Top 10 Baseball Academy

                                             

 

                                                 

                                New Home for our

                        Dominican Baseball Academy 

 

1-26-2018 

 

Coach Jimmy Breslin is very pleased to make two very important announcements... 

 

First, we are very proud to say that Top 10 Florida Baseball recently made a major property purchase for our Top 10 Dominican Baseball Academy. 

As they say in Texas Hold Em and Poker - “We Went All In”. 

 

The new Academy is a private Villa named Hacienda de Flores, situated on one plus acre of rural property just minutes from the beach in Juan Dolio and just 30 minutes from the Capital. As they say location, location, location. 

 

And Top 10 has moved in and we are up and running at our new home.   

 

The second announcement is that our new facility will feature a  year round High School Academic Program for our US players who will be training year round in the DR. This program will be the most intense baseball training and academic program ever devised for US students. They will train in baseball for 6 hours per day and accomplish everything they need to do academically for college and much more including SAT preparation.

 

 

The Villa property includes:   

 

A  beautiful 9 foot privacy wall made of coral surrounding the entire property giving us privacy and security. 

 

9 separate buildings for player and family housing.

 

A 2 bedroom 2 bath VIP guest home on the west end of the property. 

 

5 private cabanas surrounded by palm trees and flowers nestled around our large pool.  

A  3 bedroom Bunk House on the east end of the property. 

 

A  2 bedroom utility building for staff workers on the north side of the property.  

 

All of the buildings are hurricane proof as they are 100% made out of poured concrete and reinforced steel. There is not a stick of lumber or drywall or plaster anywhere in any of the houses. 

 

The floors in each building are granite and the windows and doors of the main buildings all have wrought iron security doors and windows. 

 

And we have a garage building we are converting to a Restaurant and Recreation House for the players. 

 

The entire property is a tropical rainforest setting with exotic flowers, gardens and elevated walkways.

 

We have a large swimming pool with outdoor lighting, sound systems and outdoor showers at each end of the property.  

 

And after removing some non productive banana trees, we now have an on site training space for ground balls and catch and bullpens.  

 

The first batting nets are up and operational and we will install a full 70 foot MLB sized batting tunnel before the summer. 

 

We have purchased everything we need to build a commercial restaurant and dining room on site for players and families.

 

We will have a gym/workout area and a recreational lounge area for the players between sessions.  

 

We have 3 storage rooms for our equipment and supplies.

 

Our own deep water well provides water to all buildings. 

We have back up generators on site just in case.  

 

 

This location is:

• 1 minute from the bus stop
• 2 minutes to the bank 
• 2 minutes to the local grocery store
• 2 minutes from the Argentinian Steak House
• 3 Minutes to the Italian Restaurant
• 3 minutes to the American Pharmacy 
• 4 minutes to the Pizza Store  
• 4 minutes to the Beach. 
• 4 minutes to the Gourmet Deli
• 4 minutes to the Country Club and Golf Course 
• 5 minutes from our previous location 
• 10 minutes from the busy metropolis of San Pedro de Marcoris 
• 13 minutes to the MLB camps in San Pedro de Marcoris 
• 15 minutes to the MLB baseball camps in Boca Chica 
• 25 minutes from the airport in Santo Domingo. 
• 30 minutes to the Capital and downtown and Malecon
• 40 minutes to the La Romana and Bayahibe Resorts 
• 90 minutes to Punta Cana resorts and airport 
• 2 hours and 10 minute flight from Fort Lauderdale

Nearby we have 2 exclusive golf course communities, a business center, numerous beachside restaurants, local banking, gourmet delicatessens, ice cream shops, car rentals, American styled pharmacies and a special police department to assist tourists.  

 

Within walking distance we have a hotel which can  accomodate parents staying for short visits if our homes and pool side bungalows are occupied. 

 

We are presently upgrading the electrical and plumbing in all of the buildings, furnishing the rooms, landscaping and painting. 

 

Year Round Academic Program 

The Hacienda de Flores was previously a boutique hotel offering seclusion, and luxurious ambiance. And now it will do the same but as a true year round Baseball and Academic school for our students from the USA and Europe.  Last year we had our first USA students on a year round schedule and it was a success- so now that concept is going to be expanded - student/athletes can now train with us year round -  practicing 3 or 4x a day.  This year we will go full blast year round and GO is the word. 

 

We have already had our first full time commitments for next year from the students and parents who visited us this past summer.  They personally saw the difference and are preparing to exit the US school system and train year round with us. 

 

For serious baseball families one of the key questions is  this? Why would you spend from 7:00 in the morning till 3:00 in the afternoon covering what actually amounts to about only 3 -5  hours worth of academic material? And then only have 2 hours left for baseball? And then not qualify for a baseball scholarship because you just missed the cut? It is virtually impossible to reach elite level status on this schedule. 

 

If you follow the Olympics, or gymnastics or tennis at the higher levels you will notice that many of the performers are school aged athletes who spend the majority of their day training to be elite athletes and they receive  3-4 hours of academic structure as well. Baseball is now going that way with many of the top HS athletes across the USA opting to leave their local school system to train full time.  

 

At Top 10, we want our players to receive college scholarships and to receive their college education. However, securing that scholarship today is more difficult than it was  10 years ago with so many baseball athletes training on a serious full time basis under good coaches. The bar of excellence has been raised and we need to do the same. 

