If you have ever coached or played baseball, you MUST put the Little League World Series (LLWS) on your bucket list (the list of things to do before you kick the bucket).

Just returning from the 2010 LLWS, this post can’t begin to capture the fun and drama that takes place every August (since 1939) in Williamsport Pennsylvania.  Quite simply, you have to be there.  It’s the purest sporting event in the world.

For starters, it’s a contest of 12 and 13 year-olds.  They range in height from four feet to six.  From 62 to 185 pounds.  They hail from every part of the globe.  They are confident and accomplished.  They pay their own way to be there and play strictly for the fun and for the title of World Champions.  They are all heart and leave theirs on the field every game.  The baseball they play is second to none.

Take note Major League Baseball – it’s a World Series that invites the world.  Over 80 countries compete and filter into the 8 slots that challenge the USA boys of summer.  The international play creates an importance that MLB wishes they had.

On the first night of play, and down to their last out, Japan homered to beat Mexico.  It was one of the most exciting baseball games I’ve ever watched.  Ginga Maruoka, who hit the three run shot with two outs in they the sixth inning, cried in the dugout when they handed him the home run ball.   I’ve never seen Jeter do that.

What stands out most about the LLWS is that it’s a celebration of the talents and accomplishments of these kids.  It’s magnified by the hot and dusty regional tournament games that came before; of the teams that didn’t make it.  The pedestal and the stakes are high for those who advance.  To see kids step up and deliver on that stage (and man do they), is chicken soup for the sports soul.

I saw an eight year old get a baseball autographed by a twelve year old Hawaii player.  I don’t know which boy was happier.

If you’ve ever believed in sports, coached youth baseball or been twelve years old, you owe yourself a pilgrimage to Williamsport.

I’ll delete this post when Nike comes calling to be title sponsor of PowerChalk.  I’ll delete it and pretend that cleats with a swoosh on them make you a better ball player.

I might even start selling sugar water if PowerAde comes calling.  But in the meantime, it’s clear to me that the best investment you can make in your aspiring athlete’s career is video analysis.

As the founder of PowerChalk, it’s a self serving statement but as I wander the aisles in Dick’s Sporting Goods, I’m amazed at all the junk.  Short little bats to teach an inside swing, reaction balls with Jeter’s face that teach you – I’m not sure – how to play a bad hop?

It’s junk.  I know because I’ve got a closet full of such golf gadgets.  They make great infomercials but none of them have helped my game.  The first time my game took a meaningful and positive turn was when I had a pro analyze my swing on video.

Being an engineer, I needed to see it, measure it and compare it to a standard.  I’d been playing under instruction for months but didn’t take all of the medicine my pro was trying to give me on the practice tee until I saw my swing under the lines of an ideal swing plane.  It’s the first time I really got it.

The Flick, Nicklaus and McClean tapes didn’t work.  I honestly thought I was swinging like the pros.  I needed to see my swing – not theirs.

So yes, PowerChalk is better than a new pro stock glove, a $500 bat, Nike cleats or Under Armor sleeves.  None of those make you a better ball player.  PowerChalk does.