Hitting Training For Baseball & Softball Swing Trainers | Hitting Performance Lab

Top 5 Short Inspirational Hitting A Baseball Quotes: Ted Williams, Derek Jeter, Giancarlo Stanton, Sadaharu Oh, & Jose Bautista

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Discover our top-5 list of short inspirational hitting a baseball quotes by Ted Williams, Derek Jeter, Giancarlo Stanton, Sadaharu Oh, and Jose Bautista.

5 Powerful Baseball Quotes From Top Hitters…

I often post inspirational baseball quotes from top MLB hitters on my Facebook fan-page. So I wanted to share my top five player quotes and photos that get the most engagement on Facebook…ENJOY!

 

Derek Jeter

Baseball Quotes: Derek Jeter

Photo courtesy: HighHeatStats.com

I read D.J.’s unauthorized biography The Captain: The Journey Of Derek Jeter, and baseball quotes like this of his sum up his whole career.

Even though Derek Jeter was the 6th overall pick by the Yankees in the 1992 draft, he made over 50 errors at Shortstop his first year in professional baseball!  The Yankees doubted him and talked about moving him to the outfield.  He improved on his fielding, and the rest is history.

Whether it was brutal contract negotiations with the Yankees, media scrutiny from one of the biggest cities in the world, “Stat-heads” saying he had no range to his glove side, or injuries, Derek Jeter found a way to beat the critics, his competition, and inevitably etch himself into the Hall of Fame.

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Giancarlo Stanton

Baseball Quotes: Giancarlo Stanton

Photo courtesy: SBNation.com

Fangraphs lists Giancarlo Stanton as a beast, 6-foot, 6-inches, 240-pounds!  And according to Wikepedia.com he was a three-sport athlete.  Before being drafted in 2007 by the Marlins, he was offered a baseball scholarship at USC, and offers to play football at UCLA and UNLV.

I love hearing this quote come from such a “big” guy.  I subscribe to the fact that Giancarlo Stanton was such a well-rounded athlete, and didn’t have access to year-round baseball that contributed to his success so far.

Unfortunately, a lot of Little League coaches and parents focus on just hitting the ball, instead of hitting the ball hard. These types of baseball quotes are great to put hitting into perspective.

 

Jose Bautista

Baseball Quotes: Jose Bautista

Photo courtesy: BirdDogRealty.net

One of the “smallest big hitters” in baseball.  FanGraphs.com lists him at 6-foot, 205-pounds.  But his Metrics make him look like Giancarlo Stanton!!!

These types of baseball quotes are based on mindset at the plate.  And after watching Jose Bautista swing, we can see he doesn’t get cheated…shocker, I know.  Consider this…

One of my hitting friends Bob Hall from Canada shared with me something he heard from a scout about having a plan at the plate…

You’re either a fisherman OR a hunter.  The fisherman waits for the fish to bite, while the hunter stalks his prey.  I tell my hitters to use both, depending on the pitcher’s accuracy and hitting situation, to their advantage.

 

Sadarharu Oh

Baseball Quotes: Sadaharu Oh

Photo courtesy: rnishi.Files.Wordpress.com

Sadaharu Oh, another small slugger, is listed at 5-foot, 10-inches, 173-pounds according to Baseball-Reference.com.  Why is this significant?

During Hank Aaron’s time, Sadaharu Oh played in Japan and was considered the Barry Bonds (career home-run leader) of Japanese baseball.  He blasted 868 dingers over the span of 22 seasons…and that’s almost 40 per year!

CLICK HERE for a post I did asking for my reader’s reaction on his mechanics.  Judging by these types of Sadaharu Oh baseball quotes, technique was his saving Grace.  It had to be, because he had to “do it right” to compete the way he did.

And sure, against today’s Major League pitchers, Sadaharu Oh probably wouldn’t hit as many homers, but man, how consistent his power was over 22 seasons.  I agree with one of my reader’s comments from the article link above, that if Oh played in America today, they’d have made him a slap hitter, much like they did Ichiro, because of his small physique.  Ichiro can hit the long ball, but not allowed.  Darn shame 🙁

And last but certainly not least…

 

Ted Williams

Baseball Photos: Ted Williams

Photo courtesy: ESPN.Go.com

I don’t think Ted Williams needs an introduction.  Looking at this picture, it seems to be around his magical .406-year, three years into the Big Leagues and weighing about 180-pounds, soaking wet, while standing at 6’3″!  He had the height, but definitely WAS NOT gifted with body mass.

In his biographies he often cited “inhaling” multiple malt shakes per day to put weight on his frame.  Too bad he didn’t have access to the information we have on that today!

In baseball quotes like this, Ted Williams talks like a man who struggled to do it right. “…you can’t make a hitter, but I think you can improve a hitter,” is not something Daryl Strawberry would say.  Failure is a huge part of hitting, way more than pitching.  We learn from our failures more than our successes.  Our hitters need to know from an early age that failure is okay.  As long as we use it as a tool to get better.  Progress is a process.

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15 At Home Strengthening, Stability, & Rehab Exercise Tips For Catcher's Knee Pain, Sever's Ligament Syndrome, & Osgood-Schlatter

15 At Home Strengthening, Stability, & Rehab Exercise Tips For Catcher’s Knee Pain, Sever’s Ligament Syndrome, & Osgood-Schlatter

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Discover 15 exercise tips you can use to strengthen, stabilize, and rehab knees for symptoms surrounding catcher’s crouch knee pain, Sever’s ligament syndrome and Osgood-Schlatter disease…

Osgood-Schlatter Disease Treatment:

 

 

Sever’s Disease Rehab Exercises:

 

15 Ways To Prevent Injury, Minimize Damage, & Rehab Knees

 

Fragile.  What a “dumb” joint.  I heard one of my 8th grade hitters, who took a break from lessons to play football, busted his knee requiring surgery, and would be out for 6-8 weeks.  Another one of my 7th grade hitters busted his knee playing soccer, requiring minor surgery.

And yet another hitter of mine, a Junior in High School, tweaked his knee playing basketball at school, and will be undergoing an X-Ray (which will probably turn up negative), followed by an MRI to be safe.

And btw, all these hitters are smart young men, who have performed above and beyond for their age in the batter’s box.  I frequently tell my hitters, you’re no good to your team sitting on the “shelf”, so take care of your body.

