coach2709(hitting)

Thanks patriot I feel honored that you want to get an idea of what I like to teach in terms of hitting. You are right that we are in full swing of things and have a game tonight so I'll try to get some stuff after i get home.

Are there any specific questions you got?

Whew - long night. We were able to pull out a close one 14 - 0 in 5 innings.

Ok overall I doubt my philosophy will be overly popular with most people because it doesn't really endorse the whole working the count philosophy. On paper it is a pretty simple overall philosophy and most people thing "well duh - of course that is what you want" but the major difference is we want to swing the bat and don't care what the count is.

To put it simply we have three goals in our hitting

1. Attack fastballs in the zone early in the count
2. Be disciplined at the plate to hit pitches in the zone
3. Lay off anything offspeed / breaking until have to

Reason why this seems slightly unconventional is if you watch my hitters you will see them swing at a lot of pitches early in the count. Most people don't like this because it doesn't "work the count". Well what is working the count? Hitters want to set up a pitcher to try and get a certain pitch in a certain count. My question is - why can't you hit what they give you early in the count?

You are going to see somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 - 80% fastballs in a game with the other 20 - 30% being offspeed / breaking pitches. The easiest pitch in baseball to hit is the fastball so why take good fastballs that are early in the count? I have absolutely no problem with my leadoff hitter taking a good hack at the first pitch fastball.

Here is our thinking based on each goal

1. Attack fastballs early in the count

I sometimes call this fastbreak baseball. We want to put the ball in play and keep the pitcher moving and the defense moving. Whether it's straight up swings or hit and runs or bunt and runs we want to put pressure on the defense to make plays. Plus by attacking fastballs we feel we should be able to start hitting hard shots all over the place. We try to hit the whole field thru early fastballs. If a first pitch is a fastball on the outerhalf we want to take a good cut to hit it hard to the opposite field. If it's inside we want to take a good cut to hit to pull side. Two absolutes we have are that if you don't feel comfortable on a pitch then take it and the other is we don't take check swings. Either swing the bat or take the pitch. Reason being is you will have more success take a good cut on a ball out of the zone than taking a check swing on a ball down the middle of the plate you get fooled on. Basically get your money's worth.

2. Be disciplined at the plate to hit pitches in the zone

For this aggressive philosophy to work you can't expand the zone and swing at stuff outside of the zone. When hearing this philosophy most people think our walk total is abysmal but really the team total for walks is very high when we adhere to this rule. A lot of pitchers like to get hitters to chase but with discipline you lay off that pitch. Another thing about this philosophy that people have the wrong idea is that we don't force the other pitcher to run their pitch total up. But the reality of the situation is if you are disciplined at the plate and lay off stuff out of the zone the other pitcher's total will go up dramatically.

One of two things are going to happen - guy tries to nibble and get the hitter to chase but by being disciplined he has to throw stuff in the zone where we can start to pound it. OR you got a guy who throws a lot of stuff in the zone and by attacking it and hitting it hard he gets a little shaken and starts missing so now the walk total goes up.

3. Lay off anything offspeed / breaking until have to

Vast majority of high school pitchers cannot throw curves for strikes around 70% of the time. Since they cannot get you out by throwing a good curve then why swing at it? Even if it's early in the count why swing at something that is difficult to hit? Take it because the chances of them throwing another curve are slim and the chances are even slimmer they can follow a curve for a strike with another curve for a strike. You get three strikes so why waste them swinging at pitchers pitches? Plus this is also where the walk / pitch count total goes up. By laying off this stuff the chances of getting ahead in the count go up and therefore seeing a good fastball gets better.

By taking this philosophy we are trying to put pressure on the pitcher / defense. Hitting the ball hard all over the field, getting guys on base and looking to take every extra base we can makes life miserable for pitchers / defense (I got a philosophy on baserunning that ties in with this but don't have the time to go into it tonight - let me know if you want to hear it). It's tougher on a pitcher when they are in the stretch and have to hold runners. They got to mix up their looks, pick off moves, scared to bounce pitches, slide step or leg kick are all things that go through a pitcher's head which creates pressure.

