ABCA 2026 Downloadable Schedule

Posted on by David Navarre

The American Baseball Coaches Association conference will be January 8-11, 2026, at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio.

This is my second year creating a version of the schedule you can give to your coaching staff that the can fit in their pocket to decide which sessions to attend. The subject to modification, but this is the current compiled version. This is likely most useful if you’re bouncing between session types, but it can also be useful just to keep track of your own schedule. I find something useful in each type of session. If you’re not an ABCA member and want to join, click here!

How it’s organized:

All sessions – main stage, expo stage, youth sessions, panels, FCA events, and diversity workshops – are all listed on the 4-page spreadsheet. They are sorted by start time. Sessions are not all the same length. There is a column at the right, so that you can mark down who on your staff is going to which session.

What I did:

I used ChatGPT to build the spreadsheet, with guidance and editing by me. It was much easier than last year’s cut-and-paste.

Here it is as a PDF you could print:

abca-2026-scheduleDownload

As a spreadsheet you can edit:

abca-2026-scheduleDownload

ABCA Trade Show

This year, you also get easy access to the Trade Show floorplan. I highly recommend making your list of vendors to visit — you can print a list from the floorplan — and make sure you allocate plenty of time to walk the Trade Show floor to see what’s on offer and meet old & new friends.

Vendors, there are still spots available! Reach out to Juahn Clark, ABCA Trade Show Director
at (336) 821-3143 or jclark@abca.org, pictured here with small vendor Michael Dobre who sells a great breaking ball trainer (https://dobrebreakingballtrainer.com/)

Revisiting Vendors from Prior Years at ABCA 2025

Posted on by David Navarre

Not only are there new vendors with new products, but also vendors we’ve met before that have created new products or modified existing ones with the experience they’ve gained.

Krato Sports

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Back in 2022, we visited with Justin Kuhn and Rick Weaver to learn about their innovative bat weights. They screw onto any part of your bat and, like the RITEND weight we first saw yesterday, can be used in batting practice as well as dry swings. These have been upgraded, with plastic coverings and longer bolts to avoid breakage. They’ve also created some new products to save coaches money and provide more opportunities to improve our players.

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They’ve got Tee Toppers (and tees), plyo balls (with or without “laces”) and nets to hit or throw into. Since it’s a few guys who coach together, they collaborate and they know that coaches/programs don’t have any money to waste. Check them out at Booth #105.

The Nexus Mount

I was very excited to see the latest products under development at The Nexus Mount, who we met last year.

Brandon Miller has an iPad mount in prototype (rumored to be used in MLB spring training) that I’ve been hoping for since I needed to get an iPad to maximize my PitchLogic data review. It looks really good to me, with all the design elements of the OG Mount, only big enough for an iPad. It is due for pre-orders in February or March, so you might have it during school seasons and certainly will be seeing it during summer ball.

There’s a new swivel ball mount they’re coming out with, since some cameras need that when used in the mount to keep the view level. I didn’t get a photo of this, but it is really cool.

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Also available for pre-order soon is a stand for your mount, for when you’re not allowed to have it hanging from the screen or maybe even not touching the screen. You can have the stand on the wall of the backstop, which is way easier that doing that via tripod (which was part of the reason to use the Mount in the first place!) I know I’ll be getting one of these after my pre-order in February or March.

Less than 24 hours til the Trade Show Closes!

They’re on a break until 4pm, with the Coaches’ Social running until 6:30pm tonight, but you have to see and purchase your products either tonight or tomorrow. Otherwise, you won’t have this opportunity until we get to Columbus for ABCA 2026.

Meeting New Vendors at ABCA 2025

Posted on by David Navarre

Every year, I hunt around the Trade Show floor trying to find innovative products and interesting vendors. I want something useful, and a story to go with it. This year is no different!

RITEND Bat Weight

Almost hidden in the corner of the Trade Show Floor is RITEND Bat Weight, staffed by new President, Jakob Lindemann, son of the founder, Skip Lindemann. Skip always stressed getting your hands through the ball when coaching his son and his teams. So, he developed a bat weight for the right end of the bat – the RITEND bat weight is down on the knob. Jakob’s recent engineering change to the weight was to go from aluminum to steel, allowing a more compact weight. It’s easy-on, easy-off and is worth a look to see if it’s the tool for you. See them in Booth #152, in the corner.