 

Therefore, we will structure our Top 10 Dominican Baseball Academy so that each student athlete receives 6 hours a day in baseball and 3-4 hours of academic work daily. We will be able to do so because everything is on site, self contained and geared for maximum efficiency of time. No traveling, no driving, no waiting for classes, no moving from class to class, no unproductive free periods, no boring lectures, no napping in class, no cheating, no texting friends, no distractions from students that do want to be in school learning.  

 

I am sorry to report that the US educational system has fallen tremendously over the past 30 years. At one time our schools were highly ranked worldwide, but currently we rank #21-40 depending on which area of education we are looking at.  Yes, we  outspend most every country in education, and our rescources are virtually unlimited yet we rank very low. You are paying the price with hard earned tax and tuition dollars and our children will pay later in many ways. 

 

The level of graduating students in the USA  is at a record high but their actual readiness and proficiency is at an all time low. 

 

The reasons cited are many and the arguments rage as the various institutions and unions fight for more money from the gov’t but with teacher salaries and school grades often tied to student scores on state standardized testing the table is set for a mediocre education. The teachers have solved this problem by often supplying the answers to the students with Work Sheets that contain the answers. 

 

This system creates an environment of Teaching to the Test Grade as opposed to actually ensuring that genuine proficiency occurs.  School systems encourage this because their grades and gov’t funding is also tied to student test scores. Add in the facts that many students have their cell phones available and can text or snapchat liberally, are listening to non positive music selections containing violent and negative messages, viewing who knows what on instagram and u tube, it’s amazing the kids are doing as well as they are. 

 

We can not change the world, but we can offer a high quality education and intense baseball training environment which no one will be able to match. 

 

Our next big project for the spring requires assistance if you think you can help. 

We are presently staging to send 2 cargo containers down to the Villa in March and we are collecting anything that we think can be of use to us moving forward.  

 

We will be outfitting 9 buildings with household items, televisions, garden tools, power tools and recreational items such as gym equipment, weights, and old x boxes.    

 

We need to be completely self sufficient in all regards so we will need additional generators, pumps, compressors, ladders and all sorts of tools. 

 

Also, and this is very important - we have adopted a local neighborhood of young dominican and Haitian boys who are living - I am sad to say in virtual squalor -  no running water and no electricity so you canonly imagine. Therefore we are collecting used clothing, used  baseball equipment,  books, school supplies and canned food for local distribution on our return.  

 

If you have anything that you think might be useful we would be most appreciative. 

 

Coach Jimmy B 

Top 10 Florida Baseball is proud that our Dominican Republic Baseball Academy for both U.S. and International players is our centerpiece location for Player Development. 

We train here year round. 

Years ago, we discovered that the baseball system and training that occurs in the United States is piecemeal and insufficient.

In the USA, the focus is clearly on teams, and leagues and lessons.

By examination, this does not prepare players sufficiently. Over 94% of our US varsity players are not skilled enough to play at the college level.

By contrast, over 80% of the Dominican High school aged players are skilled enough to play at the college level.  

 

Th answer lies in the focal points of their training program and the overall approach. 

This is why MLB calls the Dominican Republic home.

This is why all 30 MLB teams are in the Dominican Republic.

This is why MLB ends many of its top draft picks and key prospects to the DR for seasoning in the Rookie Ball League and the Dominican Winter League. 

Boca Chica is home to over 19 MLB training academies. 

This is where the Rookie Academies and Development Camps are for the Yankees, Rockies, Mets, Marlins, Rangers, Red Sox, Mariners, Giants, Angels, Diamond Backs, Orioles, White Sox, Dodgers, Cubs, Pirates, Rays, Astros, Indians, and Royals as well as the Japanese Professional Baseball League. 

As you know, the Dominican Republic is the premier hot bed of baseball and the number one training location in the world for baseball players.

There is no place in the world quite like it. 

Why else would all 30 MLB teams converge on the same location?

You have to see it to believe it. 

The entire country is caught up in the sights, sounds and motion of baseball. 

If you want to improve your game, come to the DR. 

If you are serious - dead serious about baseball - you need to be here. 

Yes, the local indoor hitting facility you frequent a few times a week with your year round membership is fun, and nice, and seemingly productive but you are missing the boat as they say.

Most USA players go to the gym 3-4 times a week, hit a few times per week, and practice with the team a few times per week. Then they get a few lessons, and play in fall and spring leagues and play in some showcase events or college camps.

This is a camouflaged hole.

Nobody wants to step into a hole. You could get hurt or fall down. 

But if the hole is camouflaged........   Well...... that is different...... 

You almost can not be blamed - it was camouflaged.

But if you step back and inspect the baseball landscape closely, and look at the actual results of our player development progress, our system is severely lacking - yet very profitable ......so therefore change will be slow to come. 

Follow the money. 

If you want to find out why this small country sends more players to the MLB per capita than any place in the world, come take a look. 

The DR is the place. 

This is baseball heaven and baseball central. 

This is our home away from home. 

We will house and train players from the USA, Dominican Republic, South America and the Caribbean Islands year round as we help them accomplish getting to the next level.

The  American players have the option of a short stay or an extended stay. The summer time is very popular for American players who come for 2-8 weeks as they prepare for their upcoming middle school, high school or college season. 

