Discover how to teach a kid to hit for power by hitting a baseball, fast pitch, and slow pitch softball better, farther, and harder with the Catapult Loading System.
Why I Teach Hitters To ‘Show Numbers’ (And Maybe You Should Too)
Question: How does ‘Showing Numbers’ to the Pitcher Effect Bat Speed at Impact versus ‘NOT Showing’ them?
Aaron Judge (Showing Numbers), unloads a solo home run to center field on 10/17/17 to put the Yankees on the board in the 7th inning.
Using the Zepp (Labs) Baseball app, I wanted to use the Scientific Method to analyze if a hitter showing their numbers to the pitcher at landing adds to or takes away from keyswing performance metrics like Bat Speed at Impact, Time To Impact, and Attack Angle. This swing experiment is revisiting two other experiments done analyzing the same thing.
Background Research
Since we’re REVISITING two previous swing experiments on ‘Showing Numbers’ versus NOT, here are the original posts and data to get you up to speed:
Now, let’s see how the Ball Exit Speed averages compare:
76.02-mph BES when ‘NOT Showing Numbers’,
77.32-mph BES when ‘Showing Numbers’,
That’s a 1.3-mph average INCREASE when ‘Showing Numbers’, and
Translates between 5.2-feet to 7.8-feet of EXTRA batted ball distance – depending on if you calculate using 1-mph BES = 4-feet of distance OR 1-mph BES = 6-feet of distance.
In this experiment, if you look at the ‘NOT Showing Numbers’ swings, they were actually ‘Showing Numbers’. In other words, the subject in the swing experiment, Preston Scott, already shows his numbers well causing a challenge to not show them. Therefore on the ‘Showing Numbers’ swings, he showed them more. I think that’s why we didn’t see as much of a difference in Ball Exit Speeds.
In 2014 ‘Show Numbers’ swing experiment, this was what the averaged out Zepp data looked like:
Bat speed for NOT showing numbers at landing: 73-mph,
Bat speed for showing numbers at landing: 79-mph (+6-mph),
Highest bat speed for NOT showing numbers at landing: 82-mph,
Highest bat speed for showing numbers at landing: 88-mph (+6-mph),
Hand speed max for NOT showing numbers was: 27-mph, and
Hand speed max for showing numbers was: 29-mph (+2-mph).
Between both swing experiments, we saw an average Bat Speed at Impact increase between 5 to 6-mph. In 2016 we saw a .003 second drop in Time To Impact ‘Showing Numbers’, while in 2014 we saw a .003 increase.
The research on increasing bat or ball exit speed can be seen in the following two books on springy fascia and spinal engine mechanics:
For those versed in Anatomy, for explosive movement on the Transverse Plane (twisting), there must be a protraction of the front scapula (‘showing numbers’), and a retraction of the back Scapula (what’s often referred to as ‘Scap Row’). Scap Rowing by itself doesn’t engage full range of springy fascia.
Hypothesis
Based on the above research, I’m expecting to see a dramatic bump in Bat Speed at Impact, Hand Speed Max, and possibly a reduction in Time To Impact. I think Attack Angle and Bat Vertical Angle at Impact will remain unchanged.
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This is the SwingAway Bryce Harper model hitting station used for the ‘Showing Numbers’ experiment.
Zepp Baseball app (to measure Bat Speed, Hand Speed, Time to Impact, & Attack Angle),
SwingAway Bryce Harper model hitting station,
GS6 android phone to record swings, and
33 inch bamboo bat.
Setup:
SwingAway Bryce Harper bungy suspended ball was set equal to the landing foot, and ball height was about knee height.
I broke each swing down into three steps: 1) Get to landing, 2) Pause for 2-secs, and 3) Swing. The reason for this was to better control whether I was showing numbers or not.
The two tests in the swing experiment were counter-balanced. Which consisted of eight blocks of 25-swings done in the following order ABBA BAAB. ‘Showing Numbers’ was letter ‘A’, and ‘NOT Showing Numbers’ was letter ‘B’. 200 total swings were completed in the experiment, 100 per test. Counter-balancing helps remove the “getting tired” and “warm up” factors.
The ‘Showing Numbers’ swing shoulders were set to about 2’o’clock, if pitcher is 12’o’clock. The ‘NOT Showing Numbers’ swing shoulders were set to about 12’o’clock.
Data Collected from Zepp Baseball App:
Data Analysis & Conclusion
Zepp data analysis comparing the averages:
Bat Speed at ImpactINCREASE of 3-mph ‘Showing Numbers’,
Hand Speed Max DECREASE of 1-mph ‘Showing Numbers’,
Time To Impact INCREASE of 0.014 ‘Showing Numbers’,
Bat Vertical Angle At Impact DECREASE of 4-degree ‘Showing Numbers’, and
Attack Angle INCREASE of 6-degrees ‘Showing Numbers’.
The drop from previous ‘Showing Numbers’ swing experiments was surprising, in addition to a small 1-mph drop in Hand Speed Max. There was also a slight increase in Time To Impact. The interesting numbers were the ones that indicate Launch Angles, both Bat Vertical Angle at Impact and Attack Angle. We hadn’t experienced such a dramatic uptick in those in past experiments.
A couple notes…
The past two experiments were done in a cage, off a tee, so I could see ball flight, and maybe that had an effect on the swing metrics.
Some hitting coaches speak highly of Time To Impact and want to reduce at all cost, but I disagree. There’s a healthy range for that, you don’t want it too short or too long. I’m not going to get into why here, maybe in another post.
To explain the dramatic increase of the barrel’s upward trajectory in ‘Showing Numbers’, I may have been getting more of a downward shoulder angle at landing.
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/aaron-judge-showing-numbers.jpg295700Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-10-20 09:00:262023-09-16 05:29:03Teach Kid To Hit For Power By Hitting Baseball Or Softball Better, Farther, & Harder With Catapult Loading System
Discover baseball and softball athletes can sprint short distance and run the bases faster in a week with David Weck’s ‘head over foot’ technique and ‘pulsers’. Learn how to do rotational core, speed, and power body-weight exercises and drills at home.
The Biggest Lie In Teaching Hitters How To Run Faster & Move Better
The purpose of this post:
How to make hitters faster, and
How to apply David Weck’s “Head Over Foot” technique and “Pulsers” to hitters?
Most sprint coaches will teach athletes to get faster by using a “braced core” (instead of a Coiling Core), and “hip to lip” arm action. This is DEAD WRONG, and one of the biggest lies in teaching athletes to run faster and move better. These coaches aren’t understanding the basics of human locomotion. Consider the following…
How to Make Hitters Faster
Here are a few notes from the video above:
To balance on one foot most effectively, we need head over “ground” foot. Try balancing on one foot bending spine and head far outside or inside ground foot. You can probably balance, but not as effectively as head over foot. Under the body’s “plum line”.
We want the forces transferring cleanly throughout body. When you don’t land balanced (head over foot), compensation is the end result. Back pain has been linked to head not being over foot.
Watch this Facebook video from David Weck looking at how the runner moves “head over foot”, and side bends while stealing second (You can also CLICK HERE to see an interview I did with David Weck here)…
Which brings me to how to train this. CLICK HERE for a Facebook video post where David Weck explains the how of his sprint “Pulsers”. And CLICK HERE to get the “ProPulse Speed Trainers” at The Starting Lineup Store.
How to Apply David Weck’s “Head Over Foot” Technique or “Pulsers” to Hitting
Do you consider yourself a think-outside-of-the-box type of person? Please sound off in the Comments below, on how you can apply this technique or Pulsers with your hitters (thanks in advance!!)…
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Sprint-Short-Distance-And-Run-Bases-Faster-In-A-Week-For-Baseball-Softball-Athletes-Rotational-Core-Speed-Power-Body-Weight-Exercises-Done-At-Home.jpg360480Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-10-18 09:45:232024-07-20 23:07:58Sprint Short Distance And Run Bases Faster In A Week For Baseball & Softball Athletes | Rotational Core, Speed, & Power Body-Weight Exercises Done At Home
Ryan Braun early on pitch-plane. Photo courtesy: JTA.org
I often get caught up in my own ways of doing things that I sometimes lose sight of better hitting tips others are using for the same outcomes. I’m not perfect. And I’ll readily admit that I don’t know all the answers. This my wife will surely echo 😉
But I do take pride in submitting and standing on the shoulders of giants. This quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson changed my life:
“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”
Think of methods as “the drills.” This post is for you hitting instructors or coaches who’re applying human movement principles, and successfully selecting your own methods. I want to pick your brain, and hear your thoughts below.
But first, here’s the gist of the hitting tips assignment…
SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:
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Ryan Braun staying long on the plane of the pitch. Photo courtesy: SportsWorldNews.com
I want to focus on efficiently increasing barrel time on the plane of the pitch using the Conservation of Angular Momentum. By the way, it doesn’t matter if you come from baseball or softball. So drawing from your teaching experience, what are your thoughts on the following (PLEASE leave your pearls of wisdom in the hitting tips comment section below):
Your go-to hitting drill for boosting barrel time on the pitch plane (pics or vids are welcome),
The best sticky coaching cue (or cues) that you use with young hitters, and/or
Any kind of underground (i.e. DIY) hitting aids that help with boosting barrel time on the pitch plane.