I said this one other time on here and two or three people tried to tell me how stupid I was but honestly I feel they are wrong. I don't want to see home runs by my team - I want to see hard hit balls that are singles, doubles and triples. Whenever someone hits a homerun it can create a new mindset for a pitcher if they are tough mentally. They can give up the bomb and shake it off. They can go back to the windup and concentrate just on pitching. Give up a bomb they can tell themselves "well that was a bad pitch - I can overcome it". By hitting the ball all over the place and keeping runners on it creates that feeling of when will it end. When is the pitcher going to get an easy out? Throw a pitch and it's a good one but gets hit hard. Look up three batters later and there are runners all over the place. The pitcher never gets a chance to take a deep breath and "start over" because they are constantly working in jams. Don't get me wrong - if one of my guys goes yard I'm going to give them a high five with a huge smile on my face. We'll take it and get back to work.

In order to teach this we do all kinds of drills to work on staying back, hitting the other way and drills I'm sure you already do. But the things we do differntly is we constantly quiz batters when they are hitting in BP - "Was that a strike or ball?" "Where in the zone was that pitch you just hit?" "Is there anywhere else on the field that you could have hit that ball where it would have been more solid contact? - - - HOW?" By doing this we get them to start recognizing location which helps with the discipline in the zone. We also have key phrases that really don't do much except to reinforce the goal of hitting strikes. Things like "Hit the zone" "Don't expand" "Stay on the ball" (basically a keep hands back quote to look opposite field) "Hit the field" (use the whole field to hit) - just simple things like that.

To go back to the hitting linedrives we concentrate on just hitting the ball hard. We tell them all the time to hit the ball hard that when it comes off the bat it has teeth. This is where you need to focus on a good quality at bat chart system instead of just a typical batting average. If I got a kid hitting .220 but he's hitting rockets he's going to stay in the lineup because his QAB avg is going to very high. We tell our guys all the time all a homerun is is just a linedrive that was hit a little bit harder. We want the balls in the gaps and corners so we can run all day long.

Overall though this philosophy won't win too many games in the first 3 or 4 innings against good teams. This is an offense that will wear you down if you're facing a good team. The taking of pitches and hitting linedrives will eventually help you in the later innings. It also leads to some quick innings becuase you have guys swinging early in the at bat. You can't panic when that happens but just ride it out and let the law of averages work in your favor.

It's not a real fancy or tricky philosophy. It's a real simple philosophy that isn't too far off from the mainstream once you get into it. I love it and the kids usually love it because they want to swing the bat. I want them to swing the bat so let them swing the bat. One of the things I like about this is you are letting kids see how tough other kids are mentally. It's not about what coaches can do in the box or how many pitches a coach can force out of a pitcher from various things. It's a great offense because it's kids playing the game. We do a heck of a lot of teaching during practice but when that game starts they are on their own. All we do is tell them when to bunt, steal and hit / run. Other than that it's their job to swing the bat or take a walk if that's what they are given.

Hope this is what you were looking for and if you have any other questions feel free to ask away. I'm going to bed now LOL.

Coach 2709,
Congrats on squeaking by! I love the hitting philosophy you outlined. We do the exact same. It simply works. One thing that many do not understand is that by being aggressive and looking for that FB early, you force that pitcher to start nibbling. If a pitcher is uncomfortable throwing his FB early and relies on off-speed stuff, we usually end up drawing more walks. If a pitcher proves he can control the off-speed pitches in the zone all night, we tip our hat to him and adjust a little. It is a good philosophy. Great stuff Coach.

Good stuff coach. I have a little different approach. Each hitter has his approach that I want him to take to the box with him. And that approach can change from at bat to at bat during a game. For instance 4 hole hitter. Sit on a hanging cb and hammer. Sit on off speed because that is what you are going to get. Fastballs out of the zone and off speed in the zone. Dont look or sit on what you are not going to get. Sit on what you know you are going to get.

How is the pitcher attacking hitters? How did he attack you your last ab? Did he start you out with a grooved fb that you hammered? If so sit on a hanger and bang it.

How good is the guy we are facing today? Is his fastball good? Does it command your respect as a hitter? How good is his off speed stuff? Has he shown he can work ahead early in the count with off speed for strikes? Learn from the guys in front of you. Learn from your previous at bats.