So, what’s the answer?

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.

Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.

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Now, we can’t pull out ye ol’ pocket crystal ball, reveal an injury before it happens, and avoid it.  But…we…can…prevent them!  We’ll get into what we can do in a moment…but first,

Studies show today’s young athletes are sitting 80% of their day.  Athletes are specializing in one sport earlier and earlier in life.  If you read my recent post on 4 Tips On How To Train Springy Fascia, then you’ll remember the first rule of Fight Club is…ahem…training fascia is, to vary training vectors (i.e. be varied in different movement planes of motion).  Healthy fascia HATES moving in the same way over and over again – like a 2yo, it gets bored easily!

On top of all that, observe the following reality about young female athletes from a New England Baptist Hospital post titled, “Why Do Female Athletes Suffer More ACL Injuries Than Males?”:

“High school female athletes in the United States suffer 20,000-80,000 ACL injuries per year. The issue isn’t only that female athletes are prone to these potentially season-ending injuries: the National Institutes of Health reports that female athletes are two to eight times more likely to suffer an ACL injury than their male counterparts.”

For young female athletes, factors that contribute to this increased risk are the differences in sports undertaken and in gender anatomy and structure (duh!).  The truth is, a wider lumbo-pelvic-hip complex puts the knees in a structurally compromised position.

For all athletes, the knee is considered a “dumb” joint, oftentimes stuck, or rendered unstable, between two immobile joints – the hip and ankle.  When the “bookends” are tight, stiff, and immobile, then the knee becomes unstable or “fragile”.

So, what can we do to prevent injury, minimize damage, or treat a knee injury?  I wanted to share a list of credible FREE resources parents and coaches can use to reference for knee speed bumps…

  1.  Overcome Knee Pain: Exercises and Solutions for Crunchy Knees (Gold Medal Body Fitness)
  2. Speedy Recovery? Ice Bath Benefits Not What They Seem (Hitting Performance Lab)
  3. 5 Simple Solutions For Anterior Knee Pain (Breaking Muscle)
  4. How To Do The Splits: Proven Hip and Leg Stretches for Splits (Gold Medal Body Fitness)
  5. Are You Weak In The Knees? (Breaking Muscle)
  6. Dr. Kelly Starrett from MobilityWOD is one of my favorite resources for troubleshooting injuries.  Click Here for a YouTube link to view the videos he’s done on dealing with knees.
  7. Identifying the What and Why of Valgus Collapse: Part 1: Identifying the What of Valgus Collapse (FunctionalMovement.com)
  8. CLICK HERE for a YouTube video of Charlie Weingroff demonstrating how to fix knee valgus using Reactive Neuromuscular Training (RNT).
  9. The Do’s and Don’ts of Training Squats (CharlesPoliquin.com)
  10. Building Your Arsenal: 5 Exercises for Bulletproof Knees (GymnasticBodies.com)
  11. How to build Super Knees (Forum Topic at GymnasticBodies.com)
  12. Have a favorite training website with an overwhelming amount of info on it?  Here’s a trick to filter information for what you’re looking for…go to Google, type the following into search engine: “site:<<insert actual website w/out www. here>> + keyword…for example “site:gymnasticbodies.com knees”
  13. PAY-FOR Local in-a-town-near-you Programs: Yoga and Pilates
  14. PAY-FOR Online Program #1: https://gmb.io/ff/#choose (I have no affiliation with this program)
  15. PAY-FOR Online Program #2: https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/gb-courses/stretch-series/#titleBar

If your athletes move better, then they’ll perform better.  The knee is considered a “dumb” joint, so make knees SMART (aka “antifragile”) again!

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Hitting Training For Baseball & Softball Swing Trainers | Hitting Performance Lab

Delayed vs Instant Gratification Psychology, Exercises, Examples, & Why Important? | Are Video Games Better For Child Development Than Sports? | Marshmallow Experiment: How To Stop & Overcome “Right Now” Mentality

ANSWERED: Why is the debate about delayed vs instant gratification important to youth sports?  Learn the psychology, exercises, and examples.  Are video games better for child development than sports?  Explore the Marshmallow Experiment and learn how to stop and overcome the “right now” mentality.

The Ugly Truth About Video Gaming, What It Means To The Youth Hitting Industry, & How To Fix…

 

 

Literally taken by surprise, I was SHOCKED to learn…

…how many of my hitters – mostly male – are obsessed with Fortnite.  No, “Fortnite” isn’t an old English term used to describe a unit of time equal to 14 days (2 weeks).  That’s “fortnight”.  I’m talking about “Fortnite”, the video game that beautiful young ladies around the country are taking steps to do the following…

For those who don’t know, what’s the “thing” with Fornite?  According to Wikipedia:

“Fortnite is a co-op sandbox survival game…Fortnite is set in contemporary Earth, where the sudden appearance of a worldwide storm causes 98% of the world’s population to disappear, and zombie-like creatures rise to attack the remainder.”

When I survey all my hitters about how long they play Fortnite in a day, I get answers all over the board, from zero to 6-8 hours in a day (on their day off).  Dang!  On average, it seems 1-2 hours is “normal” daily play time.  My sample size includes age 8 all the way up to Junior High and High School athletes (about a 50/50 age mix)!

Why should a coach care? 

Because of behavioral conditioning: delayed versus instant gratification.

As you may have noticed, video games have changed since we were younger.  They’re more sophisticated.  More sticky.  More addictive.  And studies show, have a similar effect on the brain as Methamphetamine.  During video game play, the brain is quickly and consistently being showered (rewarded) by the feel good chemical dopamine.

Don’t believe me?  Check out the book by Nir Eyal and Ryan Hoover titled, “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products“.  Can you see where I’m going with this?

The challenge to coaches and parents is video gaming will eventually take over physical sports, if we aren’t proactive.  WHY?  Compared to what the video gaming experience can offer youth athletes, learning a new physical motor skill can take too dang long!!  Don’t worry, I’m not calling for a ban of Fortnite…my hitters would KILL ME!  Just a little strategic behavioral conditioning.  Delayed gratification is the answer, and rest assured, it can be learned and trained.  We’ll get into how to do that soon.  But first, let’s learn about marshmallows…

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.

Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.

