Q: Who does the coaching?
A: Midwest Baseball Academy hires and trains high school and/or college coaches from your local area. That's the biggest advantage of the program. While most local youth and travel team coaches have some knowledge of baseball, this is a chance for young players to be get six weeks of instruction by professionally trained and experienced coaches who do this for a living. We maintain quality control by providing each location with our weekly program and the necessary equipment to run it, and training the staff.

Q: Why don't you have major league players come?
A: Having a major league player come to sign autographs for an hour can cost several thousand dollars. While those guys are the best players in the world, most can't teach someone else to do it. We don't want to raise our fees and waste your money. We hire people who can best teach your son or daughter how to play.

Q: How many kids will be there at a time? I heard you get as many as 200 players in a camp.
A: While our programs average around 200 players per location, that is spread over a five-hour period. We take a maximum of about 36 players per hour for the hitting camps and between 10 and 20 pitchers per hour, depending on the size of the facility. The important thing to remember is that we provide a player-coach ratio of better than 6:1. If we add players, we add coaches. When including the assistant coach/helpers at each station, the ratio drops to about 3:1. We have had waiting lists as long as 100 at a particular location. We will not overbook and compromise our instruction.

Q: The price of $99 seems kind of low compared to lessons at our local indoor facility. Does that mean the instruction isn't as good?
A: Not at all. Our prices are lower than indoor baseball facilities because we don't have the overhead. Building an indoor baseball facility is expensive, and the year-round costs have to be recovered during peak usage seasons of winter and spring. Because we're contracting with the local site director to use a high school or college in your area for only 6 days, we don't have to support year-round rental costs.

Q: The $99 covers six weeks of sessions, one session per week. How long is each session, and what do they do?
A: Each session lasts for one hour. Players are in small groups of 5 or 6 with others their age or ability level. During the hour, they work through a concentrated circuit of drills that teach specific areas of hitting or pitching. Each station they go to has an instructor, and most also have an assistant coach to help get them more repetitions. We don't have them sit and listen to someone talk for 15 minutes. They're moving and active the whole time. Sessions are cumulative, so that over the six-week period we cover all aspects of hitting. The pitching program is similar, with significant time set aside each week for live throwing to a catcher under the supervision of coaches.

Q: We want both the hitting and pitching. Can we do that?
A: Yes. Sessions are staggered by age group to allow players to hit and pitch in consecutive hours. They go right from one to the other. The cost for both hitting and pitching is $198, because you are getting six hours of hitting instruction and six hours of pitching instruction.

Q: You mentioned hitting and pitching. Does the program also include fielding, catching, and baserunning?
A: No. These are concentrated hitting and pitching programs that go into depth over the six hours of instruction time. We've run summer camps where the kids come all day for five days and cover all aspects of the game. But trying to cover all those aspects in six hours would just be an introductory clinic that skims the surface. Players don't really get much out of that. This program is intense and indepth.

Q: What if we miss a week because of vacation or a scheduling conflict?
A: Because we have the facility reserved for only those days, there are no makeup sessions. However, hundreds of people still find it a good value to get even four or five lessons. While the sessions are cumulative, players who miss a week are not "lost" when they return. During the course of the program, many players miss a week due to conflicts with another sport or a family vacation.

Q: My son is advanced and his friend is a beginner. How can the program be right for both of them?
A: While the stations are consistent for all the players in a particular age group, the way we run the drills varies according to the ability level of each player and each hitting group within the hour. We stress to our coaches the importance of coaching each player at his own level. A coach might work with a struggling player on making contact with the ball, then, if the next player is more advanced, work with him on hitting outside pitches to the opposite field. Older and more experienced players work on more advanced concepts as the weeks progress. The level of instruction changes throughout the day and throughout the program.

Q: My son is a 4th grader, and I don't want him in the group with 2nd graders. How does that work?
A: There is a small age range within each hour, but players are broken into small hitting groups with five or six players per group. There may be 2nd graders and 4th graders in the facility at the same time, but we create small groups based on age and experience. The fourth graders are grouped with other fourth graders, and the second graders with second graders. Each station instructor adjusts his coaching and the drill to the group in front of him. We can also move players to a more experienced hitting group within the same hour.

Q: My son is in 7th grade and plays travel ball. He's good for his age and I would like for him to attend the high school session. Can I do that?
A: Because of the concentrated nature of the program, a majority of the players tend to be advanced, so an advanced 7th grader should be right at home in the middle-school session. This is not a beginner clinic that requires parents to seek more challenging levels for their players.

Q: The confirmation page says players in the hitting camp need to bring a bat. Will you have bats for them to use, or can they borrow one from another player in the camp?
A: We want each player to bring a bat because there are times when everyone in a group will be performing a drill at the same time, so it's not feasible to borrow a bat from someone else in the camp. He might try borrowing a bat from a teammate not in the program, or from his coach.

Q: Pitchers are supposed to supply their own catchers? His friend is in the same session. Can they catch for each other?
A: In the pitching program, players are often all performing a throwing drill at the same time, and each needs a catcher. If one player in a session catches for another, each will only receive half as much instruction. A catcher can be a parent, sibling, or friend. Youth players serving as catchers should bring a catcher's mask to wear.

Q: You have hitting sessions for high school players but pitching sessions only through eighth grade. Why?
A: There are several reasons, but the most important is safety. With each player required to bring his own catcher, we have found it gets too dangerous for parents and siblings trying to catch high school pitchers in an indoor environment.

Q: How should players dress?
A: All activities are indoors, so wear tennis shoes, shorts or sweat pants, and a T-shirt.

Q: How do we register, and how do we pay?
A: Registration forms for each location are on the web site. Enter your information online and submit it to reserve your spot, print out the confirmation page, sign it, and mail it with a check to our national headquarters. Your spot will be held for two weeks while we wait for your check to arrive.