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

“How Do You Have Hitting Drills In A Small Time Window?”

If You Don’t Switch To Small Private Group Hitting Sessions Now, You’ll Hate Yourself Later

 

Learn how to build more effective hitting groups, make more money, charge clients less, and have more time with your family.  In this post, I’ll be addressing the following reader question…

“How do you have hitting drills in a small time window?” (Good for teams or individual instructors)

Here’s what we’ll be talking about in this video:How To Teach Hitting Drills in a Small Window

  • Theory of Constraints (what’s most important?),
  • Small Private Group Structure, and
  • Pro’s and Con’s

 

Theory of Constraints (what’s most important?)

  • My story: a MUST change to small private group sessions (2-6 hitters)
  • Supply & Demand: I didn’t want to raise prices per hitter (the fitness “boot camp” model)
  • What’s important to you? Certainty, Uncertainty, Significance, Connection, Contribution, Growth

 

75-min Small Private Group Structure

  • Dynamic Warmup (10 to 15-mins)
  • Beginning Ball Exit Speeds, swing recording & analysis (10-15 mins) – I use a PocketRadar
  • Stations (40-mins):
    • 1) Mechanical work off tee, soft toss, LIVE (with me),
    • 2) Over-Under load training (switching stations is based off this one),
    • 3) LIVE whiffle ball – slow pitching, hunting zones, controlling verticals, controlling horizontals
  • Ending Ball Exit Speeds & Review Questions (5-mins)

 

Pros and Cons to Small Private Group Hitting

  • Pros:
    • Help more hitters in small amount of time
    • More money in pocket of instructor, customer pays less for overall time
    • Each hitter gets their specific mechanical things to work on
    • Breeds a naturally competitive environment
    • Older players mentor, younger become mentees (their standard gets raised)
    • Learn teamwork, leadership, taking and receiving feedback, etc.
  • Cons
    • Can be hard for hitters used to individual lessons
    • Lose one-on-one touch with instructor
    • Not as much time to chit-chat (some players love to do this!)

 

Here’s what we talked about in this video:

  • Theory of Constraints (what’s most important?),
  • Small Private Group Structure, and
  • Pro’s and Con’s

This model isn’t perfect, so I would love to hear your advice on what’s worked for those who are already doing this (and what doesn’t), and welcome any questions or comments below the “Reply” section… (thanks in advance!!!)

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

Part-1: Dramatically Cut Your Hitter’s Learning Curve In Half By Doing This…

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Dramatically Improve HOW Your Hitters Learn By Listening In On A Local Lesson of Mine

Here’s what I have for you…

The above video is Part-1 of a three part series showcasing a local lesson of mine.

The objective of this video series is to share with coaches – literally – an “over-the-shoulder” look at how I do a local lesson.  More on this in a moment…

Zack is a 14-year-old hitter from Visalia, California, which is approximately an hour drive from me, one way.  And this is the first time I worked with him since about a year ago.  We’ve had about half a dozen session together in total.

Before we started this session, Zack was having a challenge with hitting line drives.  He was either hitting the ball on the ground or non-productive balls in the air.

DISCLAIMER about the video:

  • Fortunately the video quality is great because Dad used his GoPro, but unfortunately I wasn’t mic’d up, so the audio isn’t like some of my other videos.
  • We’re at a public High School on a Saturday afternoon, so there are other team noises, bird sounds, emergency vehicles, etc. going on in the background that can be distracting.

Now, what’s in this Part-1 video?

Let me expand on the video’s objective and how it can benefit coaches…

I get questions every week on how I’d run a practice or one-on-one session.  This is an over-the-shoulder look.  The main objective of this video series is to demonstrate how I use some of the “sticky” coaching principles covered in this post, and in my new book The Science Of Sticky Coaching: How To Turn Ordinary Athletes Into Extraordinary.

Sadly, a few coaches on the socials will be overly critical of this hitter, and I’m asking you to suspend judgement.  The purpose of this video IS NOT about being overly critical of the hitter’s swing, it’s about the demonstration and use of sticky coaching principles.

With that being said, swing suggestions are welcome, but be nice coaches.  Also, coaching suggestions are welcomed…but again, be nice.

Now, for those coaches looking to learn and help their hitters get better…ONWARD!

A typically lesson I do, is organized like the following, from start to finish (I’ve cut some parts out of this video for the sake of brevity):

  1. Dynamic warm-up,
  2. Beginning Ball Exit Speed readings,
  3. Record and analyze current swing,
  4. Lesson, and
  5. Ending Ball Exit Speeds readings.

What you can look out for in above video

  • Talking about how to pick the right bat size (1-3:30 min mark),
  • Showing him Miguel Cabrera’s landing position top hand and elbow positioning on my phone after video analysis of Zack’s swing (about 7-min mark),
  • Working on Zack’s top hand Finger Pressure (about 8-min mark),
  • Switching bats – over-loading with heavier end loaded bat with goofy PRX knob (about 13-min mark), and
  • Teasing the Part-2 video where we talk about lowering Zack’s hands to not get above armpit line to landing – and the benefits of (about 15:30-min mark).

Also, when it comes to sticky coaching principles, notice how I:

  • Move the tee positioning around after every swing (both high/low and inside/outside),
  • Vary soft toss heights and depths,
  • Vary mechanics on certain swings in a 5-swing round (I call these Varied Rounds), or practice one thing the whole round (I call these Block Rounds),
  • Ask quite a few feel, visual, and/or audio feedback questions AFTER round is over (think of it like a hitting quiz),
  • Keep my mouth shut during the 5-swing round (little to no feedback from me),
  • Don’t make Zack take a lot of swings during our time together,
  • Have him change his bat size during rounds, and
  • Work with him on simplifying the juggling of a couple different mechanical cues.
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