Play the Game is an organization aimed to improve baseball and softball players with their hitting, fielding, and overall athletic skills. We offer hourly/half hourly tunnel rentals, hitting, pitching, catching, and fielding lessons, field rental, camps and specialty clinics to further our athlete’s knowledge and ability to play the game. Teams can rent the field space hourly for practices or split the cost with another team for scrimmages/games. Individuals can rent a tunnel and pitching machine or any other hitting tools and/or sign up for individual or small group lessons.
A WORD FROM JIM
“My philosophy on hitting is actually complex but have figured out a way to teach it very simply. I have always believed that the mental approach to an at bat is as important as the physical – this theory resonates more so at the higher levels of competition as the pitching gets better and faster. I learned to teach hitting in 1998 while coaching baseball professionally with Mike Easler in the Atlantic League of professional baseball. His exciting style was great with kids, I learned to share that excitement and how to put that energy into teaching – combining this, my own style and over the past few years, watching some of the best hitting coaches in college softball enforced my beliefs that baseball and softball hitting could be taught almost the same way with some minor adjustments due to the difference in upper body strength.
“I teach the art of hitting from the ground up, ensuring that the feet, knees, legs, and hips are used in conjunction with the torso, arms, shoulders, elbows and hands. When they all work together effectively is when players tend to see more consistent positive results. The way I teach it allows for them to understand themselves and eventually become able to self correct when something doesn’t “feel” right. I focus less on results than I do on process because if they trust the process the results always follow. We’ll use five or six drills for each step in the process that creates muscle memory and confidence. I like to have three or four 30-minute sessions to complete the circuit. I try to get the player to understand why each drill helps them get better as we go through each one – and it’s awesome when the player “gets it” – because their faces usually light up when it all comes together and their confidence soars.” ~Coach Jim Cardello
Play The Game 