Raising A Hitter aspires to be more than just a training center for the elite athlete. It is meant to be, first and foremost, a community resource for any person of any age who wants a place in which to play and have fun.

Sure, there will be instruction available, and if you choose that route the standards will be exacting and the demands will stretch the limits of your potential. There is a time and place to push the bounds and pursue perfection. There is also a time and place to let go of any expectations and any worries and any inhibitions and just play! No micro-managing from a well-meaning coach or parent, no regard for doing things by the book in a prim and proper manner - rather, the unleashed and unfettered and unconcerned, verging on mindless, act of letting go and playing. 

Relax, enjoy, and have fun without any worries. Mistakes come and go: the free and easy spirit set free when you play without fear is perhaps the single most important contributing factor to an athlete who loves his sport enough to endure the grueling hard work necessary to become great. Play, and any work that follows will seem like a continuation of play, and remain fun, as it should be. Play, and be your best.

Many times a young athlete plays a particular sport during a specific season, i.e. football during the late summer and early fall. His majority concentration and focus, as necessary and proper, is devoted during this particular time to this specific sport. Months may pass until he swings a baseball bat, prior to baseball season. If there's been a long lay-off, when he finally picks up a bat, the likelihood of blisters and pain and discomfort is almost guaranteed. His body is unused to the act, and responds with what is, in essence, the same as a sunburn, based on overexposure. Here's an easier and less painful way to avoid that effect.

Once a week, for a token and minimal investment of 5 to 15 minutes no matter your current choice of sport, practice your other sport. For example, if you're a football player, grab a bat and take 50 swings at a thrown or pitched ball, or hit off a tee. Besides the obvious improvement in skills, you take the necessary step away from the 'new' and 'unfamiliar' act of swinging the bat, and take the essential step toward your body and mindset being in a habitual state of comfort with swinging, as an example. 

Be constant, be consistent, be competent. Even if you limit yourself to a few minutes a week, the long term benefits will amaze. Be constant, and be great!

Keep yourself busy! Isn't it amazing that the person who volunteers is always the person whose schedule is already packed to the gills? Isn't it amazing that the best student and the best athlete and the best member of any organization is usually the one whose schedule is booked to maximum capacity? Aspire for more, within reason: take more classes, play more games, train more often, ask for additional homework and more chores and harder challenges. Ask more, get more. Those who request, receive!

Isaac Newton's first Law of Motion explains that a body in motion tends to stay in motion. Likewise, a body at rest tends to stay at rest. Stay in motion. Stay active. Take a full load of classes, and live a full load of life. 

It seems that almost every emerging teenager has an obsession about obtaining their driver's license. In their mind, the laminated plastic card issued by the State represents a clear line of demarcation from childhood to adult status, and carries with it instant credibility by peers, bystanders and (especially) members of the opposite sex.

The license personifies freedom. The license signifies maturity. It is thought to reveal the wide world of options available to an adventurous spirit, and it is believed to be the ticket to a broad and colorful pastiche of new experiences. These thoughts are all true, to the extent that the new driver is mature, responsible, safe and competent.

There exists another, similar laminated piece of plastic that carries with it none of the risks associated with being a young, inexperienced driver - and all of the rewards, plus. This simple, easily-accessible and free card requires no driver's education program nor an extensive and ever-changing knowledge of laws, accepted courtesies, and etiquette. Nor does it demand any type of road map or GPS. 

Unlike a driver's license, this card allows the user to travel its highways at any speed he chooses. Fast or slow, and there are no stop signs. Unlike a driver's license, this card requires nothing more than curiosity and a thirst for knowledge. There are no tests, and you don't need to parallel park or use a turn signal. This card provides the same access to an wide-open highway of adventure; and it never ends. The highways even extend into the past, impossible with a driver's license unless you find the Delorean from Back to the Future.

In short, this other card provides the user with every advantage of a driver's license and none of the potential pitfalls, dangers, or frustrations. This other card is issued by your local library, and lasts a lifetime. A library card is every bit as important as a driver's license, for the teenager and any other driver. So, get your driver's license, as you will, and drive to the library and get the really important card.