Dobre Breaking Ball Trainer

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Back in Asheville, at Bob Lewis Ballpark, I ran into Michael Dobre, who was showing and selling his Breaking Ball Trainer. One of the things that sparked my interest was that Mike is a veteran. He was an Army Ranger (airborne-qualified, too) who was in the 2017 Best Ranger Competition (one of 53 teams of truly qualified soldiers). His trainers are baseballs with a ridge on them to allow players to learn the grips and how to throw the pitch with the best movement. He’s in Booth #118

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I spent some extra time, talking to his Dad, who served in the Marines. I always carry my coin for Jordan Haerter, so I shared with him the story of Haerter and Yale in Ramadi – the “Six Seconds” speech that General Kelly gave. It was great to be able to share that story and talk about developing youth both through Scouting (I was a Scoutmaster before I was a baseball coach) and through baseball.

While I was there, Juahn Clark, who is the ABCA Trade Show Director, happened by to share how much his daughter enjoys using the trainers that Mike developed for softball. Designing his softball trainers involved a lot of research and Juahn testified that they both work AND are liked. He noted that a good tool that players don’t like might as well not exist.

Trade Show Coaches Social

Don’t forget, the Trade Show floor will shut down for an hour to give them a break before reopening for the Social Hour at 4:00pm. Your drink tickets are attached to your badge!

ABCA 2025 First Day

Posted on by David Navarre

As the coach of Randolph-Henry baseball (VA), Josh Barmoy, said, “Off to Disney World for baseball coaches” when tweeting about his ride in. It truly is Disney for us.

Registration was a breeze once I figured out where it was (top floor of the atrium) and then I hit the Trade Show. As I’ve noted in prior years, like with ABCA 2022 First Day, there is a LOT to see. I’m committed to visiting as many vendors as I can and sharing their stories, especially the small ones!

But first, a story

In my final season coaching Little League baseball here in Alexandria before we moved to Asheville, I got a new player, who had never played baseball before. Our Young E. was a relatively good-sized kid, but there were probably no sports in his background. His arms were obviously strong and I knew there was potential.

When we brought out the PocketRadar to find out how hard everyone threw, Young E. couldn’t throw hard. He sometimes threw one that registered 25 mph or so, but it was in a random direction. Sometimes, in practices leading up to the season, he would get distraught with bad directional control and think he wasn’t throwing any harder.

By the beginning of the season, using both PitchLogic and PocketRadar to track his progress and provide encouragement, he was able to throw it 30 mph. By the end of the season, he clocked one at 41.8 mph and it was in the direction of his teammate and catchable.

Three years later, he’s getting ready for another baseball season. We showed him that the OUTPUT of his efforts was improving so that by the end of the season, his OUTCOMES were far better.

Why bring this up?

This afternoon, the CEO/Co-Founder of PocketRadar, Steve Goody was on the Expo stage talking on a panel about Integrating Evaluation Technology in youth baseball. On the stage with him, Neil Anderson from SkillShark Athlete Evaluations was explaining how his software helps organizations evaluate players using PocketRadar and eliminate all the paper-to-PC tracking of evaluations. Then, Alex Sumner of Fargo Youth Baseball and Jordan Draeger of GoingYard Baseball talked about how easy it is, how it provides objective feedback to players and helps shape player development.

Both PocketRadar and Skillshark are doing their share to “democratize the data.” By making data transparent to the players and parents, they encourage the players, show them their progress and give them guidance on how to get better. As with our own Young E, retention is much improved.

Great Conference, Like Always!

I’ve got my list of vendors and I’m stopping in to see a broad variety of them to hear what everyone has to say. I’m an Outgoing Introvert, so I use my outgoing times to meet as many as possible, especially the little ones or the folks who have no customers in front of them at the time. Then, I use my introvert times to share my experiences with all y’all. (Since I live in North Carolina now, “all y’all” isn’t awkward to my companions.) I do have some revisits planned (I spoke to Brandon and Morgan at Nexus Mount, so will have an update to share!)

