ALL INSTRUCTION IS HELD AT
COMPETITIVE EDGE
PHONE 253-209-3680
FAX 253-445-2603
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Mike Brooks(Skip)Director of Player Development & Hitting Instructor |
Diamond Players Baseball Academy was established at its current location in Parkland, WA by Mike & Robin Brooks in January 2005. Following an eight-year professional career in the Twins and Indians organizations, Coach Brooks has coached at the professional, college, high school and youth levels since 1984. They established one of the very first indoor baseball training facilities in West Washington in 1993.
OUR MISSION is to provide Northwest players the resources required for success at their "Next Level" of competition by providing:
INFORMATION — We present cutting edge information as revealed by computer analysis of major league players demonstrating proper sequential motion mechanics during actual competition. We teach the difference between personal style and the absolute fundamentals as demonstrated by all successful professional players.
INSTRUCTION — Our professional instructors utilize curriculum, drills and equipment designed specifically to communicate this information effectively.
COMPETITION — Players are inspired and challenged with opportunities to participate on special teams and in events that provide the chance to play with and against the top competition at the local, regional, national and international level.
OPPORTUNITIES — Older players may be placed in observation and evaluation situations matching goals and skill levels with college recruiters and professional scouts.
OUR TEACHING PHILOSOPHY
Our approach to teaching hitting or pitching a baseball has changed dramatically since the advent of exiting new technology and the scientific research now dedicated to analyzing what makes professional players excel. We all had our pet "theories" about what makes a good hitter or pitcher. Even the best professional hitting instructors had a difficult time agreeing on what actually happened in those split seconds. We taught what we thought we saw or what we had heard by other coaches.
We now know that terms like "keep your weight back", "squish the bug", "extend your arms", "swing down at the ball", "throw your hands" are all misleading and, though well meant, do not happen in a professional swing.
We now have the ability to show our students successful major league hitters and pitchers using high-speed computer analysis, frame-by-frame sequences of motion mechanics and how timing and rhythm are incorporated. We can then video our students and show them how their own mechanics and timing compare. We no longer need to teach players our own opinions or theories. As a baseball coach you know you have come full circle when the passion you had as a player, leaving it all on the field each day to achieve your dreams, has now become an intense desire to help young ballplayers reach their own goals, or at least know that they became the best that they could be. After all these years it seems that this quote from Jim Bouton especially rings true —