If your a kid that will have to cheat to hit a very good fastball then sit on fast ball and forget the offspeed stuff. If your a 3 4 5 batter that constantly gets pitched in reverse then have a game plan that works for the way you get pitched.

Just some thoughts to ponder. Great stuff as usual coach.

Awesome information. What do you think you do that makes your team a mechanically sound team, if you feel you are that. Do you have a specific drill series?

#1- Sound hitting mechanics
This will vary from hitter to hitter in my program or any program I coach in. Ex- Some kids can hit with a high slotted elbow and some can not. Some can mash with no a no stride approach just pick it up and put it down. Some stride and mash. In other words there are some things that the individual hitter does that works for him and allows him to be successful. Those things we do not address unless the hitter simply is not hitting. Then we take a look at what we feel are the reasons he is not performing at a solid level.

We want a short stroke that gets in the zone quickly and stays in the zone a long time. We want to work the entire field hitting the baseball where it is pitched. So mechanics of the swing will focus on these areas. The bottom line is I do not believe in cloning hitters. I do not believe that what works for one kid will work for every kid. In hs baseball the level of natural ability varies greatly. The level of prior instruction and experience varies greatly as well. The difference in core strength and physical development varies greatly. In other words one kid may need to do certain things that another may not need to do. So you work with each player as an individual and play off his strengths while you work on his weakness. Those strengths will vary from player to player and weakness will vary as well.

If you teach one style of hitting and one approach and you try and teach every kid the same stance , etc etc you will stunt the growth of some hitters while you may be helping another.

So my big thing is what are the things that every good hitter must do to be successful? Those are the things we base our core principles of hitting on for every player.

#2 - Approach in the box. Shut up and let them hit. When its game time shut up quit coaching them up in the box and allow them to play. In order to hit you need to have 100 percent of your focus on hitting. What degrades a hitters ability to do this? Coaching them up from the 3rd base coaching box. Coaching them up from the dugout. Players allowing outside forces to creep in while they are trying to do exactly what you teach them to do. Block out everything around you and focus on hitting with 100 percent of your ability.

Teach them to find the baseball from the moment they step in the box and track the baseball all the way in. Do not swing at a baseball - hit the baseball. Track the baseball all the way in and work on hitting the baseball deep in the zone.

Approach is critical. Know what you do well. Know your pitch. Know the situation. Be prepared to hit then decide not to swing if you dont like it. Dont be prepared not to swing and then decide you do like it.

Drills for me are player specific. I do not want to spend precious time working on something with a player that needs to be working on something else. By everyone working on the same things all the time you save time and its a lot easier. But it is poor use of your time and the players time.

The vast majority of our time spent hitting is live bp working on hitting the baseball where it is pitched. Allowing the baseball to travel and tracking it deep. And talking about your approach and how to adjust depending on the things I mentioned in my earlier post. Look to mash. Aggressive early in the count on pitches in the zone. Looking for something and then not being surprised when you get it. Vs predetermined swings on what you hoped you were going to get.

Keep it simple approach. Get in the box with a game plan - Approach. Attack the pitcher. Have a swing that allows you to see the baseball deep and allows you to get the bat in the zone quickly and stays in the zone for a long time. Hit the baseball where it is pitched. Expect success because you have prepared for success.

quote:

Have a swing that allows you to see the baseball deep and allows you to get the bat in the zone quickly and stays in the zone for a long time.

Coach May,

How do I teach the above statement to my kid. He is struggling at the plate and he has a million thoughts going through his head right now. I am really intrigued by the "get to the zone quickly and stay in the zone for a long time". How do I recognize if my son has a probelm with this. I am a newcomer to the sight and not a coach. I do not know if I have over stepped my bounds by responding in this section.

Great stuff guys and I love the exchange of ideas. I don't have time to get into your question patriot but once again I will do it tonight after practice (no game so hopefully it won't be a nailbiter). I will say that I love what Coach May has said. Obviously my approach is slightly different than what he's put but there actually a lot of similarities to what he teaches that I will talk about later.

gap2gap absolutely no problem coming in here as a parent. I think I can give you my answer to that question later tonight as well. Coach May will definately give his answer as soon as he reads this. He's one of the guys that when he types something you better read it. May not always agree with him but it will definately make you think. There are several other guys on here in that same boat.