Currently we have American and foreign players living there full time, year round as they prepare to get signed either as a free agent or as they pursue a college scholarship opportunity. 

The Dominican players that you will be living with are all projected to be signed eventually by a MLB team, so they are pretty good to say the least.

If our 16 year old player is not throwing close to 90..... well.... he better be by the time he is 16. 

You will be challenged to keep up with them. They throw hard, run fast and have fancy glove work.

They do not get tired and they barely need water.

 

They are gunning for those MLB contracts and college scholarships and college coaches are stepping off the plane every day to come look for them. 

The word is out.

More and more academies are opening every day. 

The best place in the world to train and practice and to develop as a baseball player is the DR. 

The International players are permitted to sign a MLB contract at age 16 so preparing players to be ready for an MLB scout is our bread and butter.

As a player, you are either ready for this or you are not.  

We know exactly what the scouts want to see, and it is not your trophy case or batting average. If you do not have the exact actions and skill set they are looking for, both they and the college scouts will over look you regardless of how many showcases you go to back home and how big your batting average is. 

We will feature Dominican players from age 14-17  year round in our Academy with USA players aged 12-24. 

All players in our Academy will live, practice, train and compete under our 24 hour a day  supervision. 

We have a full major league sized field. 

We have two houses next to each other on a quiet dead end street, two blocks away from our field. 

The houses are near the beach in a very safe neighborhood. 

We supply 3 meals a day, live in coaches who all played MLB  - and a full time cook. 

We train 5-6 days a week 2-3x per day. Sometimes we have 4 training sessions per day. 

 

The new Top 10 Dominican Academy is located at Norte Guayacanes, Nuevo Proyecto.

Executive Director Jimmy Breslin and Coach Tony De La Cruz direct the Academy. 

You can contact Jimmy Breslin at 561-577-2055 or at Bteam1008@aol.com

Jimmys Dominican contact number is 829-554-8660

You can contact Coach Tony in the DR at 809-890-1075

 

 

 

Who We Are

What We Teach

Our Focus

Player Development

How did we arrive here?

Sequential Development

Our Goal

The Ten Year Rule

Commentary on Little League Baseball

Commentary on Travel Baseball

Commentary on High School Baseball

Good Local Coaches

 

Who We Are:

We are professional baseball instructors and coaches.

The only thing that we do for a living is baseball.

We are dedicated to developing baseball players and helping them to move forward to the next level

We work full time,  all year round developing our players.

 

What We Teach:

We teach major league actions, footwork, and techniques. This allows a player to develop properly. It is not enough to hit a ball hard or to throw hard. Eventually your tools and actions will be evaluated using the 2-8 MLB system.  Your batting average and trophy collection will have no bearing on your baseball future.

We develop our players to have perfect balanced swings and perfect glove and body actions that allow them to look smooth, play the game effortlessly, and perform at the highest possible level.

 

We teach the game from the feet up.

For our pitchers we make sure that they their bodies are developed so that they can pitch with proper mechanics and as we move forward we teach them how to use the body to throw a ball and to take the stress off of the arm.

 

All of our pitchers are videotaped and analyzed closely for the various red flags than can derail a career prematurely.

For our hitters, we make sure that they understand each component of the swing and then how to integrate each part of the swing so that they can have a short powerful balanced swing.

We are dedicated to our players and our profession and because this is our profession, we do not have a different day job and then teach baseball on the side which many coaches have to do.

Teaching baseball 7 days a week is what we do.

 

Our Focus:

Training your son and helping to become a great player is our focus. 

Making sure that he receives correct information and positive reinforcement in a structured environment is our focus. 

Fortunately, we are not involved in managing fields or facilities or organizations or do we have an every day job which can very easily distract us from our focus of developing players. 

Developing your player to be the best that he can be is a serious business for us and that is why we are focused on it 7 days a week.

 

The Term" Player Development"

10 years ago the phrase Player Development was only used in the professional circles of baseball.  Now, this word is bandied about by many leagues and teams and coaches because it sounds good and seems to create a positive response to those listening. 

If you look closely, you will see that many teams and programs talk about Player Development and then take on the task of enhancing themselves or their reputation via recruiting only the best players they can find..... then they win a few trophy's, get them selves ranked and call that player development.

That  is not Player Development. This is called recruiting good players who can win trophies. 

And then, almost invariably they succumb to the pressures of winning, often put on them by the parents of the stronger players, and they drop the weaker players from the bottom of the lineup at the very first chance when better players arrive. Haven' you see this happen time after time? 

Then they go out and win some more and crow about it....

That my friends is not Player Development.

 

Many organizations promote Player Development today, and use the word freely now but by actual analysis can only spend a small amount of time under the best of conditions doing so because of organizational concerns and pressures. 

 

We have developed players from the ground up in many situations. 

 

Our most recent big success was taking a 19 year old boy who never played sports and over a 3 year period taught him baseball from the ground up and he is now a college scholarship player, starting in right field. 

We now have a player in our Academy who started playing baseball for the first time just 2 years ago and he is currently being scouted by 4 MLB teams.

 

​​​​​​​One of our players was cut from his high school team, we trained him for 8 months and he was offered 3 MLB contracts. 

Most teams have confused scouting and recruiting and practicing hard with Player Development.