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The Marshmallow Study

If you haven’t already, check out the above video reenactment of the 1960’s Stanford Marshmallow Study.  It’s cute to watch the internal struggle, alone in a room, of a 4 or 5 year old leaving a single soft squishy off-white sugar explosion in your mouth marshmallow, in anticipation of a second one, if they can wait 15-mins.

The interesting thing wasn’t so much the physical study, but the effect after the study.  Over the course of 40-years after the original study.  They tracked the kids from school to their work lives, and as it relates to delayed versus instant gratification, how things turned out for them was fascinating.

What brought the idea of delayed versus instant gratification to my attention was a fantastic book by my friend Bryan Eisenberg titled, “Be Like Amazon: Even A Lemonade Stand Can Do It“.  In the book, Bryan references the Marshmallow Study and connects the dots to great business people being experts in delayed gratification (Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as an example).

Furthermore…

CLICK HERE for a great article by James Clear about the Marshmallow Study, and developing the fine art of delayed gratification.  You can read the article.  Links to many of the original studies are in his post.  I’ll just pick out the interesting points for our purposes.  First, here are the benefits found in kids with better delayed gratification skills:

“The children who were willing to delay gratification and waited to receive the second marshmallow ended up having higher SAT scores, lower levels of substance abuse, lower likelihood of obesity, better responses to stress, better social skills as reported by their parents, and generally better scores in a range of other life measures.”

This is pretty cool, but there was a slightly modified version of the Marshmallow Study at the University of Rochester.  And I think it provides more insight for us coaches…

“Before offering the child the marshmallow, the researchers split the children into two groups.

The first group was exposed to a series of unreliable experiences. For example, the researcher gave the child a small box of crayons and promised to bring a bigger one, but never did. Then the researcher gave the child a small sticker and promised to bring a better selection of stickers, but never did.

Meanwhile, the second group had very reliable experiences. They were promised better crayons and got them. They were told about the better stickers and then they received them.”

…The children in the unreliable group had no reason to trust that the researchers would bring a second marshmallow and thus they didn’t wait very long to eat the first one.

Meanwhile, the children in the second group were training their brains to see delayed gratification as a positive. Every time the researcher made a promise and then delivered on it, the child’s brain registered two things: 1) waiting for gratification is worth it and 2) I have the capability to wait. As a result, the second group waited an average of four times longer than the first group.”

 

Are we Born with Delayed v. Instant Gratification?

I know what you may be thinking, “Can delayed gratification be taught?”  Here’s the whopper conclusion…

“…the child’s ability to delay gratification and display self-control was not a predetermined trait, but rather was impacted by the experiences and environment that surrounded them. In fact, the effects of the environment were almost instantaneous. Just a few minutes of reliable or unreliable experiences were enough to push the actions of each child in one direction or another.”

Did you catch that? “…the child’s ability to delay gratification and display self-control WAS NOT A PREDETERMINED TRAIT…”.  Here’s the takeaway…

“…you can train yourself to become better simply by making a few small improvements. In the case of the children in the study, this meant being exposed to a reliable environment where the researcher promised something and then delivered it.

…We can train our ability to delay gratification…by promising something small and then delivering. Over and over again until your brain says, 1) yes, it’s worth it to wait and 2) yes, I have the capability to do this.”

James Clear offered these four steps:

  1. Start incredibly small. Make your new habit “so easy you can’t say no.”
  2. Improve one thing, by one percent. Do it again tomorrow.
  3. Use the “Seinfeld Strategy” to maintain consistency (focus on the process, not the performance).
  4. Find a way to get started in less than 2 minutes.

Instant gratification and Fortnite are the devil to youth sports participation!!!  Doesn’t mean we should ban video games.  But it does mean we coaches and parents MUST be more proactive with teaching solid delayed gratification principles.  Besides the 4-steps James Clear offered above, what does this look like with today’s young athletes?  Check out the following two posts titled,

The last thing I want to leave you with is this…

Whether you’re getting hitting information from me or someone else, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE teach human movement principles that are validated by REAL science, NOT because-I-said-so “bro-science”.  Opinions ARE NOT facts.  In this day and age of video gaming and the allure of instant gratification, there’s NO ROOM for hitting “opinion”.

 

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Youth Baseball Softball Batting Weight Donut (NOT Doughnut!) Benefit To Little League Swing

Youth Baseball Softball Batting Weight Donut (NOT Doughnut!) Benefit To Little League Swing? | Amazon, Easton, Power Wrap, & Varo Reviews

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Discover whether the baseball or softball batting weight donut (not to be confused with a doughnut!) is or IS NOT a benefit to the Little League swing?  Weighted donut Amazon reviews: Easton, Power Wrap, and Varo.

Using Batting Weight On-Deck May Dangerous To Bat & Ball Exit Speed?

 

 

This post may blow the minds of those that didn’t get the memo…

Chris Dozer, who’s father to one of my 10yo online lesson students, sent the following Wall Street Journal article titled: “Watching Your Weight Before Hitting Plate”.

You can read the article in full by clicking the previous link, but I wanted to include important bullet points from the article and Sports Science video above:

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

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  • “Studies conducted over several decades have concluded that the ritual popular among professionals and emulated by amateurs doesn’t increase bat speed.  It may actually slow it down…’the best is your own bat'”
  •  According to the Zepp app, average professional bat speeds range from 75 to 90-mph, average High School and College bat speeds range from 65 to 80-mph, and average youth bat speeds range from 40 to 70-mph.
  • PLEASE NOTE: there are other batting weight studies with small sample sizes (ranging from 7 to 60 players) comparing High School, College, and recreational hitters in laboratory settings (not LIVE batting practice).  Adrenaline or others batter’s routines could have influenced performance in these. Basically the variable wasn’t properly isolated…that being said, a study with 20 college baseball players found “their performance was statistically unchanged.”
  • Dr. DeRenne, found using a 28-ounce batting weight changed the balance point of the bat and slowed down bat speed.
  • In Sports Science video above, a college hitter in 2008 hit 10 machine pitched balls WITHOUT using a batting weight before, and had an average bat speed of 69-mph, and routinely connected with the sweet spot.  After using the batting weight, then taking another 10 swings off the same pitching machine, his average bat speed dropped to 68.3-mph, and on each swing he missed the bat’s sweet spot by several inches.
  • The above video talked about how because the hitter swings the bat at a slower pace using a batting weight, more red slow twitch endurance muscle fibers get recruited, thereby decreasing the amount of white fast twitch muscle fibers which fire two to three times faster.  Warming up with batting weight in on-deck circle is actually priming the wrong muscles before stepping in the box. 
  • The experience of a single batter can’t be generalized to others, but the results resembled other studies.
  • “People are always looking for an edge,” Dr. Szymanski said, “but just because a professional athlete does something doesn’t mean it’s good or helpful or right.”

