About
Coach Chris Winters
Hitting and mental game coaching for youth players, from someone who cares more about what happens the other six days of the week.
Who he is
I grew up playing baseball as a catcher and a middle infielder, and I played through my freshman year of college.
I have been coaching and developing athletes for four years, working with players across different ages and skill levels. My coaching goes beyond what happens during a single lesson. I want players to understand why they are working on something, and what they should do when they are on their own.
I built LevelX because I kept seeing the same problem in youth baseball: players were getting plenty of instruction, but they did not always know what they were supposed to work on between lessons, or how to know if they were actually getting better.
A player might take a lesson, hit a few balls well, and then go home without a clear plan for what comes next. I wanted to build something different. LevelX gives players a clear path for development, combining baseball skills with the mindset, habits and accountability that allow those skills to actually show up in games.
The goal is not just to give players more drills. It is to help them understand where they are, what they need to improve, and exactly what they should work on next.
How he coaches
Four things Chris says to almost every family he works with. They are the reason the site is built the way it is.
-
One hour a week is not the work
One hour out of the whole week is just not enough.
A lesson is where the instruction happens. Development happens in the six days after it. Everything LevelX offers exists to fill those six days, which is why the membership matters more than the calendar.
-
Reps are not instruction
That is reps, not instruction.
Ten players in line for ground balls and ten pitches of batting practice is a busy two hours that changes very little. A catch with dad in the backyard, or a tee and a net out front, moves a player further.
-
Daily beats expensive
I did not know what he had been doing, but whatever it was, keep doing it.
An eight year old came in once, disappeared for two weeks and came back a different player. He had asked to hit for five or ten minutes every day after school. Chris tells that story knowing it argues against his own lesson schedule.
-
Frustration is part of it
It frustrates players at first. That is the point, and it is where the results come from.
The drills that fix a swing feel worse before they feel better. Chris says so up front so a parent is not surprised when their player comes home annoyed after a good session.
The LevelX Development System
Six stages. Every player is somewhere on them, and every part of LevelX is built to move a player from one to the next rather than to sell another hour.
- 1 Assess Find out what is actually happening in the swing, not what it looks like.
- 2 Plan Decide what to work on, in what order, and what to leave alone for now.
- 3 Train The reps. Most of them happen without a coach in the room.
- 4 Review Check whether the thing you changed is holding up under pressure.
- 5 Support Somewhere to ask when it stops working, without waiting a week.
- 6 Apply Take it into a real game, where it counts and nobody is feeding you.
How families work with him
The online training community built to help youth players improve faster, build confidence, and actually enjoy getting better.
That line is Chris's, from the LevelX community itself.
-
The video library
Free. Chris answering the questions parents actually ask, with the drill attached.
-
Swing analysis
Send a video, get his read on it. One player, one swing, in writing.
-
Personalized coaching
One-on-one work with a plan behind it, not an hour of generic reps.
-
Membership
The part that covers the other six days. Course, library, community and support.
Where he is
In person lessons take place in Monmouth and Ocean Counties, New Jersey. Remote and hybrid sessions are offered as well.
Everything else, the video work, the community and the swing feedback, is online and open to families anywhere.
Start with a conversation.
Thirty minutes, no charge, no pitch. Tell him where your player is and he will tell you honestly what he thinks would help.
Book a call with ChrisRather write than talk? Send Chris a message