Stretching and practicing with your team 2 or 3 days a week and doing long toss and lots of front toss hitting is not Player Development. That is just what good teams do getting a team ready to compete.

However, if you carefully incorporate on an individualized basis:
 

• Skill Training
• 5 Tool Development
• Agility and Speed Training
• Game Situational Knowledge
• Dynamic Stretching
• Conditioning
• Movement Training
• Rotator Cuff Stabilization
• Scapular Development
• Periodization Training Methodologies
• Off Season Rest and Pre-Hab Pgms
• Visual eye training for Baseball ,
• Slo Mo Video Analysis for Pitchers and Hitters
• Selected Reading Materials
• Teaching Opportunities
• and International Travel Baseball opportunities

 

 

How We Arrived Here

We have studied the game for a long time and all of  it's elements very closely. We have had the benefit of collaborating with great coaches for many years along the road.  We follow and study the great pitching coaches across the United States such as Ron Woolford, Randy Sullivan, Dick Mills, and Mike Marshall. We have studied all of the writings and collaborations of Tom House and Nolan Ryan. We have read the various pitching books written by Tom Seaver, Sandy Koufax, Leo Mazzone.  We have inspected every long toss program ever developed and every new gadget and gizmo promising a short cut for pitchers.

We follow and study the great baseball exercise gurus such as Matt Furey, Marco Borges and Mark Cressey.

We have learned our hitting from Coach K, Mike Schmidt, Charlie Lau, Mike Epstein, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs and Walt Hriniak.

We have studied video tape of virtually every big time hitter in the last 60 years.

We have studied the college masters such as Gordie Gillespie, Dick Howser, Rod Dedeaux, Andy Lopez, Augie Garrido, Stu Southworth,Skip Bertman, Mike Martin, and Cliff Gustafson.

Over time, we have developed a method of teaching that is quite different than what most players are exposed to.

And along the way,

We have coached both teams and the Little League All Stars at each age bracket.

We have coached Travel baseball in California and Florida for 20  years and won hundreds of local, regional and national tournaments.

We have coached high school baseball and hold a variety of school records that stand untouched. 

We sent players from every one of our High School teams to the MLB.

We have coached and scouted at over 400 pro tryouts and showcase events. 

We have coached team USA 14 U team and had the unique experience of winning Gold Medals in both Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

We have studied and practiced at baseball Academies in  Cuba, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic.

We have conducted baseball clinics in Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, South Africa and St Marteen.

We have worked for minor league teams.

We have won National Championships as players and coaches.

We have sat on Boards for more leagues and organizations that we can remember.

We have sent hundreds of boys off to college on college scholarships to schools such as Notre Dame, Stanford, Miami, LSU, Yale, Florida, Florida State, Navy, Army and many more great schools.

We have been part of the training process for over 10 MLB first round picks.

We have helped over 60 boys move forward in their development who had the honor of  signing  contracts with MLB teams.

 

We also have watched many players adversely affected by a baseball system that advocated long toss, weight lifting, year round competition, use of radar guns, and pitch counts prescribed by league administrators who meant well but missed the mark.

All of these experiences individually and collectively have come together to help us form some very strong opinions about how to develop young players efficiently and safely.

 

They say if you fail to read history you are doomed to repeat it.

We have studied the history of many players and we do not want to see our future young  players injured early because of an over emphasis on winning or competing by either dads or coaches who do not realize the inherent dangers.

So, it's a difficult journey to success in the baseball industry for young players and families alike, and if you have not taken the time to study how the many thousands before you have failed, or fallen short or have been prematurely injured or had their talents over looked, the journey becomes even more perilous.

We have studied this journey closely and we want to help and be a part of making yours a success.

 

Sequential Development

 

Hitting, catching, fielding throwing, running, jumping all start with the feet.

If your feet are not working smoothly, these tasks become very difficult.

Developing good footwork at an early age is an important link in player development.

Then we develop basic hand and eye skills.

Then we develop body control.

Then we focus on the foot, hand and eye coordination.

Then it's about coordinated body movements.

Then it's about explosive movements

Then it's about balance.

Then it's about smoothness.

Mix in proper mechanics, mental approach and a lot of hard work and we have a working recipe.

Along the way, we make sure they have fun and learn how to compete.

Then we teach them how to control their emotions and egos and expectancies.

Along the way, we rebuild their mechanics step by step.

We repeat actions until the muscle memory will never let it be done in an incorrect way.

We are patient.

We are methodical.

We are exact in what we are teaching.

The players who train with us full time, and who go thru our entire program not only excel, but they are in a class by themselves.

Our players will have success for many years into the future. 

It's guaranteed.

As a result, we spend very little time marketing our services because we have a steady stream of clients who have been referred to us by their friends. We appreciate that.

We want your player to love the game and to discover how much fun it is to realize his own innate skills.

Traditional teaching methods often miss the mark in case you haven't been watching closely

 

Our Goal

We will guide players so that they can achieve their maximum genetic capability. 

This is what we do at Top 10 Florida Baseball.

We help players attain their goals.

Our goal is to provide a long term comprehensive Player Development Program that is athlete centered, science and coach driven, and supported by family.

 

We work with youth, amateur and professional players.

 

Our services range from skill development to athletic development, to positional development. 

 

We have been blessed with young boys who started with us in T ball and are now in the  Major Leagues.