Great stuff...could try to add something but wouldn't say it as well.

Way too often we get hung up with the mechanical side of hitting but ignore what I consider the most important aspect of hitting and that is the mental side. Always preferred pitching to dummy hitters no matter how good their swing was.

Coach May I like what you are doing with getting your guys to develop an approach at the plate based on the type of hitter, at bat, etc.... I guess we sort of take an approach that is the reverse of what you do in a way. You're talking about hitters realizing that probably be seeing a curveball to start out an at bat and then sit on it to hit it. We expect our hitters to realize this too but overall we don't want to swing at the curve unless we have to. If the pitcher cannot get a curve over consistently for strikes then at some point he has to come in there with a fastball. That's what we want to hit. Now if they can get a curve over for strikes on a pretty consistent basis we are now going to change our approach and start swinging at more curves early because it's now the pitch we are getting.

Also, our concept of not swinging if not comfortable is totally up to them. To me this ties in with the no check swing rule. If they see a pitch they get fooled on or don't feel like they can hit hard then they take it. We want them to step in the box, read fastball and be ready to attack it if they feel like they can hit it. We still want to focus on our hot spots of hitting the strike zone but we feel we should be able to still handle fastballs in the yellow zone with authority. For example a typical left hand hitter likes the ball low and in. That is their hot spot but their yellow spots are in the neighborhood of middle in and low / away. So we're ok with them attacking those spots early on if they can hit it hard.

If I got a guy who can mash and he's getting pitched backward it shouldn't really matter because they will have to prove they can get the curve over for strikes. If a pitcher starts out with a hanging / floating curve we just treat that as a bad fastball and jump on it.

We're not really a free swinging bunch and I believe you realize that. This was basically the approach I took as a hitter back in the day. Nobody taught this to me and I guess I just figured it out. My senior year I had zero homeruns but I hit over .400 with very few strike outs. Actually I probably could have hit for an even higher average but I'm slower than Christmas. Several balls hit to the infield that seemed to beat me rather than me beating them.

Patriot as for your question on the mechanics and drill series I'm in the neighborhood of Coach May in that I don't want robots.

Basically we tell them to get comfortable and swing with comfort. Only time we really make changes is if it's not going to work or if a slight improvment can help them out at the next level. Other than that not a whole lot of changes are made. An example of what we want in terms of comfort is that I don't care if a guy strides, lifts / replaces, heel lift, weight shift back or whatever to get to the load phase. As long as they can get to load phase on time I don't care how they do it. Back elbow up or down doesn't matter to me either.

Agree on the short stroke that stays in the hitting zone longer is a goal. Everything he says about what each kid faces in terms of ability, prior learning and experience is true. To answer quickly / briefly gap2gap's question about staying in the zone longer it comes down to shoulder tilt, hands in the swing path and even torso turn. I'm not sure if I can truly explain shoulder tilt but hopefully you can understand this. When setting up to hit the shoulders are basically parallel to the ground but as the swing takes place the back shoulder will end up below the front shoulder as the body twists / rotates in the swing. Proper drop by the back shoulder tied with a good path taken by the hands through the zone will keep the barrel in the zone longer. Maybe some of these other guys can explain that better than I just did.

Drill wise we start out the season basically doing all the same drills and working on the same thing. We do this because want to get them comfortable swinging the bat and getting in as many reps as possible. As we get closer to the season and into the season then we start working more individual drills on specific strengths and weaknesses. Mechanic wise we want to start with a 60 / 40 weight shift being back. We really stress to never shift their weight forward more than 50 / 50. Obviously if you do that you are opening the door for a lot of bad swings.

Overall during the preseason we take A LOT of swings per day through practice but we don't take a lot of swings for a long period of time. This creates fatigue which leads to bad habits and breakdown in mechanics. Each drill we let them swing around 8 - 10 cuts and then someone else steps in. If we got groups of three then each person will cycle through the drill about 3 times. So on one drill they are taking in the neighborhood of 24 - 30 cuts before they go to the next drill.

