SwingAway Instructional Blog

Question:

My sons have a pulling off the ball problem. We think opposite field all the time but as soon as we swing hard in a game situation we pull off. The only thing that seems to help is to concentrate on starting the bat with the hands and not the upper body but to do that they both seem to push more with the top hand than what your literature calls for. We don’t roll over until after contact but we seem to generate a little more bat speed and barrel direction if we concentrate on the top hand. My guess would be that we were pulling with the lower arm and really getting nothing out of the top hand. We are confused about the role of the top hand. Without it our bats seem lazy and without direction. With it we wonder if we’re doing things incorrectly but we get better results.

Answer:
As long as the top hand is not rolling too soon, it is ok to think, be more aggressive with the top had as long as the top hand is staying in the proper position and getting through the ball. If the kids are staying inside and through the ball you are ok.

What hitters mentally say to themselves is different depending on the hitter, if your sons seem to get their hands going better when they think top hand, then this is probably getting their hands going.

As far as pulling off the ball, make sure their effort level is not too high, hitters with a high effort level tend to pull of of the ball more often. They should feel like they have something let with their body when the complete their swing, also, if they are staying on balance throughout the swing, then their effort level is ok. Their effort level in batting practice and drills should be the same as their game swings, once this starts happening they will become more consistence.

Once you do have your hitting fundamentally correct, to set yourself above your competition, not merely resting on your laurels and thinking that your current success will be enough, you need to concentrate on these three keys to success:

Work ethic
What is your work ethic like? Are you the first to come and the last to leave? If you are not doing more than your coach asks, it’s not enough.

Ability to make adjustments
Don’t wait 2 weeks to make an adjustment. Adjustments should be made game to game – at bat to at bat-pitch to pitch. I used Jordan’s at bats as an example. Learn to make the adjustments necessary to get you past your present difficulties. Believe me, the difficulties will come. The sooner you make the adjustment the shorter the duration and severity of the difficulty.

Not being afraid to fail
Sorry but I have to jump to another sport to illustrate this point. Tiger Woods will possibly go down in history as the greatest golfer ever. What did he do after he had so much success including winning the Masters at his young age, something no one had ever done before? He changed his swing. His critics thought he was crazy. Having had so much success, why would he change? We frequently hear the saying, “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it.” I disagree. Just because it’s not broken, doesn’t mean you can’t make it better. Tiger obviously agrees. He wasn’t afraid to change – to make himself better. He wasn’t afraid to fail. The results speak for themselves. You will only improve when change takes place. You’ve heard me say this before, you either will get better or worse, you won’t stay the same.

As listed in our nutritional absolutes water is one of the most important nutrients in your diet. All athletes should drink adequate amounts of water for optimal performance. Without enough water, not only are you not able to work at your top performance but it could even cause dehydration.  Dehydration is can be very serious. During physical activity your body temperature increases. As your temperature increases, you body compensates by sweating. This sweating evaporates and then cools your body down. If you are not replacing the fluids that are lost in sweat, your body may become dehydrated. Once you become dehydrated your can no longer sweat. This is very dangerous. Some symptoms of dehydration include:

•    Increased body temperature
•    Heat cramps
•    Chills, nausea, and clammy skin
•    Heat exhaustion
•    Hallucinations

In order to prevent dehydration take these precautionary measures:
•    Drink plenty of water before during and after workouts
•    Increase your water intake in hot weather. Weigh yourself before and after exercise, for every pound lost drink 2 cups of fluid
•    Never rely on thirst alone to determine fluid intake

VITAMINS AND MINERALS
The last two items in the nutritional absolute list are vitamins and minerals. It is the consensus of the majority of nutritional experts that a person only needs a well balanced diet to meet all the nutritional requirements the body demands, I tend to disagree. Most kids simply don’t eat properly. Besides not eating properly the demands of the fast paced world in which we live further depletes our bodies of these vitamins and minerals. The answer to this problem is very simple, take a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement to offset any deficiencies you may have in your diet. By reading the labels on the bottle, you can easily determine your recommended daily allowance.