Keep in mind, inefficiencies such as arm barring, bat drag (racing back elbow), rolling over, and staying “attached” through the finish are issues you can address. After a week, I’m going to have my readers vote on the best approach, and we’ll announce a winner. Please share your thoughts in the “Leave a Reply” section below…
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/ryan-braun-pitch-plane-e1419284176917.png207600Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-10-18 09:30:182022-10-19 05:08:42Flat Swing Bat Path Trainer Drills To Square Up Baseball Or Softball & Hit More Line Drives Instead Of Swinging Under Fly Balls And Hitting Top Half Chopping Grounders
Learn Backspin Batting Tee placement tips on how high or tall to make the tee. Discover how to do drills off the tee to teach hitting power for the baseball and softball swing.
Backspin Tee: Batting Tee Location Setup
Answered: “I have a question about contact points for hitting inside/outside pitches. What’s your opinion on how you should set up your batting tee for working both of these locations?”
Here’s what we discuss in this Backspin Tee batting tee video above:
Hey. What’s going on? It’s Joey Myers from ‘Hitting performance lab’. In this batting tee video, we’re gonna answer another reader question:
“I have a question about contact points for hitting inside versus outside pitches. What’s your opinion on how you should set up your Tee for working both of these locations?”
This is a great question, and this is what I got in from email. I thought, I have gotten it quite a few times, it’d be nice to just put in a post, and that when people ask, I can just send that out to them instead of having to explain it.
So, here’s the general batting tee rule in setting up Tee for the pitch depth, whether it’s inside, middle, or away. Now, I know this requires some visuals. I will take a picture (image to the right), and during this video, I will put it up, so that you can see that image while I’m actually talking you through it. Because I realized that it would be kind of tough to do that in this video setting without actually being out on the field…
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.
So, on the inner third of the plate, realize that when you set the Tee up you want to be on the inside inner third of the plate.
The other thing that you want to make sure you’re doing is ‘at stride’ landing. So, all these positions are at stride landing, okay. It’s not at the start of the swing. So, you have to get your hitter at the stride landing, and then you can kind of figure out how far up, middle, or deep you want to put the Tee. On the inner third of the plate, ball is on the inner third, you want the ball to be set up whether using a BackSpin Tee or Tanner Tee or whatever Tee. You want it to be set up about six inches to a foot out in front of the stride foot, okay.
Again, lined up on the inner third of the plate. But in relation to where the foot is, you want it to be about 6 inches to 12 inches. Perry Husband actually says when we’re using the front arm shape, we’re locking that front arm out, for some players could be as much as 18 inches. So, it’s going to depend on the age of the hitter. Obviously, if there’s 7 years old you’re not going to put the ball, if you’re working in or third, you’re not gonna put the ball 18 inches out in front of them.
But maybe a high school or college or pro guy or gal, you want to basically use your common sense to where you need to put that, in relation to setting up batting tee locations. It might take a few swings for you to finally find that sweet spot. Because it all depends on the length, and seven-year-olds arms are definitely not as long as a 22 year old’s arm. So, in the inner third, about 6 to 18 inches out in front, of the stride landing foot.
How To Set Up Middle Tee
Middle third of the plate, you’re gonna be somewhere around the stride landing foot, in line with it to about 6 inches give or take, 3 to 6 inches, 3 to 8 or so, give or take.
But somewhere at middle should be around stride foot landing, or in line of the stride foot over the middle third of the plate.
How To Set Up Outer Batting Tee
Now, the outer third part of the plate you want to set it up on the outer third, and it’s gonna be deeper off the stride foot. So, it’s gonna be farther back, closer to the catcher. So, you want to make sure that that’s gonna be a range. I know, you probably don’t like ranges, it would be nice for me to just say we’ll do it 6 inches from.
But it’s all going to depend on your hitter, the younger the hitter, the less the discrepancy between staggering these balls, the less distance between the contact points. Because the arm, the front arm shape or length isn’t as long as a 22-year old. So, it’s gonna be the range between 6 and 12 inches I would say, or 3 and 12 inches, just again play around with it. But what should happen is when they hit it, when they hit it optimally, they should be on, if it’s on the outer third correctly, should be going to right center field. Inner third, it should be about left center.
Again, the farther out you move it, the more they’re going to pull it off those lines. So, you want to make sure that’s kind of a ballpark of where you want to put it. Think about it this way, this is what I tell my hitters. When we’re talking depth, hitting depth, whether opposite field middle or pulling the ball is think about like a pinball machine. Now, some hitters don’t know or never played on a pinball machine, you can show them. But think about the flappers on a pinball machine, if I had the left side flapper or right-handed, if they’re a right-handed hitter.
So, if I want to hit the ball across the table, opposite field. Then I’m gonna let that ball travel deeper and then my flapper is going to hit ball deeper. If I want to pull it across the table then that ball has to be more inside or coming more where the flapper is, and that flapper has to hit the ball more out in front in order to get it to go. Now obviously, it’s a little bit different when we’re talking about a hitter in a flesh-and-blood human being, but the bat is like the flapper, and the human body is just an extension to that.
That is how you set up the Tee.
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Now, a couple things that you want to do when you’re working and training off the Tee. Because there are some people out there anti Tee, they are “Never Tee’rs”, never batting Tees. Working on the Tee has its place, it shouldn’t be something that you do all the time. But if you’re gonna work on the Tee, make sure you use what I call the ‘Art of Variance’. So, you want to vary where the pitch height is, and the pitch depth. Whenever we’re on the Tee, we’re on the backspin Tee, or Tanner Tee. We have our hitters, after every swing, we move the Tee up or down.
Doesn’t have to be a lot, just a little bit. Just giving them a different height to it, then what we’ll do is say a five swing round, is the odd swings, the 1, the 3, and the 5 swings, or the first three swings will actually have them swing inside. We will have the Tee set up on the inner third, and we’re moving the ball up and down. Then the last two swings, we’ll move it to the outer third, and we’ll move the swing up and down.
Then, the next round, the next round of five, we will reverse that. So, the first three swings are on the outer third moving it up and down. We’ll move it to the inner third, and then for the last two swings, and we’ll move that up and down.
So, you want to make sure that you’re varying the ball, whether it’s height or depth on the Tee when you’re working off the Tee. Because the pitcher is not going to be throwing it in the same spot every time. So, the Tee definitely has its limitations, it does not obviously simulate a moving pitch. But we can work on the Tee whether, it’s mechanics, we can work on it on getting hitters to understand pitch depth. Where you’re hitting the ball deeper, they hit at the other field, or pulling the ball, we can work on it using especially overload training is really good. We can set the Tee really high and inside, up and in. So, we can get them to work on some things with the overload bat, to get them not getting under the ball.
Backspin Tee v. Regular Tee Swing Experiment
So, there’s some cool stuff we can do with the Tee. Just make sure we are smarter with it, and the difference between a backspin Tee and a Tanner Tee or any of any other Tee. Because every other Tee is way different than the backspin Tee, there was an experiment I did. A swing experiment where I hit, I took a hundred swings off a backspin Tee, and a hundred swings off a regular Tee. I split those hundred swings up, I mixed them. So, I had say A, B were split in 25 swing chunks. So, I would say A, where backspin Tee swings. I would go A, B, B, A and then the last round of 100. I would go B, A, A, B.
‘A’ represented backspin Tee swings; the ‘B’ represented regular Tee swings. I took identical pictures of the cage. Then plot it, when I take some swings out the backspin Tee where the ball would go, and then I would do the same on the Tanner T.
But what the difference was, off the backspin Tee, 100 swings looked like a tornado or a tree. The swings off the regular Tee kind of looked blockish. There were some up above the top of the Tee or a top of the gate, but it was more block-ish. What was interesting is the “backspin Tee effect” is what I call it, after changing from a backspin Tee swing to a regular Tee swing. The backspin Tee effect where I was still driving the ball up, lasted for about 10 swings or so. Then, the last 15 of the 25 swings on the regular Tee, I’d noticed that the ball would start to kind of drag down. Then, when I go back to the backspin Tee, would go back up again. It was just an interesting backspin Tee effect.
So, in this video, we answer reader your question:
“I have a question about contact points for hitting inside versus outside pitches. What’s your opinion on how you should set up your Tee for working both of these locations?”
I hope this video answered that question…make sure we’re swinging smarter by moving better. And before I let you go…
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Are your hitters struggling to effectively hit to the opposite field or pull the ball with power? Discover our breakthrough techniques now!
Get instant access to our exclusive FREE VIDEO: 'Mastering the Art of Pulling & Going Oppo'. Learn how to maintain explosive ball exit speeds while mastering directional hitting.
