winning—effort and attitude. From structuring sessions to evaluating practice performance, the vast information allows you to choose what you wish to implement in your program. You’ll find unique insights and invaluable advice from the all-star roster of contributors:
Ed Cheff
Pete Dunn
Dan Hartleb
Steve Jaksa
Tim Jamieson
Mark Johnson
Keith Madison
Sean McNally
Dave Perno
Gary Pullins
Terry Rooney
Dave Serrano
Gary Ward
Bob Warn
In Practice Perfect Baseball, you‘ll identify and establish a practice ethic, learn to assess team strengths, and develop players’ skills in the field, on the mound, or at the plate. You’ll also learn to make the most of indoor practices, incorporate technology to perfect skills and evaluate performance, and prepare your team for upcoming opponents.
Developed by the American Baseball Coaches Association and edited by Bob Bennett, Practice Perfect Baseball is essential reading for every coach at every level of the sport.
About the ABCA
The American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) is the largest baseball coaching organization in the world. The association’s mission is to improve the level of baseball coaching worldwide while promoting the game of baseball and acting as a sounding board and advocate on issues concerning the game. In addition, the ABCA promotes camaraderie and communication among all baseball coaches from the amateur to the professional levels. The ABCA also gives recognition to deserving players and coaches through several special sponsorship programs. It is an organization that has grown steadily in membership, prestige, and impact in recent years. The ABCA’s headquarters is located in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.
About Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team (the batting team) take turns hitting against the pitcher of the other team (the fielding team), which tries to stop them from scoring runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the batting team can stop at any of the bases and later advance via a teammate's hit or other means. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding team records three outs. One turn at bat for each team constitutes an inning and nine innings make up a professional game. The team with the most runs at the end of the game wins.
Evolving from older bat-and-ball games, an early form of baseball was being played in England by the mid-eighteenth century. This game and the related rounders were brought by British and Irish immigrants to North America, where the modern version of baseball developed. By the late nineteenth century, baseball was widely recognized as the national sport of the United States. Baseball on the professional, amateur, and youth levels is now popular in North America, parts of Central and South America and the Caribbean, and parts of East Asia. The game is sometimes referred to as hardball, in contrast to the derivative game of softball.
In North America, professional Major League Baseball (MLB) teams are divided into the National League (NL) and American League (AL). Each league has three divisions: East, West, and Central. Every year, the major league champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series. Four teams make the playoffs from each league: the three regular season division winners, plus one wild card team. Baseball is the leading team sport in both Japan and Cuba, and the top level of play is similarly split between two leagues: Japan's Central League and Pacific League; Cuba's West League and East League. In the National and Central leagues, the pitcher is required to bat, per the traditional rules. In the American, Pacific, and both Cuban leagues, there is a tenth player, a designated hitter, who bats for the pitcher. Each top-level team has a farm system of one or more minor league teams. These teams allow younger players to develop as they gain on-field experience against opponents with similar levels of skill.
Practice Perfect Baseball
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