Jeff Burroughs' Little League Instructional Guide (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: baseball swing, ball overhand, proper fundamentals, Little League, Keep It Simple, Ted Williams

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Borroughs, who had a 15-year career in the major leagues, is also a former Little League player and coach of the 1992 and 1993 Little League World Series Champions in Long Beach, California. Obviously, he has the credentials to write an instructional baseball book for coaches and parents of young players. Burroughs emphasizes methods to teach hitting, pitching, and fielding skills and outlines practice schedules, drills, and game simulations. He also stresses that baseball should be fun and that screaming at young players over mistakes is a much bigger mistake. There are many instructional books available, and this is as good as any. Libraries without a similar title should consider.
John Maxymuk, Rutgers Univ. Lib., Camden, N.J.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Description

As millions of Little League fans around the world know, Jeff Burroughs is coach of the two-time Little League world champions, the Long Beach All-Stars. In Jeff Burroughs' Little League Instructional Guide, he shares with other coaches and parents the lessons he has learned in the big and little leagues, on the field, on the bench, and in the dugout.

Product Details

• Paperback: 157 pages
• Publisher: Bonus Books; 1st edition (April 25, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566250099
• ISBN-13: 978-1566250092
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,025,257 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #32 in

  Books > Sports > Baseball > Coaching > Baseball for Kids

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very Disappointing - Too Much Text/Not Enough Illustration, January 13, 2000

By	Jeff Frese "snowyriverman" (Stockton, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I tried my hardest to like this book overall, but just couldn't. I was very disappointed after having gone through the book twice.

Well Dones: Burrough's spends 44 pages on defensive game situations - who should cover what, if the ball is hit here, and there are runners here & there. The best part of this section, is that it is covered with diagrams. Burroughs also covers approximately 22 baseball drills for practices (see Opportunities for Improvement also).

Opportunities For Improvement: The biggest disappointment is Jeff's lack of use of pictures and diagrams to explain what he is trying to describe in text form. Even in the section describing the 22 drills, they are no pic's or illustrations. Pictures and diagrams are a must for this type of book. The cover of this book says, "Fully Illustrated". There is a section in the middle of the book with pictures covering different topics that, unfortunately, do not match anything nearby. Also unfortunate is the fact that this photo section leaves way too much to be desired - nothing new here. There are no other photos in the book besides this one section. Jeff spends only 1/2 page on each position and covers the rest of the defensive positions in general terms. Very disappointing. I started the chapter on "Practice" with great enthusiasm and felt great about most of it until I read two sections that, as a Little League coach for the past many years, found very hard to believe: Jeff says the team should not take batting practice during any of your practices and to only do this before each game by having the team show up 1 1/2 hours before game time. Yeah, right! (Maybe if all our games were on weekends, and there were no games beforehand.) Jeff's suggested practice schedule runs from 4 PM to 6:30 PM. Most coaches would be real lucky to have that kind of time. On the cover of the book, it states that the book is written for Coaches and Parents - but throughout most of the book, Jeff is teaching directly to the player. There's nothing new or exciting in this book. This is definitely not even a good beginning coach's book. If I had to make one point - it is the serious lack of illustrations and pictures for the amount of text that Jeff uses. I wanted desperately to like this book and was looking forward to some great drills & technique suggestions for my Little Leaguers (and besides I was a fan of his when he was with the A's), but I just didn't find it here, even after going through it twice.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A comprehensive guide for youth league coaches., April 7, 1999

By A Customer

Burroughs provides thorough coverage of youth league coaching subjects: the basics at each position, hitting, throwing, pitching, and planning practices. Burroughs' credibility comes from having been a successful Major Leaguer who later managed teams to a couple of Little League World Series titles, and he discloses a few of his managerial secrets. The main focus is on teaching baseball, however: Burroughs thinks that the secret of his success was to create fun and interesting practices while teaching good fundamentals, and he tells you how to do it. I found his insights invaluable in my first year as a Little League manager.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What An Incredible book!!!!!!, April 20, 2002

By	Troy (Long Beach, Ca.) - See all my reviews

I believe this book was terrific and helped me a lot in baseball. I feel all coaches and parents of baseball childeren should read this book. This book gives all pointers in how to field and bat using all kinds of techniques. I give this book a thumbs up and disagree to the people who think this book was dissapointing. I hope many people get to learn from this review and recommendation. Choose to read this book and you'll thank me.