ATL baseball is a program committed to providing an environment of baseball excellence. The program focuses on the development in all aspects of the game. Our goals are to create players who love, appreciate and are committed to the game of baseball:

Developing a program where our youth can learn life lessons and athletic skills through sports by emphasizing character building, sportsmanship, teamwork, and creating a healthy competitive environment.

Giving each player and family the best experience possible by offering elite coaching, developmental tools and helping each player reach their true potential.

Creating teams that compete at the highest level, but never sacrifice the development of the players.

Helping kids prepare athletically, academically and socially for high school and college baseball.

Giving kids an opportunity to compete in multiple sports through their middle/high school years. The cross-training benefits has scientifically been proven to provide young athletes several benefits :

1. Athletes involved in multiple sports tend to have longer sports careers and tend to continue to participate in athletics longer. 
2. Multiple sports athletes provide for more positive youth development.
3. Multiple sport athletes have a more enjoyable participation in sports and less burnout.
4. Multiple sport athletes have better motor and cognitive skills that will enhance their main sport later in their life.

Expectations for playing with the ATL Lightning:

ATL believes learning to practice, playing the game the right way, working as a team, competing with other high caliber players, training properly, and to deal with failures on the field are more important objectives than winning at all costs. Our goal is to develop the complete baseball player on and off the field.

ATL encourages players to play multiple sports. Our fall program is setup in a manner that allows players to participate in other sports and still compete for ATL.

ATL believes that the entire roster should play and players should cross-train at multiple positions, especially for 13U-15U teams.

Players cannot play for another travel team while being a member of the ATL Lightning.

ATL Baseball is committed to selecting players for the entire year and we expect our players to do the same.  With the exception of injury or other extenuating circumstances, we do not replace our players midseason with other players.

As an organization, we expect the coaches to do the coaching and the parents to parent in supportive and positive ways. We expect our coaches, players and parents to conduct themselves positively and represent the ATL family with class

ATL believes that training and practice time are key to the development of each player. It is as or more important as games.


ATL Travel Season

Fall Season 

Late August – Early November

ATL Skill Sessions 13U & 14U – Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

·         Each night will focus on a different set of skills: Offense, defense, and arm development/pitching. 

·         Two nights will also include a conditioning, and/or speed/agility routine.

·         The skill will rotate the day of the week each week.

·         Players can attend as many or little sessions as they want.

·         Times/locations will be split up by age groups depending on the size of the session.

Team practices will be held on weekends.

15U-18U will have 2-4 practices a week midweek and weekends. 

Each team will participate in fall tournaments (approximately 4-6 weekends), depending on age group.

Winter Programs

ATL will offers several winter programs to enhance the development of ATL players.

ATL Arm Development Program – 16 sessions over 8 weeks starting around Thanksgiving and running to early January (school tryouts). The purpose of the program is to develop arm strength and prepare the players for tryouts and the school season. Band work, flexibility, mobility and conditioning are also a part of the program.

ATL Hitting Program – 16 sessions over 8 weeks starting around Thanksgiving and running to early January (school tryouts). The purpose of the program will be to develop and refine the mechanics of the swing focusing on developing bat speed, quality of contact and pitch recognition. Technology such as Rapsodo and Blast Motion are used to measure and track the swing. 

ATL Catchers Program - 16 sessions over 8 weeks designed to build strong fundamentals at the most demanding position on the field.

All programs are add-on options with registration opening in the late fall.


Spring/Summer

ATL player expectations will not begin until after school ball is completed. Middle school roughly early April and high school early to middle of May.

Teams will practice 2-3 times a week in spring/summer. Ideally with two field practices a week and one cage day a week.

Tournaments will begin in late April/early May for younger ages, and late May for the older teams. Players should expect 8-10 tournaments in the summer and with 13U ending around July 4th and older groups going deeper into July.