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Backspin-Batting-Tee-Placement-Tips-How-High-Or-Tall-And-Drills-To-Teach-Hitting-Power-For-Baseball-Softball-Swing.jpg423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-10-18 09:15:172023-01-05 20:49:43Backspin Batting Tee Placement Tips: How High Or Tall And Drills To Teach Hitting Power For Baseball & Softball Swing
Baseball Batting Cage Drills: Here’s A Quick Way To Hit Less Ground-balls
Question: Does The BackSpin Batting Tee Help Hitters Elevate The Ball?
In this baseball batting cage drills experiment using the Backspin batting tee, I wanted to use the Scientific Method to analyze what would happen to a hitter’s spray chart (ME!!) by taking:
100 swings using a conventional tee (ATEC Single Tuffy Tee), versus
Taking another 100 swing using Taylor and Jarrett Gardner’s BackSpin batting tee.
I’ve done a couple posts promoting what Taylor and Jarrett are doing with the Backspin Tee because I really believe in their product and what it can do for young hitters in getting the batted ball off the ground. Whether we’re talkingbaseball, fast pitch softball, and slow pitch softball…
And to let you know, this experiment has been brewing in my head since the summer of 2015, but the stars just didn’t align…until NOW!
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.
ATEC Tuffy Single Batting Tee photo courtesy: ATEC
Okay, so I cheated a little bit…
Before the OFFICIAL baseball batting cage drills swing experiment, I’ve been using the Backspin batting tee with my local hitters and the results have been positive.
And now, I’m making my Hypothesis official…
I think by using the Backspin batting tee, it will allow the hitter to cut down on ground-balls, and will empower them to get more effective at putting the ball in the air (line drives primarily).
In addition, I think that not only will the tee reduce a hitter’s ground-balls, but will contribute to above average line drive launch angles. Average line drives would be within the reach of a fielder.
Baseball Batting Cage Drills: Backspin Batting Tee Experiment
Closeup of the ‘inverted’ rubber cone that holds the baseball or softball. Photo courtesy: TheStartingLineupStore.com
I had two of the same laminated images of the batting cage I was hitting in (Hitting Spray Chart images below).
After each swing, I’d use a Sharpy pen to mark where the batted ball hit first (on the ground or the location on the batting cage netting), right after coming off the bat.
All swings for the baseball batting cage drills experiment were taken off either a Backspin or ATEC Tuffy Single tee.
I used the Backspin batting tee rubber cone for baseballs (they have one for softballs as well).
I stayed as consistent as I could with keeping the ball height and depth the same for both tees.
I used two yellow dimple ball markers to make my stance setup consistent…one was placed inside my back foot, close to the plate. The other was placed one bat’s length plus two baseballs in front of the back marker.
The two tests in the baseball batting cage drills experiment were counter-balanced. Which consisted of eight blocks of 25-swings done in the following order ABBA BAAB. Hitting off the “Backspin Tee” was letter ‘A’, and off the “Conventional Tee” was letter ‘B’. 200 total swings were completed in the experiment, 100 per test. Counter-balancing helps remove the “getting tired” and “not being sufficiently warmed up” factors.
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Data Collected (Hitting Spray Charts)
Backspin Batting Tee Spray Chart:
The Backspin tee spray chart is cleaner and resembles a bit of a tornado…
Conventional Tee Spray Chart:
As you can see, the spray chart is a bit messy…
Data Analysis & Conclusion
The Backspin batting tee spray chart looks much more tidy than the “regular” tee chart (the former looks like a tornado),
You can see when using the conventional tee, I tended to pull the ball to left side of the cage.
There are definitely a higher concentration of batted balls in the above average line drive spots (not within reach of the fielders), using the Backspin batting tee, and
There were more balls hitting the ground or bottom of the cage when using a conventional tee.
Notes
Addressing the excessive of pulled balls using the conventional tee, I thought maybe my tee was moving on me (getting too far out front). I even tried pushing the regular tee slightly deeper than the position I started it in for a couple swings, to counter this, but that wasn’t the issue.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting…remember in the “Setup” section above, I hit on the Backspin Tee (‘A’) FIRST. I started to notice a pattern after switching tees…I didn’t have an issue getting the ball in the air with the Backspin tee, sometimes getting into the pop-fly territory. But what I found was after taking a Backspin tee 25-swing chunk, the first 10-15 swing launch angles off the conventional tee mimicked what I was getting with the Backspin Tee. As the conventional tee round approached the last 10-15 swings, the launch angle slowly creeped downwards into the average line drive arena. So when I repeated TWO conventional tee 25-swing chunks (the BB in the ABBA pattern), by the time I got to the end I was having a hard time getting the ball back up again using the conventional tee. And on the last BAAB 25-swing chunk pattern (last 100 swings), I noticed the same thing emerge.
It was like the “magic” of the Backspin tee wore off after 10 swings into hitting on the conventional tee. My Hypothesis? If I took 100 STRAIGHT swings on a conventional tee, then 100 STRAIGHT on a Backspin tee, I’m willing to bet there would be WAY more ground-balls and average line drives using the conventional tee than I got in this baseball batting cage drills experiment.
The other weird thing (in a good way) I noticed hitting off the Backspin batting tee, was that it trimmed up my spray chart (making it look more like a tornado rather than a cinder block). I rarely pulled the ball towards the left side of the cage hitting off the Backspin tee. And the ones I did pull that way, I’d be willing to bet it was after hitting off the conventional tee. CRAZY!
The Bottom Line?
Well, the baseball batting cage drills experiment data showed that not only did the Backspin tee elevate ball launch angles, but it also cleaned up horizontal outcomes. Meaning, I didn’t hit the ball to the left side of the cage as frequently when using the Backspin tee than I did with the conventional tee when the ball is located virtually in the same position every swing. Also, the “Backspin tee effect” lasted a good 10-15 swings into switching over and using the conventional tee!
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/backspin-tee.jpg1000750Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-10-18 09:00:332023-01-05 20:49:40Best Backspin Batting Tee Experiment For Youth Baseball, Slow Pitch, & Softball To Hit Launch Angle Line Drives | Swing Aid & Tools Trainer Reviews & Coupon Codes | STOP Son Hitting Too Many Weak Ground Balls To Shortstop!
Discover neck manipulation benefits for baseball players in this podcast interview with Dr. Matthew Scott from Alliance Health, who is a Sports Chiropractor located in Fresno, CA.
The Dangers, Causes, & How to Fix Reverse Cervical Curve in Young Athletes Interview with Sports Chiropractor Dr. Matthew Scott
In this Swing Smarter Hitting Training Podcast episode we interview former teammate and sports Chiropractor Dr. Matthew Scott of Alliance Health in Fresno, California about the benefits of neck manipulation for baseball and softball players. Some of what we go over
If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice, what would that advice be?
What were some of the pain symptoms you experienced in your pitching shoulder in college?
The dangers, causes, and how to fix reverse cervical curve in young athletes
What other things are you seeing in young athletes; besides neck stuff, that we need to look out for?
Where can people find you?
CLICK HERE to download the transcription pdf of the interview. This is one of many interviews at the Swing Smarter Hitting Training Podcast. Please subscribe and listen by clicking here.
To contact Dr. Matthew Scott, then you can do so by…
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Neck-Manipulation-Benefits-for-Baseball-Players-Dr-Matthew-Scott-Alliance-Health-Sports-Chiropractor-Fresno-CA.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-10-16 09:00:372022-10-17 05:49:01Neck Manipulation Benefits for Baseball Players Video: Dr. Matthew Scott Alliance Health Sports Chiropractor Fresno, CA
This post takes a deep dive into how to fix hitting too many ground balls in baseball and softball. We discuss which part of the ball to hit if a right handed hitter is grounding out to shortstop too much (second baseman for a lefty), swinging over the top of the ball, rolling over, or has too much wrist roll. Ultimately, you’ll discover how to hit more line drives.
The UGLY Truth About Hitting Ground-Balls
(WARNING: this baseball hitting drills for kids post is a 4,500+ word beast, but your hitters will be grateful you took the time, believe me. Don’t worry, you can thank me later)
PLEASE NOTE: even though I refer to the keywords “baseball hitting drills for kids” in this post quite a bit, it’s not going to give you concrete drills to do. The objective of this post is to be a guide for coaches to more effectively pick drills to help kids hit more line drives. Although, CLICK HERE for one of my favorite posts to help hitters who have higher than average fly ball and ground balls rates to hit more line drives, it’s called ‘paradoxical intention’.
Before getting started, let me preface a couple other points:
Getting the ball in the air is off the table in situational hitting scenarios, such as “hit-and-runs” or “move’em-overs” (but please realize, situational hitting only makes up less than 10-15% of game At-Bats).
Getting the ball in the air doesn’t mean soft – or in some cases medium – fly-balls (we don’t teach hitters to hit soft fly-balls, just like you don’t teach hitters to hit soft ground-balls).
Getting the ball in the air isn’t an extreme uppercut, nor is it an extreme chopping motion (our goal is to match the downward plane of the incoming pitch with the barrel – and YES, even softballs travel down).
