September 1, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

One Simple Technique To Increase Bat Speed

Monday’s post addressed the need for kids (especially in the 11-15 year old range) to work hard developing their offensive skills. Too many athletes rely on athletic talent and then get a rude awakening at age 15ish when their opponents are both athletic as well as more refined in their hitting mechanics.

Today, I’ve got a quick tip as you’re working with your son this off season in the back yard or at the ball park down the street. Make absolutely certain he’s getting his front heel firmly planted on the ground PRIOR to his trigger (the rotation of his back side). This small, but often overlooked step, is a major mechanical ingredient in a quick and powerful swing. It allows the weight to transfer from back to front in an effective manner. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Hitting Mechanics

June 14, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Where Pressure Comes From

Sunday evening I sat down in front of the TV to watch the Miami Heat take on the Dallas Mavericks in Game 6 of the NBA Finals. Getting late into the game, the Mavericks opened a pretty hefty lead, though not out of reach of the Miami offense. I kept waiting for the LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh show to make one last run… but they couldn’t. Something seemed to create a stiffness in their play. Wade dribbled a ball off his foot, and James tried to push the ball up the key while guarded heavily by three Mavericks only to throw up a ridiculously nonathletic shot. What causes this stiff play in sports? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coaching Pitchers, General Baseball, General Hitting, General Pitching, Hitting Mechanics, Mental Game of Baseball, Pitching Mechanics

May 3, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

It Only Takes One Great Game

I may have mentioned before that I really enjoy watching Carl Crawford of the Boston Red Sox play. He’s struggled all through the month of April, rarely hitting above .175. Yesterday he finally had a big hit by singling up the middle to win the game in the bottom of the ninth against the Mariners. Even though it raised his batting average only a few points, sometimes it only takes one hit or one pitch to bust out of a slump.

If you’re struggling on the mound or at the plate right now, there are a couple things you must do to end the pain. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Hitting Mechanics, Mental Game of Baseball Tagged With: Baseball's Mental Game, Hitting Mechanics, Proper Pitching Mechanics

April 1, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Beware: The Outside Pitch

The Outside Pitch

I was watching a 13U youth tournament a couple weekends ago and noticed the catcher for one of the teams was setting up on the outside corner every pitch. I wasn’t sure if this was just the catcher’s choice or if the coach had instructed his pitcher and catcher to throw on the outside corner all game. I asked the parent I was sitting next to and he said the coach wanted the guys hitting the outside part of the plate. While it’s generally a good strategy to set up on the corners of the plate, I don’t advocate throwing a lot of outside fastballs all too often at this age (unless the pitcher is throwing rockets). [Read more...]

Filed Under: Coaching Pitchers, General Hitting, Hitting Mechanics Tagged With: Baseball Pitching, Mechanics, Pitching, Pitching Mechanics

March 31, 2011 By The Pitching Academy 2 Comments

Baseball Swing Mechanics

The other day I was working with an 11-year old player with his hitting mechanics. I was watching him take a few swings and observed that he was struggling with keeping his head under control; it was tilting drastically to the right (he’s right-handed) during his swing. No doubt if you have a young hitter or work with young hitters you’ve seen this problem as well.

While it’s impossible with the correct hitting mechanics to keep the eyes perfectly level during a swing, all good hitters keep their head still when they swing. If the head is under control, the eyes will be stable thus giving a hitter a better chance at tracking each pitch. Moving head and eyes distort depth perception. Watch this swing and notice how his head stays under control. [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Hitting, Hitting Mechanics Tagged With: Baseball Swing, Hitting Mechanics

March 23, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Getting Through The Baseball

A couple nights ago I went out to work in the chilly rain with a team on their hitting mechanics. We have been recently working on staying through the baseball instead of having the barrel of the bat cut across the hitting zone. This is a major challenge.

For a majority of youth hitters, their hands move away from their body and therefore cut across the strike zone instead of move through it. This can reduce batting average, power numbers, and consistency. It’s a problem that must be addressed and solved. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Hitting Mechanics Tagged With: Hitting Mechanics

February 22, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

New Pitching DVD

One of the most common requests we’ve been getting since the release of our DVD Series is if we could split up the information in smaller chunks and of course for a fraction of the price. Good news, as of last night, we’re now making available instant downloadable clips from our DVDs. There will be some more to come in the near future as well.

What clips are available? [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Baseball, General Hitting, General Pitching, Hitting Mechanics, Pitching Mechanics Tagged With: Baseball DVD, Pitching, Pitching DVD, Pitching Mechanics, Pitching Videos

February 21, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Thoughts On Hitting Drills

Thoughts on Hitting Drills

Here is a question from a H.S. coach we received a bit ago. It addresses some issues I think many coaches and parents deal with, how to solve reoccurring hitting problems. In the answer there are a ton of resources for you on this subject. [Read more...]

Filed Under: General Hitting, Hitting Mechanics Tagged With: Baseball Hitting, Baseball Swing Mechanics, Hitting Drills, Swing Mechanics

February 9, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

The Best Way To Improve Bat Speed

The Best Way to Improve Bat Speed

I hope you had a chance to read yesterdays email on Dan and I wanting to do another Q&A week. We had a great response as usual yesterday with many questions coming in. Below I received a real simple question that seems to come up a lot.

“What is the best way to improve bat speed?”

One of the things that frustrates me is when the answers to these types of questions become so technical that it becomes muddied and incoherent.

Here’s the non-technical version: [Read more...]

Filed Under: Hitting Mechanics Tagged With: Bat Speed, Hitting Mechanics

January 14, 2011 By The Pitching Academy Leave a Comment

Check Out These Hitting Drills

Last night I uploaded a couple good clips from our DVD series last night onto YouTube. You’ll want to watch both the clips as I outline the most common problems I work with as a hitting instructor.

Clip #1 – Common Hitting Mechanics Problems – 15:42 length

Pay particular attention to problem #7 at the 9:11 mark. This is one of the biggest killers to kids being able to hit the corners of the plate well. It also prevents the ability to extend through pitches consistently which causes all sorts of issues. I explain it much more thoroughly in the mechanics section of the DVD, but you’ll get the idea in the video.

Clip #2 – Hitting Drills – 3:18 length

I picked one drill designed for those who suffer from the issue I explained above. I like this one because the athlete gets immediate feedback on the problem as he feels his weight shift forward.

You may also like to know that we changed the pricing structure of our DVD series. You can now pick up the DVDs in three easy monthly payments instead of one lump total.

Filed Under: General Hitting, Hitting Mechanics Tagged With: Baseball Swing, Hitting Drills, Hitting Mechanics