Drills we use

1. ABC Drill - each kid gets three balls and draws a plate in the dirt or gets plate or takes a pizza box and makes one but we want three balls and some sort of plate. They line the balls up with the A in front of the plate inside to simulate a pulled ball. The B will be around the middle of the plate to simulate a ball down the middle. The C will be deeper and on the outside corner. Each player will set up in their stance and a coach says "stride" and this is when the players trigger - stride, lift / replace, heel lift, whatever - and freeze. When they freeze coaches walk around and check to make sure that each player is in the 60 / 40 weight back stance after the trigger. Do this several times and then expand on it. Have the coach say "stride" and then call out A, B or C. When they hear the location they take a controlled swing and stop at that balls location with the barrell over the corresponding ball on the ground. When the location is called and they swing they will freeze at the point of contact. Coaches still check for the 60 / 40 weight, make sure the front side hasn't opened too far, back side has rotated, shoulder tilt, head focused on the barrell and things like that. They reset and go through each location and mix it up. But what we are trying to establish with them is the swing really isn't different based on location. The key to hitting opposite field is more about letting the ball get deep rather than changing the swing. To help create a feeling of waiting have the coach say "stride" and wait a second or two then say "change / curve" and the guys will say "delay" and then coach calls out A, B or C. It's obviously not a cure all for waiting on outside pitches but it does help create the through process of letting the ball travel deep into the zone.

2. Tee Drill - in this drill we don't just set up a tee and swing away. We place a plate down and the tee will be laid on top of it but the shaft will be in the A, B or C location we just worked on. Now we are taking cuts on an inside, middle and outside pitch rather than just regular reps of down the middle stuff. You can also do the delay aspect of trigger and waiting and then swinging. One thing have to watch out for is the guys separating the trigger from the swing. We don't want them rushing through the whole process and creating a bad habit.

3. Soft Toss - treat basically as the tee with the ball inside or outside but this time the ball is moving slightly. Instead of being directly beside the hitter and feeding we move the feeder around. If we are working the A location the feeder is slightly ahead of the hitter and feeds. The C location the feeder is slightly behind the hitter. Check for the ball coming off the ball properly middle in or middle out.

4. Land the plane - This is a tee drill where it's in the middle of the body. Get an old chair or broom and set it up behind the tee about 2 maybe 3 feet. Now the hitter has to find the proper path to the ball with the barrell. If he's a hand dropper down to the waist he's going to hit the chair / broom. That provides instant feedback that it's a bad swing. If the ball comes off the tee and into the ground in the front then it's called crashing the plane. The hands are coming down too much and the ball has to go straight down. But if the ball comes off the tee and straight into the net on a line shot then they have landed the plane. The barrell will have missed the chair / broom by just a few inches. We want the path to be very close to the chair / broom. Want to do this drill with an old bat even if you got some old -5 laying around. This fixes swings quickly but it will also destroy a chair.

5. Whiffle balls - get the golf ball sized whiffles to throw. Set up in front of the hitter and get low. Work inside and outside but on the inide location have them throw at the front hip. Reason being it helps work on the hitter exploding through the zone. Great for guys who struggle on higher velocities by building swing strength and quickness. Plus it helps to keep the hands in and not cast them out. Throw the outside pitch pretty much where it should be since we don't want them to over reach on the swing. This helps isolate the C pitch and the hitters can focus on letting the ball get deep. Key thing to remember is make sure they pay attention to how the ball comes off the bat. Correct direction and line drives. Tell the feeders to be careful because if they throw down the middle then that ball is coming back at them very fast and it hurts. Tell them to feed from a knee and have them duck their head to protect their face.

6. Thunderstick - take a TS and hit golf ball sized whiffles on a front toss from behind a screen. This helps on eye / hand focus. Make sure they are hitting line drives as always.

7. Suspended tire - take a tire and fasten it to a pole where the tire is standing out from the pole off the ground. Take another old bat and have them take cuts hitting the tire and driving the hands through the tire to finish the swing. If they hit the tire and stop at contact then they are doing it wrong. They should hit it and drive through the tire to finish the swing. This really helps develop power.

8. Short cage - take a regular 70' cage and split it by hanging a net in the middle. Now you have two 35' cages to get even more cuts in from a close distance. The close distance is good for accuracy on the pitches. Really make sure to pitch to the A, B and C locations. You can even do this for BP before a game that you are facing a guy throwing heat. It helps speed the bat up and speed up the reaction.

