Hitting with the Right Bat Angle

Let’s talk about the bat angle.  At what angle should you have the bat?  Should it be up at a 90 degree angle?  Should you tilt it back towards the catcher?  What is most comfortable for you?  The most efficient place to put the bat is at a 45 degree angle behind your back shoulder.  This is the best position to launch the bat from.

It is the most efficient way to get the bat through the zone.  Since this is hard to see you may either use the mirror drill or have a coach help you with this.  The reason why I don’t recommend a 90 degree bat angle is because in order to hi, you must first get the bat into a 45 degree bat angle.  If you start at 90 degrees, you will cause unnecessary movement to get the 45 degree angle that is necessary to swing from.

Could Aristotle Have Been a Great Athlete?

This genius believed that the mind’s only function was to be a cooling mechanism for the circulatory system.  Bet you know someone like that.  Well, according to humorist Will Rogers, everyone is ignorant, just on different subjects, and Mr. Aristotle was at least deficient in one area.  However, had he been right, at least that would have eliminated the problem of TOO MUCH THINKING, which is usually an athlete’s Achilles heel.  I am constantly amazed and dismayed at those in any sport who teach  mechanics excessively and little or nothing on the mental aspect.  The number one theory seems to be If there is a problem, it’s got to be mechanics, right?

If  that were  true, then each and every athlete that I work with, even by telephone, would not be making immediate improvement.  I know mechanics, but by telephone I do not have the luxury of analyzing and advising in this area.   I am not minimizing the necessity of teaching sound mechanics, which requires thinking, but once the skill(s) are learned, right brain play, which eliminates thinking, is absolutely essential.  Proper breathing and focusing solves the problems of  worry, doubts and fears and allows for peak performance.

If You Can Do One, You Can Do the Other

This season, I worked with a Double Aoutfielder who was hitting just over .200.  He was depressed and wondered if he would ever be able to hit for average, but his defense had always been good.  He bought into HEAD GAMES and the same day he had three hits, including a two run home run.  He called me a few days later after that breakout performance and was elated to tell me that during a two week stretch that he hit over .350.

I have numerous success stories from players who became convinced that it was only logical that the same ability used to  perform one skill could be utilized for another.  This player uses the book and the c.d., but the HEAD GAME that he felt helped him more than anything else was abdominal breathing.  This technique is extremely powerful in effecting maximum performance. Proper breathing and centering on the skill at hand can deliver remarkable results in the field or at the plate.

Better Bat Contact

THE EYES CAN DELIVER!!  This season, a Double A player called for help.  After one telephone consulting session with him,  he increased his batting average from .180 to about .250 in a short time, but had reached a plateau.  According to him, he was missing too many pitches that he felt he should be hitting.  My analysis was that his eyes were not always under control while swinging.   The next game this player went 2-4, with a double, a triple, an r.b.i. and a run scored against a pitcher with a 1.59 e.r.a.  The team had only five total hits.

What did I tell him?  The eyes must be relaxed and focused only on the ball.  If the eyes are not in control, then the body does not know exactly where the bat is supposed to be swung.   The body can do a great job with proper guidance from the eyes.  HEAD GAMES techniques are simple to use and the success stories are astounding.  Choose to maximize your performance!

SwingAway Sports Products Inc. Announces the Opening of Two New Distribution Centers

SwingAway Sports Products Inc. opens 2 New Distribution Centers in Atlanta Georgia and Carson California to accommodate the unprecedented demand of the SwingAway Baseball/ Softball Hitting Station.

Atlanta, GA, June 25, 2010 — SwingAway Sports Products Inc. opens 2 New Distribution Centers in Atlanta, Georgia and Carson, California to accommodate the unprecedented growth of the SwingAway Baseball/ Softball Hitting Station. SwingAway Sports Products Inc., Headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, manufactures and distributes the SwingAway Hitting System plus other Professional Baseball and Softball Training Aids.

“It became very important and necessary to open these 2 new Distribution Centers to execute a cost effective and efficient distribution strategy to better serve our customers on both coasts of the United States.” said John J Flading President and CEO of SwingAway Sports Products Inc.” By adding both Atlanta and California, SwingAway will be closer to our customers which will significantly reduce transportation costs and delivery times for all SwingAway Products.”

In 2009 SwingAway Sports Products introduced a retail Batting Station simply named “The SwingAway” with a price point of just $199.99. The new swingAway quickly became one of the Top Selling Hitting Training Aids in the Baseball and Softball market. SwingAway Hitting Systems are the most recognized Batting Stations used and supported by Professional, College, High School and top level Travel Teams throughout the United States.

