During more than a decade of coaching youth baseball teams, Marty Schupak realized that he kept seeing coaches and teams put hour after hour into practices that became so repetitive that they served only to bore the Little Leaguers forced to endure them.

He sought to remedy the problem by devising practice routines that can take less than an hour, and which consist of drills that the kids will not only find fun and interesting, but will help them consistently develop their baseball skills.

In this video, Schupak and a band of Little Leaguers demonstrate more than thirty different drills that can be used on the practice field with an entire team as well as by parents and children in a backyard session. The drills focus on basics such as base running, hitting, and fielding, but they often provide a wrinkle designed to keep the kids enthused, such as a defensive drill in which fielders practice throwing from third to first while in a kneeling position, or hitting drills in which a very soft ball made of old rags and masking tape is used. This video is not flashy yet the camera work is very professional, and the practical advice is imparted in an engaging manner.

"Only positives can be said on this video. It was beyond my expectations for a few reasons. It was well organized and gave an excellent description of each drill. The video also puts up a picture of a baseball diamond and the positioning of each player during the drill.

The narration explains the benefit of each drill. Some things I did not understand in Little League, like the first and third situation are explained and they make sense. The hitting drills are the best I've seen. The proof of the pudding was last Saturday at our practice when my team did not want to leave the field after some of the drills and games from the video were tried.

And to top it off, another coach from the next field came over to ask about some of the things his team saw us doing. This is excellent for 8-12 year olds and I suspect most of the drills can be used for older kids with a few adjustments. This is a great tool combining fun with skills."

"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."

"As a new baseball coach I was looking for a video that would show me some good drills and how to effectively use my practice time. This video really hit the mark. I'm incorporating as much as I can from the video and the kids really enjoy the drills.

There is so much to teach young players and this video showed effective ways of doing it. My son enjoys watching it and he learns by seeing the kids on the tape performing the different drills."

"My neighbor bought this video for his nine year old girl who is playing softball. After he saw this video, all he did was rave about how it was the best one he ever saw. I had to get myself a copy. When the video arrived, I popped it into the VCR and was very impressed with its content. I had to grab a paper and pencil, however, to keep track of all the drills and ideas that the video presented.

Most of the drills were new to me, some I have seen, but most opened my eyes to a new type of practice. I used to stand out there and throw BP until my arm nearly fell off. Practices would go for as long as three hours and the kids that took BP would have no reason to stay. Now, my practices are no longer than an hour, but I'm getting three times the work done. Excellent work, very well thought out, and could be used at just about any level (under the collegiate level)."

CLICK To Order

The 59 Minute Baseball Practice

Format: VHS.
Rating: NR
Year of Release: 1997.