ABCA 2025 Downloadable Schedule

Posted on by David Navarre

Last year, I handed out spreadsheets with the schedule to our coaching staff in attendance. Since the schedule has already been released, but subject to modification, I thought I’d share the current compiled version. This is likely most useful if you’re bouncing between session types, but it can also be useful just to keep track of your own schedule. The three of us are in travel ball, so we find something useful in each type of session. If you’re not a member and want to join, click here!

How it’s organized:

All sessions – main stage, expo stage, youth sessions, panels, and diversity workshops – are all listed on the 3-page spreadsheet. They are sorted by start time. Sessions are not all the same length. There are a few columns at the right, so that you can mark down who on your staff is going to which session.

What I did:

I used simple copy-and-paste into a text file from the ABCA pages. Then, I moved the data around so that it’s in columns instead of boxes. That made sorting simple.

Here it is as a PDF you could print:

ABCA 2025 ScheduleDownload

As a spreadsheet you can edit:

ABCA 2025 ScheduleDownload

Ever had your streaming camera overheat and fail? There’s a fix for that!

Posted on by David Navarre

Walking the exhibit floor and Morgan Miller put some swag in my hands. So, I stopped. I’d walked by the Nexus Mount booth a couple of times. I thought to myself, “I have a tripod. Why would I need these fancy things?”

So, I stopped to look and she began to explain. I’m not the streaming guy on our team, but when I run our bullpens at practice, I’ve got my phone, my iPad and my PocketRadar, all of which might be mounted on tripods or on the fence with a universal mount. I had the tripods from when I did video of WWII veterans at reunions (like this funny Thanksgiving 1944 story), so I don’t know if the expense counts, but I have put more money into what I currently have then what it will take to replace it with a product that is more versatile, more reliable and easier to set up while also avoiding overheating.

Brandon Miller was frustrated with his phones and radars overheating, causing shutdowns and destroyed devices. He’s a problem-solver, so he built a mount that would shield his devices from the sun and secure them properly to a fence or net. People saw it and asked if he could make one for them.

In 2023, when they set their goal for selling some devices, they thought that 100 was a reasonable amount. They’ve sold 2000.

These mounts are made of aluminum, so they’re lightweight. They mount quickly and securely (you can check a video of that on their Tiktok) and you can get an ABCA discount if you order soon (code ABCA24!)

One of the great things about ABCA is running into a family-run startup, like Hit Them All (blog post: If you can hit a chickpea, you can hit anything) and Krato Sports (blog post: https://oldmenplayingbaseball.com/2022/01/06/abca-2022-first-day/). Whether you get to go to ABCA conventions or not, check them out!

1999 + 4 * 2026 = Prospects walking the floor

Posted on by David Navarre

There were four athletic, driven young men walking the exhibit hall here at ABCA in almost matching t-shirts. I couldn’t miss them. They pounded the ball in cages where they could, threw it in cages where that was the goal, they went to every FUN spot on the Exhibit Floor. The joy of baseball was apparent and we need to share that.

Jarret Gardner (Moore HS, 1999) had a brilliant idea. He runs Extra Effort: Oklahoma City and he has four high school sophomores who need some exposure (Class of 2026). These Extra Effort Cardinals are all in white t-shirts, with the front identifying the facility and the back… providing how to reach them!

ABCA 2022 First Day

Posted on by David Navarre

This is my first big baseball conference. I’ve been to IT shows and worked the All Star Game Fan Fest, but NOTHING prepared me for this. As a baseball guy walking the trade show, you could stop at EVERY booth and find something interesting or useful. You’d also get to talk to some great people.

Brilliance in bat design

A number of years ago, I wanted a flared-knob bat. I’d been using my Phoenix Bat regularly, but when I’d do an hour-long batting cage session, I’d develop a line of blisters at the knob. So I asked them to design me a bat with a flared knob. Some major leaguers were using them already and Axe had just come out with it’s first bats (only flared on one side). When I stopped by the booth today, Brad Taylor recognized my name. He was the one who designed my bat back in December of 2015!

Now, Phoenix has a dozen flared-knob bats on the display table. If you’re at the ABCA, go check THOSE bats out if you do nothing else. Tell Brad he’s a genius because… he is.

