Hitting Hands

Here is just a simple thought process for improving consistent contact as a hitter:

Where are your hands in relation to the ball at the point of contact?

A simple logical theory on hitting; - If you want to hit a ground-ball your hands must remain above the ball until the point of contact, thus striking down on the ball - If you want to hit a fly-ball or pop-up your hands must go below the ball at some point before the point of contact, thus striking up on the ball - If you want to hit a line-drive your hands must begin above the ball and then level out with the ball at the point of contact, thus driving through the ball with direct contact.

Ground-Ball = Hands Above Ball + Drive Down
Fly-Ball = Hands Below Ball + Drive Up
Line-Drive = Hands Slightly Above or Level w/ Ball + Drive Through

It is very rare for a hitter to want to go to the plate with a plan of hitting a fly-ball or pop-up. Good hitters and good fielders alike, know that it is much harder to field a well hit ground-ball than a fly-ball or pop-up. The ultimate goal being to hit a hard line-drive everytime up at bat. So to improve consistent and successful contact as a hitter, one should always focus on their hands staying slightly above or on plane with the ball until contact.

A great drill for this is working off of a high tee. Set the batting tee up to about 6 to 12 inches higher than normal. As a hitter, you want to work on getting on top of these pitches at first. Try to hit several hard, driven ground-balls back up the middle of the field or tunnel. This is showing you that your hands are staying up on top of the baseball or softball. If you continue to pop-up or hit weak ground balls, it is more than likely that your bat and hands are dropping below the ball before contact. Continue to force your hands to stay above the ball throughout your swing and drive the ball on a downward plane. You have now proven that you can handle the high pitch withouth popping-up or swinging underneath. Now put the tee back down to a normal height ( roughly level with your waist line, maybe slightly below ). With the tee back to a normal height, begin to drive the ball on a line back up the middle of the field or the tunnel. Work on keeping your hands up above the ball ( like the high tee ), but then level them out at the point of contact to create the low, driven line-drive. This is the swing you are looking for. You can now handle the high strike-zone pitch, normal strike-zone ptich, and the low strike-zone pitch because you have trained yourself to keep your hands above the ball until the point of contact.

This is a drill I recommend every hitter to come back to throughout their careers. It is a great training tool to become and maintain being a complete hitter, having complete control of the entire strike-zone from top to bottom.

At this time of year especially, "the offseason" - "winter months", hitters should be spending a lot of time working off of batting tees. Find a tee, a net, and some space and keep your hands above the ball. Get out there or get in there and PLAY BALL !!!

Boys, Take a Lesson from the Girls

I have just recently moved to the northern New Jersey area from the Philadelphia area. With this relocation, I began instructing at a new facility up here in New Jersey. My first assignment at the new facility was helping out with a rotating group of high school girls softball players. The group size ranges from roughly 8 to 15 girls depending on the day with sessions lasting for one hour at a time.

I want to preface the message of this post by saying that I have worked with softball players ages 8 to 18 in the past, but primarily on an individual basis on fielding and hitting. This is the first time in my instructing career that I am working with a "team" of softball players at once. I'm beginning to get the hang of working with the group. The concepts are all the same from baseball to softball, but the speed and size of the softball field make the intrinsics of the sport remarkably different.

Regardless of all the little nuances, the games are still the same in principality. The team who can hit, field, pitch, and run the bases the best is going to come out on top more often than not. With that being said, I want to get into the message of this post.

"Boys, Take a Lesson from the Girls" is a title that is meant to pay homage to a generalization I have come to realize about softball girls. The generalization is that softball girls LISTEN !!! As an instructor, the greatest skill we could ask for out of a player that comes to us for lessons is that they LISTEN. I'd rather work with a kid ( boy or girl ) who has zero athletic ability and/or talent but LISTENS than a kid with all the talent in the world but tunes me out the whole lesson. The kid who LISTENS is going to enjoy the lesson more, improve the most, and of course the instructor is going to enjoy the lesson as well. Again , this is a generalization. I know for a fact that there are boys out there who do a great job of listening ( I have instructed some of them in the past ). I am just blown away by the vast majority of softball girls who LISTEN. Maybe I've just gotten lucky with who I've worked with, but the point remains that LISTENING is an incredibly valuable thing to both the player and the instructor.

There are thousands of instructors out there right now passing on priceless amounts of knowledge to young athletes and a lot of it never gets absorbed. As a former professional baseball player, I can assure you that talent can only take you so far. So as the title says, "Boys, take a lesson from the Girls" and start to LISTEN. Find an instructor with experience and knowledge and set your mind on focus for 30 minutes to an hour, you'll be amazed at what you learn.

DISCLAIMER - not all boys are bad listeners and not all girls are good listeners. the title of this post was based on a generalization realized through experience. the purpose of this post is to inform young athletes ( boys or girls ) of the importance of listening when it comes to coaching / instruction from a qualified source.

