Play ball! The Power Pitching & Hitting baseball instruction facility will be offering discounts for summer camps for East, North and South Brunswick residents during its inaugural season in New Brunswick.
Two separate weeklong camps will be held 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday through Thursday, starting June 29 and July 6 for boys and girls ages 6 to 12 years old of any experience level. An early dropoff of 8:30 a.m. and a late pickup of 3:30 p.m. will be available.
For the program, instructors will focus on hitting, bunting, base running, pitching and fielding. The players are divided first by age and then by ability level, and get to bat every day, can pitch to their fellow teammates, have more advanced instruction for an hour each day in their chosen position and participate in live scrimmages in the afternoon.
Athletes, who can join either individually or as a team, will meet at the indoor facility on Joyce Kilmer Avenue in New Brunswick and then utilize the three adjacent secured New Brunswick-owned baseball fields.
“Camps are like snowflakes: there are never two that are both the same, because the camps take on their own personalities. It depends on the kids that join,” said Bill Bethea, owner of Power Pitching & Hitting.
Bethea had played minor league baseball and scouted with the Houston Astros last year. His company has trained about 2,000 players during close to 11,000 lessons over the past seven years, he said.
Bethea runs the camps with fellow camp director Mike Seel, a former scholarship pitcher at Rutgers University, a coach at Wagner College, and a private instructor for the past 10 years. There are also 15 to 20 on-call instructors who have played up to the college or professional level, and/or have experience coaching at the high school or college level.
“Fun is the key with us,” Bethea said. “Our instructors are like big kids. Even though they’re all professional players, they still can relate.”
The players also benefit from special video programming software that tracks swings or pitch delivery to break them down frame by frame.
Bethea said camps are important because of the repetitive nature of practicing skills, and because his staff treats camp like a minor or major league camp, with speed and agility drills followed by stretching and throwing, a breakdown of positions, and then actual game playing.
The facility also offers private lessons, group programs and small clinics during the winter.
In addition, Bethea focuses on high school and college players by conducting conditioning, velocity, specialized pitching and bat-speed training.
“Our philosophy is when they’re young, train them the right way, but as they get more serious, the more we can advance them,” he said.
For information about rates and discounts, visit www.powerpitchingandhitting. com or call 732-586-1309. Enrollment can be done online by credit card or by mail.
Contact Jennifer Amato at
jamato@gmnews.com.