 

We have found 13 year old boys in Venezuela, brought them to the states, provided them with private high school educations and sponsorships, trained them and watched them get drafted right out of high school and have them at the doorstep of the major leagues years later.

We have had the pleasure of watching our past players perform at every level of baseball including the College World Series, MLB All Star Games, MLB World Series, and the World Baseball Classic. 

 

We do not have any Hall of Fame players yet. Not yet. But we see one or two in the making.

 

We focus on one player at a time, one day at a time.

 

We train, teach, mentor, and advise players 7 days a week. 

 

We have students that travel from New York, Boston, Texas and Pennsylvania over the holidays to train with us.

 

We have students that travel from Aruba, Curacao, Colombia, Dominican Republic and Saint Martin to train with us.

 

We bring our players to Cuba and the Dominican Republic to train and compete.

 

We guarantee that we can bring your player to the next level or you can have your money back. That is our promise.

 

To accomplish this our services include:

• Private 1 on 1 Training

• Semi Private - Small group Training and Conditioning

• Group Conditioning Programs

• Holiday and Summer Conditioning and Skill Development Camps

• Pitching- Catching and Hitting Classes

• Showcase Opportunities

• Private MLB tryouts

• MLB style Training Camps in the Dominican Republic

• Tournaments in the Dominican Republic

• Player Advisory Services

• Player Representation both in the USA and in the International Market

 

The key to success is hard work, preparation, passion, technique, consistency and a long range plan.

 

Our approach to Player Development embraces all of the above.

 

We teach from the ground up and no stone is left untouched.

 

We teach our players how to stand, walk and run and how to shake hands.

 

They will have swagger and they will learn how to be humble.

 

We have a long term training approach and utilize a modular building block methodology based on years of experience.

 

If need be, our players will attend dance class or golf class to round out their game.

 

Our players will learn how to teach what they have learned and how to pass it on to younger players.

 

The key is our holistic view and our attention to detail by our instructors. They are also very patient while simultaneously exuding a passion for excellence.

 

The key for each player is to build a strong work ethic on top of an athletic foundation with a respect for both the game and his competition.

 

And along the way we teach him how to move his body like a professional does while learning skill actions that translate into powerful tools.

 

We believe that training and preparation and an expectancy of success are the keys to athletic success.

 

Our players are in training for the Major Leagues, not to make the high school team. Yes, making the High school team is hard and an accomplishment by all means but our players are wired for college and the pros which ensures them a place on the local high school team.

 

We believe that a player development program that is centered around the needs of the athlete which focuses on training first and competition second will maximize his potential for long term success. 

 

We do not want our players peaking at 12 or 14 years of age.

 

We want our players to peak at a later age when the college or pro opportunities are nearby.

 

As Jerry Maguire said: " SHOW ME THE MONEY"

We want them to arrive in college with a fresh arm, not anything less.

 

The 10 Year Rule

We believe in the 10 Year Rule, often referred to by sports science and educators, which states that it takes 10,000 hours of training, or Ten years of elite type training to build an expert in virtually any  field of endeavor. 

The keys are:

• 10,000 hours

• correct  technical training

• nurturing environment

 

We believe that the emphasis currently placed on winning by parents, educators, administrators, and coaches is a critical failing point in today's baseball infrastructure in t,he USA and that far too many players have fallen victim to it as we now live in a results oriented society.

 

The key is to commit to a proven long term viewed process and to let the results follow over time. 

 

Unfortunately, a whole new wave of Monday morning sports medicine and orthopedic surgeons and rehab specialists have been spawned in the last 20 years because of our need to push our young children to compete and win.

 

Our industry rate of developing successful elite players in the USA is being surpassed rapidly and steadily by the Dominican Republic. 

 

They are not emphasizing winning at the youth levels as we are. They are focusing on training, and how to train and they are succeeding at much higher ratios than we are with far fewer injuries and far fewer resources.

 

On a per capita basis, they are sending more players to the MLB than any country in the world. With little to no resources they are bypassing the USA youth system for developing better baseball players.

 

We believe that today's administrators, league officials, and parents in the USA have a very difficult time setting aside their own strong personal interests and motivations as it relates to what is actually best for each athlete. 

 

We believe that the baseball infrastructure in the United States is self absorbed, profit driven, results oriented, and arrogant to a fault and as a result over 99% of our players never reach their potential.

 

Little League is great for developing sportsmanship and getting a player and his family excited about baseball. Thank Goodness for this volunteer based organization which does so much to get our players started but at the end of the day it may be hurting as many players as it may be helping.

 

Why?

 

Example:

 

1) Teaching players to not to take a lead as youngsters takes years to overcome. It retards their development, teaches them a very limiting skill, and limits the amount of fun they are having.

 

2) Teaching players to stop at a base on an overthrow as an offensive courtesy or safety measure is counter intuitive to developing players who need to be moving instinctively and aggressively at the next level to succeed. 

 

3) Teaching young players to return the ball to the mound or pitchers circle quickly to stop runners from advancing is counter productive and damaging to gaining game judgement and skills. 

 

4) Giving away trophies for mediocre results, and for participation is rampant and not a reflection of any reality I am aware of in society.

 

5) Having non-certified and poorly trained coaches teaching improper fundamentals such as squishing the bug sets back player development years for most players and they often do not recover. If the parents knew how improper the mechanics being taught were...... they would be up in arms.