 

The Bottom Line?

Now, a 0.7-mph drop in average bat speed doesn’t seem like a lot, but as you saw, it makes a BIG difference in barreling the ball.  As retired Physicist Dr. Alan Nathan says:

  • If ball hits bat 1-inch off sweet spot = then 1 to 2-mph DECREASE in Ball Exit Speed (that’s 4 to 8-feet less distance!)
  • If ball hits bat 2-inch off sweet spot = then 2 to 3-mph DECREASE in Ball Exit Speed (that’s 8 to 12-feet less distance!)
  • If ball hits bat 3-inch off sweet spot = then 3 to 4-mph DECREASE in Ball Exit Speed (that’s 12 to 16-feet less distance!)

So, not only are hitters losing bat speed using a batting weight on the on-deck circle, but by barreling up the ball LESS OFTEN, they’re losing batted ball distance as well.  Aside from swinging the hitter’s own bat, I’d say swinging a lighter bat – faster – would help the body recruit more of those white fast twitch muscle fibers before stepping in the box.

Your thoughts?

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Improve Turn Behind Vs Push Barrel MLB Level Bat Path Modern Swing For Baseball & Softball Hitting

Improve Turn Behind Vs Push Barrel MLB Hands Above Level Bat Path Modern Swing For Baseball & Softball Hitting | Drills To Fix & Get Rid Of Bat Drag

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Learn how to improve turn behind barrel vs push barrel MLB hands above level bat path in today’s modern swing for baseball and softball hitting.  Discover drills to fix and get rid of bat drag once and for all.

Accelerate Barrel Rearward Like Mike Trout?

 

 

There are a few “gurus” out there promoting a rearward barrel acceleration, which I agree with but ONLY on pitches middle away/down in the zone. Teaching young hitters the concept over the past few years, with no disregard for pitch depth, some of my most clean mechanical hitters were having challenges getting to the inside pitch.

Rearward barrel acceleration is good, but MUST not be a blanket teach for all pitch depths.  The best hitters, like Mike Trout, alter the timing of the barrel’s release off the back shoulder.  Here’s a similar post I went in more depth on this concept with many examples.

Softball Drills: Mike Trout Swing Case Study

Mike Trout swing case study: hitting the “catcher’s glove”. Photo courtesy: MLB.com

Enter the softball drills content of this video.  Here’s what I tried to do in the above Mike Trout swing case study:

  • Select Mike Trout home-run swings that were based off similar pitch type, location, and pitch speed,
  • Same game would assume same catcher and catcher’s position relative to the hitter,
  • Same camera view, and preferably the same camera zoom setting,
  • Comparing inner third of plate pitch location barrel path versus outer third, and
  • Same pitcher would help control timing variable.

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.

Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.

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This was A LOT to ask, so truth be told…unfortunately, not all these points are affirmed in this case study.  Let’s compare Mike Trout’s 200th and 201st career homers on September 29, 2017…

Pitch #1:

  • Gonzalez was the pitcher
  • 86-mph FB? outer third part of the plate, mid-thigh high
  • Homer to LCF

Pitch #2:

  • Vincent was the pitcher
  • 90-mph FB, inner third of the plate, mid-thigh high
  • Homer to LF

A softball drills note on Mike Trout’s “alligator arm” swing on Pitch #2:

  1. Okay if late on the inner half of the plate (purpose is to barrel up ball and that’s what Mike Trout is doing on pitch #2),
  2. NOT okay if doing off a tee, if on-time during soft-toss, or during dry swings (basically when timing is irrelevant or minimal), and
  3. CLICK HERE for a recent post on how to fix alligator arms, and how to practice what Mike Trout is doing with hitting the different “catcher’s gloves”.
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AnalysisofA RodHittingAnalysis:PerryHusband&JoeyMyers

Is Hitting Hard Line Drives Using Swinging Up Or Down Drills? Getting On Top Of Baseball Or Softball? | How To Stop Chopping Ground Balls & Square Ball Up!

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Is hitting more hard line drives all about using swinging up or down drills?  How about getting “on top” of the baseball or softball?  Discover how to stop chopping too many ground balls and square the ball up more in this conversation with Perry Husband of EffectiveVelocity.com.

 

Is “Swinging Down” Okay Since Alex Rodriguez Said So?

 

 

Before you watch the above video interview with Perry Husband, please watch the following 7-min video of Alex Rodriguez sticking-it-to-the-hitting-man lol (I promise you, it’s rather entertaining)…

 

 

Wow!  The Social hitting community had a blast with this video.  Coaches talking how:

  • Cool his blue pool (which turned purple periodically throughout the video), and green lush backyard were…
    Analysis of A-Rod Hitting Analysis: Perry Husband & Joey Myers

    Alex Rodriguez YouTube channel titled, “HOW TO HIT HOME RUNS | TIPS FOR THE BEST APPROACH AT THE PLATE”

  • He added some sweet after effects into his video…
  • He may have had a couple bottles of wine (not glasses) pre-shoot, probably at the cautioning of his gal-pal J-Lo…
  • And the elephant in the room, how he seemed disconnected describing the elite swing…

There was A LOT to unpack in A-Rod’s video…here’s what he covered in only 7-mins:

  1. Real v. Feel – How to get the ball up…Swing down to get the ball up…swing down for “line to line”
  2. How to be effective as a hitter (Launch Angles, Line to Line) – forget “Launch Angle”, “Line to line” (beat the shift)…Legs underneath you with leverage, knee down to the ground…Think with “Ferris Wheel” launch angle…Ferris Wheel & “blind spot”…can’t catch up to fastball up?
  3. Sabermetrics v. Experience – Top 4 of last 5 winning teams, #1 in contact, least in K’s…Sabermetrics v. Experience…”an out is an out”, “K’s are overrated”…”Made to measure” approach, contact is king.

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.

Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.

