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How To AVOID Mental Hitting Block & STRUGGLING At Plate - Fun Game Like Batting Practice Stations

Fun Game Like Batting Practice Hitting Stations To AVOID Baseball Or Softball Mental Block & Struggling At The Plate

Discover fun game like batting practice hitting stations to AVOID the dreaded baseball or softball mental block and struggling at the plate.

Discover The “Paradoxical Intention” Secret To Making Adjustments

 

 

In this video, we’ll discuss:

  • Man’s Search For Meaning, by Dr. Victor Fankl and his theory of “Paradoxical Intention”
  • Making “horizontal” hitting adjustments,
  • Making “vertical” hitting adjustments, and
  • Making adjustments to the point of impact.
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Hitting Training For Baseball & Softball Swing Trainers | Hitting Performance Lab

Game Like Batting Practice: Fun Hitting Stations To STOP Struggling At Plate For Baseball & Softball

Discover game like batting practice.  Learn about fun hitting stations to STOP your son or daughter struggling at the plate for baseball and softball.

Train Ugly: Transition To Game Swings In Less Time With Random Practice

 

 

My friend and colleague, Lee Comeaux, Shared this video with me, and I just had to share it with you.  CLICK HERE for a post I did awhile back, showcasing 8 science of successful learning principles that are validated by empirical research.

This video goes into one of the principles mentioned in that post, the art of variance…Or “training ugly” as Trevor Ragan calls it in the video (CLICK HERE for his website).

Below are my bullet point notes from the above video:

  • 1:10 – performance is best because you do things that have higher levels of retention – does practice promote better retention?
  • 2:00 – What is a skill? Just Technique? 1/3 of the equation
  • 2:45 – Read, Plan, Do
  • 6:00 – How to practice this…Block (or Massed) Practice
  • 7:00 – Random Practice
  • 8:00 – Studies showing the benefits of Block versus Random Practice
  • 9:15 – Coach Tom Black explains WHY Block Practice is more attractive to coaches: ego and/or seeing immediate gains with it, answer the WHY – easier for coach to let go of Block Practice…find better ways to track progress (transfer and retention to games test)
  • 11:15 – WHY do we see dramatic gains transferred to competition with random practice? When Block Practice, we’re eliminating Reading and Planning from the motor learning equation. Random is like the game!  “You play volleyball, you don’t drill volleyball”.
  • 14:25 – taking a Growth Mindset into practice…Random Practice is more challenging, will make more mistakes, will be uglier, better for us, prepares us better for game situations

TRAIN UGLY Coaches!!

PLEASE share below how you’ve used this OR will use this with your hitters and players…

THANKS in advance for your responses 😀

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.

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

Right Course For You? Take Quiz Now
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Struggling To Hit In Games But Not In Cage Or Batting Practice? Discover Game-Like Baseball Softball Hitting Stations

Struggling To Hit In Games But Not In Cage Or Batting Practice? Discover Game-Like Baseball Softball Hitting Stations

Is your son or daughter struggling to hit in games but not in the cage or batting practice? Discover how to put together game-like baseball or softball small group hitting stations.

Cage Bombs: How-To Identify & Fix A “5 O’clock” Hitter

 

 

Okay, in all seriousness…I received an email from a reader named Garrett, and in response to a post I did, titled:

“What Every Coach MUST Know About Giving Feedback To Hitters”.  This post will identify and fix a “5 O’clock” hitter…

 

Identifying a “5 O’clock” Hitter

What is a “5 O’clock” Hitter?
One who ONLY “shows up” for batting practice, but not in a game.  In other words, BOMB!! lol
Here is Garrett’s email…
“Hey Joey, 
Does this sound like the recipe for a five o’ clock/inconsistent hitter to you?
  1. takes one swing then goes and analyze the video…repeats the process 30 times
  2. relies on someone else to tell the what they are doing wrong
  3. uses BP to try and hit bombs…how do your hitters use bp on the field for work?
  4. uses the tee to practice the perfect swing for the perfect pitch
Thanks.”

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.

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

Right Course For You? Take Quiz Now

How-To Fix a “5 O’clock” Hitter

My responses below addresses the numbered questions above (slightly edited)…

“Garrett,
  1. That sounds like a similar approach to Jaime Cevallos’s Positional Hitting!  Video analysis is a great source of external feedback, but like everything else, can be relied upon too much, or obsessively at times.  I’d prefer the hitter work out the kinks for at least 5-8 swings before filming again.  This can be supported in Peter C. Brown’s book Make It Stick.
  2. Hitters are their best own evaluators.  Nobody else can tell them how or what they felt on a particular swing.  I’ve had hitters like this, and typically it stems from mom or dad (or somebody) giving them the answers all the time growing up.  Not letting them make their own mistakes, and learning from them.  Young hitters have to fail on their own, then struggle for the adjustment…and if they need help after that, then coach can pick them up.  This has Daniel Coyle’s book The Talent Code written all over it.
  3. “Practice like you play, so you play like you practice”.  If you have to compete in a 100-meter sprint, you can’t train like you would for a marathon.  Marathon batting practice sessions (taking 8+ swings per round) are useless to a game swing.  My hitters take 3-5 swing rounds, and then get a brief break.  They’re also required to swing as hard as they can – under complete control – for each swing.  CLICK HERE for a great testimonial case study post from one of my San Diego dads, on the turnaround his two High School boys experienced making this switch.
  4. Mass practice off the tee is no good.  The tee position must be varied after each swing.  This is talked about extensively in Peter C. Brown’s book above as the Art of Variance.  Also, please refer to preceding point #3.
Hitting cage bombs gives a short-term boost to self-confidence.  And hitters who don’t do train for the “100-meter sprint” will break during competition.
Self-confidence is gained through working the process, staying the course, and not obsessively focusing on outcomes or their competition.  Gio Valiante’s book Golf Flow is a great resource for this type of thinking.”

BOMB!! 😀 lol

My question to you is…What are the one or two biggest mistakes you see coaches or players make in practicing like they’re going to play?

Please REPLY in the comments section below…

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

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

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

13 Tips On How To Build A Productive Hitting Practice

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

SCIENCE-BASED TRAINING:

Improve your hitting strategy dramatically by applying human movement principles.

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

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

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

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

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