Remember, all line drives are “balls in the air”(I know duh, but you wouldn’t believe how many coaches try to outrun their common sense).
Fast-pitch softball coaches, you aren’t off the hook either (the reasons WHY will become more clear as you work through this post).
Without further adieu, the RANT…
Right off the bat (pun intended), I’m going to pick a fight with the following statement, getting the panties of some coaches in a bunch, as we talk about baseball hitting drills for kids – so here goes. Drum roll please…
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Teaching Baseball Hitting Drills For Kids To Primarily Hit Ground Balls Is Dumb
This baseball hitting drills for kids RANT has been brewing in me for some time now, and it came to a boil when I promoted the BackSpin batting tee swing experiment blog post on Facebook, titled “Baseball Batting Cage Drills: A Quick Way To Hit Less Ground-balls“…
You can CLICK HERE to read all the “classic” Facebook comments posted to the BackSpin Tee promo. A flood of baseball hitting drills for kids Facebook comments came in, mostly from coaches…
High School to College…
Baseball to softball…
All chiming in about how lovely it is to teach their hitters to hit the ball on the ground. And claiming how terrible of an idea the Backspin Tee is promoting more productive batted balls in the air. And like I mentioned in the preface above, a line drive is a ball in the air! They had MANY objections:
How many games they’ve won with grounders,
How fielding percentage is way lower than fly-balls,
That it’s much easier to catch a fly ball,
How great outfielders track fly balls,
How more can go wrong with the defense keeping the ball on the ground,
If their team hit more grounders, then they’d score more runs,
How some of the most winningest coaches in college baseball history, Gordie Gillespie and Augie Garrido as examples, stress keeping the ball on the ground to their hitters,
How you HAVE TO TEACH a 5’6″, 135-pound High School hitter to hit the ball on the ground because his batted ball distance maxes out at 250-feet! And,
How even pro coaches and “great hitting instructors” never promote hitting fly-balls.
Does that about cover ALL the objections for WHY hitting a ground-ball is far superior than putting a ball in the air?
On Path, Bottom Half image courtesy: Backspintee.com
Before I get to addressing the above objections with my infamous (more than famous) Bruce Lee one-inch punch, I wanted bring this to your attention first…
You Don’t Put Backspin on a Ball by Swinging Down
Some, not all, of these Facebook comments shared how to put consistent backspin on the ball by swinging down on it.
The keyword in question here is “consistent” backspin. And we’re talking hardball and fast-pitch here, NOT slow pitch. By the way, did you know hitters can put too much backspin on the ball? It’s called a popup! We want the right amount.
These knucklehead coaches even go so far as to believe that young hitters HAVE TO swing down on the ball to get backspin because they’re not “strong enough” to put backspin on it like Major League hitters!!
Watch the 2014 MLB All-Star home-run derby highlights, and notewhich part of the ball these guys are hitting(top half or bottom half?)…
As the Backspin Tee guys say, “on-path bottom-half” is the answer. NEWS FLASH! This is just as true for young small hitters, as it is for MLB hitters. It’s written into the rules of Physics. Can’t break those rules if you’re on earth, sorry. And if YOU STILL don’t believe me, read this MLB article titled, “Jon Lester Shows Importance Of Launch Angle”. The article goes into to say how Lester ranks second among Major League hitting pitchers with an average Ball Exit Speed of 92.5-mph.
So, what’s the problem? Quoted from the article:
“…(He ended up with four hits on the season in 71 plate appearances, a .065/.108/.065 line.) Part of it is that, like many pitchers, contact was an issue — Lester’s 42.3 percent strikeout rate was above the 37.7 percent average for pitchers.”
How could Lester hit the ball so hard without finding much hitting success? Again, quoted from the article:
“…it’s because 19 of Lester’s 24 tracked batted balls failed to get above 7 degrees of launch angle. Sixteen of those 19 failed to even achieve positive launch angle, which is to say that he pounded the ball into the ground constantly.”
In other words, to get the ball in the air, the hitter MUST have a positive launch angle. 10+ degrees as a matter of fact. According to Rob Arthur, author from FiveThirtyEight:
“The effect of speed [running] starts to fade only when launch angles exceed 10-degrees, as exit velocity starts to take over as the biggest determinant of a batted ball’s fate.”
Did you catch that? Some coaches out there will teach their faster hitters to put the ball on the ground. Why? So they can beat out more ground-balls to infielders, they reason. Why not teach faster hitters optimized launch angles, to turn singles into doubles, doubles into triples, and triples into inside-the-park homers?
Another valuable thing about optimizing launch angles, and lack of running speed, I was working with a 14-year-old young man, and he ran like he was pulling a tractor tire. In the beginning, he was behind in Ball Exit Speed for his age (double negative!!), so guess what we worked on? RIGHT-O!! Optimizing his launch angles. It was a quick fix that got him immediate results, until we got his Ball Exit Speeds caught up…and that they eventually did.
One last thing about baseball hitting drills for kids, Aaron Miles, who played 12 years of professional baseball (9 years in the Big Leagues with White Sox, Cardinals, Rockies, and Dodgers), told me these downward swing path hitters got weeded out by AA-ball. By the way, Aaron Miles is 5’7″, 180-lbs, which is impressive that with his size he competed for 9 Major Leagues seasons and did quite well. You don’t play that long in the Big Leagues, with his size, UNLESS you’re doing something right. Success leaves clues right?!
Am I making myself clear on this ‘down swinging’ backspin issue? Negative launch angles equate to negative playing time on the field. Before I karate chop the baseball hitting drills for kids coaching objections above, I wanted to get something else off my hairy chest first…
Hitting Ground-balls have their Place
…in situational hitting, which depending on the game, can make up less than 10-15% of a team’s at-bats. Of course, we don’t want to put a ball in the air on a hit-and-run or with a slap hit. That’s dumb. Even I know that.
Launch angle diagram comparing ground-balls to balls-in-the-air. Baseball hitting drills for kids infographic courtesy of the Colorado Rockies and the guys from BackSpinTee.com.
What I have a baseball hitting drills for kids beef with are coaches teaching hitters to hit the ball on the ground…ALL THE TIME!
As I mentioned before, DID YOU KNOW…line drives are balls in the air? I said it again!! Doesn’t take a physics professor to see that.
And if you forget every word in this Ground-ball Rant, then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE remember the following words that are coming from my brain to fingers to keyboard…
Pitchers Want Hitters Hitting the Ball on the Ground!
What vertical part of the zone do pitching coaches teach their pitchers to primarily use? “Keep the ball down!”…is what they say. Now, what part of the ball are pitchers HOPING hitters hit by keeping the ball down?
That’s right! The top half of the ball. Because, as the Backspin Tee ‘On Path Bottom Half’ graphic shows, hitting the top half of the ball induces top spin, driving the ball into the ground.
In other words, PITCHERS WANT HITTERS TO HIT THE BALL ON THE GROUND!!!
It’s all about seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. Pitchers know that they don’t get hurt (as much) with a ground-ball than with a ball-in-the-air. Look at the Sabermetrics, launch angles increase up in the zone, while they decrease down in the zone. This is FACT. So WHY the heck are hitting coaches teaching their hitters to primarily hit ground-balls?!
I seriously don’t know the answer…I’m as some would say, confused. Or is this some LARGE conspiracy of pitching instructors undermining our hitters? Let me give you another bit of baseball hitting drills for kids advice…don’t listen to pitching coaches teach hitting. Unless they’re aware of the strange duality between pitching and hitting strategy.
You see, they’ve been conditioned to induce ground-balls, so whether they’re conscious about it or not, to hitters, they’re promoting the VERY THING they use to get hitters out. Most of the pitching instructors in my area, who also teach hitting, instruct their hitters to swing down on the ball. Coincidence?
CLICK HERE for a link to a Beyond the Boxscore article titled, “Scooter Gennett and ground balls”. The sub-title says it all, “Scooter Gennett’s offense has declined every year since he broke into Major League Baseball, are ground balls the reason?”
Okay, moving on…
Before getting into Jean Claude Van Damme round-house kicking those ground-ball teaching batting coach arguments included at the beginning of this post, I want you to answer the following question…
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AVG = Batting Average, ISO = “Isolated Slugging%” or Raw Power, & wOBA = weighted On-Base AVG. Baseball hitting drills for kids graph compliments of FanGraphs.com
What’s obvious in the results for each type of ball in play, is the value of the Line Drive (highlighted in yellow). I think even “Pro-Ground-ballers” agree that the line drive is the way to go.
But if given a choice to pick the lesser of two evils, the Pro-Ground-ball coach will unanimously pick the ground-ball.
But look at the difference in productivity between the Ground-ball and Fly-ball…
A 32-point increase in Batting Average with Ground-ball over a Fly-ball, however
A 358-point INCREASE in ISO (or raw power) with Fly-balls over Ground-balls…AND
A 115-point INCREASE in weighted On-Base Average with Fly-Balls over Ground-balls, which according to FanGraphs.com,
“Weighted On-Base Average combines all the different aspects of hitting into one metric, weighting each of them in proportion to their actual run value. While batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage fall short in accuracy and scope, wOBA measures and captures offensive value more accurately and comprehensively.”