 

6) Having players stand in line at the batting cage waiting for their 5 or 6 swings is an effective use of valuable and limited time?

 

I don't think so.

 

7) Having a Dad who can't throw a strike, pitch overhand in a downward arcing off line angle, from an improper arm slot to an 8 year old is an effective method of teaching? I don't think so. 

 

8) Teaching a player to protect the plate with two strikes is ridiculous. Teach a young boy to protect his younger sister or his house but not the plate.

 

Any good hitting coach will tell you that the idea is to hit the ball hard regardless of 1 or 2 strikes so why teach an improper mental approach which is fear based,  which does not work?

 

 

9) Teaching player to throw a baseball to warm up is destructive to their arms in the short and long run. Baseball players warmup to throw, not vice a versa.

 

10)  Implementing a pitch count system such as is used is a band aid on a serious wound. The system needs a serious overhaul and they have only paid it lip service,  so as to insulate it's own valuable reputation. The Execs have the facts and the knowledge and the ability to fix it but they have not,  nor will they until it affects their bottom line finances and reputation. They hold valuable ground in our industry and could be a lighthouse for sensible change but it is not going to happen.

They would rather spend months of investigation into figuring out what side of the street a boy lives on so that he is "zoned properly"..and then again spend thousands of dollars on lawyer fees taking away the boy's trophy or future opportunities because he was not "playing for the correctly zoned team".   

 

Little League is non profit but the execs make 6 digit salaries while they rake in  hundreds of millions of dollars from tv sponsors because of the market appeal and popularity of these young players and then give barely a bus ride and a few medallions back to the kids in exchange in the name of protecting amauteurism.

As a result of their near sightedness and unwillingness to teach and develop players...... Travel ball was born ......and became their number one nemesis and rival.

 

Yes.....Travel ball is a great opportunity for providing some higher levels of competition and getting us ready for more serious baseball but it too is entirely self serving and sets up a system built around winning and crowning champions while it too professes falsely to develop players.

 

In reality, its pay to play. If Mom and dad can pay, there will be a team for him. Travel ball money then gets distributed upwards thru a multi-level organization providing a number of slick promoters a substantial income.  

For a while these travel teams were strong, but now if you have money you can find a team, greatly watering down the product. Because of recruiting and sponsorships travel ball at the top is strong, but follow these players and you will find out that most of them do not succeed at the higher levels of baseball. And at the middle and bottom , travel ball has never been more saturated or weaker or watered down. 

Travel baseball is now a 12 month of the year operation, with trophies and rankings and point systems driving ego driven adults to push our young players harder then should be allowed which means that thousands of players are being over played and over used which is leading  to hundreds of thousands of premature and avoidable injuries.

 

High School baseball is great for community spirit and showing boys how the game starts to become really serious and is a nice stepping stone into the showcase circuit but it stunts the growth of more players than we can accurately estimate. 

There are a number of great high school coaches out there doing an incredible job, but they are in the minority.

 

Miguel Cuello, Bruce Charlebois, Doug Jennings, Scott Benedict, Chad Upton are just a few of the guys who are teaching the game properly and protecting players from injuries. I intend to expand this list soon as I can because we do have a number of great coaches here in S. Florida but they are in the minority.

 

Ok.. listen to this.

Radar guns, long toss, showcases and year round baseball is injuring thousands of players per year. Many thousands.

 

The medical industry and the showcase industry is making  a killing on us.

 

But, in spite of that most families and players feel the need to participate and support this system as they feel they will be left behind if they don't.

 

They are like sheep following each other and the baseball circuit hoping for their eventual payday of a college scholarship.

 

As far as player development infrastructure goes in the USA, the gaps in our system are wide and deep and seriously lacking in form, function and purpose.

 

The drop out rate is high in baseball with teen age boys because the field has become too big for their incorrect skill sets, and now they fail too often against better players, and the fun eventually dies away. 

 

Thus the failure rate at high school and college is incredibly high for our baseball players.

 

And the baseball system is not there to protect them.

Not even close.

At a very expensive private school where I was coaching, I was once told by the Athletic Director that 42 boys signed up JV and Varsity baseball and because we only had 36 uniforms I had to cut 6.   Oh.. so that's  how we figure it out how many to cut? 

 

I was wondering how to do that efficiently.

6 Boys who wanted to play HS baseball had to be cut because their $38,000 private tuition didn't cover a uniform. Beautiful.

My reflex action was to tell him it would not happen that way and to find money for uniforms. I only wish I could have found stronger and wiser words.

 

I've seen local schools here in Boynton Beach cut over 25 freshmen going out for the Fall JV team.

 

The fall season where games mean nothing, and the costs of running a team are minimal.

 

So we sent 25 young freshmen and sophs home to an empty house, so they could play videos and goof off because we couldn't afford a t shirt and a hat and find a volunteer coach.

 

What makes me think some of these kids wanted to play baseball and were stopped by an uncaring system and then years later we spent hard earned tax payer money on federal grants to find out why some of these same kids got in trouble and failed?

 

This is an uncaring system.

 

Would it be that hard to field a second recreational type team for development purposes?

 

Why do only the best players get to participate in a sport?

 

Those are our  tax dollars at work but they are not working for the general good of the public or our children. 