Right Course For You? Take Quiz Now

So now back to the video analysis Perry Husband and I did (tippy-top video) of A-Rod’s video analysis.  Here are some bullet points of what we cover:

  • Does hitting 100-mph ball exit speed mean you’re maxing out?  How do you know what your max is?
  • How applying tested human movement principles validated by REAL Science results in almost instant changes to key metrics,
  • Why hasn’t analytics given more value to Perry’s Effective Velocity?
  • Are there instances that “swinging down” is okay to teach hitters?
  • Why fastballs down, hit on the ground, reveal some of the highest ball exit speeds & why curveballs are some of the farthest hit balls…

As always, the following are quick reference points you can use to jump around in the supplemental analysis:

  • At about the 0:00 minute mark, talking about Alex Rodriguez explaining feel and “swinging down”, “squishing bugs”, and knee going to the ground, A-Rod said only way to lift is to “go down”
  • At about the 5-min, 30-sec mark, three major issues A-Rod brings up in the video: 1 ) Real v. Feel, 2) How to be effective as a hitter, & 3) Sabermetrics v. Experience, coaches go to one side or the other, A-Rod is right and wrong at the same time, lets get player (ahem, A-Rod) on tee and measure ball exit speed and launch angle – test it!  Let’s quantify and prove it or disprove it, early barrel dump works if pitchers aren’t elevating fastballs, very little on internet is testable, guys not liking ball exit speed and heavy ball tee swings for evaluation – Why not wanting a baseline?  Just because you’re hitting 100-mph exit velocity, is that your maximum?  How do you know without a baseline?
  • At about 14-min 30-sec mark, 3-dimensional hitting – verticals, horizontals, and timing or pitch velocity, where does power come from (according to A-Rod)? what do certain mechanics contribute to verticals, horizontals, power, or timing? Testing a hitter off the tee with regular ball, then heavy ball, then test it LIVE with ball, can see where hitter is deficient, out of 7-8 new kids (current hitters Perry is working with) have increased avg. 7 to 8-mph ball exit speed almost instantaneously, cleaning up mechanics aren’t like getting stronger and more coordinated, which takes more time,
  • At about 22-min 30 secs mark, Launch Angles are numbers without brains and coaches treat it like a character in a movie! Has Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton ever hit a ball at their max in a game?  “Ferris wheel” swing and the “blind spot”, what happens when the low fastball disappears, from TM’s perspective what is the “Ferris wheel” swing or is he using the WORST metaphor ever?! “Merry-Go-Round” versus “Ferris Wheel” swing, having a little bit of both depending on pitch height, depth, and timing, 150 locations within the strike zone – can you take same swing to each of those?
  • At about 30-min mark, Perry talks about his swing was in low-80’s in Ball Exit Speed when 100% purely rotational swing, but in the high 80’s low-90’s when releasing backside, there are consequences to mechanics you choose, are you afraid to test it? Perry is starting a club doing a bunch of different tests and demos on the mechanical side and effective velocity (show hitters what they’re missing), 18 of 19 Reds losses came on an EV inefficient pitch,
  • At about 35-min, 30-sec mark, what’s your hitting operating system? Best hitters in the world miss 80% of the time and hit it on the screws 20% of the time, is your hitting OS to reduce strikeouts above everything else? What are you giving up because of your primary hitting OS?  Looking away and adjusting in works IF pitchers keep throwing fastballs outside and/or down, and leaving off speed stuff up, what happens when Trout doesn’t see one fastball down?  Or one off speed or breaking pitch up?  Why hasn’t analytics given more value to Effective Velocity?  Because they don’t acknowledge measurement of timing,
  • At about 43-min mark, how can a pitcher be effective with Trout, he chooses to adjust to pitches not sit on them, he gives up a longer front arm on pitches up and in to get extended on down and away, how do you move away from the “adjustable” swing, 2015 Trout hit 6 bombs in the up/in box – made adjustment to pitchers changing, Trout almost has a recession-proof swing,
  • At about 50-min mark, if did study May of 2019 – fastball use top of strike zone would be up, couldn’t do 100% ferris wheel or 100% rotational, A-Rod is right and wrong at the same time, “swinging down” is okay for uppercut hitters, the brain is one step behind the brain, however in REAL swinging down on the ball DOES NOT make it go up consistently – center to center contact does (or slightly below center), gotta get hitters better at verticals, horizontals, and timing, can’t be 100% metrics OR 100% experience, “econ” hitting coaches? Linking Sabermetrics to the Scientific Process – asking question, form hypothesis, research subject, gather and compare data, then come to conclusion,
  • At about 57-min mark, Perry discusses how overrated backspin is and the importance A-Rod gave to it, why fastballs at bottom of zone have high exit velocities on the ground – from hitter’s perspective fastballs have backspin, struck grounders don’t change direction of pitcher’s spin…same with curveballs, Dr. Robert Adair in The Physics of Baseball said CB’s are hit the furthest – think about it, from hitter’s perspective CB’s have topspin, and when a hitter puts “backspin” on it, this doesn’t change direction of pitcher’s CB spin, so a pitcher should reverse that, locate fastballs up and curveballs down,
  • At the 1-hour, 2-min mark, Perry’s starting paid membership club at 65% OFF* (for limited time only) to get people started, daily Monday through Friday, demos, study of hitter or pitcher, at bat that stood out from EV standpoint, 15-20 min video that shows in personal locker, do for baseball and softball,
  • At HittingPerformanceLab.com FREE book just pay $11.95 S/H, TheStartingLineupStore.com use coupon code: GET10OFF at checkout
  • At about 1-hour, 6-min mark, I talk specifically how to lock the front arm out – direction-wise – to get ‘showing numbers’ and ‘hiding hands’ as well, killing three birds with one stone

*The regular price on that will be $299 for the year, but the first 100 will get 2/3 off or $99 for the year.  They get their own personal online locker where the videos will be delivered Mon through Friday.  15-20 minute videos that will feature pitching strategy on sequencing, pitch design, hitter profiles, pitcher profiles and breakdowns, at bat of the day with data and Ev breakdown.  In other words, the truth about what’s really going on within the game, timing breakdown. 

