YBE 136: Advanced Basics for Catchers with Tom Griffin
If receiving, blocking and throwing are the fundamental aspects of the catcher position, what are the key teaching points of those aspects? What information goes beyond the basics for your catchers to give them more of an edge? Tom Griffin shares some helpful tips in...
YBE 135: Smarter Practice Planning with Bo Ashabraner
Practice planning is one of the most frequently asked topics for youth coaches. With so many topics (hitting, pitching, fielding, throwing, baserunning, the mental game, the catcher position, team defense, situational defense, situational offense, bunting,...
YBE 134: Start With A Plan with Bo Ashabraner
Do you have a plan when you start your team? Or when you start a new season? Aside from what drills you want to run, what philosophies do you have for your team—or as Bo Ashabraner puts it, what philosophies do you enforce or tolerate? Bo is here to help us break down...
YBE 133: Advice From The Swing Whisperer with Doug Latta
Taming a wild swing in your youth hitters? The Swing Whisperer is in. Giving advice specifically targeted at the youth and high school level, Doug Latta, aka "The Swing Whisperer", is back to help calm those free-spirited hitters in this finale of a three-part...
YBE 132: Hitting Mechanics That Crush with Doug Latta
When it comes to hitting, we can talk about timing, pitch recognition, game-like reps, strike zone recognition, vision training and more. But at some point, we're going to have to teach hitting mechanics to our kids if the kids are going to advance to the next level...
YBE 131: Talking Hitting and Going Deep with Doug Latta
There is no shortage of hitting advice, particularly on the internet. Some good. Some not so good. And some just plain awful. Confused by what is information and what is misinformation? Doug Latta, aka "The Swing Whisperer", helps us sort out some of the information...
YBE 130: Helping Your Team Bond with David Klein
Mental health is declining for more young people than ever before, thanks to digital technology (and possibly also relating to the chaos surrounding COVID-19). Is there anything youth baseball coaches can do to help young athletes? Or is this only a problem for...
YBE 129: The Importance of Unplugging with David Klein
Video screens (video games, mobile phones) are probably one of the last things we consider when it comes to baseball. Yet screen time leaves a bigger footprint in our kids' lives than we think—yes, even on the baseball field. Former guest David Klein returns to...
YBE 128: Lessons Learned in 2019
As we start the new year and the new season, you can make significant strides by remembering to avoid mistakes (and repeating successes) you made in the past. Rob Tong shares lessons learned from several members of Edge Nation, as well as two lessons learned from the...
YBE 127: How Non-Elite Players Can Get To The Next Level with Joshua Band
Most high school players are not showcase-type players. What must these players do to get to the next level? Do they have any chance? Joshua Band, founder of PlateCrate, addresses these issues and more in Part 2 of a two-part interview. Plus Rob answers the Question...
YBE 126: How Top Players Can Get To The Next Level with Joshua Band
What must a top high school baseball prospect do to get to the next level? What is important in a player promo video? Joshua Band, founder of PlateCrate, shares his thoughts on how players & parents can help propel towards playing college baseball in Part 1 of a...
YBE 125: Hope or Hype? Evaluating Baseball Products & Protocols with Dr. Chris McKenzie
With so many baseball products and ideologies competing in the marketplace, how do you know which ones work and which ones don't...or even worse, which ones make you worse? Are things like long toss and weighted baseballs just hype by their promoters? Are things like...
YBE 124: Understanding Pitching Tightness & Flexibility with Dr. Chris McKenzie
When we help our kids learn to pitch, how much does tightness and flexibility play in the kids' ability to pick up what we teach? Dr. Chris McKenzie, a board-certified sports & orthopedic physical therapist, discusses these issues in Part 2 of a three-part interview....
YBE 123: The Kinetic Chain in Pitching with Dr. Chris McKenzie
What is the kinetic chain? How does it work with pitchers? Is it important to know? What do we need to know about it? Dr. Chris McKenzie, a board-certified sports & orthopedic physical therapist, goes over these concepts in Part 1 of a three-part (yes, three part)...
YBE 122: Question Of The Week Mega Show #2
Rob Tong answers eight more Question Of The Week submissions, originally submitted to Justin Stone, and hopefully you can gain something practical & actionable from the answers. In this 52-minute episode, you'll learn: how long after the spring season ends to...
YBE 121: Question Of The Week Mega Show #1
With more questions being submitted than weeks to answer them, a fairly healthy backlog of Question Of The Week submissions were going unanswered. In an effort to clear out the queue, Rob Tong devotes this entire episode to answering several Question Of The Week...
YBE 120: Pro Tips For Competitive Toughness with Jake McKinley
Every coach wants players who are competitively tough. It can be as important an asset as any physical ability. But as it turns out, every coach gets at least some players who are not competitively tough. So how do we help develop competitive toughness in players...
