Hitting Mechanics |

December 20, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Hitting 101 – How the hands work – Important

I’ve been working quite a bit lately with hitters on their upper half – specifically how their hands move into and through the zone.

I realize this can be technical in nature; I’ll do my best to put it in some common language. I always hate the big wordage some use to describe hitting and pitching mechanics. I’ll be gentle for that reason.

Step 1 -

It’s absolutely vital for the knob of the bat to lead the way into the hitting zone (the area just in front of your front hip). This creates bat lag and allows for the bat head to whip into and through the zone. (See the picture above for an illustration.)

Watch this clip of Adrian Gonzalez. If you pause the clip just before the timer rolls over to :03 you’ll see the same thing as you do in the Cano picture above.

The problem most hitters have is that they don’t lead with the knob, and instead the barrel of the bat enters the hitting zone before it should. This reduces power, promotes top spin and side spin off the bat. It also prevents the hands from moving through the hitting zone and lowers batting average. [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Hitting, Hitting Mechanics

December 2, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

The Long Swing And How To Fix It

The long swing is a killer in youth baseball. I’ve got a clip for you this Monday that explains what exactly a long swing is and one drill to help fix it.

After the drill is done, take a look at the Cano pic to the right and compare it to what I said about the knob of the bat.

Enjoy the clip and if you’re in the mood to learn some more, the DVD on Hitting Mechanics can be had here.

Long Swing Video Clip

Filed Under: General Hitting, Hitting Mechanics

November 29, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Ryan Howard’s Tips For Hitters

Today we have some more valuable hitting tips from Phillies slugger, Ryan Howard.

I stumbled onto 8 short clips he did last year during a workout and had to share them.

There is some great information in there for you. Each clip is short; just over a minute, but worth having your son (or daughter) watch.

It may just may make your job easier if you have a Big League hitter teaching the same stuff you do to your kid!

Clip 1
Clip 2
Clip 3
Clip 4
Clip 5
Clip 6
Clip 7
Clip 8

For more helpful tips check out our Hitting Mechanics DVD, it’ll break the swing down for you quite simply.

Filed Under: General Hitting, Hitting Mechanics

November 23, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

The Secret Behind Jose Bautista’s Massive Power

How does Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays go from hitting no more than 16 home runs in any season between 2004-2009 to ruthlessly demolishing 54 HR’s in 2010 and 43 HR’s in 2011?

Drugs? I’m not inclined to think so.

Shorter swing and more usage of his lower half? Yep, that’ll do it.

But, don’t take my word for it, watch what Bautista has to say about the changes he made…

Bautista video clip [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Hitting, Hitting Mechanics

November 22, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Should We Study Bad Mechanics?

I was on a baseball forum the other day and responded to an interesting post.

Here it is.

“It isn’t like the goal isn’t to make a perfect judgment about every pitch, then put a perfect swing on it. But that isn’t reality. Reality is, getting that done every time is impossible, but the ones who do most often will be the most “successful”.

Is it possible that by studying the horrible looking swings and the situations they were taken, it might be that just as much if more could be learned than by only looking at perfect ones?”

Here was my response. [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Hitting, Hitting Mechanics, Pitching Mechanics

November 11, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

A Tip To Increase Your Bat Speed

In working with some high school age hitters over the weekend, we were focusing on how to be quick and powerful into and through the hitting zone. When we broke out the video camera and slowed the speed down on playback I showed the kids they were not being as fluid and relaxed in their swings as they could be.

The main reason for this is young hitters get the wrong impression as to how the arms/hands are supposed to work in a swing. Most hitters when firing the arms/hands forward into the hitting zone will tense up. This is all wrong and leads to a slow and cumbersome swing. [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Hitting, Hitting Mechanics

September 28, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Different Coaches, Different Theories

A kid recently mentioned to me during a lesson, “But last year my coach told me something different than you’re teaching me now”.

It’s a good comment and one that comes up all the time. For players and parents, there are few things more frustrating than learning an approach to hitting only to have it changed the following year by a coach with a different philosophy. Here’s how I answered the kid.

I break hitting mechanics (and pitching mechanics for that matter) into two categories: standard and style. A standard is what all successful hitters do each and every at bat. Style is left up to the individual hitter and is based upon hitter preference. Below is a deeper explanation with some examples. [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Hitting, Hitting Mechanics

September 27, 2011 By The Pitching Academy 1 Comment

Got No Power? Fix This Common Issue

Once in a while I get emails from parents who complain their kid has no power and are looking for a solution. More often than not the issue has to do with the lower half of the body and how energy is being transferred into each pitch. While yesterday’s email dealt with the hands and how extension works, today I want to discuss the lower half and how to generate more energy into each pitch.

One of the biggest killers of young hitting mechanics has to be the “squish the bug” theory used to explain how the back side rotates. It’s easy to identify this theory in an athlete just watch his back heel spin and essentially squish the imaginary bug under his shoe. While this technique does rotate the hips and allows the hands to come through into the hitting zone, it doesn’t provide very much energy transferring into the baseball. At the Little League level this isn’t a big deal, a strong, athletic kid can still hit .500 with a bunch of home runs by squishing the bug. [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Hitting, Hitting Mechanics

September 26, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

How To Fix A Long Swing

It’s hitting mechanics week and I’ve got a good drill for you all today to use with your athlete(s) to help combat the long swing. Before I give you the link, I need to make sure we’re on the page as to what a long swing is, and why it’s a problem as a hitter.

Definition:
A long swing is essentially when the hands stray away from the body during the swing. It creates a circular motion with the bat. [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Hitting, Hitting Mechanics

September 8, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

No Slouching, It’s Time To Work

For the last two seasons, more and more parents are contacting both Dan and I in the early fall about hitting or pitching lessons with their son. The “off season” is much shorter than it used to be as people realize that competition is fierce in the middle school and high school levels. It take more than just a few months of baseball in the summer to develop skills that create high level success.

Both Dan and I maintain that proper knowledge of the fundamentals of hitting and pitching are immensely valuable to learn at an early age. This is why we have chosen to produce articles and videos on all things related to hitting and pitching and send them to you daily. Over the summer we backed off to a couple emails per week as baseball slowed and many of you took vacations. Now that school is back in full swing (for most), it’s time to resume our emails Monday through Friday mornings. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coaching Pitchers, General Baseball, General Hitting, General Pitching, Hitting Mechanics, Mental Game of Baseball, Pitching Grips, Pitching Mechanics, Pitching Tips, Pitching Velocity, Pitching Workouts

Hitting 101 – How the hands work – Important

The Long Swing And How To Fix It

Ryan Howard’s Tips For Hitters

The Secret Behind Jose Bautista’s Massive Power

Should We Study Bad Mechanics?

A Tip To Increase Your Bat Speed

Different Coaches, Different Theories

Got No Power? Fix This Common Issue

How To Fix A Long Swing

No Slouching, It’s Time To Work

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