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Hitting Training For Baseball & Softball Swing Trainers | Hitting Performance Lab

Pro Batting Stance Weight Shift, Transfer, And Distribution On Back Foot For Baseball & Softball Swing Hitting Drills

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Discover pro batting stance weight shift, transfer, and distribution on the back foot for baseball and softball swing.  Learn how to see which stride hitting drills work and which do not.

How To Make Teaching Proper Weight Shift In Swing More Understandable To Hitter

 

 

Here’s the Hitting Jam Session Interview Collection with Perry Husband:

  1. Why You Should Not Teach Hitters To Hit Homers?
  2. What’s The Biggest Mistake Coaches Make In Boosting Ball Exit Speeds
  3. [YOU ARE HERE] How To Make Teaching Proper Weight Shift In Swing More Understandable To Hitter
  4. Teach: How To STOP Hitting Excess Of Ground-balls & Fly-balls
  5. 5,000 Swing Experiments Validate Locked Lead Arm Is Superior To Bent
  6. Overload Bat Training: Hitting Has To Work Butt Off To Resist “Casting”

Here’s what we discuss in this episode:

  • Answered: “Making teaching of proper weight shift in your swing and more understandable to the hitter?”Perry Husband & Joey Myers Hitting Jam Session #3
  • 1000’s of swing experiments confirm benefits of releasing backside: higher Ball Exit velocity, better ball flight, and swing consistency,
  • How to fix hitters that over stride,
  • Why ‘force plate’ studies DO NOT mean a darn thing, unless they correlate these two critical metrics,
  • And much more!

CLICK HERE for the full Facebook LIVE video and conversation.

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.

Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.

Right Course For You? Take Quiz Now

Show Notes

  • At about the 4-minute mark, what’s missing with current hitting philosophies and what is effective and what is not, filtering through the white noise, Science v. bro-science testing,
  • At about 6-minute mark, What’s #1 struggle with teaching hitting right now?  We answer reader question, “Making teaching of proper weight shift in your swing and more understandable to the hitter?” getting off the back foot, foul ball rate goes down significantly by releasing the back foot, increase in exit velocity when releasing the back foot, Perry’s 10,000 swing tests show these same things, take bat out of hand and try similar movements – i.e. lightly playing catch will allow back foot to “push” and “turn”, forward momentum and rotation, anything you can do to get the backside to release is great to model what we want them to do swinging.
  • At about 10-minute mark, the challenge with teaching hitting mechanics, some players (Rachel Garcia was mentioned) easier to demonstrate then do, what kind of learner that player is (seeing, hearing, feeling), throwing motion (feel learner), video or demonstration (visual), “release-mechanism” that ‘clicks’ hitting aid would be cool for an audio learner.
  • At about 13-minute, 30-second mark, Jim Macarelli responded, “the difference with throwing though as you know is the weight ends up on the front foot.” Centrifugal (center fleeing) v. Centripetal (center seeking), imagine throwing uphill versus throwing downhill, will be harder to get off your backside throwing up hill, not over front side – up against it when hitting, not every player gets off their backside, don’t take our word for it – test it!! Exit velocity, ball flight, and consistency all get better releasing the back side.
  • At about 17-minute mark, sure BAD Science is out there, here’s the key with Science, with what you’re doing – can that end result or outcome be replicated a majority of the time?  Bryce Harper WaPo article addressing biomechanics of shifting weight into the ball, squishing bugs and backside hitting transfers only 75% of hitter’s bodyweight VERSUS releasing backside and transferring 150% of bodyweight into impact, Perry’s swing experiments found a 6-mph increase in Ball Exit Speed, bat speed during back foot skip releases much closer to impact whereas a backside weighted swing top out bat speed is sooner than impact,
  • At about 21-minute 30-second mark, dumping barrel right in front of catcher’s glove regardless of pitch depth is DANGEROUS for hitters career-wise, causes big loop in swing and hole up in the zone, Hank Aaron, Rod Carew, Roberto Clemente all released the back foot, Jim Macarelli asks “I think the challenge with teaching kids is we want them to stride and shift their weight forward, but we want them to FINISH with their weight back, not stay back throughout the swing… if that makes sense. Timing clearly effects the back foot. When of time the backside releases and when late, often not.” Hitters like Babe Ruth and Ted Williams released the back foot, then fell back onto back foot during finish, release first, then fall back,
  • At about 25-minute mark, how do we control our hitters from over-striding, belly button is our center of mass, axis of rotation during front and back flips, using variance to teach hitters not to over-stride: stride with belly button finishing over front knee at landing, then stride and land with belly button behind back knee, then stride keeping belly button in the center of legs, then stride keeping belly button behind front knee, then lastly stride keeping the belly button inside the back knee, all about locomotion, Tai Chi and shifting bodyweight, to do a lunge to the right – I have to shift my weight left to move to the right (and opposite for the opposite direction), Perry talks about the Reebok core board (feedback tool), experimenting with weight shift – downhill versus uphill, using Power Up Wedge
  • At about 31-minute 30-second mark, Nassim Talib’s book Antifragile – the majority of invention and innovation in history stems from tinker and testing NOT research and study, aspirin, penicillin as examples, Mike Ryan from Fastball USA has some great variance or chaos training stuff, David Weck and his Bosu Ball, striding uphill/downhill, try different things, tinker test, 3-D Hitting, Perry going to do stuff with University of Oregon softball, WARNING with some of these “force plate” tests: if it doesn’t include ball flight and exit velocity we don’t want to talk about it, how can we make any kind of conclusion from the data without that? Is happening off tee or LIVE pitching, releasing or spinning on backside, MYTH: the more ground force created is better, how does that translate to ball exit speed and ball flight?
  • At about 38-minute, 30-second mark, how to do these swing experiments, changing one swing variable at a time, then re-test, can take ANY hitter do a control round, change, and re-test to see how the change affected the control swings, Frosh softball High School player did over/under load training ONLY in a 6-week span, after re-testing went from 55-mph BES (control) to 62-mph, whoever you follow hitting guru-wise, get control swings, make the change, re-test, and see how BES and ball flight changed – for better or worse, what’s your main objective teaching hitters – high hard contact rate? Decrease strikeouts?
  • At about 44-minute mark, Perry talks about how effective or ineffective were the 2-strike adjustments Joey Votto made, CLICK HERE for Perry’s analysis article on this, in 2-strike counts: balls fouled back, swung and missed, etc. were balls he could have done damage with, can elite hitters foul balls off on purpose, Votto wasted so many good pitches with a less aggressive approach with 2-strikes, when Perry worked with Carlos Pena in 2009: K’s went down 25%, BA went up 25%, 2-strike BA went from .185 to .240, tripled his output with 2-strikes, Votto approach didn’t make much sense – he may have cut down on his K’s but his production went way down compared to before the change, reactionary hitting will die with EV efficient pitching, Joey Votto FanGraphs article, “Joey Votto Has Just Simply Stopped Striking Out”
  • At about 52-minute mark, discuss how poorly hitters will do when pitchers get more EV efficient, CLICK HERE for a video Perry did analyzing Chris Davis (of the Orioles), perfect example of a hitter gearing his swing to about a stubborn 6-mph EV zone regardless of pitch type, location, or speed, all 50-something of the homeruns he hit pitchers ran the ball right into his bat, when target rich environment goes away (pitchers throwing balls into barrel), it’s going to be a cold dark day in hitting, adjust or die, Carlos Pena’s chase rate went down 18% in 2009, changing the physical can take time (Perry suggests 3-4 months for more entrenched habits) – my research suggests 66-days to change a habit.
  • Find Perry Husband at HittingIsAGuess.com, use EV25 coupon code at checkout for online video courses.  If coupon code doesn’t work, then contact Perry and he’ll reset for you.
  • My offer…FREE Catapult Loading System 2nd edition print book – just pay $8.95 shipping and handling (retails on Amazon for $19.97) – in addition you’ll get our essential consistent power online video mini-course Power Hitter 2.0: Engineering The Alpha: https://www.truthaboutexplosiverotationalpower.com/pl/60039
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Hitting Training For Baseball & Softball Swing Trainers | Hitting Performance Lab

