Contrast this with Eric Davis who holds his bat down close to his belt buckle.  There is an important fact to know here.  No matter where these guys stand, or how their arms are in the stance, after they take their stride, all good hitters come to the same point with their hands.  That point is right around the shoulders which is about the top of the strike zone, on top of or behind the back foot.  It is not where you start, but where you finish that matters.

The words hope, need, not, and won’t are negative.  Keep them out of your self talk vocabulary.

As a starting point, examine your attitudes concerning the following:

• Seeing the ball
• Where the best point of contact is for pitches inside, middle, outside, etc.
• Hitting pitches to the opposite field, up the middle and to the pull field
• Bunting for a hit, sacrifice and squeeze
• Hit and run
• Hitting mechanics
• Your strike zone

I get asked all the time – “Dave, my kid’s just 8 years old does he really need this kind of instruction? I just want him to go out there and have fun – I don’t think we’re ready to be thinking about a college scholarship – YET!” Here’s my advice to those parents- ask yourself these questions: When does a kid have the most fun playing Little League? When he strikes or flies out? When he gets on base, and scores a run? What would it be worth – if your kid could have more fun and get more hits every time he played? Would you want your child practicing the WRONG techniques year after year? It takes just as much effort for a kid to practice the WRONG techniques as it does for them to practice the RIGHT ones, so with all the other benefits – why not do it the right way from the start? It’s a lot more fun talking to your kids about how to improve their game when you really know how to do it.

Release point: that place by his body where the pitcher first exposes the ball as his hand moves forward to throw.. You identify it watching the pitcher as he warms up and/or pitches. See it better if you align your stance with it (not with the plate) – Remember, it can differ fron righty to lefty, overhand to buggywhip releases, and end positions on the rubber. Release points can vary by the width of the Rubber plus two armlengths, from rightys to leftys.

Visual Pickup: as he exposes the ball with the forward motion to release, pick up the white of the ball and follow it in, and that flash of white becomes the ball.

You’ll pick it up and follow it better and longer if your stride and motions are smooth. To check & drill for smoothness: pick a speck on the wall (release point), set up your stance with it, stride to it, see how steady the spot remains through the stride and early upperbody moves. If the spot doesn’t remain steady into the latter, you’ve got analyzing and work to do.

You can track the 95mph pitch unbroken, to well within 10 feet. (Ask a catcher)

Pitch recognition: different folks do it different ways. Most pick up seam/spin pattern as an early warning sign to react to. But it demands an early and clean visual pickup.

I believe that in a clean early visual pickup and good followup, you’re focused so well on the ball that you don’t sense the background, and all you see is ball. But if the pickup etc aren’t right, you’re forced to separate the ball from the background, you see it all, so the ball looks smaller.

• Stay balanced after contact and through extension
• Keep his top hand palm up as long as possible through extension
• Have a “V” in his arms at maximum extension out front
• Keep his head position down through extension
• Think about driving the ball back through the middle

If you are not getting good extension generally it is due to a flaw in the swing.

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.

DARRYL STRAWBERRY

In the 1996 World Series, you might have noticed how the Atlanta Braves defense was playing Darryl Strawberry. The defense shifted to the right side of the field, except for the third baseman, Chipper Jones, who moved to the shortstop position. This left the whole left side of the infield open. The reason for this was because:

• Darryl was basically a pull hitter.

• They were trying to get him out by pitching him on the inside part of the plate.

This is what can happen to a pull hitter – they can be easily defensed. Darryl was basically a pull hitter, but he had a lot more success when he used the whole field.

My father Dave Hudgens played in the big leagues and experienced the same thing. He says, “Looking back on my playing career, because I had a lot of power, I too became too much of a pull hitter. This means that being a left handed hitter, I hit the ball to right field quite often. So consequently I made a living of hitting ground ball outs to second base on the outside pitch. I did not learn until later in my career that there was something called left field, and there is a lot of money over there. Had I learned earlier in my career to hit the outside pitch to the opposite field, I would have been a much more successful hitter!”