Well Fly-balls, it’s unanimous…2 out of 3 will get you in the Hall Of Fame 😛 lol
Also, since we’re on the subject, check out this Launch Angle infographic of Bryce Harper that was posted by @PinkmanBaseball:
Key in on Bryce Harper’s offensive productivity from 10 to 30-degrees of Launch Angle! Did you pick up on the KEY message? Killed two birds with one stone there…
Key Message #1: This shows hitters aren’t productive unless they’re swinging UP to the ball (not down)…
Key Message #2: And if a 9-degree Launch Angle, or less (see ‘Backspin’ image #2 above), is a ground-ball, WATCH how B. Harper’s average AND power numbers skyrocket once he gets to over a 10-degree Launch Angle.
Situational hitting aside, remind me again WHY we’re teaching baseball hitting drills for kids that promote grounders? So far, I hope this has helped the ‘fence-sitters’ see the light. Now, let’s zero in on those not even close to the fence. You know who you are. I may not get you over to the ‘Light Side’ reading this whole post…
BUT,
The information will fester in a Fixed Mindset brain, like an open wound, and with time, I’m confident you’ll make your way to the Lighter Side of effective hitting. Don’t worry, I’ll be a patient grasshopper. I don’t care what level of play you coach.
YOU WILL BE MINE Ferris Bueller!
Onwards…
The ground-balls are gross hitting coach will go on and on about…
How many games they’ve won with grounders
This is a subjective statement, and an exaggeration at BEST. First of all, show me the numbers on how many games were won with a seeing-eye single versus a double, triple, or dinger. Give me 5-years of MLB data. Better yet, how many “go-ahead runs” were by single or extra base hit? I’d love to see the REAL numbers. What is FACT, in the 2017 World Series, the Astros WOULD NOT HAVE WON by hitting a bunch of singles.
Seriously though, of all the baseball and softball games being played on the planet, how many late inning heroic game winners are being hit on the ground? AND, of those game winning ground-balls, how many of those WERE INTENDED to be on the ground by the hitter and/or coach?
Let’s get personal with you coaches who obsessively LOVE GAME WINNING SINGLES ON THE GROUND, here’s what I want you to do…track your game winning hits, and report back. Don’t cheat though, and fudge the numbers to save face. My hypothesis is, ground-balls WILL NOT be the number one game winning or “go-ahead run” vehicle. I’ve seen too many game winning balls-in-the-air (line drives and fly-balls), in my playing career, to accept that ground-balls get the job done better.
The ground-ball obsessed coaches, go on and on about…
How ground-ball fielding percentage is way lower than with fly-balls
This statement proves a statistically flawed argument. Here’s the information that we need to put it to the test:
The New York Mets infield plays a defensive shift against Carlos Gonzalez of the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on April 16, 2013 in Denver, Colorado. (Baseball hitting drills for kids photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
Total number of ground-balls hit in latest MLB season, and
Total number of fly-balls hit in latest MLB season.
I’m willing to bet, there were WAY more ground-balls hit than fly-balls. More statistical data points translate to lower overall averages. And the reverse is typically true of less statistical information.
Riddle me this,
…if fielding percentages for outfielders are higher, then WHY don’t we teach our pitchers to pitch to the top of zone, than the bottom? Doesn’t that sound logical?…“Hey, if our outfielders are the better fielders, then get hitters to hit more balls to them.”
Here’s what I thought up ALL BY MYSELF, there are FIVE fielding infielders (including the pitcher), and only THREE outfielders. There’s more space in the outfield and less fielders…WHY don’t we hit it out there? Even my four year old can see the superiority in that baseball hitting drills for kids strategy.
One of my readers Brian Ingram, shared this:
“Just read the article about the flawed ground ball approach and wanted to say I completely agree. also wanted to add on to the idea of 5 infielders vs 3 outfielders, (which I thought of too as soon as I read the title and was happy you touched on it) was that those 5 infielders have less total area to cover on ground balls than the 3 outfielders do on balls in the air.
And the space where ground balls get through is far smaller than the area where balls in the air go for hits. Also, like you showed in the article, ground balls are either hard or soft. Balls in the air though can be shallow line drives, deep line drives, deep fly balls, and bloop hits.
In addition, higher chance of getting on base from things like bad reads, ball getting lost in the sun or lights, wind issues, knuckling line drives, etc.
Also outfielders have a limit of the outfield fence on how far they can go back to catch a ball. Infielders don’t have to deal with those issues, which also count as hits not errors leading to the discrepancy in fielding percentage. All of those things taken into consideration leads to the conclusion that odds of reaching base safely is much high hitting the ball in the air than on the ground. All in all I loved the article and couldn’t agree more.”
Thanks for sharing that Brian (who’s applying to be in the Kinesiology Department at Fresno State in the Fall). Also worth noting is the fact MLB teams are giving up in an infielder to the outfield to concede the ground-ball…WHY??! Because they’re taking the easy risk ground-balls don’t do damage like an extra base hit. Heck, you don’t have to work for NASA to figure this stuff out.
Here’s another thought to consider about this shifted infielder into the outfield…in using a defensive shift, WHY would we put an extra infielder into the outfield, if the outfielders – statistically speaking – were better at fielding? After all, they don’t NEED anymore help, right?!
Because according to you, outfielders HAVE TO BE BETTER fielders than infielders right? That’s what the stats tell us!!!
Yoda (The Force) photo courtesy: BusinessInsider.com
Or how about this, since we shifted the infielder positionally into the outfield, does he/she instantaneously inherit the stellar fielding percentage of playing on the luscious outfield grass? Sounds like “the Force” in Star Wars 😀 lol
Statistically speaking, comparing an infielders fielding percentage to an outfielders is comparing apples to oranges. Are we done here? Good.
The ground-ball obsessed coaches, go on and on about…
Grab 'Finger Pressure' Video
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
Click button below to access FREE video that has been downloaded over 20K times!
Hey look! One less step! You may be onto something here…but are you? I played the outfield from my sophomore year in High School through all 4-years at Fresno State, so I know how easy AND difficult it is. Again, you’re one of three fielders in the biggest part of a baseball or softball field.
Ask Jose Canseco how easy it is to catch this “fly ball”:
Also, ask an infielder going back to catch a fly-ball in the shallow outfield, with a converging outfielder coming towards them, how easy catching that fly-ball is.
At Fresno State, legendary Coach Bob Bennett constantly had us working on this type of drill called “Pop-fly Priorities”. We were drilled to the point of throwing up, AND even still, occasionally the ball dropped into ‘no-man’s land’ in games.
I’d love to take the “ground-ball obsessed coach” out and hit them fly-balls, and have them track it down. They’re much harder to track than you think. And things move A LOT faster in the outfield, most of the time you’re on a dead sprint to get from point A to B.
And, when an outfielder makes a mistake, runners advance at least one extra base. If infielders bobble a ball, typically, they still have time to recover and get the out. In other words, an outfielder’s mistake is magnified.
Besides, my friends who’ve played in the Big Leagues say the outfield is where misfit infielders go, which brings the quality of overall outfield play down at the highest level. Ask any converted outfielder how challenging it is to track a ball effectively off a bat 😉
Which leads me to,
The “Ground-ball obsessed coaches”, go on and on about…
How great outfielders track fly balls
But you’re thinking, well, MLB and college outfielders (both baseball and softball) are great athletes, and they track and catch everything in the air. This simply isn’t true. They don’t. Not even ‘cans-of-corn’ are off limits to being dropped. Don’t believe me? Go to YouTube and type in “mlb dropped fly ball”, and count how many, what you think are ‘cans-of-corns’, are dropped…
And for you college coaches who still don’t agree…this season, track how many balls are dropped by your outfielders this year…AND the run scoring result of that action. Then track how many ground-balls are dropped by your infielders this year…AND the run scoring result of that action.
My point is, NOT ALL fly-balls to outfielders are caught, and when they aren’t, extra bases are taken. Heck, extra bases are taken if an outfielder takes a bit too long fielding a line drive/ground-ball in front of them! I know because I took plenty of extra bases on them in my time. If an infielder drops a ball, most of the time, it’s no big deal, at least if the runner isn’t fleet of foot. All is forgiven, minimal damage done.
Not outfielders, no-no. The “ground-ball obsessed coaches”, go on and on about…
How more can go wrong with the defense keeping the ball on the ground
My good friend Taylor Gardner, and owner of the BackSpin batting tee, shared a CLASSIC baseball hitting drills for kids response to the aforementioned statement on Facebook (and one I echoed earlier in this post). He said:
“Groundball supporters…why do pitchers try and keep the ball down in the zone? ……………..They WANT you to hit a groundball. If you don’t believe that, then start telling your pitchers to live about chest high in the zone and see how many pop ups you can get in the game. Ha ha…you should bring your center fielder into the infield and play with an extra infielder because you seem to be so scared of the groundballs (which are better right)?”
