Sports Product Review

My son went off to college yesterday. After loading in his baseball gear, he grabbed his two surf boards, his wetsuit, and his new favorite products, Suit Juice and Suit Fresh, by North Shore Products (www.wetsuitessentials.com). North Shore sent us a sampling of their full product line to try. He’s usually pretty resistant to trying new things – he thinks he’s got everything figured out – so for me to hear that he liked and uses the stuff was all the endorsement I needed to hear.

What does Suit Juice do? It is a wet suit and dry suit lubricant, which makes it easier to get in and out. It also extends the life of expensive suits by neutralizing and eliminating uric acids and oils naturally caused by the human body. These acids will destroy latex and increase fading to neoprene.

Suit Fresh is the only product to clean, deodorize and condition wetsuits and dry suits. It removes your suit of oil, salt, odors, sunscreen and anything else the water or your body might leave behind. Properly cleaning the suit with Suit Fresh and conditioning it with Suit Juice extends its life, while keeping it fresh.

After surfing all summer with a ripped old half-suit that let in the 60 degree ocean, we bought my son a new full suit that he just loves for his birthday. Judging by the way I see him taking care of his prized possession, it seems that maybe doing without for so long has made him better appreciate what he has now.

Source North Shore Products

While coaching baseball and softball, I have used a tennis illustration many times with my teams to explain getting ready for each pitch. I show them how players look as they prepare to return a serve. How they hop from one foot to the other on the balls of their feet. What I’m trying to teach them is what every coach knows, which is that when bodies are at rest it is difficult to overcome inertia. In other words, if you’re standing still – flat-footed, you will not be able to react and move as quickly as you would if you already had some momentum created by movement. This is why tennis players bounce and baseball infielders “step-step” each time the pitcher releases the ball.

So, as a coach or parent, you can preach it all you want, but when it’s hot, the game or match is dragging on, and players are tired, they tend to get lazy and stand flat-footed. So rather then having to constantly monitor and bark, “On your toes!” the folks at 2-Hop (www.2-hop.com) invented a device that buzzes that instruction to you.

The Quick Step Trainer is a buzzing system in your shoe that alerts you when your weight and position are incorrect. Simply slip these rubberized heel inserts into shoes or cleats and go out and practice. Anytime your feet rest in the wrong, flat-footed position for more than two seconds, a slight buzzing sensation alerts you that you need to get up on the balls of your feet.

My oldest son has grown a lot recently, has big feet and he tends to run and play the field flat-footed. So when 2-Hop sent us a pair to try I was excited. We went down to the field and he reluctantly inserted the devices, and then went out to play short. After a dozen or so ground balls I asked him how they felt. He yelled back, “Annoying.” I had to laugh.

I don’t mind him being annoyed if he learns to stay on his toes. He has gotten to the point where he doesn’t listen to me much anymore anyway. But that’s fine. I don’t have to tell him to get off his heels. The Quick Step Trainer does it for me.

Source: Quick Step Trainer

In sports and in life, confidence is everything. On the playing field, it’s a constant battle waged in the mind. Every athlete faces fear. Am I good enough? Am I prepared? What if something goes wrong?

Perhaps the most insidious fear that athletes face is the fear of injury. Elite athletes may have trained themselves to overcome the fear of pain associated with their sport, but they dread an injury that will sideline them and potentially eliminate their livelihood. Younger players often don’t think in these broad terms, but rather simply worry about getting hurt for the most basic reason – because it hurts.

In either case, players who take the field with even the slightest worry or doubt are setting themselves up for not only failure, but also greater potential for harm. That’s one of the reasons we’re such huge fans of the XProTex line of gloves, (www.xprotex.com).

They sent us some gloves to try. The “wow” factor alone when they come out of the package is enough reason to put these high up on any player’s gift wish list. But it’s when the action starts that they truly shine.

The Reaktr infielder’s glove covers the hand inside the mitt and protects the wrist, palm and fingers from hard throws and short-hop bounces. It’s tough catching a hard throw from a teammate and, in that instant before it hits the mitt, if a players senses impending pain, any flinch might cause him to miss. At the very least, a lack of aggressiveness coming to get the ball could be the difference between safe and out on a bang-bang play.