Importance Of Diaphragmatic Breathing Techniques On Sports Performance And Psychology For Baseball & Softball Athletes | STOP Anxiety, Famous Athletes Who Do It, & 4-7-8 Study

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Discover importance of diaphragmatic breathing techniques on sports performance and psychology for baseball and softball athletes.  Learn how to STOP anxiety, famous athletes who use breathing techniques and the 4-7-8 breathing study.

Breathing Technique For Hitting: Why Hitters Shouldn’t Breath Like “Normal”

 

 

Before we get to the breathing technique for hitting a baseball (same for softball), consider breathing is one of the most commonly dysfunctional movement patterns today.  In other words, nowadays “normal” breathing IS dysfunctional!

Breathing Technique For Hitting A Baseball

Photo courtesy: MobilityWOD.com YouTube video

Why?  Here are a few reasons off the top of my head – you could probably think of others:

  • High levels of stress hormone cortisol throughout the day because of constant bombardment of mind numbing hamster-constantly-on-the-wheel technology (phones, video games, etc.),
  • Overuse training – doubling training efforts without doubling recovery efforts (dangerously over scheduled youth athletes), and
  • Injuries to certain areas of the body, playing a one-sided dominant sport (i.e. baseball and softball), and imbalanced training (without proper flushing of waste by the lymphatic system), can build a shorter breathing pattern, which can cause a constant drip-drip-drip of the fight or flight response throughout the day.

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.

Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.

Right Course For You? Take Quiz Now

One of my hitter’s dad asked me what physical training I recommend outside of a busy baseball and football schedule, and I said either Yoga or Pilates.  I HIGHLY disagree with most hitting coaches putting ORGASMIC emphasis on explosive, Olympic, Cross-fit, or whatever else type of performance training out there.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s a time and place for physical training geared for performance, but corrective maintenance training SHOULD precede performance – if we want healthy moving athletes.  If you put fresh 80,000 mile tires on a Lamborghini with a misaligned front end, then you’ll be lucky to get half the miles out of the tires!  Also, the tires won’t be your only problem.

Let’s connect what an effective breathing technique for hitting a baseball means to hitters…

World renowned strength and conditioning coach Brett Jones says this about “anatomical” versus “biomechanical” breathing in a post titled, “How Your Breathing Relates to Your Movement”:

“Anatomical breathing match refers to the natural matching of the inhalation and exhalation with extension and flexion of the spine/body. Extension facilitates inhalation and flexion facilitates exhalation. As the body gets compressed (flexion) exhalation dissipates the pressure and extension assists in opening the thoracic area to assist in inhalation. In addition, anatomical breathing can be used in stretching where the exhale is used to enhance the relaxation into a stretch.

Whereas, in the biomechanical breathing match we flip those actions. Inhaling to increase the intra-abdominal pressure during flexion and exhaling to improve muscular action and stability during extension. Biomechanical breathing match is key to being able to handle loads through the body during performance. During a dead-lift, kettle-bell swing or a kettle-bell military press the biomechanical breathing match allows us to amp up our strength and stability.”

The video above demonstrates this biomechanical breathing technique for hitting a baseball.  I’ve had quite a few of you ask about this, so here you go!  The description says the above YouTube video is about…

“Identifying and correcting low back extension loading issues through the correct sequence of breathing. If we can get our athletes to breath better across all movements and under load, performance will improve.”

Dr. Mark Cheng, one of my many favorite strength and conditioning coaches, says:

“When you truly own a movement pattern, strain isn’t part of the picture.”

There are a couple other resources I’d be estupido not to mention that plays right into improving breathing technique for hitting a baseball:

The above video is only 3-min and 41-secs, so there won’t be any breathing technique for hitting a baseball notes.  I’d love to hear your thoughts in the REPLY section below this post…

Move better, perform better.  Enjoy!

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Online Baseball Softball Best Software Coaching Apps

Quality At Bats Pitch Analyzer Hitting Approach High School Software Coaching App For Baseball & Softball Swing | Practice Plan & Charts For iPhone

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Discover the best quality at bats pitch analyzer hitting approach software coaching app for high school baseball and softball swing.  Learn a better practice plan process and get charts for the iPhone.

