Mike Hennessey To Serve As Director of MP Academy

Myers Park Trinity is excited to announce that Mike Hennessey has accepted the position of Program Director for MP Academy (MPA), the league's new instructional group and competitive division for age 13-and-over baseball.

Hennessey is the current Head Varsity Baseball Coach and Program Director at Charlotte Country Day School, where he has served for 10 years. He was named the 2006 and 2011 South Charlotte Weekly Coach of the Year.

Mike began his coaching career at the Canterbury School in New Milford, CT. He has served as an evaluator and coach for the Mid Atlantic region's USA Baseball National Team Identification Series, and has coached at the United States Naval Academy in their summer leadership camp. He is an executive board member of Baseball For Life, a Charlotte service organization dedicated to helping young men develop important life skills through baseball.

In addition to his position as Program Director of MP Academy, Mike will also serve as Head Coach for MPA's 14U team. Mike is an excellent instructor and passionate teacher of the game. He is well respected in the Charlotte baseball community. We are fortunate to have Mike on board to lead us into the next phase of the continued improvement our league.

MPA is now preparing for its Winter Academy, to be led by Hennessey and our own certified strength and conditioning coach, Josh Thomas. This will be an offseason skills development program with a strength, speed and agility component. 

Tryouts for the 13U, 14U and 15U teams will take place on Saturday, November 15th, at Covenant Day School. The teams will be led by Covenant Day Varsity Coach David Houseton (13U), Hennessey (14U) and Scott Ahlum (15U). Interested families should contact MP Academy at mpacademy@mptll.org.

Stay tuned for more information in the near future regarding both the team tryouts and the Winter Academy.

Wednesday Softball Pitching Instruction

Queens University Softball Head Coach Melanie Helterbran is offering group pitching instruction at Myers Park Trinity on Wednesday nights this fall season. The series begins tonight, September 10th, and runs through October 8th.

Each session will cost $5.00 per player. They will be conducted at both 5:30-6:00 and 6:00-6:30. Parents are encouraged to attend and catch their pitcher, as well as listen in on the instruction being given. Players should arrive a few minutes early and meet in the grassy area next to Kiser-Chapman Field. The group may move down to the area beyond Founders Field if additional space is needed.

The sessions are for all age groups and skill levels. Girls with any interest in pitching are encouraged to attend. No experience is necessary.

Thanks to Coach Helterbran. MP Softball is grateful for its partnership with Queens University.

Fall Coaches Clinics at MPTLL

Myers Park Trinity Little League has partnered with area high school and middle school coaches and private instructors to offer clinics specifically designed for our youth baseball coaches.  These experienced coaches will discuss practice plans, proper throwing, pitching, fielding and hitting techniques, and most importantly, effective ways to instruct the kids in our age groups.  These clinics are free, and will be offered several times over the next couple of weeks.  The League is strongly encouraging its fall baseball coaches to attend at least one clinic, hopefully more.  The impact our coaches can have on the players of MPTLL will be dramatically improved if our fall coaches can learn and implement a few tips from these coaches.

Coaches participating:

·         Mike Hennessey – Varsity Head Coach – Charlotte Country Day School

·         David Houseton – Varsity Head Coach – Covenant Day School

·         Mark Mensheha – Head Coach – A.G. Middle School

·         Josh Thomas – Head Coach – Charlotte Country Day Middle School (and MPTLL Major League Coach – Trinity)

·         Brandon Merchant – Youth Hitting and Pitching Instructor (and MPTLL Major League Head Coach – Al Browne)

·         Scott Ahlum – Head Coach Charlotte Stampede 15U (former MPTLL coach)

Dates:

·         Saturday, September 6^th – 8:30am to 9:30am

·         Monday, September 8^th – 7:00pm to 8:00pm

·         Tuesday, September 9^th – 7:00pm to 8:00pm

·         Saturday, September 20^th  - 8:30am to 9:30am

Don't miss this opportunity to improve your coaching knowledge, skills and practice plans. See you at the fields.

