The Youth Baseball Edge Podcast with Rob Tong: Coaching | Drills | Strategy

Perry Hill, the first base coach and infield coach for the Seattle Mariners, breaks down how you can properly train your second basemen (plus the remainder of our chat on first base play). This is part 2 of a two-part interview. Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week about how to help kids new to kid pitch get over the fear of getting hit by pitches. Please let us (and others) know how you feel...

If catchers wear the "tools of ignorance", then first basemen play the "position of neglect" because many youth coaches don't teach much to their first basemen even though it is a highly important position. Perry Hill, the first base coach and infield coach for the Seattle Mariners, breaks down how you can properly train your first basemen. This is part 1 of a two-part interview. Plus Rob answers...

What is "drive" in pitching and is it important? Zak Doan, whose clients range from youth pitchers to Gerrit Cole, shares his thoughts on the subject as well as other pitching issues. Part 2 of a two-part interview. Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week about how to help a kid who's hitting grounders in games but fly balls in practices. Please let us (and others) know how you feel about the sh...

How can we help our young athletes to improve their pitching accuracy? Zak Doan, who works with youth pitchers and whose most famous client is Gerrit Cole, shares some helpful pointers to help kids throw the ball with more accuracy. This is part 1 of a two-part interview. Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week about how to get over the feeling of being under-qualified as a youth baseball coach....

How can we create more positive experiences in youth baseball? How do we help youth athletes are struggling to succeed in baseball? Deven Morgan, Director of Youth Baseball at Driveline Baseball, shares some ideas to help kids have more positive experiences. Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week about whether any GameChanger stats can be used to help inspire relevant coaching drills for practi...

Training youth pitchers is not easy (safe to say that's an understatement). What does Driveline do and recommend? Deven Morgan, the Director of Youth Baseball at Driveline Baseball, shares some tips in part one of this two-part interview. Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week about how to help a batter who mashes in training but is late to load in games. Please let us (and others) know how you...

2020 may have been a crazy year but there were still youth baseball lessons to be learned. Host Rob Tong looks back on 2020 and distills many things he learned into eight lessons that he shares in this episode. Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week about whether 8U kids should give verbal pre-pitch defensive reminders. Please let us (and others) know how you feel about the show by  giving us a...

Steve Ferroli says three crucial things are killing youth baseball. Is the sport of youth baseball—and the millions of kids participating in it—in serious danger? Does youth baseball need to be saved? Can it be? This is part two of a two-part interview. Plus Rob (and Deven Morgan, the Director of Youth Baseball at Driveline Baseball) answer the Question of the Week about whether it matters if kids...

What can the Science of Hitting teach you about hitting, and can you improve on the Science of Hitting? Steve Ferroli, the personally-chosen successor to Ted Williams' theory of hitting shares some of his thoughts in part one of a two-part interview. Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week about what travel teams can do in-between games at tournaments. Please let us (and others) know how you fee...

Bonus segment #2: Tom Griffin shares his story of becoming a Christian.

Bonus segment: Tom Griffin talks catcher's mitts.

Learn from one of the best as Tom Griffin breaks down more advanced basics for catchers with the finer points of receiving, blocking and throwing, plus strategies, in part two of a two-part interview. Plus Rob (and Nick Esposito) answer the Question of the Week about how to help nine-year-olds build strength for pitching. Please let us (and others) know how you feel about the show by  giving us an...

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 part one of a two-part interview. Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week about how many practices per week a 7U rec team should h...

Practice planning is one of the most frequently asked topics for youth coaches. With so many topics, how do you know what to work on, and when? Bo Ashabraner has some helpful advice so you can plan smarter, not harder, for your practices in part two of a two-part interview. Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week about the benefits of batting lefty instead of righty. Please let us (and others) k...

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 some things you may want to consider for your team or season in part one of a two-part interview. Plus Rob answers the Question of...

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 interview.  Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week about whether the travel baseball landscape has improved since the early days of this...

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 of hitting. Doug Latta, aka "The Swing Whisperer", returns to help give us some insight on hitting mechanics that could literally be game-changers in part 2 of a three-part interview. Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week about how to teach timing during hitting to 7-10...

There is no shortage of hitting advice, particularly on the internet. Some good. Some not so good. And some just plain awful. Doug Latta, aka "The Swing Whisperer", helps us sort out some of the information from the misinformation in part 1 of a three-part  interview. Plus Rob (and Austin Wasserman) answer the Question of the Week about what age to teach kids to pronate when pitching, especially w...

Mental health is declining for more young people than ever before, thanks to digital technology. Is there anything youth baseball coaches can do to help young athletes? Or is this only a problem for counselors? David Klein gives practical, actionable advice to help our team grow closer together and improve our players' mental health in part 2 of a two-part interview. Plus Rob answers the Question...

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 discuss this important yet under-recognized aspect of our kids' athletic lives in part 1 of a two-part interview. Plus Rob answers the Que...

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, Pete Caliendo, and three lessons Rob learned in 2019. Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week (47:31) about what tee to buy for a four-year-old. Please let us (and others...

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 of the Week about what one product a middle school coach on a limited budget should purchase. Please let us (and others) know how you...

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 two-part interview. Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week about whether a full-time travel program or a rec-based travel program is b...

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 the Core Velocity Belt, Rope Trainer or the Durathro sock just hype by their inventors? Dr. Chris McKenzie, a board-certified sports...

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. Plus Rob answers the Question of the Week about the catcher position will be a waste of a skilled player's athleticism and degrade h...