Online Baseball Softball Best Software Coaching Apps & Tips Interview with Coach Zach Casto

 

 

Here’s what we go over in this online baseball softball best software coaching apps and tips interview with Coach Zach Casto episode:

  • “…hitting approach, something we’ve really used this fall to help assess our hitters and swing decisions
  • What would you suggest, to say a little league coach, if you were to pick one of those [Blast, Hitting Approach, Quality At-bats,etc], what would you say would be the best for 12U?
  • “…you manually put in where the pitch crossed the strike zone, and it’s almost like having a spray chart, but just digitally and the cool aspect of it, from what I’ve gathered, what I’ve seen, is that it creates a heat map.”
  • You mentioned competitions in the outfield. Take me through that. What does that look like?
  • The four-seam spin, just by putting a thin piece of athletic tape on the four-seam, in the middle. Talk a little bit about that…
  • One of the other drills that you mentioned you didn’t go into it too deep, but I’d like you to here, from Sammy’s podcast, was a bucket drill. I think it had to do with the fly balls at the peak…
  • What do you see as being the top two things when it comes to organizational practice at the high school level that maybe is missing?
  • Where we can find you, give us a talk about your book Rounding Third and where people can buy it?

CLICK HERE to download the PDF transcription of our online baseball softball best software coaching apps interview together.  You can also grab Coach Casto’s book Rounding Third here and find him on Twitter here.

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.

Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.

Right Course For You? Take Quiz Now
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Hitting Training For Baseball & Softball Swing Trainers | Hitting Performance Lab

Fun Youth Baseball Softball Hitting Practice Plan Station Drills For 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 Year Olds, & High School

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Learn fun youth baseball and softball hitting practice plan station drills for 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 year olds, & High School.

13 Tips On How To Build A Productive Hitting Practice

 

My 6yo son Noah did this in his class. I love “I hit a line jrive.” So cute! 😍

I don’t have a lot of experience coaching teams like some do, but I do think I have a unique perspective on this…

Since 2013, I’ve been teaching human movement principles validated by REAL Science to local and online hitters.  Over the past 4+ years I’ve been running small private group hitting lessons ranging from 2 to 6 hitters per group, for 75-minutes.  And before that I did MANY 1-on-1’s.

And the last 5 years I’ve had the honor and pleasure of coaching my son’s teams (including all-stars) since 7u baseball.  t-ball, machine pitch, and the transition into kid pitch. This year I was asked to part time as head varsity hitting coach for a local High School.  I couldn’t do full time because I was head coach of my son’s little league team plus all my local and online lessons.

The first year I was an assistant coach in t-ball, in which I did this post titled: “T-Ball Drills: How To Coach Without Going Insane“…

I’ve learned a lot about how to put together a productive practice for hitting, fielding, and throwing.  Here are my notes – I hope they can help get you started in the right direction…

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.

Learn not only how and what to train but also the science behind the methods.

Right Course For You? Take Quiz Now
  1. First of all, what is one of the most important concepts to work on at practice?  Playing catch.  CLICK HERE for an interview with legendary Hall of Fame collegiate baseball Coach Bob Bennett, where he goes into depth on this progression-regression.
  2. What’s one of the best drills to learning how to play catch that costs ZERO dollars, and you don’t need a partner?  Check out this Tweet –

  3. To make the above throwing and catching drill better?  Put multiple targets (could be shapes) in different locations up and down, left and right, on the wall using frog tape.
  4. Three hitting focuses we used with 7u machine pitch: 1) Feel what swinging “up” feels like, 2) Feel what swinging “down” feels like, and 3) Swing across their face, not chasing their face.  The latter was because almost half the hitters were pulling their head.  Later we added the three plate timing drill to help them understand what “swing earlier” or “swing later” means (CLICK HERE for this post which showcases the 2-plate drill – you’d add one more plate).  This takes care of 2 of 3 hitting dimensions.  I talk about 3-dimensional hitting in this post.
  5. Main hitting flaws I see most often in youth hitters (based on one-on-one and group hitting lesson experience): barrel path verticals, horizontals, and timing (see 3-D hitting above), pulling head out (swing across face not chase face), stepping out (CLICK HERE for this post), fear of getting hit by the ball (CLICK HERE for this post).
  6. If working on one or two things, focus on those specific things while ignoring any other flaws that may crop up.  Get to 60-80% movement proficiency and execution on either soft toss or LIVE toss, before moving onto the next thing.  Make your focuses a constant drum beat.  Remember, the swing, or any other aspect of the baseball or softball game, is an elephant and you don’t want to eat it all at once!
  7. Before games, prime your hitters with that week’s focus, but during the game let them compete.  Things like Finger Pressure, swinging across their face, swing up or down, knock the shortstop or 2nd baseman’s hat off, are okay adjustments to make during games.  But internal cues like ‘showing numbers’, ‘dropping hands’, or ‘hiding hands from pitcher’ are not a good ideas to mention in games.
  8. To make swing adjustments, we used the concepts talked about in this video post titled: “Discover the ‘Paradoxical Intention’ Secret To Making Adjustments”.
  9. Our challenge for 7u was one practice per week for only one hour.  We did four stations (about 3 players per station): 1) Taking ground-balls while throwing and hitting multiple targets (we weaved frog tape in shape of a 1, 2, and 3 on the chain link), 2) 5 Tee swings with Hitting Jack-It weight on bat (high tee – hit it down, low tee – hit it up), 3) Ground-ball communication between corner and middle infielders, and 4) LIVE hitting on field with “soft” ball machine (to get used to machine pitch).
  10. If it’s just a productive hitting practice you’re looking for, then see how I run my small private group hitting sessions in this post titled: “How Do You Have Hitting Drills In A Small Time Window?”.
  11. Depending on age, don’t overdo practice.  I would force practice times into 60 to 90-mins up to age 12u.  90 to 120-mins 7th and 8th grade. 2 to 2.5-hours max in High School.  And I would say no more than 3 hours in college – weights would be extra.  Force yourself to pick THE most essential things to work on.  Long practices at youth level scream coach doesn’t know what they’re doing, and that not using time wisely.  Most likely A LOT of standing around is the culprit.  CLICK HERE this post for a refresher on what most “essential” means.
  12. The Science Of Sticky Coaching: How To Turn Ordinary Athletes Into Extraordinary book is great for winning coaching principles as a whole.
  13. One of the best bang for your buck hitting drills EVERY coach MUST have in their hitting stations is overload training.  CLICK HERE for an interview post I did with the father of over/under load training applied to baseball and softball hitters.

Any coaches have any other advice on how to put together a productive practice for hitters I didn’t mention?  Please share in the comments below… (Thank you in advance!!)

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