My son, who is a shortstop, says he loves the way the glove protects his wrist from getting dinged up on bad hops. It helps him focus more on doing whatever it takes to make the play, to get in front of a ball that’s smoked, and worry less about the consequences if the ball doesn’t do what he expects it to.

XProTex gloves are among the most innovative new products to come along in the baseball world in some time, and help athletes step onto the field knowing they’re prepared and protected. And a player with the utmost confidence is sure to have the utmost success.

Source: XProTex

OK. Sometimes I can be really stupid. Last week, my niece and nephew were out from the Midwest for a visit. They said all they wanted to do was go to the beach. So, along with my wife and kids, they went every day. Saturday, I finally took a day off of work and joined them. It was an ideal beach day. Not a cloud in the sky, warm and breezy – perfect weather.

Baseball season had recently ended and I hadn't been to the beach yet this summer. I took off my shirt and decided it was high time to get rid of my “coach’s tan.” My daughter said, “You’re going to get burned,” but I didn’t worry about it. About three hours later I was feeling a little red so I finally got out the sunscreen. Too little, too late.

I woke up the next day, as red as a beet in the shape of a T-shirt. It was so bad I had trouble sleeping a few nights. We all know what comes next, the peeling and maybe even blistering. Sure enough, in the middle of my chest, I not only peeled, but suffered a dozen or so small blisters. As stupid as getting burned like that was, what I did next was kind of smart.

I remembered that a couple of years ago the people at Mission Skin care (www.missionskincare.com) sent me some of their Ultra-Soothing After-Sun Revive Gel. I hadn’t used it for a sunburn before and thought I’d give it a shot. The website says, “Tested and proven in some of the harshest environments on earth, After-Sun Revive Gel is a high-performance recovery product that's vitamin and antioxidant enriched, so it's perfect for anyone who faces the elements -- even if the most extreme thing you do is just lay out at the beach.”

Well, in my case, lying out at the beach was extreme. I slathered my chest with the ointment and instantly felt better. But more impressively, a day later, nearly all the blisters were gone and the peeling had stopped. I’d tried ordinary lotion as well as aloe, and got nowhere near the same results. This stuff worked wonders. And you don’t have to use it only when you’ve been sunburned. It’s excellent care for skin that is exposed to any elements; cold, wind, sun, and more. It would also work great as an after-shave balm.

We all know what an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of. So the best course of action next time will be to reach for the sunblock much sooner. But when I “forget,” again, as I probably will, it’s nice to know Mission has a cure.

Source: Mission Skincare

It was awful. This past weekend, I was watching my teenage sons’ summer ball double-header at a high school field. They were playing on the JV field, which had a short, chain-link fence in the outfield. No warning track, no padding. I was out behind the center-field fence and a drive was hit in my direction. It looked to me, and apparently to the center-fielder, that it was catchable. He got a great jump, tracked it like he should and then, BOOM! Full-speed he ran face-first into the fence post as the ball went over. He collapsed on the field and for a moment I feared he was unconscious – or worse. Fortunately, after about fifteen minutes he did get up and was carted off the field. He appeared to be shaken, but all right.

That field isn’t safe. The fence is too short for high-school age kids, there is no warning track, but worst of all, no padding. That’s where a company like Promats Athletics (www.promatsathletics.com) comes in. Promats provides a wide variety of products designed to pad or protect chain link fence top rails, horizontal mid and bottom rails, as well as the vertical posts. That would have come in handy last weekend.

Promats does interior padding as well. They just finished the new indoor basketball practice facility at Indiana University, (my alma-mater). I was back in Bloomington a few weeks ago for my niece’s wedding. I took a tour of the place and its awesome. You can see what it looks like here. 

So, whether you are looking to pad these dangerous rails and posts, or simply protect against the fence mesh extending above the top rail, or need protection against the walls in your gym, ask the experts at Promats. They’ve have it covered.

Source: Promats