 

Colleges only take the best 6% of the HS players anyways so whats the big deal about letting those 25 kids play.

 

With over 1,300 high school in Florida,  I figure we are chasing away over 30,000 baseball players/students who want to learn how to get better.

Now factor in basketball, soccer and the numbers get mind boggling as to how we take care of our next generation.

 

So we chase away over 50% of the kids that want to learn and we focus on the other 50%.

 

So we focus on them real hard goes the theory.

 

And, come graduation time,  94% of them fail to move on to play college ball. 

 

So clearly, we spend our HS development time on those 6%.

Now, next time you see a college coach,  ask him how prepared most of those 6% are for college baseball and you will see his exasperation and frustration quickly.

Our best 6% are definitely not ready for the next level says the college coaches in unison, and the players are arriving over used and partially injured with bad actions, habits and approaches.

MLB is drafting our best players out of HS and college and they too are failing at an alarming high rate at a quick pace as well. We are being outpaced, out played and out coached by the Dominicans and coaches from Curacao and Cuba to name just a few.

 

The Dominicans are dominating this race to the MLB.

 

Dominican now comprise almost 50% of the Minor League system.

 

Yes. there is good news on the horizon which shows evidence that that our system of developing players is changing, but at much too slow of a rate, and too late for the current generation of players.

 

We believe there are more good young dedicated coaches around today than ever before, but they are joining a broken dysfunctional system that lacks direction, clarity, leadership,  or vision past the current season or upcoming playoffs.  

 

We believe that if you could fast forward 20 years we would see an entirely different baseball landscape in it's place.

 

This future landscape will place more emphasis on long term training than on winning weekend tournaments or local league championships.  Parents will be more involved than ever, but they would be insisting on more beef and less fluff.

 

We believe that the parents have become such a driving force in a complicated set of dynamics that the system now reflects the demands of the parents, but as they do not understand the dangers of not having a long term training model in place, their own sons are paying the price with their eventual failure.

 

We believe that many parents are so obsessed with winning and controlling which team their son plays on, that they do so with relish.

After all, they are loving parents and wish to protect him from losing.

 

But, by evidence and observation, in actual fact they are protecting their own self esteem because all players learn how to handle failure, and parents rarely do. 

 

The truth is that players let go of failure in far less time that their parents do.

 

And all parents love their children, so they use their education and money and resources to protect him and to find him a team where he does not have to sit on the bench or be a second stringer. 

 

In doing so they have deprived him of the Darwinian Principles of self development and competition and are unwittingly directly contributing to the lack of player development and set him up for a stunted maturation process.

 

The most difficult part of our job is educating the parents. The players are the easy part.

 

Very few parents or youth coaches today understand Player Development.

 

They often think it has something to do with equal playing time or teaching different positions, or not worrying about winning. 

 

Heck, the NY Yankees and Boston Red Sox are confused on how to develop players.

They lead the pack with failing to develop players........ and they are struggling today with defining what it means to develop players........... so no offense should be taken by novices.

 

Hmmmmm. I wonder if the Yankee and Sox struggle to develop players has anything to do with the intense daily pressure from the media and fans to win today.?  Probably just a coincidence, or maybe not.

 

The fact of the matter is that our fractured infrastructure in the USA does not promote player development, or teach it or embrace it.

 

Take batting cage machines for example: Just a small simple example.

 

Indoor baseball facilities use them as a main tool for developing hitters. Every bustling town has multiple cages. Most teams and players go to the cages regularly to hit. Players rent them by the hour or month and buy memberships in an attempt to become a good hitter. It sure seems logical  doesn't  it? Heck, lets go hit!

 

But if you go to professional baseball camps you will not see the boys hitting off of machines very often. Sometimes maybe they are practicing on the curveball, but never the fastball.

 

The machines are primarily used to train catchers or outfielders in specialized drills. Why?

 

Don't you think that the NY Yankees can afford to have dozens and dozens of state of the art pitching machines for their hitters?  But they do not. Why? 

 

Because accomplished hitters do not want to hit off a machine, because it messes up their game swing and timing.  It's fun, and its a nice activity and it seems to be helping but it messes them up. It messes up their timing, vision acuity, reflexes and tempo.  Other than that it works just fine.

 

Why?

 

Simple:  The machine sends a different type of ball, from a lower release point, from a different angle, with a different spin, with a different pre-release action, from a different height, to a different path with a different trajectory with a different force factor creating a different look and feel to the hitter.

 

Then they go to live pitching and have to start all over adjusting to something very different.

 

Most coaches do not know that machines can set players backwards nor do most parents.

 

Listen, today's parents are very involved and they are results oriented and they are more educated than parents of 30 years ago.

 

The internet and smart phones has changed everything. Today's parents are hard working, caring, interested hard driving and well read on the internet. And...  now they they know a lot of stuff..... but the hardest person to teach is the person who already knows the answers. And they already know.

 

And they work hard for their money and want to see results. That's a given.

 

For them, winning on Sunday translates to a positive result, but do they know know that years and years of Sports Science and research study disagrees wholeheartedly?

 

Sports science indicates that players who win early and often without the benefit of a progressive player development platform which focuses on development and not competition do not reach elite levels of play proportionately as their psychological drive to attain higher levels of skill are somewhat inhibited.