9. Regular cage / field BP - take cuts like you normally would any other time.

The one thing to remember is with pretty much all drills you can work in the delay aspect of making them trigger, weight back and then swing.

Once we do this and guys are getting comfortable with their swing then we start working on individual stuff. Plus in the drills the coaches are still walking around quizzing the guys on ball / strike, where could hit harder - stuff I talked about in other post. We want them thinking all the time about location and whether it's ball or strike. We also have older guys working with younger guys because it helps to serve as teachers since the coaches won't be able to see everything going on. If you find guys taking cuts that are not productive then have a "nice" meeting with them about mature fun / immature fun. If you have established a good program the work will get done but sometimes the young guys want to show off their immaturity.

The second thing Coach May talked about on the shutting up and letting them hit is phenomenal advice. Do your work in practice. Do your teaching in practice. Establish the philosophy in pracice - by doing that then you can just let them hit during games. The games are about the players - not the coaches. Let them do their thing.

If you've made it this far then you probably deserve a trophy or something but I hope this is helpful in some way.

Thanks guys, alot of great info here. I have a couple of questions.
1. We seem to get long as a club(hands get away from us, back elbow actually leads the hands into the zone) do you teach to keep the hands near back shoulder? How would you solve, obviously the landing the plane drill would work? What else?
2. How do you think a trigger should happen?
3. Shoulder tilt, I get it but how do you teach it. Fine line teaching?
4. Great help been awesome I am about to start a team fielding topic.

Patriot I'm glad I could help and hope you are able to turn things around. I think I understand your questions so let me attempt an answer - if I misunderstand anything let me know and I'll try again.

quote:

1. We seem to get long as a club(hands get away from us, back elbow actually leads the hands into the zone) do you teach to keep the hands near back shoulder? How would you solve, obviously the landing the plane drill would work? What else?

If I'm reading this correctly this sounds like casting of the hands. This is when the hands get too far away from the body and the barrell takes forever to get to the hitting zone. One of the ways to fix it is swing next to the net. Get about two feet away from the net (or slightly closer - you want the net to resemble the outside edge of a home plate). Have them take some cuts and if the bat hits the net then they are casting the hands. Have them make adjustments (should be able to figure this out on their own) to bring the hands in more and let them lead a little more. Obviously they don't want the hands hugging the body but they don't want to extend them too far away from the body.

Where you start the hands isn't as important because if you are casting the hands then they will get out there regardless. This is another area of comfort that will vary from player to player. Overall the quicker the hands the higher they can be but still want to be realistic where they start at. An area would be near the back shoulder and can adjust from there.

quote:

2. How do you think a trigger should happen?

Not as clear on this one - are you asking what the trigger should be or when should it happen?

As for what the trigger should be it goes back to comfort. I always like a stride because that was what I was taught back in the day. I see the advantage of the lift / replace (similar to the stride in that the foot comes off the ground but comes back down in same spot) or the heel lift. Basically the trigger is a movement to help start the swing. Think of the philosophy of moving in order to move.

As for when the trigger should happen it's up to the hitter and how hard the pitcher throws. Obviously you don't want to be too late or you will be late on the swing but too early is tough because you have to hold back your swing. It's something that can be done but it's tough. A rule of thumb to start with is when the pitcher shows his hip you show him yours. Meaning when the pitcher reaches his balance point with his front leg up in the air he is showing his front hip to you. That is when you trigger.

quote:

3. Shoulder tilt, I get it but how do you teach it. Fine line teaching?

The shoulder tilt should happen naturally when all the other things line up in the swing. But to check for it go back to the ABC drill and when they freeze check for it. If not there or not good enough then make the correction.

Best time to check for shoulder tilt is during the back side rotation. The back leg has to spin, twist, rotate in order to open the hips and generate power. When that happens the hands should start to drive or drop into the hitting zone. When that happens the shoulders should start to tilt on their own.

