What Gets You In A Slump - Timing
You have waited all winter for Opening Day. It has now come and gone and you are 4-5 games into your season, and hitless. What was childlike anticipation has turned to frustration. If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times, there is a reason major league spring training lasts 6 weeks. It takes hitters that long to get adjusted to the pitching.
Pre-Season Hitting - Timing
We have finally come to the tail end of our indoor training sessions. Hopefully our swings have been honed to perfection. Our focus now has to change from technique to timing. Use these next few weeks to prepare more for game situations. There is a reason major league spring training is 5-6 weeks long. It takes big leaguers that long to get their timing down.
The Hitting Position - The Hands
The hitting position is the moment your stride foot lands and you are about to swing the bat. This is one the most key positions in hitting. For major leaguers, regardless of how they set up in their stance, they are all within inches of the same position at stride landing. If the most successful hitters in the world do this, you have to say there is a reason for it. It puts their body in the best position to maximize both power and speed. For this blogpost, I will focus on the hands because young hitters tend to struggle with this the most.
Hitting Quick Fixes - Hand Positioning
The quickest fixes you can make are the ones you can control, and that starts in your stance. Lots of times kids get into bad habits just by where they start their hands. If their hands are too low, they may have a big uppercut swing. If they start too high, they may chop down too much. If you find your hitters struggling with consistent hard contact, watch their hand placement in their stance. The biggest adjustment here is the kids have to remember where to place their hands. They can control that, but they need to practice it.
Hand Path
The hand path is one of the most critical parts of the baseball swing, and the hardest to perfect. Being able to get your hands “On plane” with the pitch as quickly as possible is so difficult because during the swing it’s not just the hands that play a role, it’s also dependent on body rotation.
Giving Away At Bats
It was never more apparent during the ALCS to why Miguel Cabrera is one of the games best hitters. With his team down 15-4 in the 8th inning of the 6th and deciding game of the series, he unloads on a get-me-over breaking ball for his second homer of the game.
Hitting Approach
I’m sitting here watching the Braves play the Giants in game 2 of their best of five series and something huge comes to mind... how to think as a hitter. It is the bottom of the first inning with two men on, Pat Burrell comes to bat. Braves starter Tommy Hanson has just walked Buster Posey on 4 pitches. Quick, if you are Pat Burrell, what are you thinking as you are walking to the plate?
Teaching points: Hitting
While not all swings are exactly alike, the most successful hitters all exhibit relatively the same traits at each point in their swing. As a hitting instructor or just a dad teaching his son or daughter to hit, here are a few key points to look for when instructing.
Common Mistakes in Young Hitters
If major league hitters are one thing, they are meticulous. Watch them get their stance in the box. This process can seem to take hours. They tighten their batting gloves, they dig their back foot in, step back out of the box, they put their hand up to the umpire for time, take their stance again, and then they tap the plate and check their alignment. Okay, I’m ready. This tells me one thing, your set up matters. A lot.
Take the time to get it right and put your body in a strong starting position. Many times I watch hitters jump in the box and go, often times starting in different positions. They may be slight, but different nonetheless. It’s the difference between hitting a line drive and fouling a ball off. If your body is in a different starting position every time, it stands to reason that you will not swing the bat the same way every time, producing inconsistency. Consistency is a hitter’s best friend.
The second major flaw with young hitters is dropping their hands during their stride/load phase of their swing. At a younger age, it’s not so important that they load their hands, but more importantly that they keep their hands up in a strong hitting position. One of THE most important hitting positions that is constant with nearly all major league hitters, is the position of their hands when their stride foot lands. Regardless of where their hands start, nearly all major league hitters will get their hands just off their back shoulder and at shoulder height when the stride foot lands. We commonly refer to that spot as the launching position or the spot where we start our swing with our hands. When teaching young hitters, ensure that they are finding this spot consistently.
The last common flaw I see among young hitters is their lack of follow through. Make sure that the back hip gets all the way through (back foot is in-line with the pitcher) and that their hands get the bat all the way to the front shoulder. This will ensure a proper hip turn and a proper upper body turn and consequently, a proper follow through.
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Playing Catch and Proper Throwing
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