Happy Memorial Day from SwingAway

Positive Communication Will Enhance Performance

The University of  California, L. A., in an extensive study,  came to the following conclusions regarding believability of communication:

1. Tone of voice & facial expressions account for 38%.

2. Body language, 55%.

3. The words, only 7%.  (Facial expressions are also body language, so the 55% should be even higher.)

It is only when all three are synchronized, or in harmony, will a person believe the words.   This study is another confirmation that regardless of the verbal message, if the body language conflicts, the person will believe the non verbal.  So, managers, coaches and parents, please be careful in the way you communicate with their athletes so as not to adversely affect performance.  Keep your total language positive, for maximum benefit on and off the field.

Prepare for Greatness

Sports giants are people willing to pay the price for excellence.  Brooks Robinson took 200 ground balls a day from the time he was 12 year old until the end of his career.

Nolan Ryan is legendary for his dedication to his conditioning and his personal work habits.  In addition to having strong work habits, it is important to note the fact that dedication and effort is channeled toward specific performance goals.  On a day to day basis, the great athletes work on the things that are necessary to achieve their outcome goals.

Some may regard the hard work involved in developing the principles outlined in this book as a huge sacrifice, but a highly committed player doesn’t look at it as a sacrifice, but rather as a choice that involves sacrifice.  As a player, you need to decide what price you are willing to pay to become the best that you are capable of becoming- on and off the field.

Positive and Negative Emotions

Emotions can have either a positive or a negative affect on your performance.  Let’s break down 3 components of emotion and how they not only affect you either in a positive or a negative manner but also how they interact with each other.

• Desire
• Fear
• Anger

Desire is present in every athlete.  It is motivating and relentless, it never gives up.  Desire positively affects athletes through motivation; it is the reason an athlete does not give up, despite any odds against him/her.  However, that same desire becomes a negative when it results in trying to do too much, or giving too much effort.

Fear can have a positive affect by improving your concentration, but it can also have a negative affect if you become too cautious, over-aggressive, or just “freeze-up”.

Anger can overpower all other emotions.  You can be very afraid of something, but if your anger is strong enough, you will forget your fear.  Anger can also motivate you and improve your focus.

Swing Question: Rotation or Weight Transfer

I frequently am asked questions about the all time great hitter, Ted Williams and Charlie Lau. Williams is thought of as being a pure rotational hitter, while Lau was a pure weight transfer teacher. Both are misconceptions and misrepresenting the swing.

Percentage wise, Ted teaches more rotation but if you look at his old videos and still shots, you clearly see his weight going from back to center which is weight transfer. Lau embraced a pure weight shift philosophy and many of his still shots in his book do show hitters on top of their front leg, however, that isn’t what happened to those same hitters in real game action swings.

If any of you have Ted William’s book, The Science of Hitting, turn to the very last page and you will see a perfect swing. However, look closely. Ted has gone to the center position, with his back heel in the air, and his toe – NOT the ball of his foot – on the ground. This clearly shows you the weight has transferred to the center position therefore, it is not a pure rotational swing. A pure rotational swing that would involve no weight transfer, would consist of the weight spinning on the ball of the back foot. It is clear cut, he is definitely not spinning.

The swing is definitely a combination of both rotation and weight shift however, there are vary-ing degrees of this combination. Speaking in mathematical terms, look at it as a matter of the percent used of each. Some hitters will use a greater percentage of rotation, while others will use a greater percentage of weight shift. Ideally the swing should be 50/50. Fifty percent rota-tional, fifty percent weight transfer. Most great Major League hitters are at 50/50 – Palmeiro, A-Rod, and Giambi – just to name a few.

Results of having a pure rotational approach are that the hitter will be guaranteed to have a less effective, more inconsistent circular hand path. When taking a circular hand path through the zone, the barrel of the bat stays on the contact plane for a very short time. This leads not only to an improper hand path but also to inconsistent contact. In addition to that, these hitters will have a greater likelihood of rolling over the ball with their top hand which in turn leads to more weak ground balls being hit.

Contrast that to a hitter using a strict weight transfer or linear path. Despite the fact that he will stay on the ball longer, he will in fact have more of a chopping type swing. That is why a com-bination of the two is what leads to the most success. The proper hand path will start out linear, or straight to the ball and on the finish or follow through, the swing becomes more circular. In other words, the swing is more linear on the approach to the ball, and more circular on the fol-low through. Remember to keep it simple because this truly isn’t a difficult concept, people make it much harder then what it is.

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