This straightforward, easy-to-understand book helps prepare coaches and players to meet the challenges of tough competition. New revised, Play Better Baseball is the state-of-the-art source for baseball fundamentals and mechanics, illustrated with hundreds of photographs and accompanied by helpful new drills. Based on actual team situations drawn from author Bob Cluck's 20-plus years of coaching, this reader-friendly handbook emphasizes the fundamentals that produce winning baseball teams and offers a wealth of advice on: Coaching baseball at all levels
- Developing winning players
- Using videotape and high-speed film
- Using practice time efficiently
- The psychology of coaching
- Pitching mechanics
- The pitches: Tools to get hitters out
- Setting up hitters: The game within a game
- First-pitch strikes, from Little League to the Majors
- Using the right glove
- Throwing with strength and accuracy
- The game situation and positioning
- Fielding mechanics for infielders
- The tag at home
- Blocking pitches in the dirt
- Pop-ups, bunts, and cutoffs
- Helping the pitcher get hitters out
- Backing up plays
- Throwing from the outfield
- Balls hit in the gaps
- Outfield positioning
- Playing the sun
- The steal and the hit-and-run
- Effective and safe sliding techniques
- Running the bases
- Bats and grips
- Stances
- Stride and weight transfer
- Tracking the ball
- Bunting
- Situational hitting
- Defensive assignments
- Infield pop flies
- Bunt defenses
- Weight training for baseball players
- Conditioning for baseball
