Online Hitting Lessons Mechanics Analysis Program For Baseball Or Softball Swing | Increase Bat Speed & Hit For More Power With Remote Instruction
Discover our online hitting lesson mechanics analysis program for the baseball or softball swing. Learn how to increase bat speed and hit for more power with our remote instruction. Check out 9 year old Ethan’s case study…
Hit Training: What Your Hitting Instructor Won’t Tell You & How It Can Save You Time And Money
Before we dig into 9yo Ethan’s hit training case study 3-part series, I wanted to RANT on something that transpired this past week. Where does the MAJORITY of power come from? I recently posted this on Facebook:
Where does the MAJORITY of consistent power come from in the #Baseball and #Softball swing?A) Legs,B) Hips…
Posted by Hitting Performance Lab on Tuesday, August 28, 2018
The comments under this post were a little confirmation bias because my readers – who know my hit training teachings – not shockingly responded with “C”. Please note: the keyword is “majority” in that question. Unlike my readers – who know better, in the social media reality I can tell you the majority teach the legs and/or hips (pelvis) to be the main driver of power.
This is what your hitting instructor won’t tell you and can save you time and money: Legs and/or hips aren’t the main drivers of power.
The hips (or better yet – the pelvis) are a start, making up 1/3 of the spinal engine. And I can prove it with REAL science! If you haven’t already, then please check out the following two posts, and you’ll see my reasoning:
- Is Rotating Back Hip Through Zone Necessary For Power? (please pay attention to the water polo throw analogy)
- The Swing DOES NOT Start From The Ground & Move Up?
The following video is the first link in “video” form, in case you want to “watch” the gist in 4-mins and 30-secs…
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The week prior, I debated with a few “leg/hip drives majority of power” hit training gurus on Twitter, and I posed this question,
“Do legs drive the spinal engine, or does the spinal engine drive the legs?”
And I followed that question up with the following statement:
“The answer to that question will determine credibility in hitting mechanic circles” (something to that effect)
That caught some off guard. Bold statement another well known said. “Yes. It is,” I responded. Tis’ the facts. Some ask me, aren’t you afraid others will take this information, claim it without attribution, and take all the glory? I say no, because Hitting Guru #57 is too stubborn to listen and learn. They clutch to their hitting dogmas like a rich woman and her Prada walking through the “ghetto”. And last time I checked, opinions ARE NOT facts.
Do you know how many Physical Therapists, Doctor MD’s, Physicists, Chiropractors, Engineers, and other Body Workers follow me? A LOT! If I was full of it – as my wife says – do you think THEY would be following me and offering kudos to what I’m doing?
Okay, RANT over. Let’s move onto a young 9-year-old hitter, Ethan, that I’m VERY proud of. He’s put in so much hard work, bought into the process (which is key), and has made fantastic strides with his swing in less than 6 short months…pun intended 😛
In this 3-part series we’ll be covering:
- Ethan case study The Feedback Lab online hit training video [YOU ARE HERE],
- Khris Davis Swing Analysis: Ball Exit Speed & Launch Angle Hacking With Khris Davis [Part-2],
In Part-1 (tippy-top video above), Hit Training: Catapult Loading System Like Andrew McCutchen [9yo 6-Month Case Study], we’ll be discussing:
- How far Ethan’s swing has come,
- What he’s working on next, and
- Follow up notes about Ethan’s progress…
PLEASE NOTE: Ethan is still on the journey, his swing isn’t perfectly clean yet. This is only a 6-month snapshot of how far his swing has come. Don’t be that “guy” and judge his swing at this point in time, celebrate it!
How far Ethan’s Swing has Come
I keep notes on all my online hit training hitters at The Feedback Lab. Here are a few things Ethan had working well for him before we started (Thanks Peter! – he’s dad btw):
- Forward Momentum,
- Good space between feet before the turn, and
- Decent barrel path, not extreme down or up.
In Ethan’s first online hit training with me, I wanted to start working with him on:
- Finger Pressure,
- Being more athletic with bend at waist (hip hinge), and bend in knees – being more athletic, and
- Developing more of a “float” type (experiment with either leg kick, toe tap, or slide step).