HITTING THE BALL TO THE OPPOSITE FIELD

To hit the ball to the opposite field:

• Get a pitch on the outside part of the plate

• Hit the ball deeper in the contact zone

• Keep the barrel of the bat above your hands

• Stay inside the ball

Most young hitters have the ability to pull the ball. However, to be a complete hitter and on your way to being a master hitter, you must develop the ability to hit the ball to the opposite field. One of the reasons that young hitters have a difficult time hitting the ball to the opposite field is that coaches are always telling them to pull the ball and to hit the ball way out in front. In order to handle the ball on the outside part of the plate, you must wait for the ball to get deeper into the zone. Contact for the outside pitch should be made even with the front foot or slightly deeper. You will find that this will help you to hit the curve ball as well.

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

Your stance may show the pitcher where your strengths and weaknesses are. For example

a right handed hitter that stands off the plate in a closed stance and strides towards the plate is going to handle the ball on the outside part of the plate better than the inside pitch. His weakness would be the inside part of the plate. This is opposed to a right handed hitter who has an open stance, and stays open on his stride – his strength will be the inside pitch. His weakness will be the ball on the outside part of the plate. This holds for left handed hitters as well. This is why I recommend that no matter how you stand at the plate, when your stride foot comes down, you should be at a parallel stance.Some hitters have to use the open or closed stance because of flaws in their approach. If you are one of these hitters, make sure that you are disciplined enough to swing at the pitches you can handle (your strengths) and do not swing at the ball in your weak area until you get two strikes.

AREAS OF THE ZONE

Let’s examine areas of the zone that you may be pitched. If you are being pitched inside,and you are looking inside, you will want to hit this particular pitch to the pull side of the field. f you are being pitched middle away, look to go to the opposite field.

A key point here, and many Major League hitters do this, is to look for the pitch down the middle.  By doing this, it is easier for you to adjust off the ball down the middle, than it is looking on the extreme outside or the extreme inside. There will be times when you will lookinside or outside. For example, if a pitcher consistently throws you on the outside part of the plate, it is to your advantage to look on the outside part of the plate and hit the ball to the opposite field. If this is the case, you need to let the pitch on the extreme inside go.

If you feel the pitcher is trying to work you outside, then look outside. Do the same with inside.

Many youth league pitchers do not have great control yet, so it is best to look middle. However, at the high school level or above, the pitchers are starting to gain better control.

A point to remember is that you can look outside and still have a chance to hit the inside pitch, but if you look inside, you will have virtually no chance to hit the outside pitch. This may sound complicated and as if it were for advanced hitters only, however, all young hitters should start to learn how to use the whole field and to look for pitches in different areas. The chart picture illustrates the areas of the strike zone. Take note of where the high averages are. Find the area that you hit best.

His parents were also enthused as they  embraced the HEAD GAMES philosophy.  The dad is an attorney and the mom has multiple responsibilities inside and outside the home; they immediately made plans to use what they  learned to make life simpler, more enjoyable, less stressful and more productive. The techniques when developed over thirty years ago were intended  to be holistic and not limited to  sports.  We live in a busy, stressful and complicated era.

The good news is that accolades from across the world attest to the fact that  HEAD GAMES is an effective panacea in not only coping with the demands and complexities of modern society but can also lead to happiness and success.  HEAD GAMES principles include but are not limited to teachings involving POSITIVE THINKING, RELAXATION AND FOCUSING.   Why not add your name to the growing and glowing list of testimonials?  Make a comment on this post and let us know!

Also, mentally the hitter must not be thinking home run or have these types of thoughts in his mind.  These thoughts will throw off the proper swing rhythm and sequence of the swing.  The approach must be fundamentally sound from the ground up or somewhere along the line you will reach your ceiling and improvement will stop.  This is why it is so vital that these mechanics are learned as soon as possible, the more time that lapses, the more difficult it becomes to overcome.

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.