Weather

Chicago is mighty cold. I asked a bicycle cop if it was better to ride slow to avoid the wind or fast to create body heat. He told me “slow and steady wins the race” because riding hard makes you sweat and that sweat makes you COLD! I took the train in and met up with a few other conference attendees at the Clark/Lake stop. We conferred on which train was the right one and we nailed it. Unfortunately, the walk from the Cermak/McCormick Place station to the convention center was long and COLD. Three guys from Virginia, Texas and Florida might have been a little overmatched, but we survived.

Ground-breaking new tool made in the USA!

I’d let my Little Leaguers use my sleeved weight on their bats when I accidentally had it in the team bag, but it was just too heavy for them to do anything but be funny. I’ve been learning more about overload and underload bats, so wanted to start incorporating them into our practices. That gets a little too pricey for a coach buying gear out of his own pocket.

Rick Weaver (@Rweaver23) was talking to Justin Kuhn, father of one of the players he coaches, about an idea he had for bat weights. Justin had a friend with a machine shop, so the came up with the Krato Bat Weight. By being just above the hands, you get the benefits of the modern overload bats but can use it on any bat, use it in live hitting, against machines or off the tee without worrying about breakage or other nonsense.

They come in a variety of sizes and I went ahead and bought the beginner pack (10-ounce, 15-ounce and 20-ounce) with the heaviest one intended for MY personal use.

They’ve been in business for… 30 DAYS. Check their website and stop in to see them. Booth #671.

Getting 56 on your radar gun?

There’s a fantastic new version of SmartCoach out from Pocker Radar for the iPhone. While that won’t be available on Android for a few months, I did spend some time with one of the hardware engineers, Michael. He did a great job of demonstrating the new software and I’m pretty excited about that new version. Apparently, three new Android guys have joined the team and releases will be much more in sync in the future.

So, the biggest tip I got today was on the phantom 56 and 118 mph readings that randomly appear on my Pocket Radar. Those are from cell phone towers! Or some other electronic interference. Nothing wrong with the equipment, just a known anomaly. The new version makes it easier to set the velocity range for your Pocket Radar. Fortunately, none of my Little Leaguers can throw 56. In my men’s league, I think I’ll take advantage of the fact that I have two radars and put one at 36-55 and the other at 57-75.

Great first day

Despite that fact that I’m an introvert (an OUTGOING introvert), I met a lot of people today and really got into some great conversations. Because I learned a number of years ago that I’m an outgoing introvert instead of just “weird”, I know that I need to find a quiet spot and time to recharge. I’m doing that in my room right now as I write this. I’m recharging the energy used spent talking to people (the introvert part) so that I can get back out and be the dynamic guy I love being. So much to learn, so many people to talk to.

If you’re here, maximize your time. Get the most out of it. If that means spending an hour away recharging, do that. If it means diving into every open session, do that. Whatever you do, go talk to folks on the showcase floor. Even if you don’t think it’s something you’d be able to use, talk to them and find out! You might learn something and make a friend in the process.

Which coaching conference suits you?

Posted on by David Navarre

Looking at the various emails, links and ads that I’ve seen over the last few months, I’m trying to sort out where I’ll go for a coaching conference this off-season.

Who Am I?

I’m just a beginning coach. I coach at nearly the lowest level of youth baseball and I’ve only been doing it a year.

The highest level I played regularly at was the “F minor” in 1979, which was the city rec league – no tryouts required. I sat at the end of the bench as an 8th grader the next spring on our school team. Once I got to college, I started a string of 35 years playing on as many adult softball teams as I could. I settled on a men’s “C” league team for 25 years, plus a few Congressional “beer league” coed teams.

When I bought Dusty Baker’s You Can Teach Hitting, I went from a mediocre hitter to a very good one. It didn’t last because I got older and the league continued to have a supply of guys in their 20s. However, I had become a student of hitting.

About five years ago, I got invited to play in a 48+ men’s baseball league. Again, I started as a mediocre player. I’ve been down to Florida 3 times for our league’s “spring training”. I got coaching from the Twins’ Jeff Smith the first year. The next two years, Rick Knapp lead my team — Rick’s most recent post is as the pitching coach for the Durham Bulls. I’m an extremely coachable player, so my hitting got better and…. I finally learned how to pitch.

I think of myself as demonstration that you CAN teach an old dog new tricks.

I feel that this learning process I’ve gone through to get myself back on the field and onto the mound gives me a lot of insight that most youth coaches don’t have. I’m facing challenges, overcoming hurdles and trying to improve my play every day. I think this puts me ahead of guys for whom the game came easy and ahead of guys who haven’t played in 30 years.