 

Sports science also teaches us that players who are rushed into repeated competition without a comprehensive training platform before the age of 18 have a propensity to not reach their maximum potential for a variety of psychological reasons. On the other hand, Sports science teaches us that players who spend most of their time (75%) training and learning how to train up to age 18, go on to Olympic and elite levels of play at a much higher rate.   

 

Yes,  we all love to win and winning is so much more fun than losing... but only those of us who have been around the game for years know how to separate the two. Parents and coaches who have less than 20 plus years of experience on the field can not.

 

Unfortunately, far too often parents can start to define themselves partially on the basis of winning and losing. Interestingly, this rarely or never occurs for the parent who has played at the elite levels themselves. They have already made this journey.

 

In MLB, the team that wins the World Series, the best team in the world,  usually loses about 60- 70 games a year, which is more than most of our players have lost in their combined life time career.

 

The average MLB team might lose over 90 games from spring training to October. If  a player goes off to winter ball he might lose another 50. Some MLB players might lose 140 games a year, more than some players lose in a lifetime, but it's all chalked up to development.

 

Players need to learn how to handle defeat as it is a normal part of the game. One of the worst things a parent can do is to manipulate the system so that your child is on a winning team repeatedly. Ouch!

 

We also know that very little can be learned from victory but you can learn everything about yourself and others from defeat. 

 

From a sports science and investigative point of view we know that our infrastructure is producing the following results:

• Parents who are insisting on their child be on winning teams.

• Parents who are leaning on a competitive system to develop their players skill sets.

• More events and tournaments and leagues than ever before, delivering large profits to vested individuals with little attention given to developing balanced athletes that have a solid foundation of motor skills, balance, strength and stamina

• Over 95% of young athletes are not trained in fundamental body movements and their resulting failure years later is directly linked to this fact

• Over 90% of our young players will experience slight to serious arm injures or difficulties before they are 16

• Over 94% of our high school varsity players will not be good enough to play in college

• Over 90% of our young youth players will drop out of baseball before they reach the 8th grade

• Less than 3% of the USA players drafted have any measurable success

• Long toss is not helpful as it relates to building pitchers velocity yet it is pushed daily by most teams and programs across the country

• Soft toss is used daily by most of our coaches yet the best teams  use it very carefully and not often because it is known for producing long slow swings

• We now have our 5th generation of hitters who are still being taught to squish the bug by coaches and instructors at many levels when squishing the bug is clearly not the correct method of rotating the hips thru a baseball

• We now have a travel system of baseball that is a license to play if you can pay.

• We now have a travel system of baseball that has mirrored the Little League format it looks down upon, and yet it is more identical to it than it is different. 

We at Top 10 are pioneering the future. Make no mistake about it.

We are in the  minority and people will take pot shots at us.

 

Ron Woolford of the renowned Texas Pitching Ranch and Randy Sullivan of the Pitching Armory in Tampa are two of the finest instructors in the USA and coaches are taking pot shots at them all day and every day because they are baseball savvy, opinionated, unconventional and stubborn about being advocates for players first.

I am proud to have pot shots taken at me.

I have looked at thousands of hours of slow mo video tape and read thousands of sports science releases, hundreds of books, and attended hundreds of clinics and received dozens of coaching certifications and awards and spent over 55 years on the field watching players and collaborating with great coaches to reach this point.

As a player and coach I have been very fortunate and won 4 national Championship Rings as well as a Minor League Championship Ring.

 

 

As a Head High school coach here in Florida, I had some great teams who worked really hard and thus the boys managed to leave me with  record for the highest winning percentage at each of the 3 schools schools I had the honor of coaching for.

I am still the only Florida High school coach who made it to the State Championship Game in the first year of an inaugural program at Trinity Christian.

As a Travel Ball coach for the Florida Dream Team I was part of an amazing run where we won over 50 consecutive tournaments.

As an instructor I have helped over 60 players get drafted.

As a scout and trainer I have tabbed over 18 first round picks before they were 14 years old.

As a 14U Team USA National Team coach, we won 3 gold medals and 1 Bronze in International COPABE competition.

As an instructor over 95% of my full time students have received college scholarships.

 

 

We are asking our clients to buy into a long term developmental philosophy that is not being promoted or used by anyone within sight.

We are asking our clients to look at the logic of our science based approach.

We are asking our clients to act in the best interests of their child.

To find our brothers in arms, one must look towards Canada, or the Dominican Republic or towards MLB training camps.

We are advocates for players and not the system.

This is who we are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Study this it  closely.

I suggest that you watch it over and over.

Watch the bat path closely, and you will see how the bat path is short and compact to the ball with no back side lag.

Watch how the hands start the swing, but that the hips lead the way, with the hands following.

Watch how the foot gets down, with plenty of time to spare.

Watch closely how the rear foot does not turn, but rather how it "releases" and that this release is a result of hip and knee action.

Watch the balanced and complete finish.

 

 

 

Top 10 Player Omar Wiliams had a spectacular showing in Arizona recently at the PowerShowcase held at Chase Field the  home of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  Omar hit the second longest home run of the event at 485 feet. See Omars video clip below.

Jovan Robinson from Top 10 Baseball also participated in the Power Showcase. Jovan ran a  6.71 60 and he hit numerous big blasts with his new swing. His furthest home run traveled 444 ft.

 This video shows something that virtually no one can do.