Question:

My daughter’s batting average increased from .423 in the first 10 games of the season to .580 in the last 10 games. Everyone has taken notice of how well she is hitting the ball. She is in post season play now and continuing to work hard.  My question is that she seems to tend to rotate her hands too quickly (too close to impact) on occasion (perhaps when she’s trying too hard), hitting the top of the ball, resulting in bouncy ground balls. Does this seem to be a likely reason for bouncy ground balls? How do we correct this?

Answer:

Good job with your daughter, it sounds like she is doing great.   As you know you don’t want the hands to roll over until well after contact. That being said, be sure your daughter is staying inside the ball and she is not casting her top had too soon.

The answer may also be in a lack of strength at this time. Work on staying inside the ball and not rolling the top hand, but this habit may eliminate itself with swing strength.  I would have her do fence drills and one-handed drills if she is strong enough to do so. Concentrating on not rolling the top hand too soon. Another drill you can do is a top hand release drill. Have her swing the bat and after contact and before she rolls her top hand have her release her top hand, keeping her top hand palm up, do not allow the top hand to roll over at all. This will help her to feel the top hand palm up, have her perform this drill off of the tee or in soft toss. It will feel a little strange, and this is only a drill, have her take her regular swing in the game, not thinking about any of these drills.

This post was written for baseball and softball players, however you will find that it can be used for many life situations.  Becoming a student of the game.  Many young kids think they are a student of the game but they haven’t even walked in the club-house. I say this as I am just finishing up another Instructional League. Here we have the cream of the crop, the best young talent in the nation. Most of these kids don’t have a clue as to what their swing consists of, let alone the mental toughness to make the necessary changes. I don’t speak for all, I do however speak for most. One thing I want to instill in you is the fact that there is so much to this game, don’t hurt your chances to improve yourself by thinking you know it all. I deal with plenty of know it alls day in and day out. Guess what, most of them don’t make it. Why? Since they know it all, they don’t need anyone to teach them.

Unfortunately in their mind, there is nothing more for them to learn. Always be ready to learn. I spoke to Rudy Jaramillo, Hitting Coach for the Texas Rangers, and he told me that Rafael Palmeiro just learned two years ago what it took to be a consistent Major League hitter. This was not in the minor leagues, nor was it his rookie year, this was after 10 years in the big leagues!

I recently received an e-mail from a customer. He has been solicited by a recruiting service to help his son get a scholarship. The recruiter told this dad that college coaches don’t care much about a kid’s swing, they can teach a kid to hit – all they are looking for is a good arm and glove. I was taken back by this advice. That is just another example of mediocrity and miscon-ceptions that circulate in this game. First of all everyone in professional baseball knows that the guys that hit – play – the gloves come in for late innings if necessary. Secondly you better not wait till college to learn how to hit because it will be too late. Don’t fall for it. Don’t let anyone, or anything take you away from becoming the best you can be. Not everyone will make it to the big leagues. However, having a solid work ethic, having the ability to make adjustments, not being afraid to fail, and becoming a student of the game are all qualities to take you as far as your abilities will take you, but more importantly, they will allow you to make it in the real big leagues – life.

Imagine someone driving a rod through your shoulder, through your back leg, and through the knee.  The line should be straight through your body with your back heel up.  You will either end up on the top of the toe, or just turning a bit on the ball of the foot.  I prefer that you get up onto the back toe to make sure your weight is in the center position at the point of contact.  After contact, and during your follow through, your weight will be balanced.  The key here is to go from back to center.

All good hitters are in the same position when contact is made.  Starting from the ground up, note the contact position of the majority of major league hitters:

• A solid base, wider than shoulder
• Their front foot closed at 45 degrees
• The proper heel toe sequence
• A firm front leg for maximum leverage
• Are up on their back toe, heel pointing to the sky
• Back leg at 90 degrees
• Their head in line with their back knee
• A good head position down on the ball
• Flex in their elbows at contact
• Their top hand palm up at and through contact
• They have taken a short path to the ball
• They have a slight tilt toward the plate with their upper body

Many coaches mistakenly tell their players to stride to where the ball is pitched.  This is not good advice.  In order to be consistent with your approach, you need to stride to the same spot every time.  If your timing is going to be correct, your stride food will be down by the time the ball is halfway to home plate.

This must happen in order to execute the proper swing.  If you follow poor advice and stride to where the ball is, you will be limiting yourself to that one area and you won’t be able to make adjustments.