Fast forwarding over the past six months together (six total online hit training sessions), our working strategy methodically moved to other human movement principles such as:
- Barrel Angle “Flashlight” Drill,
- Babe Ruth Drill – weight shift into the ball, and giving him a little more gap between his feet before the turn was key here,
- Catcher’s Glove Concept and Pounding the Nail,
- Wall Turn Drill – I haven’t done a blog post on this yet, but it’s similar to the Snapping Towel Drill (Thanks Chas!),
- Showing Numbers,
- Downhill Shoulder Angle – I’m sorry but the video for this linked post mysteriously disappeared from my YouTube channel, and
- Taking Slack Out of The System – I don’t have a blog post on this yet, but it has to do with ‘hiding hands’ from the pitcher, and lengthening out the front arm at landing, similar to Perry Husband’s arm bar.
By the way, I don’t typically cover this much in such a short period of time with a 9-year-old, but Ethan was ON IT!! Diligent with getting in his 4-5 days per week, for at least 5-mins per day. He worked the process like a ROCK STAR, and is one of the many reasons I’m so proud of him 😀 Ethan is a coaches dream client!
What’s that famous quote…? “Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t show up.” Yah, that’s Ethan.
Now, let’s move on to…
What Ethan’s Working on Next…
As many of you coaches or instructors who do hit training for a living, every hitter has one or two things their brain/body doesn’t want to give up easily. These stubborn challenges don’t go away without a fight. Here are Ethan’s:
- Showing numbers to the pitcher at landing, and
- Taking Slack Out of the System to landing.
You’ll see in Part-2 of this series when we look at high level MLB hitters, the key to these two human movement principles is to get that “shape” at stride landing.
Okay, so let’s move on to…
Follow up Notes about Ethan’s Progress…
Here’s some of the hit training dialog over the past few months between Peter (dad) and I via email…
“Joey, hope all is well and you’re enjoying the summer. Attached is Ethan latest video from this weekend. We took a week off while on vacation at the end of June, but Ethan’s been great the last three weeks getting in 5-6 sessions a week. He really likes these round of drills and tells me he’s feeling more power. You’ll see he’s changed up his stance a bit. He made that change naturally while working through the drills. Thanks Joey looking forward to your feedback!” – Peter (Mon, Jul 16, 2018)
After sharing these particular hit training “marching orders”, Peter said this…
“Thanks Joey, great feedback and analysis as always. The great part is that I’m also learning from you as we continue along. As I was getting ready to send you the last video I was seeing a lot of what you discussed in your analysis; keeping the shoulder angle and showing numbers to landing, and the top hand coming off way too soon. But I was struck by the consistency with his swing, every one had good barrel angle at landing, head movement after landing is way down and as you mentioned you can really see a much more confident swing! Thanks again Joey, we couldn’t be happier! Looking forward to getting back at it! Talk again in a few weeks!” – Peter (Thursday, Jul 19, 2018)
And finally, after sending the most recent “tippy top” hit training video analysis above to Ethan and Peter, and after asking permission to share that video with you all, Peter said this…
“Joey, absolutely, we’d be honored and he’ll be so excited. It’s funny because I was also going to send you a note today. We did the taking the slack out drill for the first time yesterday, ran through it doing break it apart and then we always finish up our sessions with about 30 soft toss balls. The first soft toss ball he did it beautifully and he just says “oh wow”, I asked him if he felt the difference and his eyes light up and he says “oh yeah, I crushed it but didn’t even feel the ball it just jumped off the bat.” Thanks for everything Joey! Looking forward to seeing the blog post!” – Peter (Wednesday, September 5, 2018)
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1. Say What (11:00 mark in your video)? When did you become PC? 🙂 We’re finally winning the launch angle debate. It’s becoming main stream. See 7:02 mark in link below. Although Al lost his train of thought during the segment he was trying to show how Matt’s slugging percentage was the same regardless of shift after May 15 because of his launch angle. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FFvSF_QjZz4
You can’t hit it over the infielders or over the fence if you hit the ball horizontal to the ground at impact, but you can hit a hard line drive right at the infielder for an out. Stay the course. Stick with productive launch angles. 🙂
2. Great video on pelvis, spine and shoulders. Is there a better way to use the pelvis? The pelvis should be “open” at heel touch. Like taking slack out of the system with the arm, this takes slack out of the CLS. Kris Davis is a great example of pelvis “open” at landing.