What I teach is the swing starts from the ground up. After the trigger the first movement should be the back leg rotation. There used to be an old saying "Squish the bug" to emphasize the point of backside rotation but it has lost it's coolness as a saying for some reason. Regardless of what terminology you use that leg has to start first because the next movement is the hips have to start to open. Then the hands start to drive / drop into the hitting zone. It should look like they are all moving together and if they do that's fine but I like the guys to have that sequence in their head to break down the swing by component. One thing I like about using this sequence is it can help keep the hands back when trying to hit offspeed / breaking pitches.

Not sure what you mean by "fine line teaching". Never heard that before.

Hope this helps again.

Anything that delays the actual swing to begin when the hitter decides to swing needs to be eliminated. The trigger I describe like a pulling back a rubber band. Or when you swing a hammer at a nail. Imagine taking a hammer and just dropping it down on a nail. Now imagine taking the hammer back and then down on a nail.

The trigger is the bringing back of the hands which holds the bat and then bringing it forward when the hitter decides its time to swing. Or drop the hammer if you will. Anything that delays this process from actually happening and or takes it off the proper path to the ball will result in a poor swing.

I use the rubber band as an example. Just sitting there it is just a rubber band. When you stretch it to a point and then release it you have created the trigger on the stretch and then on the release on the swing. The hands which hold the bat - go back "and I prefer back and slightly up" then release on the swing.

Now there are certain flaws created if the trigger is performed improperly.

Wrapping the bat - This is where the hitter wraps the bat back on the trigger and then - Casts - This is when he extends his arms out in order to swing and ends up swinging around the bat to get to the baseball. Its a long swing - It does not allow the hitter to stay inside the baseball - it causes hitters to be very late on good even decent pitching - it causes hitters to roll over - it creates holes in a hitters swing. Many times you will hear someone say "He swung right through that one." No he swung right around that one. Many of these hitters will never hit an inside pitch other than foul when they do. They will hit the outside pitch better but they will hook around it and pull outside pitches weakly to the pull side.

Basically this swing is very common in hs hitters especially those not properly trained. The top hand usually is driving this swing and dominating this swing. The bottom hand is just along for the ride. They are swinging the bat not hitting the baseball.

There are other things that will concern you as well. After the trigger and the players brain says swing many will then drop the hands - open up the front shoulder - open the hips early - dip the backside - in an attempt to get the bat going towards the ball. The feeling the player has is that this is actually the start of the swing. The problem is the swing has not started - The barrell is not moving towards the baseball.

Trigger "Stretch the rubber band" Release "Start the swing" At this point the swing should be in process. Anything that gets in the way of this actually happening is a flawed swing. Dropping the hands - front shoulder opening - hands moving away from the body -etc all are flaws that create a long swing and a flawed swing.

Trigger - Release - Extend through the zone not in and out of the zone. Some kids are quick to the zone and quick out of the zone. Be quick to the zone and then stay in it as long as possible.

I have often used this statement when talking to hitters about hitting. "If I have a watch that has 5 parts and you have a watch that has 100 parts which one do you want? They both keep time right? So if my watch breaks I have 95 fewer things to check out than you do. So which one do you want to work on if it breaks?"

In other words have a swing thet you understand. Have a swing process that you can repeat over and over and over again that is simple and basic in its nature.

Stance. Load. Trigger. Release. Swing.

Players need to understand that is not nearly as complicated as it is made out to be. Find a stance that you are comfortable with that fits you. GAP - Good athletic posistion. Load. I teach load when the pitcher comes set. Trigger - As the pitcher begins his wind up begin your trigger - stretching the rubber band back slower timing up the pitchers release with your release. Release - When your ready to hit - Swing - No delays - No flaws as mentioned.

We teach kids to hit the baseball where it is pitched. But this can only be accomplished if the swing allows the hitter to do this. The very first thing a hitter must do is have a swing process that allows him to do what you are teaching him to do. Then you can work on letting the baseball get deep , driving the outside pitch away - taking the pitch over the heart up the gut - driving outer half inner half to gaps -etc etc.

Drills should be used to #1 - Teach and reinforce sound swing mechanics. #2 - Teach and reinforce the importance of using those sound swing mechanics to use the whole field. #3 - Teach and reinforce the proper approach. #4 -Teach and reinforce situational hitting.