This is a common argument amongst Little League coaches…
“Hit the ball on the ground because the other team can’t play catch!”
But what happens when they meet a team that can play catch? What then? Let me give a clue…they get beat. And IF they get a runner on base, then they’re another ground-ball away from a double play!!! If the other team can play catch, no more getting runners on base because of errors…no more auto-runs to second after a walk. NOTHING. Your team is SHUT DOWN. Did you miss that? Let me repeat, your misled offensive strategy is SHUT DOWN.
This is WHY, when and if my 4yo son plays baseball, his team will be the most disciplined group of young men at playing catch. If I come across YOUR ground-ball hitting team, we will CRUSH YOU. You better have quality pitching, because YOU WILL LOSE! And you won’t know how it happened…why it happened…or what happened.
Worst of all, your troops won’t be able to recover because you’ve taught them baseball hitting drills for kids that primarily focus on hitting the ball on the ground. Have you ever been in a hopeless situation like that? It’s only a matter of time, if you keep doing what you’re doing. The sad part is if your ground-ball hitting team is lucky enough to make it to the championship game, guess what, most likely the other team will be REAL GOOD at playing catch. What do you think will happen then?
What’s more,
Guess what happens to ground-ball fielding difficulty after graduating to the BIG field…?
Infielders are deeper – increasing their fielding range,
Athletes get more athletic – enabling them a farther “reach”,
Players get better at playing catch (naturally course of skill acquisition), and
With 90-foot bases (instead of 60 to 70-foot), fielders have more time to field, gather, and throw. In other words, more can go wrong with fielding a ground-ball, and the defense still recording a putout because they have more time.
But you “ground-ball obsessed” Little League coaches don’t care anyway, it’ll be the next coaches problem when they get into Middle School, right? Fastpitch softball is a little different…the young ladies will grow into the “smaller” field. However, points ONE through THREE above still hold true.
One last baseball hitting drills for kids point I want to make on this, comes from a Beyond The Box Score article titled, “Do Hard Hit Ground Balls Produce More Errors?”The data from the above post analysis suggests errors don’t start consistently climbing until Ball Exit Speeds (the speed of the ball coming off the bat) reaches around 95-mph. This data comes from Major League players, by the way.
It goes to show that you have to hit the ball pretty dang hard to force the defense to make an error. To put a 95-mph BES into perspective, this ball has the ability to travel 380-feet with an optimal ball launch angle (1-mph of BES = 4-feet of distance). Are your High School hitters hitting even 85 to 90-mph Ball Exit Speeds in games? If not, then maybe you should re-work your ground ball hitting strategy.
The other thing I’ve heard from ground-ball obsessed coaches is, “Well, you can’t get a bad hop in the air.” Really!? So you’re banking winning versus losing on something out of your control? In other words, you’re “hoping” and “praying” for the ground-balls your hitters hit to take a bad hop?! That’s laughable. Errors are a gift, not something you should expect. And at the higher levels, there are less “gifts”. The best coaches (and players) don’t focus baseball hitting drills for kids on the uncontrollable. Adapt or die.
The “ground-ball obsessed coaches”, go on and on about…
Grab 'Finger Pressure' Video
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
Click button below to access FREE video that has been downloaded over 20K times!
How some of the most winningest coaches in college baseball history, Gordie Gillespie and Augie Garrido stress keeping the ball on the ground to their hitters
MANHATTAN, KS – APRIL 26: Head coach Augie Garrido of the Texas Longhorns looks out onto the field from the dugout during a game against the Kansas State Wildcats at Tointon Stadium April 26, 2008 in Manhattan, Kansas. Kansas State defeated Texas 4-1. (Photo by Peter Aiken/Getty Images)
This is where I really get fired up because this kind of baseball hitting drills for kids statement is:
A “That Guy” type of comment,
Dumb.
It’s a great example of making a blanket statement WITHOUT knowing who you’re talking to. What’s interesting to note is after this person said this, and I responded with the following, they never responded back.
Now, I can’t speak for Coach Gordie Gillespie, but here’s my connection to Coach Augie Garrido…Coach Garrido played for Fresno State (my alma matar) back when Coach Pete Beiden was the head coach. I believe, Coach Garrido also played with Coach Bob Bennett (but I could be wrong there), who was my coach the first three years I played at Fresno State.
Whether he played with Bennett or not, Coach Garrido learned from Beiden, just as Bennett did. So having never played for Garrido, I have a pretty good idea that Coach Beiden rubbed off on Garrido as he did on Bennett.
And Coach Bennett, NEVER told us, in the three years I played for him (and even me – a smaller hitter), to ever hit the ball on the ground…UNLESS I was popping up to much, which is adjustment advice. OR for situational hitting.
So my baseball hitting drills for kids hypothesis with Coach Garrido would echo the same Bennett-Beiden philosophy. I don’t think Coach Garrido compiled a collegiate record of 1950-919-9, and has taken his teams to 15 College World Series primarily by instructing his hitters to hit the ball on the ground.
Somebody close to Coach Garrido, ask him, and get back to me…PLEASE! I’m dying to be proven wrong. Besides, head coaches in the college and professional ranks are generalist. Let me clarify this, they typically don’t meddle in hitting or pitching aspects with a fine tooth comb. They have assistant coaches whose job it is to do that. In 3-years, I can count on one hand how many times Coach Bennett gave me hitting advice.
Head coaches should be like the CEO of a corporation…their concern is with big picture strategies, not on how TPS Reports are suppose to be written. Well, I commend you for making it this far! Either you’re:
NOT one of the “ground-ball obsessed coaches” anymore, OR
You’re ONE for a beating! lol
I assure you this rant is almost over, just a few more Karate chops I need to issue…the “ground-ball obsessed coaches”, go on and on about…
How you HAVE TO TEACH a 5’6″, 135-pound High School hitter to hit the ball on the ground because his batted ball distance maxes out at 250-feet!
Text from dad after 11yo son Orin hit a 300-foot bomb, weighing in at 98-pounds.
I’d LOVE to see the look on the face of the High School coach that said this, after I told him on Facebook that I have multiple 11yo hitters that hit the ball consistently over 300-feet, and get this, they did it while weighing less than 100-pounds…AND not just once, but multiple times!!
I’m sure the look was precious. Obviously, this coach isn’t teaching effective baseball hitting drills for kids, and doesn’t know any better. You don’t know what you don’t know, right? There are certain things, mechanically speaking, that directly influence consistent power, hitting more line drives, and being on-time more often. Success leaves clues, and we can train it all.
I don’t care the size of the hitter, I’m going to teach them all how to drive the ball. It’s another tool for their tool belt. Besides, Physicist Dr. Alan Nathan told me in a phone conversation that bat speed is a better indicator of batted ball distance than body mass.
Yes, a smaller hitter’s role on the team may require them to be better at putting down a sacrifice bunt, hit-and-run, and/or slap hit (especially if they’re faster, or left handed), but ALL hitters MUST know how to drive the ball. Driving the ball SHOULD BE the default, NOT hitting the ball on the ground.
Look, there are thousands of ways to teach baseball hitting drills for kids. Just like you can eat soup with a spoon, fork, or knife, but only one tool is more effective. Teaching hitters is the same. Stick to applying human movement principles validated by REAL science, NOT because-I-said-so “bro-science”, to hitting a ball, and your hitters will get predictably positive results.
And last, but certainly not least…the “ground-ball obsessed coaches”, go on and on about…
How even pro coaches and “great hitting instructors” never promote hitting fly-balls
This statement is also subjective. Please define “great hitting instructors”. Does what Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols say about hitting make them a great hitting instructor? Did Ted Williams and Tony Gwynn do a COMPLETE job of analyzing in retrospect, how they did what they did? Ted Williams came close, but still was quite far from filling in between the lines.
How about Dusty Baker in his hitting book. Mike Schmidt? Charlie Lau? Look, I’m not putting down any of these legendary people, but we have to have a higher standard than just somebody’s hitting “philosophy” or “bro-science”. We have to teach human movement principles that are validated by REAL science, to hitting a ball.
Simple as that.
So, my first baseball hitting drills for kids question to you is, if you believe the above statement, then whose kool-aid are you drinking? Who do you consider a “great hitting instructor”? And last time I checked on FanGraphs, Ted Williams, Pujols, A-Rod, Mike Trout, Nolan Arenado, Bautista, and Donaldson ARE NOT trying to hit the ball on the ground. Don’t believe me? Look at their ground-ball, line drive, fly ball, and home-run to fly-ball ratios. I guarantee you’ll see ALL of them being below average in their ground-balls rates, while being above average in the others.
Please check…I’ll wait. Oftentimes, what Major League hitters say they’re doing is not what we see them do on slow motion analysis. What’s real and what’s feel are two totally different things. I GUARANTEE, most of the effective hitting gurus online, are telling their hitters to drive the ball IN THE AIR with AUTHORITY. Again, that includes line drives.
