The 59 Minute Baseball Practice

Rating:
Summary: Great Ideas
Review: Shupak's 59 Minute Baseball Practice is first rate. The video contains of a lot of drills appropriate for any level of baseball. Each drill is described, then it is demonstrated using Little Leaguers.

This video was very helpful to me in organizing fast moving, more interesting, and quicker practice sessions. Although the coaching points for each drill are mentioned (for example, "turn to the glove side when making a relay"), they are not discussed in any depth. A novice coach will need additional resources to teach the fundamentals to younger players.

If you are short of practice space, Shupak's rag ball drills are the solution. If your baseball practice runs two hours -- an hour of batting practice and an hour of situations, get this video, and change your practice. Your players' skills will improve, and they will be more willing to practice hard.

Rating:
Summary: An Unbelievable Video
Review: The "59 Minute Baseball Practice Video" just topped Braveheart as my all time favorite video. I have been coaching for five years and I have seen just about every single baseball video ever made, but nothing, and I will say again, nothing tops this video. It goes into the crucial aspects of the game and emphasizes small things like baserunning in addition to the hitting and fielding drills. I had a practice in the gym last Saturday and using the drills in the video, my practice was only 45 minutes long! I came away feeling very satisfied that I had accomplished something and the kids were happier than any team I've ever had before. This is a superior product and all coaches should have the luxury of owning it.

Rating:
Summary: All Around Excellence!!!!
Review: The content of this video has been used for about three full weeks since I purchased it. My team consists of 9 & 10 year old players. The video contains 34 drills and runs about 32-35 minutes long. Having purchased two other baseball instructional videos, I find "The 59 Minute Baseball Practice" to be of great value and organization and by far the best of the three. It is obvious that most youth baseball coaches do not spend a career planning practices so most of us tend to do the two hour batting at each practice and feel we have accomplished a lot. What this video does is combine fun drills with baseball skills. It makes for a very refreshing and creative item that youth coaches of players 7-13 (maybe 14) should receive the most benefit. If your team is like mine, they won't love every drill but the ones they do like, they will ask you about the second they get to practice.
A lot of the actual organization is excellent and safety seems to be properly taken into account. The real brilliance of this video is it will open your own mind to be creative and invent your own drills from the ones shown. In fact, the narrator recommends to be creative and change the drills to fit your team's "likes and skill level". I have done this and was quite surprised at the positive feedback from my players. This is a great item to purchase. Buy it and get the remote ready while viewing. Then write down 4-5 drills you want to use and go out with your team and do them and you'll be amazed at the happy faces you see. Oh yea, a lot of the drills can be done in the backyard for a parent and child. Will this video teach your team how to turn the perfect 6-4-3 double play? Probably not. But it will give you exactly what the description says: a very good alternate to the traditional boring practice with lots of great stuff.

Rating:
Summary: Your kids will enjoy these drills!
Review: This 30 minute tape provides about 20 different drills for young baseball players. Some may be too advanced for 6 or 7 year olds. But the vast majority are useful at any age. Full of good ideas for dads who have been cornered into becoming a coach. The tape would have been better if it covered the fundamentals of a good swing or a good throw, breaking down motions into different elements. Of course, that would require making the tape another 15 minutes longer. But if your kids already have a decent throwing and hitting motion, he or she will love these drills. Good fun.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Instructional Video For Baseball I've Seen
Review: This guy really put a lot of planning in this video. I coach Little League up in Massachusetts and have bought a number of baseball videos. The quality of the filming is excellent. The drills are simplistic yet he puts a twist on some of them and they are very dynamic. His idea of running a baseball practice in under one hour is great because a lot of coaches just do batting practices for two hours. The drills are creative. The planning is excellent. And the literature sent is very good also. I have no reservation in recommending this to parents of Little Leaguers and coaches.

Rating:
Summary: This video is a "Grand Slam"for parents & coaches
Review: This is a "Grand Slam" for parents and coaches involved in Little League.

I gave this video five stars because of a number of reasons. Unlike other videos, there is not a lot of talk and lecturing from the instructor. The coach in this, gets right into the drills and the video keeps your interest from beginning to end. Also, before each drill he puts up a picture of a baseball diamond for a few seconds of where the players actually line up in the drill. The drills are interesting and the second time I went through the video, the concepts really sunk in. The strategies are what really impressed me the most. You can tell that the coach is very experienced and he is convincing that he tries everything in the video. I will be coaching again this year and I don't whether to tell my league about this video or hide it from them.

Rating:
Summary: Great drills--lacking on planning and organizing a practice.
Review: This is a great video if you are experienced in setting up and running practices-not as good if you are a novice at coaching.

The drills are excellent overall. They will work well with most ages, though a few will be too sophisticated for very young players.

The number of drills is also well spaced between requisite skills--such as hitting, base running, fielding in the infield and outfield, etc.

The clips are quick--both in terms of length and the speed of sequencing on the tape--plan on viewing the tape at least twice to get it all. On the other hand, the tape's only about 30 minutes long, so viewing twice is no great burden.

The "practice organization" section is weak--two different suggested practice schedules are briefly displayed with approximate times for each. Based on my experience, and given that several drills require a lot of equipment and/or paraphernalia, I'd be skeptical that you can actually get the suggested drills in in an hour practice--figure on an hour and 20 minutes.

There is absolutely no other organization tips ot guidance on how to organize a practice, effectively use assistant coaches or run a game simulation, etc.

Bottom line is this is s drills tape--a very good one, but strictly a drills tape nevertheless. This is a good addition to a coaches tape library but not he "ultimate" tape it's been made out to be.

Rating:
Summary: Full of great ideas, but best for coaches of older LL kids
Review: This is a great video, and I found plenty drills that I used with my teams. However, the drills are best suited for older Little Leaguers (11 and 12 years and up). The drills are not well suited for 8 and 9 year olds, who lack the physical and mental maturity (which is the level that I am coaching). However, I was able to adapt some of the drills to the younger players.

I'd love to see him make a video for PARENTS to help their kids outside of formal practice time, since time restraints make individual instruction difficult for the coaches during practice.

Rating:
Summary: A terrific instructional tape!
Review: This is a terrific tool for any parent or coach who wants to teach baseball. I can't imagine a more complete set of drills for developing skills; and they look like a lot of fun as well. The tape is clearly written and narrated. The drills are well-explained and well-demonstrated by Coach Schupak and an enthusiastic team of youngsters. And the supporting materials are very useful. We're not only told what to work on, but why. I watched this tape in the middle of winter, and now I can't wait to get outside with my son and start playing ball.

Rating:
Summary: This video was exeptionally planned and executed.
Review: This is the best video I've ever seen about how to coach a Little League team. As a parent, I was able to do most of the drills with my two sons in our backyard. I would recommend this highly to any coach or parent for its content and creativity.