Looking to find out how to best explain the slide step to pitchers? Maybe you want to create a video that can change your baseball program. How about teaching balancing techniques that can allow your hitters to explode on the ball?
   How do you find these things out quickly and in a form that can allow you to get the message home?
   Thursday Night Thunder sessions have become the place to be for this kind of information and the tradition continues this year. The leadoff program for the “Be the Best You Are’’ baseball clinic started as an experiment to see if there was interest in a program for early arriving coaches. It has been so popular that the lineup of coaches and speakers continues to be upgraded each year, This year’s Thunder staff has a professional touch with Gary Denbo of the New York Yankees explaining how to teach batters to create a solid foundation, create a loading action and how to create balance at touchdown during three of his six Thunder sessions.
   Pat McMahon the former head coach at Florida will offer six sessions including how to teach pitchers to SPACE their fastball, use the slide step and field the position.
   John Cohen of Kentucky will offer his views, including how to create big innings with base running, create video that can change your program and how to teach your fielders to communicate. Bill Mosiello, the newest assistant at Auburn who has credentials that include a time as a manager in the Yankees farm system, will specialize in topics revolving around catching including sessions where he targets the Key- Set-up, Stance and receiving positions, blocking so that catchers can earn the trust of your pitchers and the mental aspects of the position.
   In all, there are 24 (25-minute) sessions by the four speakers before Thunder comes to an end, a perfect beginning for a weekend of instruction and insights that have wowed coaches for the last 34 years.

Dave Serrano
California State
Fullerton
 

     Can you have too much of a good thing? Not when it comes to passing out baseball knowledge. Thus this season we bring you Friday Night Lightning, sessions that follow in the footsteps of Thursday Thunder.
   Once again the idea is to use short, 25-minute sessions to get across important ingredients to any program.
   During the Lightning round you can find out how to plan an indoor practice, how to be sure your team is properly warmed up for a game or how to just take the results out of pitching for the pitcher.
   The lineup is impressive, including Dave Serrano of UC Irvine who brings his knowledge of pitching in his first visit to the “Be the Best You Are’’ clinic. He will spend six sessions explaining how he teaches pitching mechanics, the mentality to be a pitcher and how he sets up a throwing scheule for your pitcher.
   Tom Slater of Auburn will use Friday Night Lightning sessions to stress how to make in-game adjustments as a hitter, how to approach (hitting counts) and how to know yourself (mental approach) as a hitter.
   Fred Hill of Rutgers University has been synonymous with winning. To do that, he has stressed fielding fundamentals. How he goes about doing things such as teaching the feed and double plays and successful infield drills will be part of Friday Night Lightning sessions. He’ll also show you how you can battle the elements with indoor practice sessions or well-organized outdoor sessions that prepare teams to win.
   Alan Russell, an athletic trainer called upon by major league teams, uses Lightning as an opportunity to show you how to improve on the physical aspects of your players, how to maximize speed and quickness and how to identify injury risk and how to eliminate a “dead arm’’ among the topics he will explain in the 25-minute sessions. In all there are 24 sessions, serving as a warm up for Saturday’s main event.

 Jack Hawkins, Clinic Director