YBE 119: Building Competitive Toughness with Jake McKinley
Never back down. Never give up. Never lose hope. Players who embody these attitudes have competitive toughness. No matter the stakes, no matter the situation, these players are not only the ones you want to go to war with, they are the players who will want to be in...
YBE 118: Elite Is In The Details with Trent Mongero
You may know I'm not a fan of many of the fancy, cool-looking drills. One reason for this dislike is that many such drills do not focus on details, or on doing the details right. Do the details matter? This is baseball, not science, right? Doesn't focusing on details...
YBE 117: Improving Through The Mundane with Trent Mongero
The siren call of sexy-looking drills is a temptation to many a coach. We wouldn't want to be called "the boring coach", would we? Fast-forwarding through the fundamentals can be a dominant thought when we want to be "the cool coach." In this episode, Trent Mongero,...
YBE 116: Ground Forces Deep Dive with Justin Stone
What are some key factors in the hitting swing? Tapping into ground forces is a big well-kept secret, which we talked about in the last episode. In this episode, Justin Stone of Elite Baseball Training expands a bit more on how to use ground forces with your kids and...
YBE 115: Hitting Using Ground Forces with Justin Stone
When we think of improving power in the batting swing, how often does "ground forces" come to mind? Probably never, for most people. So does that mean it's not important? If it is important, how do we tap into it? Justin Stone, the Cubs' biomechanical hitting...
YBE 114: Coaching Lessons Learned in 2018
Sometimes when things don't go the way we expect, We like to preach to our kids that there's a lesson to be learned there. The same, I believe, holds true as youth baseball coaches. Now that 2018 is in the books, what are some lessons learned? Rob Tong shares some of...
YBE 113: Practical Peak Mental Performance with Brian Cain
We've heard about the mental game but how do we actually apply it to our baseball coaching? How do we make the concept of mental game more practical? Brian Cain, #1 international best-selling author, speaker and coach, helps us with exactly that. In this 39-minute...
YBE 112: Coaching Peak Mental Performance with Brian Cain
When one of your players doesn't feel confident on a particular day—or even throughout a particular season—what do you do? When a kid isn't having the results he wishes he had, what do you do? When you are looking for team leaders, what do you do? Brian Cain, a #1...
YBE111: Big Tips, Big Gains
Last time, Rob Tong gave several small tips that can yield big improvements. They were small in the sense that they are minor changes to what you already do for your team. In today's show, Rob gives several big tips that can yield big improvements. This round of tips...
YBE 110: Small Tips, Big Gains
Did you know that if you are traveling from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. and are off-course by just one degree, you'd end up in Baltimore? Small changes can sometimes have big consequences. And sometimes that applies to coaching youth baseball as well. Many times...
YBE 109: From Good To Great: Improving Pitch Recognition with Peter Fadde
Can pitch recognition skills separate the good batters from the great batters? Can pitch recognition training help overcome some common hitting flaws? Peter Fadde, author of "The Sixth Tool: Training Baseball Pitch Recognition", explores this and other topics related...
YBE 108: Intro To Pitch Recognition with Peter Fadde
What is "pitch recognition"? How is it different from "vision training"? How do you recognize pitches anyway? Peter Fadde, author of "The Sixth Tool: Training Baseball Pitch Recognition", shares his thoughts. In this 36-minute episode, you'll learn: how Peter got...
YBE 107: How To Be A (Reasonably Good) Baseball Umpire with Brandon Jackson
How do you become an ump in youth leagues like Little League? How do you become a high school ump? College? Pros? What makes a good ump? Brandon Jackson, a long-time and well-respected collegiate umpire, shares his thoughts on these and other umpire-related topics. In...
YBE 106: Commonly Misunderstood Baseball Rules with Brandon Jackson
Ever wonder what an umpire's thinking? What IS an umpire's strike zone supposed to be? Here's your chance to find out. Brandon Jackson, a long-time and well-respected collegiate umpire, explains umpiring philosophies and goes through some commonly misunderstood...
YBE 105: The Open Baseball Journal: 10 Questions Baseball Parents Should Ask Their Child Every Season
How is the health of your relationship with your baseball-playing child? How would you know? Is pushing your child always wrong? Rob Tong, host of the Youth Baseball Edge podcast, addresses these questions and introduces the Open Baseball Journal. Learn ten questions...
YBE 104: From Scrawny To 95mph: The Importance Of Strength Training with Ben Brewster
If you had $5,000 to spend on youth baseball, what would you spend it on? Pitching coach? Hitting coach? Travel teams for exposure and experience? Strength training? High tech gear? Naturally, you'll split the $5,000 among several options but what would be your...
