About
We are a family driven business, committed to quality - not quantity (that's a quote from 5 of our major "competitors" over the past couple years when they approached us to partner with them)!
We have first class instructors (all of whom were highly successful at the NCAA D1 and/or Professional levels) - and we have a lot of fun doing what we do.
Lightning Baseball has state of the art technology and resources, that we use on every lesson....be it "live" video analysis, or HitTrax technology, or Hitting Guru software, PowerCore360 bands, HomePlate pitching machine and much, much more.
We analyze each students skill sets, and then make a coordinated effort to improve the skill, one thing at a time. There is no "cookie-cutter" solution for improvement. We look at each individual as specifically that - an individual and what is more important to one hitter, is not necessarily applicable to another student. We tailor the training to each player.
I am a parent first, and I had the amazing joy of watching both of my boys commit, and accomplish, their goals of playing baseball at the NCAA Division 1 AND Professional levels (between them they played for 23 seasons after HS)! Our aim is to help other kids (and parents) work toward those goals that these young kids have...as long as they have them!
I worked closely with my boys all through their careers and now, after they have completed their playing careers, I get the joy of teaching right along side them. I'm truly blessed getting to work with my own boys every day.
Having played college baseball myself the passion has never left. When my boys started their HS playing careers, I was fortunate to be a part-time scout for the Seattle Mariners, and Baltimore Orioles for 20+ years. Over all those years, I was able to meet some incredible baseball people at all levels, and those friendships have become impactful resources for us to help each individual player specifically improve upon their skills.
Check us out at www.LightningBaseball.us. Read the testimonials by many players and parents as well. We believe that will tell you all you would want to know about who we are.
Highlights
Reviews
Teresa B.
Sean M.
Seth W.
James P.
Katrina H.
John M.
Frequently asked questions
What is your typical process for working with a new student?
We always let the hitter take a few swings, without any coaching. We get some of those swings on video. After a few swings, without the hitter even needing to leave the cage, we analyze the swing (often comparing it to quality swings by MLB hitters) and determine what would be the single greatest improvement would be for that specific hitter, if we were never to see that hitter again. And we go from there...
What education and/or training do you have that relates to your work?
All of the batting lessons are done by essentially 4 individuals between whom we played 8 years at the University of Washington, 3 years at Dallas Baptist University and 4 years at Lehigh University)....and 13 years of professional baseball. Among those years we had multiple all-conference award winners, Pac-10 batting leader, 3x professional all-stars and more! One of our instructors was a batting coach for his professional team and two of them were coaches on the field. Two of them were offered jobs by the Baltimore Orioles to coach.
Do you have a standard pricing system for your lessons? If so, please share the details here.
It's very basic...we charge $55 for 30 minute private lessons (and those lessons always include "live" video analysis in the cage as well as Hit Trax technology).
How did you get started teaching?
Having played baseball in college, and then being asked to coach my sons teams led me to teach. Both of my boys had a lot of successes at early ages and many parents asked if I could do lessons with their kids. It grew and grew from there. Ultimately we had so many students, that I simply could not do all the lessson alone...and my boys were starting their professional and collegiate careers around that time - so they would help with lessons when they were in their off-seasons. In the end, when their professional careers ended, rather than accepting offers to coach at the professional levels, they opted to come home and help with the young students that we have!
What types of students have you worked with?
We work with all ages. Obviously the approach is different for an 8 year old, as opposed to a 16 year old. But we do, in the long run, teach the same basic skills.
Describe a recent event you are fond of.
In the past couple weeks, three different students have all committed to various colleges (Regis University, Western Nebraska CC and U of Colorado-Colorado Springs) and we couldn't be more excited for them! We have had well over 350 students go on to college to get their education while continuing their dream of playing baseball. We have never had a single full time student, that graduated from our program, miss out on the opportunity to play college baseball!!
What advice would you give a student looking to hire a teacher in your area of expertise?
Do your homework, set your expectations very high (of the level of service you expect to get in your lessons) and do not settle for just anyone to teach you. The decision you make will possibly impact how long you get to chase your dream! Once you find someone that has the knowledge to teach, and the ability to teach YOU, then stick with that person as long as you can. Too many people think they can teach this difficult task - but that doesn't mean that they can.
What questions should students think through before talking to teachers about their needs?
1. What are their goals (to make a team? lead the team in hitting? play one more year? play in HS? play in college?)???
2. Does the teacher teach one specific "style"?
3. What is the teachers background? If they say the played in college - find out how much they played, what are their statistics? Granted, one does not have to have played successfully, at a high level, to be a quality instructor (thank goodness - otherwise I would not be)...but there is something to be said about someone that has been thru the fire many, many times. The history, experience, they have to draw upon to help you is simply greater.
4. Will they be fully dedicated to you during the entire time of your lesson (or will they be distracted by other coaches, students, phone calls, text messages, etc.)?