Until next time, cold weather just means you have to find somewhere inside to PLAY BALL !!!

A Hitter's Best Friend

From the first time we pick up a bat until the last day we lace up our spikes there is one training tool that remains a constant throughout, the batting tee. The batting tee should quickly become a hitter's best friend and remain within close reach throughout their careers. It is the only training tool that has withstood the test of time and can be found on little league fields all the way up to major league batting cages. A training tool with an extremely impressive track record indeed.

What makes the batting tee such a worthy companion? Simply put, it's simplicity. The batting tee takes away all the variables; pitch speed, pitch location, pitch movement. The ball is stationary, placed right where you want it. It's just you and your swing that determine what kind of contact you make with the ball. A poor swing results in poor contact and a quality swing results in quality contact. But what is quality contact off of a tee?

A good approach to hitting off of a tee is to drive the ball on a level ( line-drive ) or slightly downward plane ( hard ground ball ). The reason being, a hitter wants his / her swing to be direct to the ball. A quick and direct swing with extension is a hitter's primary objective when the ball is in motion. Thinking logically, the hitter's hands will start above the ball. In order to be direct and quick, the hitter will then descend down and toward the ball to make contact. Thus, creating the level to slightly downward angle of the driven ball from the tee.

The hitter must learn to trust that his / her swings off of a tee that result in well struck line-drives and low line-drives ( hard ground balls ) will translate into pitched balls being struck with backspin. These pitched ball contacts with backspin will cause the ball to carry, which in turn will result in well struck singles, doubles, triples, and home runs. Continue to practice a quick and direct swing for the best results. A hitter's swing is sculpted in practice and the batting tee is a great way to create a mold to build from.

So do as thousands of major leaguers have done befor you, get yourself a batting tee and make friends with it. Continued success in all you do and play ball !!!

- More Posts on specific drills with the batting tee to follow -

Why Ask Why?

A baseball / softball player will receive advice, tips, drills, and general coaching knowledge from a wide variety of people in their lives. Whether it be from a former professional player like myself, little league coach, or dear old Dad, the job of a successful baseball / softball player is to take in all of that information with an open mind, practice it relentlessly, and after extensive trial and error evaluate if that information works for them. The difficulty lies in the fact that not all the information a young player will be given will be good information. Nobody wants to waste their time and effort practicing something that isn't going to help them. But fear not, the beauty of baseball / softball is that the fundamentals and mechanics are all logical. This means that anyone who is giving information should be able to back up that information with an explanation that makes sense. The best advice I can give to a player, regardless of age, is to politely ask "why?". Any source of good information will be able to give you an answer that makes sense as to why they are suggesting you to do a certain thing.

For example, Dad stands behind the batting cage and readily repeats the same mantra, "Keep your back elbow up, keep your back elbow up". This one is a personal favorite of mine. Now let's take a second and think about that, "why Dad?". I'm yet to hear a good reason for this one. The most common responses are, "that's how the big leaguers do it" and "that's how my Dad taught me". Let's think logically now. A back elbow that starts up must come....? You got this, "down" during a swing. Nice job. When that back elbow starts to come down, more often than not, so does that young hitter's hands. when the hands drop, so does the bat and that means they are now swinging underneath the ball or coming from under the ball. The end result will almost always be a swing and miss, pop-up, or weakly hit ground ball. So why do the big leaguers swing like that? They are super strong, grown men. When they drop the back elbow they are strong enough to keep their hands up. Even if they don't keep their hands up, they are strong enough to hit the ball 300+ feet and clear the fence with a swing that comes up from under the ball. So why did my Dad teach me to swing like that? Well, probably because his Dad taught him to swing like that and his Dad's Dad taught him to swing like that. Unfortunately, being a man doesn't always qualify Dad as a good source of baseball information.

I teach young hitters to swing with a relaxed, slightly pointing down back elbow. "Why?", you ask ( hopefully you will ask now ). Well, a relaxed back elbow allows the hitter to keep their hands up ( above or on the same level as the ball ) during their swing. Therefore, they can now attack pitches from the height of their hands down to their knees, the entire strike zone, with a direct and level swing. The key word there being "direct". Now that the back elbow is relaxed, when the swing starts the hitter can take their hands directly to the ball instead of waiting for the elbow to drop or dropping with the elbow during the swing. A successful line-drive swing is a direct and quick swing that meets the baseball on a nearly level plane.

I hope this example helped to illustrate my point that not all instruction or information will be good information. But, fortunately, we can start to weed out some of the bad information just by asking a simple question, "why?". I will do my very best in all of my posts on this blog to explain the "why?". If for any reason, you have any more questions or need a better explanation, please do not hesitate to ask. I pride myself on being an instructor and person of knowledge on baseball / softball that can back up the information that I give. Thank you for your time and play ball !!!