Contract Form

Application For Lessons

For the past several years, we have been limiting the students we accept for personal instruction. Over 20 years of training baseball/softball players we discovered that the type of high level training we conduct is not for everyone. We understand that our program is not for everyone. 

We are not your average or “conventional” baseball/softball academy. Our program is not a “quick fix” program where a player can come in and get a quick tune up before the beginning of the season. Our instructors are highly trained and have backgrounds in many important areas required to be a successful “teacher”. 

While we are positive and encouraging we do not do “feel good” lessons. 

We do not do traditional rep based instruction (lessons where students come in and practice by doing repetition) we actually teach, to give the student the ability to assimilate information and be responsible for their own learning. This will allow for students to self-adjust. 

We have completed over 160,000 lessons in the past 20 years and have worked with professional, college, league players, and everything in between. 

Because of our limited time we wish to identify those individuals we wish to work with. Because of limited time we are only going to take on the following type of individuals. These individuals need to have the following unique characteristics: 

This application will outline the expectations for our students as well as give the student/parent an idea of what to expect from our training.

*Attitude- The student must be willing to learn, listen, experiment and be open to new ideas. Arrogant, hard-headed students are not wanted. We want students to question, and who are a part of each training session.

*Aptitude- The student must have a love of baseball/softball, and of practice.

 *Work Ethic/Dedication– The student must be willing to do homework on a regular basis.

 *Commitment- The student must be persistent and resilient to temporary plateaus, challenges, and setbacks. Students must have the attitude “I am going to make this happen”

*Goals- The student must have a desire to be better than he currently is and will push himself and set goals to reach the next level (which we will help them with our goal setting plan).

*Parents who are Supportive but Not Intrusive- The student parents must be helpful, but not attempting to live their life through the athletic careers of their child or attempt to save their kids from “failure”, by manipulation, coercion, or influence. Those parents that constantly have to remind everyone how good their kid is and tell their child how good they are, are not desirable. Parents must view their child as a capable, responsible, trustworthy young person who is accountable for his own failures and successes.

Things that have no bearing on if we accept a student or not:

-He/She is the best/not one of the best players in their league

-He/She was an all-star/has never made all stars

-He/She plays “Elite” Select baseball/plays league ball

-He/She throws harder than anybody around/does not throw with any velocity

-He/She hit 15 home runs last season/struck out almost every time at bat

**Do these following statements describe you or your athlete? If so you may wish to reconsider applying for training.

-Parents want success more than their kid does

-Looking for a quick fix, a few quick tips, wanting a different look, wanting to try something else

-Looking for a “Conventional” pitching/hitting instructor. We are anything but “conventional”

-Wanting a tune-up

-Looking for a new pitch

-Looking for an assessment…… (We will do some basic evaluations)

Here is what Hardball Academy is looking for:

 -The athlete’s dream is to play high school, college, and/or professional baseball

-They love to hit/pitch/train more than anything else

-They would mark the date of their first lesson and count down the days

-They would be sitting in the driveway ready to go to their lesson

-They have been in search of a competent, high quality professional mentor to help them reach their goals.

-The athlete has a burning desire to get better, open to new ideas, and challenges themselves to be the best they can be