The Mental Part of Hitting by Turtle Thomas (DVD) – $29.95

The mental part of hitting plays a huge part in the success of all good hitters. The mind plays a major role in every athlete and their success on the field. This DVD examines the mental side of the art of hitting. Sports psychologists tell you the mind plays a role in at least 75% of the total package for a hitter. Rarely has any hitting DVD touched on the mental side of the game. This is a must for the serious hitter.

Henry “Turtle” Thomas has been the Head Baseball Coach at Florida International University since 2007. He was arguably the top assistant coach and recruiter in all of college baseball. At some of college baseball’s elite programs, he helped them develop 19-consecutive top-10 recruiting classes, 14 College World Series appearances and two national championships. Some of the most-successful programs in college baseball’s recent history grace Thomas’ resume, including Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami, Louisiana State and Arizona State.
He has coached in more College World Series than any active head coach.
In his first year as a head coach. Thomas’ squad hit a conference leading .337 in 2010, good enough for 16th in the country. He also mentored infielder Garrett Wittels who improved his batting average a whopping .166 points from .246 his freshman year to .412 as a sophomore. Wittels gained notoriety his sophomore season for hitting in an incredible 56-straight games, second in Division I baseball history only to former Major Leaguer, Robin Ventura.
As a team, the Panthers hit .305 in Turtles’ first season, .324 in his second and .337 in his third. From 2008 to 2009, Turtles’ club improved by 14 wins from 20 in 2008 to 34 in 2009, the biggest turnaround in the program’s storied history.

• Former Arizona State Head Coach Pat Murphy said that Thomas is “the hardest-working coach I’ve ever been around. He’s relentless and he’s a good person. He is a legend in college baseball for his recruiting efforts and great coaching at winning programs. Everything Turtle Thomas is around turns to gold.”
• Legendary college baseball coach and current LSU Athletic Director Skip Bertman. “He is tremendous as a one-on-one coach. It can’t be a coincidence that Turtle left a championship program like Miami and came to LSU the next year and helped us win a championship. Turtle will be a winner. There is no doubt about that.”
• In 1988 he was named assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Miami by Hall of Fame coach Ron Fraser. The Hurricanes reached the CWS nine times in Thomas’ 12 years in Coral Gables, winning a National Championship in 1999, and going to Omaha six-straight seasons (1994-99). From 1996-98, UM posted a collective .334 batting average, .557 slugging percentage and scored more than nine runs per game. The 1996 Hurricanes set a school record with a team batting average of .343.
• “You have a great guy in Turtle Thomas,” the legendary Fraser said. “He can recruit and he knows where to find the best guys. He can coach and he is such a hard worker. This is great for FIU and they are lucky to have him. He helped our program at Miami so much when he was there.”

The roll call of major leaguers Thomas recruited and coached numbers more than 60. The list includes Charles Johnson, Alex Fernandez, Pat Burrell, Danny Graves, Alex Cora, Aubrey Huff, Aaron Hill, Mike Fontenot, Jason Michaels and Brad Hawpe. He also signed MLB All-Stars Alex Rodriguez and Larry “Chipper” Jones to letters of intent to Miami. Both players were eventually drafted No. 1 overall.