Vikings Fall Ball:
https://crovosports.leagueapps.com/events/2507370-2021-vikings-baseball-fall-ball
Ages: 9u-14u
September 7th – October 17th
(6 weeks)
First Tuesday Sept. 7th will run from 4-6pm
All Tuesdays and Thursdays after that will be 5-8pm
Tuesdays & Thursdays 5-8pm
Starting Sept 7th
Morelli Field – Melrose
Sundays 9:00am-12:00pm
Starting Sept. 12th
Morelli Field – Melrose
Pine Banks Park – Softball Field – Melrose
Purpose
We strongly believe the fall is not time to play as many games as you can but rather a time to build up and strengthen your individual game in a more controlled, coached up environment that is focused on repetition and educating our players on the mechanics of their swing, running, fielding and throwing form… We spent a few years in Fall Ball Leagues and quickly realized that we can be much more efficient and productive with the 3-4 hours that we used to spend on game action which included only 3 at bats and a few live balls hit to you for example. Our Fall Ball Program is a great opportunity for us to develop a relationship with players who will be with us for the 2022 season prior to our Winter Workouts, as well as being open to players who want to improve their game within a 6-week time frame.
Structure
Development once again is our main focus, so we will provide you with a ton of our Vikings coaches knowledge, as well as a great balance of instruction and evaluation. There will be a coach for every aspect of the game and positional coaches have been hired.
Weekday nights will be used to get our pitchers ready for the weekends simulated game action. (We are entering our 10th year with no major arm injuries to our players, we are proud of this as we are in the Tommy-John Era). We are all about building up our players arm strength and velocity, however we do it safely and effectively! We will also use Weekday nights Fall Ball Workouts to get a ton of positional work and fielding reps in as well as offensive reps and instruction that will include base running and swings.
Weekends will be used for morning positional work, extended I/O, and on field Batting Practice, then our simulated games. We will get game like reps and live action, and see how much our players can process and apply from our Weekday night practices.
Fall Ball will include an emphasis on the mental game, and is open to players who will be with us this Vikings season and those who did not make a team with us as well!
Below you will find an in depth breakdown on more of what to expect from our Vikings Fall Ball Program:
Baserunning
- Situations, knowing the outs, score and defensive alignment and then processing what that means to you as a base runner.
- We will teach proper lead habits, pre-pitch reads, form and technique on staying athletic and taking off low – explosive through our secondary leads/steals and out of our breaks.
- Turns/proper approaches to the first base bag based off a ball hit in the infield or outfield.
- Exploding through first base with our foot strike at the front part of the bag and not middle or back part, then breaking down after our foot strike and locating the baseball.
- We will go over the tells/patterns/reads the defense gives us and how to exploit them. (Good example is the pitchers holds, timing from coming set to delivering pitch).
Form Running (Speed Training, Agility & Conditioning)
Run By Coach Tim Unczur B.S. Exercise Science & CPT
- We will teach proper running form and mechanics by breaking it down for the players with upper body reps, lower body reps, full body reps and using some video for the players to see what they look like when they run and what adjustments coaches are asking them to make to improve on their speed.
- They will be getting educated, while receiving game speed reps as well as slow methodical reps to help them better learn and feel their running form.
Pitchers
- We are establishing and emphasizing:
- Pitchers warm up routines
- Pitchers becoming fielders, get off the mound when ball is hit & find work/become a defender, back up a bag, cover a bag, or field the baseball.
- Working on our holds, picks and mixing up our looks for runner control
- Command, command, command…we cannot defend walks so we are working hard to challenge hitters.
Hitters – Bat Speed & Barrel Control Program
Run by Coach Marc Crovo
- Emphasizing/Establishing:
- Weighted Bat Training
- Simple plan/plate approach
- Fixing one thing at a time (Feet, Hands, Chin, bottom half, top half etc.)
Individual based
- We are using video for the players to see their swings and what they look like as well as what adjustments need to be made.
- Reps
Defense
- Positional Work, we will break up by positions and get reps, basic fundamentals and proper techniques will be trained day in and day out.
- We educate and emphasize:
- Communication
- Adjusting to swings
- Knowing situational defense, and where other team is in the lineup and what that means for you and overall defense.
- Proper positioning
- Getting into ready positions on delivery of every single pitch
- Heavy thinking pre-pitch, once ball is hit you react accordingly
- Ready positions need to be loose and athletic to allow the best possible lateral movement, field the bottom half of the ball, read and count the hops.
- Good energy and positive talk to support your guy on the mound.
Mental
- The game of baseball is 100% mental, we will be encouraging our players to build their mental muscles, become self thinkers and problem solvers.
- We could go on for days with this topic alone….Parents just know that we are touching on the mental training every single day down the field.
Arm Strength
Run By Coach Ty Fitzgerald
- Building arm strength safely, through long toss, band work, running, and fine tuning mechanics.
Expectations
- Each player will be getting a formal or informal player assessment, we are always honest with our players on things they need to improve on and things they do very well that they should continue to work on…
- Expect your son(s) to get in your car tired at the end of a practice or simulated games, ask him if he is having fun, learning, and competing hard….( If he says YES to all three and even provides some examples then we are simply doing our job, if there is a NO mixed in, encourage them to communicate that to the coaching staff)
- Expect your son(s) to be pressured to be a good teammate, hustle, work hard, listen, process and apply, provide feedback, eye contact when teammates or coaches are talking to them. “Great coaches tell you things you do not want to hear, show you things you do not want to see, so that you can be the person/player that you truly want to be”
Vikings 6 Week Fall Ball Cost (9 hours per week):
$500
Includes:
- 54 hours of practice/game time
- Vikings Player Virtual Folder (Valuable coaches feedback & video for players to take with them for rest of their career)
- Baseline Testing, Measurable Goals & Tracking Progressions
- Speed Training Program run by Coach Tim Unczur of BAC
- Arm strengthening Program run by Coach Ty Fitzgerald
- All positional coaches hired for all of fall ball
- Hitting coach & Bat Speed Program (Weighted Bats)
- Great mix between practice & game action