Our development philosophy is centered on a long-term athletic development approach.  That is, we build a foundation in our young athletes in order to allow them to express high level athletic ability and skill as they get older.

 From a baseball standpoint that foundation would look like:

  • developing rotational output (speed and power)
  • developing movement patterns and body control that allow for efficient swinging and throwing
  • developing the ability to make any throw from any angle with velocity
  • developing the ability to have soft hands in the field
  • developing the ability to drive the ball

There are certainly other factors at play in what makes a successful baseball player, but without the proper foundation in place; skill and performance will eventually plateau.  It is much easier to develop the qualities above at a young age than it is to go back and try to develop them at age 18. 

The goals of this camp are to develop the qualities listed above in order to prepare these young kids both for the upcoming travel/JV seasons, but also set them up for higher level success in the long term.

We will measure and track progress via the following:

Blast Motion swing speed

Swing Attack angle via Blast Motion (this is not launch angle-rather information on degree of swing angle positive/negative.  There is an ideal range needed for swing to produce consistent line drives)

A heavy medicine ball rotational throw (rotational power)

A light medicine ball rotational throw for velocity (rotational speed)

A light overhead medicine ball throw for velocity (upper body speed)

Rapsodo Hitting/Pocket Radar: batted ball exit velocity

In addition, there is a clear rise in youth arm injuries in the baseball world.  Part of that is due to overuse during the spring, summer and fall and part of that is failure to develop/implement a proper throwing program in the winter to ramp up to higher intensity and workload.  We will implement a throwing on ramp program with all the athletes, including specific throwing progressions to do during the non-camp days leading up to the spring season. 

For pitchers, the first half of the camp will be spent developing a throwing base (workload), movement patterns and rotational output via medicine balls.  The second half of the camp will still include throwing ramp up progressions and rotational output work, but we will also add mound sessions to develop pitching specific skill.  Those mound sessions may be used to develop a combination of command using Driveline Command balls; velocity using 6oz, 5oz and 4oz weighted balls and pitch shape using Rapsodo Pitching Software.   The degree to which these are emphasized will vary based on current skill and physical ability of each athlete.

Finally, we will also have the last two weeks feature live pitching vs live hitting.  This will allow the kids to test their skill under pressure, but will also allow our staff to provide a better degree of coaching as we see what skills hold up under pressure vs what skills struggle under pressure.

The camp will be run by our Director of Pitching, Spenser Davis and our Director of Hitting, Corey Willis with assistance by athletic development staff member, Grayson Hall.

We are limiting the camp to 10 athletes maximum to ensure quality instruction and quality training repetitions.

The video below will give you a small glimpse into some of the things we will be doing in this camp.

Camp details are below the video.

Camp Details:

When: December 6thth through February 16th.  11 full weeks.  Tuesday’s and Thursday’s 5:30-7:00PM

Location: Next Level Athletic Development, 960 Acorn Drive, Harrisonburg

Cost: $475

To register: Contact Mike Martin: 540-421-0360 or mikenladsports@gmail.com