Wayne Gretzky image courtesy: http://forum.mmatd.com/
So you can keep telling yourself these baseball hitting drills for kids stories (i.e. the “ground-ball obsessed coaching” statements above), and get mediocre results with your hitters…
Or you can follow what Hockey great Wayne Gretzky says,
“A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”
Teaching baseball hitting drills for kids to primarily hit ground-balls is ‘where the puck is.” Teaching them to hit the ball in the air is ‘where the puck is going to be’.
Think it’s impossible for young hitters to learn? You’re wrong. You may not know how to teach baseball hitting drills for kids to optimize launch angles. And that’s okay! Get educated. Don’t be an armchair quarterback. Opinions are NOT facts.
Don’t be afraid of setting young hitters up for failure in teaching them to hit more line drives. Shoot for the stars to land in the clouds. Have a higher standard for your hitters. In Pre-Kindergarten, my 5-year-old son’s teachers are getting him ready for Kindergarten. THE NEXT LEVEL! Coaches MUST do the same! Stretching requires some pain, but it’s how we grow.
And if you’re not growing, you’re dying. Swallow your pride, and come over to the Light Side!
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Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/wayne-gretzky-e1454003142351.jpg441400Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-10-14 09:00:262022-11-28 05:16:14How To Fix Hitting Too Many Ground Balls In Baseball & Softball | Which Part Of Ball To Hit If Grounding Out To Shortstop (or Second Base), Swinging Over Top, Rolling Over, Or Too Much Wrist Roll? | Hit More Line Drives REVEALED!
The following is the Fernando Tatis Jr. hitting mechanics video transcription. After you enjoy this analysis, then check out Part-2 Here.
Enjoy!
0:05
Hey, what’s going on? It’s Joey Myers from the Hitting Performance Lab, and in this Fernando Tatis Jr. hitting mechanics video, we’re going to go over a couple things.
0:13
First, we’re going to start with a couple fan graph points of interest, and then we’re going to go over how Fernando Tatis Jr. uses Catapult Loading System principles. And lastly, we’re going to touch on how he stays sideways using his lower half.
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.
Fernando Tatis Jr. Hitting Mechanics Fan-graph Stats…
0:30
A couple things worth noting in the fan-graphs article, as you can see that he is 6’3″, 185 pounds. I may be wrong but that’s about what Ted Williams was coming into the league. You could see comparing his 2019 and 2020 seasons, obviously 2020 is going to be quite shortened and 60 games season.
0:53
You can see that with almost half of the amount at-bats, plates appearances. He’s got almost as many doubles, and almost as many homers as he did in 2019, where he played in 84 games. And then you can see in his line drive, ground-ball, fly-ball rates that again, this is about half the amount of games in 2019, he played in, and then he’s got about half or so that he’s played in 2020.
1:24
You can see that, of course, these numbers, the data is going to be a little skewed because there’s lower data points, but you have a 22.4% line drive rate league average is 20. Got 16.3 here this year, ground-ball percentage is about average last year 46.6%, or 43% is average. So he’s a little bit above average. A little bit even more above average of 48.2 this year, and then his fly-ball rate has gone up from last year. He’s at 38, or 30.9%, which league average tends to be, league averages about 34%.
1:58
And then he’s almost about average on his fly ball percentage but increasing about 5% from last year to this year. Again, we’re talking lower data points.
Grab 'Finger Pressure' Video
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
Click button below to access FREE video that has been downloaded over 20K times!
2:07
Alright, let’s really dig into this Fernando Tatis Jr. hitting mechanics video, we’re going to look at the Catapult Loading System principles. The best view for these, for most of them, is from the pitchers view. Just to give a little context to this pitch, you can see the location is about up and in, up and in part of the strike zone. And the pitch, you can’t see it on the screen. I can’t see it on the screen, but it’s flashing a nine, here. So it’s 90 plus for sure. 92. There you go 92 miles an hour.
Neck Pressure – Showing Numbers
2:34
And now let’s check out and one of the big principles is showing numbers or what we call neck pressure, creating neck pressure where the head becomes an anchor point anchors in a tracking position. That front shoulder scap protraction for those kinetic nerds out there, is coming underneath the front chin, shoulder’s sliding under the chin, head is holding it’s anchored tracking position.
3:01
And you’re going to see Fernando Tatis Jr. in these hitting mechanics, you can see him show his numbers on his back because of what that front shoulder is doing moving underneath to pass the chin.
Hiding Hands – Scap Pinch
3:14
The other thing he’s doing the other big one is the scap pinch. Some of you might know it as a scap row. You can see the back elbow will peek out behind him. Again the head is at an anchor point and he is doing like a rowing motion with that back arm and scap, and you’ll see that back elbow peek out from a pitchers view. Does a very good job.
3:41
We also call this like wringing the towel out, so the head is the top one and the neck, and the shoulders are at the bottom and we’re wringing the towel out. The head anchors in a tracking position and the shoulders rolling beneath and their limitation… They’re limited by how much the head allows them, front shoulder allows the front shoulder to come in, and then it’s also about the back shoulder retracting the scapula retracting back. It’s all limited by the head in the tracking position.
Downhill Shoulder Angle
4:09
The other big principle of the three big Catapult Loading System rules is a downhill shoulder angle. Now Fernando Tatis Jr. in his hitting mechanics, he doesn’t really get a really high back elbow, you see some hitters like trout will do to angle those shoulders down. He actually keeps his back elbow about the height of his back shoulder.
4:32
But you’re going to see this front shoulder dip down a little bit almost like we talk about to our hitters, like the alligator when greater less than signs. So the front shoulder and hip becomes a closed alligator and the back shoulder and hip becomes an open alligator.
4:50
So we want to close the alligator on the front side, so we angle the shoulder slightly down again, slightly down between 6 to 10 degrees down and that goes for both fast-pitch softball and baseball slightly down. If you do it too much, you’re going to end up with a big fat uppercut, slightly down, and then we turn from there. Okay, those are the big three of the Catapult Loading System principles.
Grab 'Finger Pressure' Video
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
Click button below to access FREE video that has been downloaded over 20K times!
5:13
Let’s touch on, see how he stays sideways with that back foot. In baseball and softball, we’re dealing with 90 degrees of fair territory. So we have to manage our bodies effectively within that 90 degrees.
5:29
To do that we can’t over rotate our lower half rotation is okay, at the lower back but not too much. 7 to 12 degrees of rotation is what the lower back the lower lumbar is allowed. Seven to 12 degrees of rotation. The bones in the lumbar aren’t made to rotate, they’re only made to flex and extend. You can check it out, research it. They aren’t made to rotate. The rotation that you see is from the muscles surrounding the bones.
5:58
So we want to allow the lower half to decide our directional force or guide our directional force between the 90 degrees of fair territory. So we do not want our hitters over rotating. What we commonly see is that back foot over rotating.
6:14
But you’re going to see here, in this Fernando Tatis Jr. hitting mechanics video is, you’re going to see that back heel not rotate all the way over like you see a lot of young hitters do, and he’ll actually push it backwards. You can see it going backwards right here. He gets it almost to vertical, and then he pushes it backwards.
Shifting Foot Pressure?
6:33
We call this at Hitting Performance Lab, shifting foot pressure. So what generally happens is we’ll see foot pressure on the outside of the back foot, at this point at the stride, all the way to the touchdown, inside of the front foot.
6:47
Then when stride touchdown hits, you’re going to see Fernando Tatis Jr. hitting mechanics, he is going to shift his foot pressure to the opposite sides of each foot. So where he’s inside the front foot, outside the back foot. Now you’re going to see him shifting to the inside of the back foot, outside of the front foot.
7:07
Simple move sideways. You can practice this in your bedroom just shifting back and forth like a dance, shifting your footwork back and forth. Each foot sideways is going to be opposite of the other, where the foot pressure is. So as the swing starts, you’re going to see foot pressure outside. Again, back foot. It’s going to shift to the inside of the back foot outside of the front foot. You’re going to see him stay inside, see the back heel, you might see it get close to vertical but you’re never going to see it pop over towards the plate.
7:40
And then you’ll see him actually shift it even farther backwards behind him where we say trying to line up this back butt cheek with the back heel, see the outside of the front foot foot pressure, see it go from inside, to outside, and then the back foot… we’re going from outside to inside. And then as he’s swinging here, you’re going to see that back he’ll push even farther behind him.
8:07
You can see the bottom of his cleat here, again, remember this pitch was up and in. So you’re going to see more the bottom of the cleat, especially when it’s middle in possibly middle up depending on how close the ball is, you’re going to see the ball or the, you’re going to not see as much of the bottom of the front cleat if the ball’s middle away or middle down.
8:26
But you can see that shifting foot pressure beautiful for keeping the hitter effectively between the 90 degrees of the field. Alright, remember in this Fernando Tatis Jr hitting mechanics video we talked about:
Fan-graphs and a few stats there and how he’s 6’3″, 185 similar to the long lanky Ted Williams body back in 1938 or 39 when he broke into the league.