3. As always, great stuff!
Fred!! Thanks for the comment. Haha, PC yes. Ignorant people out there are associating “Launch Angle” with “popups”. Dumb I know. Just want people to ask questions. I love the referenced time stamps. I saw a similar shift stat on Bryce Harper, pretty much the same, slight uptick without the shift. I know what you’re saying, and I love an optimal launch angle, however in the video I’m talking about intent. Hitting keeping batted ball off bat same height as ball coming in helps my hitters keep the ball non-productively out of the air. My hitters still get optimal launch angles with this, but the ball sizzles off the bat. I’m not breaking our launch angle precedent, I assure you 😉
Yes, the pelvis is 1/3 of the spinal engine, I’m not taking away from it, but the rotation at that part of the spine should be minimal 7-12 degrees. Stride open yes I agree. And I LOVE Khris Davis’s swing. Going to do a video on him soon! Thanks for the continued support my friend 😀
Joey, seriously your not going to comment on my comments ever… come on… so the ground up nonsense…
How bout this I put it in terms how I see it and you tell me what you think…
To start the high level swings on the back movement… than load than forward movements… as such… we use our hands and feet and neck/head to go in than we go out…
So the ground up flow is one part of it… but not in the forward movement… and for me it’s important to getting the perfect posture in order to load and go forward… Pleade let me know what you think… so it’s out to in and in to out…. Hope all is well and happy thanksgiving ….
~DM
Djura, don’t take offense. Sometimes your comments are overwhelming in number, and I don’t have a ton of time to read and respond. I know you like to share as soon as the thought hits you, but I encourage you to let it rattle around in your head a little longer. As I heard one well known (drunk) author put it after someone commented how often he was drunk and how in the heck he was able to put together such fantastic prose, where the author responded: “The good Sh$% sticks!”. I love you sharing, and I do read most of them.
Look, I’m not perfect either, and I know I confuse probably a lot out there, but I’m continually using this “the good Sh$% sticks” principle. As to your comment, I try and simplify because we can make human movement (where it starts and ends) REAL complicated. I get people thinking. Most think the swing starts from the ground up. But it depends on what the outcome you’re looking for…power, speed, underwater basket weaving, etc. It depends on the movement lens you’re seeing this through. I see it through power, so that’s why I say from spinal engine out. Legs are only 20-30% of it.
Sorry about the spelling, it’s Khris
#GBsuck
Question are we trying to have a launch angle or does it just happen…or said another way, does the proper launch angle get “Launched”…its not a teach or focal point but a product of the right swing so its something that one can see externally to know if the internals are working well…think about it…
And legs or hips being a source of power and getting the back hip through are two different things….Can the legs and hips be powerful moving in other ways. OF COURSE!
Its not from the ground up…Well…..what do you mean? Are you suggesting that the human body made to walk on two feet on the ground is not producing ground up flow of energies…Because your wrong if that the case…if you saying that it ALL comes from the ground up and we need not bother with those people as they don’t have a clue…but posture itself is a product of the ground up flow of energy…and if you believe and here’s where I have a faith base approach that there’s no such thing as perfect posture than we need ground up forces and if that’s the case than obvious the body is all connected so there are other forces to go along with those forces….
Last point, for me, the swing doesn’t start at the forward movement but when we enter the box and grasp the bat…So yes, the ground is important to the system…by the way…I wonder how we get our spinal engine up to start…oh wait we have to use our legs and leverage the ground…but I know that’s a silly statement or is it one of those things that is right in front of us and we just don’t want to look hard enough….I guess if you crush a ball it could feel like the lower half is passive…Well I guess your right…the legs have no power since we ALL hold our spinal engine the same way…We hold our spinal engine up for hours so it can be the legs…obviously the something about rotation this and that…it must be in that…although linear goes something…and side bending doesn’t have to do with our legs….
Joey…Question??? what if our legs are disconnected …and if its important to connect them that how and why would we do that if our legs are not a source of power…and is the question even biased….what IF our legs are disconnected..what if I said….what if our legs are always disconnected and each person may have different magnitudes of disconnection….What if I can actually make sense at least once….Anyway, hope all is well….and as you know, my perspective is not to lose sight of the system and not to put one part vs another part…and when we have a system it could be hard to calculate power per se….because when the system has switches, connections…etc…it could be a little weak muscle that makes it not work….my take is the power is with the approach…and the approach is within the guidelines of the system…And I know what I’m saying sounds like fluff to some…it might be…hope all is well…
And question…if we say use your spine…is that the same as get inside of the baseball, hit the ball hard, throw strikes…What good does “use your spine” or “use your spinal engine” phrases do for producing a high level swing…