Very interesting that despite 20/15 vision in a couple of the hitters, Dr. Lampert was quickly able to find areas for potential improvement – vergence, convergence, peripheral vision, focusing, tracking, and teaming of the eyes are all examples of how the eyes work to provide information to the brain.

Fortunately, these areas can be improved and the muscles controlling the eyes can be strengthened like other muscles in the body.  After Dr. Lampert’s evaluation, he set the players up with his internet based vision training program with directions specific to their areas of need.

vision training in the warehouse

Dr. Lampert is local to the Palm Beach area with an office in Boca Raton.  He’s worked with top level athletes of several sports, not just baseball.  Here are some links where you can find more information:

• Dr. Lampert’s articles on the STACK blog
• Dr. Lampert’s home website
• Dr. Lampert’s Eye Performance Computer Software
• Sports Vision Training Facebook Fan Page

I first heard of Spartak when I read Daniel Coyle’s book, The Talent Code, and this video gives a glimpse inside the facility and training approach.

What’s the difference between the Spartak approach?  Here is a key piece:

In Russia, it’s about the coaches – not the schools, Volkov believes.

“A coach in this country is a graduate, with a specific degree. All our coaches are Spartak alumni. And it’s a known fact that European and especially American methods refer to the physical rather than the technical side of things – which is different here in this country,” he said.

At Spartak, it starts with the goals of the kids (which you can hear in the video) and grows with the focus on the quality of deliberate practice and expert instruction.

These are the same principles that create the foundation for the Swingtraining.net hitting & training facility – The Warehouse:

The Swing Training Warehouse in Palm Beach, Florida

I visited Superstar Team Sports (STS) in West Palm Beach for the first time (can’t believe I hadn’t heard about it before now) last week and was impressed enough to do this little write up.  STS is a baseball and softball specialty store that has everything you’d find in a catalog like Baseball Express or Eastbay, but of course you can pick it up and try it out for yourself.  They have metal and wood bats, gloves, batting gloves, helmets, uniforms, footwear, training aids….you name it.

Plus, their staff members – Mike, Brian and Shawn – are incredible.

Superstar Team Sports website

STS is located in West Palm beach at 3169 Forest Hill Blvd. (take Forest Hill exit off 95 and head west).

Visit their website and check out their Facebook page which has a nice photo gallery of the shop.

In this video, Bautista talks about how he changed his hitting mechanics, and his explanation is fairly simple.  He started his swing earlier so he wasn’t late so often.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

For a more complete picture, check out this article about Jose Baustista’s transformation.  One of the things I found most interesting was the insight into Baustista’s mindset:

In his free time, Bautista reads books on exceptionality. “I’m trying to understand why mediocre people become good at what they do,” he says, “and why good people become the best.” So he mixes other players’ post-career musings on success with real mental protein.

Normally, I would not have paid much attention to this, but I had just finished reading a very good book – The Talent Code by Daniel Coyle.  This book is about talent, and more specifically talent development through something called “deep practice”.  Shaun White, for example, says that he was able to get in a couple years of riding in one day of practice!  How is that possible?

Check out Coyle’s post on this topic and learn 3 lessons of High Velocity Learning demonstrated in Shaun White’s training video (shown in the post linked below):

3-rules of High Velocity Learning

And how does this apply to baseball practice?

Here’s how we do it…

1. Teach fundamental concepts of movement in the swing and use video to illustrate these concepts
2. Each one of our drills and exercises either isolates a segment of the swing so that the player can “feel” to correct movement or forces the player to execute the entire movement/swing more efficiently
3. We’re able to transfer the “feel” from our hitting drills and exercises into the skills necessary to improve on-field performance.

In short, we create batting practice and training environments where each hitter can learn and develop skills at a high velocity.

Batting Practice at the Stadium in Bogota, Colombia

The stadium in Bogota is located within a large sports complex called the Instituto Distrital de Recreacion y Deporte, and had to be the nicest ballpark in the league.  The biggest issue was the weather, which did not cooperate very well.  It rained every single day we were Bogota, and the temperature is a lot cooler than the coastal city because of Bogota’s high elevation (up to 8000 ft).  So it was fun to watch balls get launched out of sight due to the thin air, it wasn’t so much fun to be playing at night in the rainy cold.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

One of the highlights of our time in Bogota was a visit by Colombia native and 2010 World Series MVP Edgar Renteria, who was named sportsman of the year in Colombia and came out one afternoon the throw out the first pitch.  Renteria’s appearance brought out a lot of media and reporters, plus several youth league teams.  There were actually so many people on the field for the pre-game ceremonies that the game was delayed for 30 minutes so that everyone could get off the field.

Check out the photos from Bogota below…

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Cartagena Tigres

Despite being the closest city to us (about 1.5 to 2 hour bus drive), we only made a couple of trips to Cartagena and only actually played 2 games there.  I believe Cartagena and Barranquilla share most of the baseball history in Colombia, sharing most of the Colombian League championships and being home to the most currently recognizable MLB players (Orlando Cabrera and Edgar Renteria, respectively).

view from home plate in Cartagena

The stadium in Cartagena was pretty big and would have been a ton of fun if it was full of loud fans, like Monteria.  Not too much else to write about here…just have a few more photos of the ballpark and the kids that were all over the place there yelling “Hey you!” at us all the time.