Nonetheless, as a coach, I’m nearly a complete neophyte.

What kinds of options are there?

I joined the ABCA a year ago on recommendation of our league President, hoping I could learn coaching. They have a coaching conference every January. I also started seeing ads for pitching conferences and a catcher conference. In addition, some organizations are starting certification programs, in which you do a lot of learning off-site, but come on-site with a number of other coaches for a final program. So, there are some general options and some specific ones. Size of conference also varies, from those small on-site sessions that might have 25, to groups of 100 or 150, all the way up to the ABCA conference at over 7000 participants.

ABCA Annual Conference

2-5 January 2020 in Nashville, TN at a cost of $120 ($80 for early, $100 for advanced and $150 for late registration)

This is the big production – clinics, trade shows, and banquets. They’re accepting up to 7100 attendees. There’s even a special Youth Coaches session on the 3rd and 4th. The 2021 convention will be a few miles from my house at the Gaylord National Harbor,  so I’m going to defer on the 2020 conference for a “no travel required” 2021 option.

Baseball Skill Acquisition Summit

12-13 October 2019 in Lakeland, FL at the Florida Baseball Ranch at a cost of $999

This is the second edition of the Summit, which is focused on “motor learning and skill acquisition conference targeted specifically for baseball.” After the initial 2018 Summit, 3 of the presenters were hired by MLB teams as consultants. The attendees included 53 representatives of MLB teams, so the value of this conference is understood at the highest level. As a beginning coach, I’d be way over my head.

Ultimate Pitching Coaches Bootcamp

6-8 December 2019 in Montgomery, TX at the Texas Baseball Ranch at a cost of $449

In it’s 20th iteration, the Ultimate Pitching Coaches Bootcamp has 3 intense days of pitching coach sessions that can be supplemented for another $99 with the Bonus Session on the 5th of December to learn the techniques and tools used by the Texas Baseball Ranch. This is limited to 150 coaches, so the ratio of coaches to speakers is probably 10:1 or so. This is intriguing because of the focus and the ratio.

Pitchapalooza

6-9 December 2019 in Franklin, TN which cost $349 in 2018

If you’re a pitching nerd like I am, trying to learn from folks using all the latest tools and scientific analyses, Pitch-a-Palooza is probably right up your alley. Last year they had Kyle Boddy, Dr Stephen Osterer, Eugene Bleecker, and Nunzio Signore among the speakers. I only know them from their writings and tweets, but they’re impressive. The rest of the speakers also have meaningful backgrounds, but those jumped out at me. This is a 300-coach conference, with representatives from 23 MLB teams in attendance last year. (What were the other 7 teams thinking?) Those headliners and the scientific approach catch my eye. It’s possible that I’d also get to visit the Civil War battlefield there….

CatcherCON

December 2019 in Nashville, TN

Every detail you want to learn about catching and coaching catchers is fair game at CatcherCon. When you search videos from the conference, you get great stuff like Xan Barksdale’s 2017 talk on drills for recovering blocked balls more quickly or Jerry Weinstein of the Rockies talking about Building Arm Strength in 2018. I started catching in January because I hadn’t tried it since 1978 and there are never enough catchers in men’s leagues. This, however, is also likely going to sail over my head.

Driveline Foundations of Pitching Certification

32 online courses with a live, in-person seminar to complete certification at a cost of $699

Deep dive, on your own schedule, into everything about pitching by Driveline’s experts. I think that the in-person sessions are currently all in Seattle, but that they plan on more sessions at other locations in the future. One of the nice things here is that you go at your own pace, on your own time. Of course, that can also be a hurdle if you find yourself too busy — being away a conference can give one an ability to focus. It has the added benefit of a certification at the end, which is likely going to helpful for those starting a career. I think I’m going to wait on this, while I see how much I might be over my head elsewhere.

Tentative thoughts

I’ve only been thinking about this for a few weeks, so I doubt that I even have half of the options available. So, right now, I’m thinking that I’ll go to one of the pitching conferences. I study and teach pitching a lot, so it would be good to get a deeper dive. There might be other options that I haven’t considered, so I’m eager to hear from you if you’ve done or are doing something else.