Royals Softball Teams Up With Myers Park Trinity

Queens University has recently adopted Myers Park Trinity Softball as its “community project” and will be providing a free 2-hour skills clinic on Saturday, January 25th.

This clinic will feature the Lady Royals team plus head coach, Melanie Helterbran, at Randolph Park on Kiser-Chapman Field from 1:00-3:00 pm.  The clinic will focus on hitting, fielding, throwing and base running for all age groups. Although the event is free, we will be accepting voluntary donations for the Myers Park Trinity Softball program.

Please RSVP by email to softball@mptll.org if you plan to attend this clinic. Stay tuned to MP Twitter and Facebook, or the MP Blog for any future announcements or weather-related changes.

Baseball For Life Coaches Clinic - Sunday, Feb. 10

Baseball For Life, a new non-profit organization co-chaired by Ed Walton and Mike Shildt, will be having a coaches clinic this Sunday from 1:00-4:00 at Weddington High School specifically geared toward youth coaches. This is a great opportunity to learn from many of the best coaches around Charlotte. It's free but you must register online. There is more info here and in the video below.

Summer Instruction at MPTLL

Myers Park Trinity is excited to offer a variety of instructional baseball and softball opportunities for the upcoming summer. This is a chance for your kids to work on improving their game in a familiar and convenient setting.

MPTLL's own Baseball Fever camp, under the direction of league coach Jason Wishnefsky, is returning for another summer. Baseball Fever has scheduled four 5-day camps for 2012.

HQ4 Baseball will also be holding camps this summer, and will have two 4-day All Skills camps, plus pitching & catching and hitting camps.  For more information on both camps, visit the MPTLL Summer Camps page on the league website.

For individual or group instruction in a smaller setting, check out the Hitting and Pitching Lessons page at my own Hardball Mechanics blog. I will continue to schedule lessons at our park throughout the year, using video analysis to pinpoint mechanical flaws and customized drills to fix them. Special summer pricing has just been announced. As always, 10% of the proceeds goes to Myers Park Trinity to help pay for capital improvements like our newest batting cages. Contact me for more information or to schedule lessons. I work with kids of all ages and skill levels, including players from our American League, National League, Major League, Junior League and Softball divisions, as well as area high school players.

Whether your player is preparing for next season, learning a new skill or getting extra practice in for all-stars, summer is a great time to do it.

Joey Bats is Where It's At

Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays is the man to watch in 2011. Albert Pujols may be the greatest hitter of the past decade, but Bautista is the best in the game right now. His numbers make that obvious. After two months, he is 1st in home runs (19), on-base percentage, runs and walks. He is 2nd in batting average at .353. Since the 2010 season began "Joey Bats" has hit 73 bombs. This year he is on pace for 65 - an unheard of number in the supposed post-steroid era.

How does he do it? Just watch his swing over and over. Notice the violent hip turn, the firm front leg, and he doesn't swing level to the ground, kids - he's level to the pitch with a high finish, and then some.

Let's hope Bautista doesn't go the way of Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and now apparently Lance Armstrong. Because this is fun to watch:

Summer Baseball Instruction at Randolph Park

Myers Park Trinity is excited to offer a variety of instructional baseball opportunities for the upcoming summer. This is a chance for your kids to work on improving their game in a familiar and convenient setting.

MPTLL's own Baseball Fever camp, under the direction of long time league coach Jason Wishnefsky, is returning for its 10th summer. Jason was an instructor with Baseball Fever from day 1, and more recently partnered with Zan Copeland to provide this camp to our players. Baseball Fever has scheduled three, 5-day All Skills camps, a 2-day pitching and catching camp, and a 2-day hitting camp.

John Spencer, Head Varsity Baseball Coach at Myers Park High School, has scheduled two, 4-day All Skills camps. Coach Spencer previously held sessions on Sundays last August and September at our fields.

HQ4 Baseball will also be holding camps this summer, and will have two, 4-day All Skills camps, and a 4-day pitching and catching camp. 