Coach May,

Thanks for the feedback. One thing that I see immediately is the wrapping of the bat. I am going to start there and work with him to eliminate that. I like to only change one thing at a time so that he can get some feedback on how that one change improves his results. Then we will move on. Thanks again.

Sorry to come in late, but I wanted to go back to the philosophy part of batting again. You said be ready to hit anything good and the batter should think of what the pitcher might throw to him before he steps in. I think this was all relating to high school baseball, but does the philosophy change at all as you play better teams and pitcher (travel ball or play at a big tournament).

For example when you go to a big tournament the pitchers might throw more curves and be more accurate then high school, do you try to work the count more then or look for different pitches at different times or stay with the same idea of just go up there and get ready to hit anything in the strike zone.

wow, lot's of good stuff here. I need to print this to digest it all.

The first time I heard the 'rubber band' analogy was 1983, coach Kindall from Arizona U. Anytime I get away from that thru the years I always come back to it because I feel it is a very sound way to explain, teach and reinforce the swing.

Wrapping the bat, and barring the front arm, are 2 different things. One is bad, and one doesn't matter.

Do I wrap the bat in my avatar?

Nope.

But it would depend on one's definition of what wrapping the bat is. Look at the posistion of the bat and hands when they stop going back or when the band has been stretch to the point of stop. Perfect posistion imo. Now instead of the bat stopping in that posistion imagine the bat continueing to go back wrapping around behind. I see no wrapping at all in your avatar. But you see my definition of wrapping and anothers may be totally different.

quote:

Originally posted by kevins1:
Sorry to come in late, but I wanted to go back to the philosophy part of batting again. You said be ready to hit anything good and the batter should think of what the pitcher might throw to him before he steps in. I think this was all relating to high school baseball, but does the philosophy change at all as you play better teams and pitcher (travel ball or play at a big tournament).

For example when you go to a big tournament the pitchers might throw more curves and be more accurate then high school, do you try to work the count more then or look for different pitches at different times or stay with the same idea of just go up there and get ready to hit anything in the strike zone.

kevins1 I believe that you are referring this post to me I believe - if not I apologize.

I used this philosophy back when I was head coach in Kentucky and right now I'm an asst. coach in North Carolina. But I believe I can be a head coach again in the next year or two and when that happens I'm going to implement the same philosophy again.

Overall when I was in KY we used that philosophy my last 5 years and we had a ton of success. To make it even better we faced some serious talent. Several pitchers who have went D1 and have been drafted. Those guys were the ones we had the most success hitting. Granted we didn't win all those games but they sure were fun and competitive.

Our best year every regular hitter in my lineup had at least 1 homerun. Several guys (I can't remember off the top of my head) hit well over .300 and a few over .400. On paper we never should have been on the same field with these teams but I believe in playing a tough schedule so that's why we played them. Plus after my first couple years we improved so much that these teams were willing to play us.

One year we played this team who was consistently playing in the state tournament and they had a kid pitching that set the state record for consecutive victories and ended up pitching D1. In the middle of that streak they played us and out of all those wins our game was the closest he had. In fact they took the lead in the bottom of the 6th and in the top of the 7th we went down in order on three screaming line shots that the CF and LF made great plays on.

I guess I'm posting this to more or less show that our philosophy wasn't developed against punch and judy teams but real actual talent. We went into every game wanting to execute our philosphy but sometimes we had to change it based on the ability of the opposing pitcher being able to get off speed pitches over consistently for strikes. Overall we would try to identify breaking balls that would enter the zone and attack them. Our goal of hitting fastballs was still in place but if we had to alter and attack breaking balls then so be it.

You're still going to see a ton of fastballs because that is the pitch in baseball.

On another note

quote:

But it would depend on one's definition of what wrapping the bat is.

This is the biggest problem with talking hitting in a forum like this - one person's definition of something may be different from another's. In all likelihood two or more people are probably saying the same thing but can't see the forest for the trees.

The second biggest problem is trying to teach what pro hitters do as the gospel for hitting when it comes to teaching high school kids. Let's face it the studs at the MLB level are freaks of nature that can do things a developing teenager cannot do. Can you take aspects of of a MLB hitter and use certain things.......yes but overall teach each kid how to hit based on their own abilities.