We talked about some examples of the Big Three the Catapult Loading System that Fernando Tatis Jr is using, and
We also ended on how he stays sideways using the shifting foot pressure and using his lower half effectively.
9:09
Make sure that we’re swinging smarter by moving better. And before I let you go…
Grab 'Finger Pressure' Video
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
Click button below to access FREE video that has been downloaded over 20K times!
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/fernando-tatis-jr-hitting-mechanics-2.png7201280Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-10-11 09:00:282022-10-11 21:26:48Increase Hitting Power: Teach Kid To Hit Baseball Or Softball Farther & Harder Using Catapult Loading System Like Fernando Tatis Jr Swing!
In this Rope Bat review, discover the best place hitting aid training drill to hit opposite field home runs for baseball, fastpitch softball, and slow pitch softball pull hitters!
What Is The #1 Pitch Location Focus Against Hitters?
One of my favorite hitting aids for feeling this is the Rope Bat. In the above video, I demonstrate one of my favorite ways to teach hitters how to consistently smash the ball to the opposite field, which I call the “Deep, Deep” opposite field hitting drill.
But before I get there, let’s talk about setup. You’ll notice I’m in a small confined space for those parents that have the same challenge with being able to work on hitting stuff.
Like I said, there are two things you want to be concerned with: when the barrel enters the zone and where the contact point is. For this drill we’ll only setup the two (of three) catcher’s glove markers for Deep, Deep…
Set baseball or softball right under where the real catcher’s glove would be, and
Set another baseball or softball right under where a catcher’s glove would be IF his glove were inline with the hitter’s back foot.
Click this link to see contact points batting tee setup. If throwing LIVE, then make sure that whoever is throwing is targeting middle away or middle down in the zone.
And what we can do with the rope bat is we can get the hitter to feel deep deep deep barrel, deep contact by knocking off the back catcher’s glove, the real catcher’s glove and then passing right over the deep contact point. So we want to let it get deep and hit it deep.
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https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/boi0t1awtre.jpg423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-10-11 03:03:092022-10-11 03:03:09Rope Bat Review: Best Place Hitting Aid Drill To Hit Opposite Field Home Runs For Baseball, Softball, & Slow Pitch Pull Hitters
Learn about David Weck and the RMT Club youth power program in this interview review for baseball, softball, pitchers, golf, and runners. Discover the best in-season and off-season strength training exercise workout plan for 10 year olds up to college athletes.
David Weck Interview: More Speed, Control, & Power With LESS Wear And Tear On The Body
You asked for it!
I had quite a few of my readers ask me about the WeckMethod of training by David Weck. Btw, David is the inventor of the Bosu Ball, for those that train athletes for a living. And the readers who kept bringing up his training referred to his new product the RMT Club, which you’ll learn more about in the above interview.
If you’ve never heard about the WeckMethod of training, and want to know what sets it apart, please CLICK HERE to view the following 35-min video.
If you’re short on time, then here’s a brief introduction to the WeckMethod of training from David Weck:
“What I do is more fundamental foundational work than specific hitting instruction. My focus is improving systemic strength and power concentrating on Tensional Balance and Rotational Power – as well as non-dominant side training to provide a stronger foundation for sport specific skill.”
I feel like he’s onto something that most trainers ARE NOT. And it’s because he understands the foundation of locomotion. He has a fantastic understanding of the human movement “rules”.
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.
In my research, I fell into the following David Weck Carpool Tunnel fix video that helped get rid of the pinching in my right wrist, at the bottom of a push-up position, in about a week (I haven’t been good lately with my gymnastics wrist stretches 🙁:
Another great article I ran into in my research – and posted to social media – was an interview that Chris Holder did at BreakingMuscle.com with David Weck titled, “The Key To Speed Is In Your Spine” There are great nuggets in there along with a few training videos. It’s definitely worth your time.
The main video above is a Skype interview I did with David Weck that’s about 45-minutes. A lot of great information in there that translates to hitters and HOW TO train power. What follows are some of those talking points…
The Show Notes
How would you explain to a complete stranger what it is that you do? (1-min, 22-seconds)
DW explains Tensional Balance – relationship between suspension and transmission throughout your body, requires perfect alignment of skeleton, muscles, and connective tissue (1-min, 48-secs)
When tensional balance & rotational power are dialed in, you can express more speed, control, power, etc. with LESS wear and tear on the body (3-mins, 10-secs)
Where did DW’s passionate curiosity into this realm of training come from? (4-mins, 20-secs)
DW discovered slow motion analysis while playing D3 college football – you cannot understand human movement with that slow frame by frame motion analysis, the eye in the sky does not lie…clock doesn’t lie…measuring tape doesn’t lie (6-mins, 0-secs)
Unmatched degree of intensity to enhancing human locomotion because of Bosu Ball success…was able to devote entire focus to seeking and finding answers. (7-mins, 23-secs)
Deep appreciate that locomotion is the key, developing straight ahead speed, is the key to developing the greatest rotational power (9-mins, 0-secs)
Human movement industry is about to be flipped on its head because of this breakthrough understand of “core” strength…the “Bracing Core” (weight room and picking up heavy objects) versus the “Coiling Core” (engaging in lateral movement – side bending and head over foot) (9-mins, 40-secs)
Real versus Feel coaching, “My athletes are doing something that I’m not coaching them to do”, high level athletes have an innate sense of speed and power, but coaches are trying to coach it out of them, elite athletes (like Olympic Gold Medal winning sprinter Michael Johnson) saying to do the exact opposite of what they’re doing on film! Experts are teaching on a faulty foundation (11-mins, 40-secs)
DW is meeting with Marlon Byrd on getting specific with the WeckMethod exercises (14-mins, 7-secs)
Quick movement experiment…stand up right now and going through a throwing motion WITHOUT any side bending…how did that feel? Without side bend you’ll destroy your spine. You can train side bend. Locomotion is your foundation. (17-mins, 50-secs)
DW responds to the reader comment, “Is it logical to say that average kids can perform at a tier-1 level?” In context, the reader comment was to the claim that my 100-lb hitters consistently driving the ball 300-feet are standouts athletically. Also, what makes a kid athletic? (20-mins, 10-secs)
DW explains how to train ipsilaterally (right shoulder-right hip) to get the “Serape Effect” or I like to call the “Springy X Pattern” (right shoulder-left hip) optimized for performance. Tighten the coil, time the sequence, and keep center of gravity to be neutral. Take clunky and make them fluid. (22-mins, 20-secs)
DW discusses the curse of moving the center of gravity during rotation. Learning the axis of rotation, front/back, and side. Central control. Create a late rotate, like a whip. (25-mins, 0-secs)
The evolution of the spine, side bending is crucial to an S-shaped spine curve. (27-mins, 30-secs)
DW responds to the question, “Does sprinting, throwing, hitting start from the ground up? Why or why not”. CLICK HERE for the HPL link I referred to in the video (33-mins, 30-secs)
DW talks about harmonizing the muscles with the connective tissue. Least muscular contraction compared to the connective tissue. Muscles that are bound up, cannot relax. Transmission of force, power equals speed. Muscle acts like a circuit breaker. (34-mins, 0-secs)
DW discusses having tensional integrity between the muscles on the inside, and fascia on the outside. How integrity and connected the fascia is to muscles. Bonds never lost body-weight transmission when he bulked up. Strong is great, but not at a sacrifice of speed. (37-mins, 0-secs)
We discuss Thomas Myers, Anatomy Trains, “finger flick” test to demonstrate the power of connective tissue over muscle contraction (38-mins, 44-secs)
DW responds to the question, “If you were going to prescribe 2 of your top RMT Club exercises to a baseball or softball player, what would they be?” Coiling Head Over Foot movement. Pulse of power. (39-mins, 30-secs)
Please let me know if you want me to do a Part-2 interview with David Weck, and what questions you have for him about this presentation by REPLYING in the comments below…
Grab 'Finger Pressure' Video
Frustrated with fixing BAT DRAG? Beat it!
Swing Study reveals how majority of hitters are correcting 'racing back elbow' bat drag within 1-2 weeks WITHOUT overhauling swing mechanics OR buying fancy and expensive hitting aids.
Click button below to access FREE video that has been downloaded over 20K times!
https://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/David-Weck-RMT-Club-Youth-Power-Program-Review-For-Baseball-Softball-Pitchers-Golf-Runners.png423800Joey Myershttps://hittingperformancelab.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hitting-performance-labs_c90c0362088ef1d3d528f3078f4f8ac1-300x75.pngJoey Myers2022-10-10 09:30:452024-07-20 23:06:16David Weck RMT Club Youth Power Program Review For Baseball, Softball, Pitchers, Golf, & Runners | Best In & Off-Season Strength Training Exercise Workout Plan For 10 Year Olds AND College Players
, by Thomas Myers, and
, by Thomas Myers, and
, by Dr. Serge Gracovetsky.
,
,
principles, and
, for those that train athletes for a living. And the readers who kept bringing up his training referred to 
, which you’ll learn more about in the above interview.
, Jim Piersall book 
(44-mins, 0-secs)
