He has over 15 years of coaching experience from Little League to Pony C**t and multiple Travel baseball programs. He has coached children of all ages from 3-18 years old. He also has over 20 years of playing experience at an All-Star level from Little League through College and Independent baseball leagues. Coach Jim knows how to win and how to train to win! Now, it's not always just about winnin
g... However if you train hard and prepare yourself properly and have the positive mind set of winning, you can compete at a high level consistently which relates to winning more often. Through Coach Jim's coaching career he has been lucky enough to compete in and win several baseball Championships at all different levels. Not everyone is lucky enough to have that many opportunities to win at high levels consistently, but when you work hard, and you play hard, Coach Jim has always believed that hard work will always pay off and again... It's just in the mind set and belief that nobody can stop you from doing what you want, except yourself! Coach Jim was not born with the most talent to play baseball or the size. In fact he was under sized his whole youth career until his Junior year in High School when he grew a whole foot in 6 months during the summer. By playing for 8+ years as the small kid on the team he learned how to bunt, how to work counts and walk, how to take a pitch for the team and how to steal bases. These were the ways he could help his team as a smaller kid. Being a smaller kid, you always get the short end of the stick, just like you always get jersey number 1 or 2 as the small kid. Once he got some size on him in his late teens he learned how to drive the baseball and started hitting Homeruns and took his game to the next level. He always looked at himself as wanting to be a complete player that could do anything on the baseball field and some of his biggest idols growing up were Bo Jackson, Rickey Henderson & Nolan Ryan. Those were players he wanted to play like. When he was small he learned to play every position because as the small kid you got on the field at any open spot available or you sat the bench. Again this is how he learned how to fight for what he wanted and where he learned he couldn't take a day off or someone else would take his spot. It was great to finally get to a point where he could play as a complete player and hit in the top of the order on his teams and go to All-Star games. Again, all these things took a lot of hard work, determination and NEVER QUITTING! Based on the way he wanted to play the game and his experience in baseball, he became a student of the game. He watched every baseball game on tv and collected every baseball card and memorized everyone's statistics. He attended hitting camps with hitting coach from the Oakland A's Jim Lefebvre and played whiffle ball in his drive way every day. He flat out just loved the game and just always wanted to get better and really was in fear of not being good enough to play. All these experiences of playing all positions on the field, learning how to be an aggressive power hitter to working a count and taking a walk, to getting on base and stealing 2 bases in 2 pitches and scoring on a wild pitch... Diving for balls and wanting to make the play of the game, hustling in and out of the dugout and being a vocal leader on defense and picking up a team mate who had a bad at bat or inning on the mound...
These are his philosophies of baseball and how it should be taught and played...
Pitching was a whole other aspect of the game which was always exciting to Coach Jim as a kid, this was the person in control of the whole game... The pitcher! Being the small guy when he was young, he never got many chances to pitch. Once he was older, taller and stronger he did get his chance though... He was one of the better pitchers on many of his teams and learned how to pitch, not just throw... Pitching is a science and you need to be able to locate pitches and know what a batter can and cannot hit and when to throw a certain pitch. This was what he excelled at. He didn't throw 90 MPH like some of his buddies but he could strike guys out with 3 different curve balls or pop a fastball by someone who wasn't ready for it. He eventually suffered an arm injury from over use and had to have rotator cuff surgery. This sport is all about adjustments and learning from experience... Due to the injury he learned a lot about conditioning and training the arm especially for pitchers and those that pitch and play positions like Shortstop that require a lot of throwing. This has helped Coach Jim train his pitchers not just how to pitch but how to take care of your arm and how to get it game ready and when it's time to shut it down. Your arm is a huge asset to a baseball player. If it's hurting it not only affects your pitching but it affects your hitting & fielding abilities as well. Again, we talk about mind set and being prepared to play at a high level... If your hurting or even think you are hurting, you wont play your best. Coach Jim's experience in baseball is something he love's to pass onto the kids. He wants them to learn from his mistakes and soak up all of the knowledge he has to offer. He only wants success for your child, but your child has to want success for themselves as well...
Coach Jim has always been an organized individual and believes communication is key. He will always be very up front and honest about your child's performance and give quality advice about what can be done to improve their skills. Baseball is one of the toughest sports to play because it is a game with a lot of failure... It's how you handle that failure and learn from it that will help you grow and become a better ball player. Those who do learn how to prepare properly for it and have a positive mind set will have a long enjoyable career. It's not always about the natural talent, it's also about having heart and NEVER QUITTING. If you have a child who is interested in all these things mentioned about the Living Legends program and Coach Jim, please by all means... Send your child to Coach Jim for a great experience!!!