YBE 103: Busting Ceilings Via Strength Training with Ben Brewster
YBE has devoted several sessions to strength training. But how important is strength training anyway? Ben Brewster, founder of Tread Athletics, explains why strength training can help you bust through your current limitations. This is Part 1 of a two-part series....
YBE 102: Modernizing Hitting Practice with Josh Rodrigues
Does your batting practice consist of you pitching, one kid hitting and everyone else standing around in the field...while telling the batter to swing level? Josh Rodrigues, assistant coach at Salve Regina University, discusses some modern hitting concepts and...
YBE 101: Modern Hitting Philosophies with Josh Rodrigues
What are the hitting philosophies you teach your players? How did you come to embrace those philosophies? And what evidence do you have to support your philosophies? Josh Rodrigues, assistant coach at Salve Regina University, talks about modern hitting philosophies...
YBE 100: Baseball Brain Training 101 with John Kennedy
How does brain training for athletes differ from, say, doing a bunch of Sudoku puzzles? John Kennedy, founder and primary neuroplastician of Combat Brain Training, explains more about brain training and how it can benefit athletes. This is Part 2 of a two-part series....
YBE 099: Intro to Brain Training with John Kennedy
You've likely heard of the mental game of baseball—especially on this podcast. But you may not have heard of brain training, which is different from the mental game. John Kennedy, founder and primary neuroplastician of Combat Brain Training, explains what brain...
YBE 098: Influencing Your Kid’s Development with Rob Friedman
As your kid gets older, telling your kid what to do may not get the same mileage as when your kid was younger. In this latest in my series on Baseball Dads, Rob Friedman, the Pitching Ninja, shares how he helped influence his son Jack's development, as well as the...
YBE 097: Building A Better Pitcher with Rob Friedman
The latest in my series on Baseball Dads, Rob Friedman, the Pitching Ninja, shares how he helped his son Jack to get a baseball scholarship to Georgia Tech, a Division I college baseball team. This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Plus Justin Stone of elitebaseball.tv...
YBE 096: Getting Started With Strength Training with Nick Esposito
Getting started with strength training for youth players? Nick Esposito of espositostrengthclub.com gives some thoughts on functional movement screens, planning workouts and whether certain familiar warmup routines are helpful or hurtful. This is Part 2 of a two-part...
YBE 095: How To Start Strength Training with Nick Esposito
Is strength training important for youth baseball? How do you get started? Nick Esposito of espositostrengthclub.com and the Strength & Conditioning Coach at Austin Wasserman and Bobby Tewksbary's AB Athletics facility shares his thoughts. This is Part 1 of a two-part...
YBE 094: Pitching Tips with Lantz Wheeler
I talk pitching with Lantz Wheeler of BaseballThinkTank.com and creator of the Core Velocity Belt. A variety of pitching thoughts are discussed and perhaps you can take away a few things and implement them with your team. This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Missed...
YBE 093: Stop Focusing On Pitching Mechanics with Lantz Wheeler
How do you best teach kids to pitch? By NOT focusing on pitching mechanics, of course! If that raised your eyebrow, Lantz Wheeler of BaseballThinkTank.com and creator of the Core Velocity Belt explains why. This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Plus Justin Stone of...
YBE 092: Better Parent-Coach Relationships with Dayn Perry
What do you do as a coach when a parent is giving you grief? What do you do as a parent when a coach appears to be doing something you don't like? Dayn Perry of CBS Sports goes through some scenarios to help give some guidance on how to help improve those parent-coach...
YBE 091: The Role Of Baseball Parents with Dayn Perry
If you as a coach have never had an issue with any of your team's parents, you most likely haven't coached very long. And if you are a baseball parent only (i.e., not a coach), do you know how to handle disagreements with your coach? (e.g., do you complain straight to...
YBE 090: Fun-damentals with Dan Keller
Dan Keller of DugoutCaptain.com shares more ideas for making practices fun. This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Plus Justin Stone of Elite Baseball Training answers the Question Of The Week about what it means to 'stay connected.' And Austin Wasserman of...
YBE 089: Making Practice Fun Again with Dan Keller
Dan Keller of DugoutCaptain.com shares his ideas for making practice fun again. What exactly does that mean? And how do you do it? Tune in and find out. This is Part 1 of a two-part series. Plus Justin Stone of Elite Baseball Training answers the Question Of The Week...
YBE 088: 15 More Lessons Learned in 2017 with various coaches
Double the fun! Last week, I had 15 baseball coaches share the lessons they've learned in 2017, including Justin Stone of EliteBaseball.tv, Tucker Frawley of Yale University and Billy Boyer of Seattle University. This week, I have 15 more baseball coaches share,...BONUS EBOOK
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Rob Tong, YBE podcast host