Keep your stride short

The Stride should be no longer than 8 inches.  If your stride is too long:

• Your weight is going to go too far forward.
• Your hands will come forward prematurely
• Your head will have too much movement
• All of these will make it difficult for you to see the ball clearly, and your bat speed and power will be greatly diminished.

Question:

In working with my son, he seems to struggle with a problem, he has had on and off for 4 years now. He is currently 13. When he is not swing well, he appears to be too aggressive with his hips and shoulder, ie. pulling away from the ball. I shows up to look like he is not having aggressive hands, with the result of hitting a lot of weak balls to the opposite field. He is right handed. We have worked a lot off the tee, short toss, and live pitching on the outer part of the plate. He has a good understanding of the various contact points. We just haven’t had any long term success at fixing this problem. When his front shoulder pulls off, of course his bottom hand pulls away from the ball, ie. causing him to “what I call, slice the ball”. Sometimes during the season he will get in a real groove where the ball just jumps off his bat, but he eventually falls back into the problem of pulling away from the ball. We have also worked the one handed drills extensively over the past few years. I would appreciate your advice on how to approach this problem for long term success.

Answer:

Take a look at three areas:

• Overswinging, this is one of the areas where most young hitters do not understand. Young hitters generally want to see how far they can hit the ball, This causes them to use their body too much and therefore overswing. It’s best to develop a swing that is about 80% of his max. This does not mean that the hands are not aggressive, but he should feel like he has something left in his body. In hitting, swing at 80% will give you better hand speed. This will help him with the next two areas.
• Balance, swinging at 100% will keep him from having great balance and actually slow his hands down, and as in your son’s case, will miss direct the hand path. Swinging at 80% will allow him to work on the correct hand path and will help with the next area.
• Head position, this is on of the most important aspects of the swing. The proper head position not only allows him to see the ball well, but also allows the upper body to stay over the ball. Have him keep his head down past contact.

Perfect each of these three areas and he will be making consistent hard contact. Good luck.

Question:

When should a player start switch-hitting? What do you consider a good age to begin? How proficient should the hitter be from his strong side before he begins learning to switch-hit? Do you consider learning to switch-hit to be a big advantage for being recruited by college/pros? Just off the top of my head, it seems that many of the top hitters in the Majors are not switch hitters.

Answer:

My son and I started to work on switch hitting when he was about 10 years old, but he didn’t start switch hitting in games until he was 13. I wanted him to get a real feel for balance through his swing and develop more strength before I put him in a game situation. When he started switch hitting in games, he hit only left handed for the entire year (he’s a natural right handed hitter). This was the year he was going to go to the big field and I thought he might struggle somewhat switch hitting, but most kids struggle when moving up to the regulation size field anyway so I didn’t worry about it. He ended up having some success and has improved to the point to where he is a better hitter from the left side.

If you want your son to switch hit, you should have a reason for having him do so. Does he have some speed? If he has some speed, or potential to have speed, then there are some advantages to hitting from the left side. If he is going to be a power hitter with little speed, than I would say let him stay on one side. Most switch hitters are natural right handed hitters, there is a different advantage for left handed hitters. Most pitchers are right handed, hitting from the left side hitters will not have to deal with the offspeed pitch breaking away from them. Another big advantage to switch hitting is that players won’t be platooned if they are proficient from both sides of the plate.

If my son would have been a natural left handed hitter, I don’t believe I would have taught him to switch hit. But don’t hold me to that because I have a 2 year old and he hits off the tee lefty, I think because he watches his brother hit from the left side so much.

We have established the value of routine. Routine – Set Behavior – Habit – Plan. Call it what you will, effective preparation is grounded in such behavior. Diet, sleeping habits and workout schedules are part of a hitter’s preparation. Important as they are, these off-field preparations, and the related philosophy, are too inclusive for these pages.

Before getting to those specifics, I must again note that baseball has been called a game of adjustments. The vehicle for this adjustment is your brain. The emotional system won’t allow you to learn from your mistakes. This has been discussed earlier. Its importance of the reminder is based on learning. The ability to make an adjustment implies the ability to learn from mistakes. When applying that learning, you are not preparing for the next pitch, or the next at-bat or the next game.