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To check out all of the posts, photos and videos from Colombia click here

Anyways, what the stadium in Monteria lacked in aesthetics, it made up for in atmosphere.  This place was packed every game with loud fans – this was my idea of latin winter baseball.  And what made it much more interesting was the configuration of the dugout.  The fans literally surrounded us because the dugouts are set far back and most of the team sits in chairs on a grass area that is just out of play.

The Monteria fans are enjoying a win

Video and lots of pics below:

The photo above gives a good look at the fans right on our backs.  Not only were they “enthusiastic”, but they were ready.  Any time a player struck out, they had a little chant ready, although I never did figure out what they were saying.  It was much funnier to me when we scored or one of our guys hit a home run, because then the fans would chant “beso, beso” (kiss, kiss) as the player got his congratulatory high-5′s from the rest of the team.

As if they needed it, the fans got those thunderstick things, which I don’t like at all, and there were a few of the dreaded vuvuzelas in there too.  Any time a rally got going for Monteria, it would sound a little bit like this:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

I have to say, the games were a lot of fun.  Monteria seemed like the next best team in the league, and we always knew it would be a challenge and fun atmosphere…a lot different from the often empty stadiums of the Florida State League!

Check out the rest of the photos below.  And let me know if you ever see another 14-inning manual scoreboard like they had there.

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Coach Bill Gentry and myself

Coach Gentry has a long list of baseball coaching experience, but some of the highlights are being a High School Coach of the Year in Southern California, being the head coach at the University of California Bakersfield, directing the So Cal Cardinals scout team in the MLB scout league, and covering the Southern California area as a scout for the St. Louis Cardinals.

If you are looking for instruction in the Southern California area, check out Coach Gentry’s Pro Player Academy in Bakersfield, CA.  In addition to his baseball knowledge, you’ll be impressed by his character, professionalism and how much he cares about the success of his players.

Barranquilla, Colombia is a coastal city that is the home of the Barranquilla Caimanes (Alligators) – this is the team that I worked for as the hitting coach during the 2010 season.  Although the Barranquilla team has been very successful, winning the league’s past 3 championships, the city is much more well known as the birthplace of 2010 World Series MVP, Edgar Renteria…and let’s not forget Shakira!

Barranquilla Caimanes team shot at a pre-season press conference

Check below for more photos and a video from inside the ballpark

Here is a video look at Estadio Tomas Arrieta – the home of the Caimanes:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

The stadium was a little old, but I think the biggest issue from the fans’ standpoint was the lack of a covered area in the stands.  Due the the frequency of the rain, it is easy to understand this concern.  But from what I could tell, there are plans to build a new stadium in the city – one that is nice enough to help the Colombian league participate in the Carribean World Series.  This would be huge in terms of getting Colombia on the map with the other major Carribean Winter Leagues.

Our team itself was very good.  We finished with a record of 20-11, which left us with a 2 game lead in the shortened season.  The field staff was great, and we had a lot of talent on the field, including several AA and AAA players.

The gallery below has several more shots from inside and outside of the stadium, as well as a couple from the city.  There wasn’t a time in the city where I didn’t feel safe, and it was easy to get around in the cabs (although the style of driving and traffic “rules” are another story!), especially after getting to know a couple drivers who were always outside of our hotel.  Even though there were severe weather issues all over the country, we didn’t run into any major problems in our part of town.  It would flood almost every time it rained, but nothing that was threatening – check out the picture with the waves in the street:

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We finished up a week of camp that was packed with activity from start to finish.  A typical day started at 8:30 with a warm-up and then right into scrimmage games that lasted until lunch time.  Then afternoon groups were split up for instruction by position, as well as work in the batting cages and bullpens.

Coast to Coast baseball campers

I spent my time during the morning games taking slow-motion video and showing it to the players.  One of my favorite features with my camera is that I am able to replay the high speed video frame-by-frame, forwards or backwards, right away without having to put it on a computer.  It’s nice to have immediate feedback, especially when the players are able to make quick adjustments that they can use in the game right away.

During the afternoons, I gave short talks on different hitting topics that covered fundamental hitting mechanics, hitting drills, and hitting approach.  Then we broke into 4 smaller groups to rotate through the cages, where players could get feedback from each of the coaches.

In addition to the on-field activity, seminars were held each night in the hotel after dinner.  One of the most important topics was on college recruiting, and the panel of instructors covered that very well.  There were coaches from nearly every level – D1, D3, JUCO, and NAIA – to explain rules, time-lines, as well as answer questions.

The part of the camp that impressed me most was the organization and how smoothly everything ran.  This really was a reflection of the people running and working the camp, lead by Coast to Coast director, Kevin Ritter.  I definitely had a good time learning from the other coaches, working with the players, and talking with the parents.

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