And for individual or group hitting or pitching instruction, I will continue to schedule lessons at our park throughout the year, using video analysis to pinpoint mechanical flaws and customized drills to fix them. This summer's schedule will include mornings and afternoons. For more information, please visit my Lessons page and contact me about setting up a time. I work with players of all ages and currently have students from various American League, National League, Major League and Junior League teams at MPTLL.

Playing Catch With a Purpose

I read a good post at The Pitching Academy about the benefits of throwing often when done with a purpose. Baseball is fun, and it's fun to just go out a throw the ball around. But when teams are warming up for practice, players - especially pitchers - can gain a lot from working on their mechanics.

Far too often I see a kids that have been taught to pitch or throw correctly, some by me, go out and warm up for practice with poor mechanics - not closing up, glove flying out, no follow through. They get nothing out of those ten minutes other than getting their arm loose. But if they would focus on what they're doing during that time like they would the rest of practice, they could improve their arm strength, their mechanics, their control, their various fastballs and their changeup or other offspeed pitches.

Mechanics can be learned at an early age. Once players get in the habit of throwing correctly, they'll never lose that skill. It's like riding a bike. But until the good habits fully take over, players will continue to fight against the bad habits on the mound and in the field. If they don't close the shoulder, or tuck the glove, etc., during those 30 throws before practice, how can we expect them to do it in a game?

And that changeup grip takes months, if not years, to get comfortable with. Pitchers who practice it during long toss or while cooling down can speed up that time significantly. Play "catch" with a purpose and some focus and the progress will show.

MLB Network's Diamond Demo's

The best channel on TV has a gold mine of expert baseball information. It's MLB Network's Diamond Demo's, where former pro players like Harold Reynolds, Billy Ripken, my man Sean Casey and others head to Studio 42 for instructional segments on all aspects of the game.

Whether you're a coach, a player or a parent, you can learn a lot from these valuable five-minute demonstrations. The Network's website has a video library will all the clips - nearly 100 so far.

Fall Ball Coming to a Close

The Myers Park Trinity Fall Ball season comes to a close this weekend. Players will head into winter and other activities, and hopefully retain much of what they learned over the last two months.

Our fall program was started in the early '90's with the help of guys like Tom Marshall, Bo Thomas and Zan Copeland. The goal has always been to provide a fun, non-competitive instructional league to help our players develop. Each game is viewed as a learning experience and a chance to practice new skills and gain confidence. I believe we have accomplished that goal. Yes, Fall Ball games can often get sloppy and be frustrating to some, but that's what happens when kids are learning and practicing new things. Better to get that out of the way now than in the spring season when the scoreboards are on and standings are followed.

Rhymer Fitness Seminar

Rhymer Fitness, an MPTLL sponsor, is hosting a free nutrition and mental toughness seminar on Monday, November 1 at 6:30pm at B&B Batting Center in Indian Trail. The seminar will cover topics such as supplements, protein, carbohydrates, fish oil, the dangers of performance enhancing drugs, proper hydration and more. For more info, visit B&B Batting Center.

Swing Alalysis of the Great Pujols

Albert Pujols is the best hitter in all of baseball. The Great Pujols, as his manager, Tony La Russa, calls him, may go down as the greatest ever. So we should feel lucky to watch him play and take advantage of this time to learn from him.

Analyzing Pujols could be a practice unto itself. Here is a collection of some of the best the internet has to offer. We can study in great detail the mechanics of the Greatest - his wide base, his balance, how he cocks his hips, pulls his hands, keeps his head still and eyes down on the ball, how he braces his front leg, rotates his back heel and hips, how he matches the plane of the pitch and finishes high - the list goes on and on.
Pujols relentlessly studies video of himself and other hitters (often during games). Let's do the same........

Here's a YouTube video that breaks it all down in batting practice:



Here's a link to a USA Today swing analysis using four different angles and some explaination from Albert himself: CLICK HERE.

And finally, here's another swing analysis, using both pictures and video, that a blogger has put together himself: CLICK HERE.

Pujols is as good as it gets, so let's all enjoy watching him as much as possible while he is in the prime of his career.