"We have to add more velocity to our fast ball!" "We have to add more power!" "He's got to get faster!" All statements we get on a daily basis. To improve in these areas and others, involves improving the mechanics of the motion. In other words, if you want to run faster, you need to improve your running technique. Yes, speed is a gift from God, we all can't run 6.6 second 60 yard dashs. That doesn't mean we can't be quicker. You must improve your posture, how your body parts fuction together, what arm goes up with what knee are just a sampling of what we are talking about. Going out and running 15 110 yard gasers is not going to make you faster. It'll probably get you in shape but not allow you to post a time to get scouts to look at you or help you make that all-star team.
The same can be said for every other area in sports. We are concerned with baseball here and we make a monumental effort to help people understand that the better the fundamentals, the better the player. "If you can't do it slow, how are you ever going to do it fast?" You want to improve your son's velocity on the mound? Help him to throw the ball properly. Pitching is nothing more that throwing it correctly where you want, when you want. Sure velocity is important but Greg Maddox made a career out of throwing his fastball where he wanted, when he wanted at 83-86 mph. He'd get it up there if he had to but understand, hitters get themselves out. So many players lack basic fundamentals that they never master at the younger ages. Why do arm injuries still persist? Leagues have the necessary pitch count/rest rules in place these days but yet we still have arm problems. Why is that? Because we don't throw correctly.
Hitting, defense and every other area of the game are the same way. The time to work towards improvement is not during the season but rather during the off-season. Just a couple of hours a week over a four or five month period can make a world of difference. Besides, who doesn't want to go outside and have a good old game of catch with their son or daughter. If we are going to do that, why not make sure we do it correctly. Slow it down, use some throwing drills to improve your ability to hit a target. Set a blanket up in the basement or garage and get a tee. Sit on a five gallon bucket and work the upper half of your swing all fall and winter. Isolate different body parts during each different session and watch how much improvement you see before next season. One thing is for sure, your bat speed will improve with all those correct repetitions. The time to train is during the off-season so adjustments have time to settle in and your son or daughter can be used to them before you show up for your next game. Confidence is the name of the game. You are not going to get much of that if you practice on Monday and then expect to show up Tuesday and execute things differently.
Good luck this fall and we wish you the best of luck improving your baseball skills in the off-season.
One of the most common questions we get when someone is purchasing a new bat is "should I go with a big barrel or small barrel?" We usually answer their question with one of our own, "what are you trying to accomplish on the field?" I think most people want their child to be successful, develop good hitting mechanics and have fun. Their are still others that believe the bigger the barrel the farther it will go. That is not necessarily true.
Personally, I have seen very few players ten and under who can correctly swing a big barrel bat. It is not a knock on them but rather just a result of their physical age. In swinginging the bigger barrel they develop long, loopy swings because they just don't have the strength to get the bat head around. When they load up, the knob points in the air and the barrel hangs down their back. By the time the ball crosses the plate, the bat is still behind them resulting in choppers, ground balls or pop-ups. Those pop-ups which are not always caught at that young age will be soon enough. Coaches constantly holler to their players to "get the bat up, swing faster and drive the ball." The whole time he never stands a chance to do so because he can't even keep it off his shoulder. In addition, the 2 3/4" barrel bats which are really popular are not even legal in middle school or high school baseball. 2 5/8" bats are the only size allowed. The longer we swing the bigger barrels, the harder it gets to change.
You CAN hit legitimate home runs when you can generate bat speed. Although the surface space may be smaller with the 2 1/4" barrel, young players actually have a chance to swing the bat correctly because the weight is more evenly distributed throughout the bat as opposed to the big barrels where it all sits in the end of the bat. Not only can they get it around faster but the smaller bat greatly improves their eye hand coordination. We now have a chance to swing down and through the ball instead of up and out. Hitting a baseball is hard enough on its own. Eliminate things you have control over and work on the basic check points associated with hitting. Generate better bat speed and we are on our way to being better hitters. I will take nine hitters in my line-up who are going to go up to the plate and hit me five or six line drives every 10 at bats any day of the week over the hitter who is going to hit me five pop-flys. He's not helping us or himself.
If your son is 10 and under I would strongly encourage you to stay in a smaller barrel bat. Stay in a -13 (difference in the length and the weight) until he shows he can truly handle the additional weight. Then move to a -10. When you get to a point where you are a couple years out of middle school or high school baseball drop to a -8 or -8.5, then to a -5 one year out. The transition to the -3 which is required in school ball will be so much easier.
Pitching is nothing more than being able to throw the ball where you want when you want. To do that, you must first be able to throw it correctly. I once heard Greg Maddux (who can argue with what he's accomplished in his storied career) tell the story of his early pitching career. He claimed that he was in the outfield shagging balls during batting practice one day when he realized that all hitters will get themselves out. If he would stop trying to throw 95 (which he couldn't) and pitch to the hitter's weakness, then he could win a lot of games. Since he never really picthed outside of 83-86, I'd say he learned a valuable lesson that day. Greg Maddux is the best I have ever seen at locating pitches.
A majority of today's hitters fly open. That is to say that the hips rotate out before the bat gets through the strike zone. You beat those hitters by pitching away. Fastballs, change-ups and breaking balls (if you are old enough) on the outer half of the plate. When they move up on the plate, which they will, pitch them in. They'll never be able to get the bat head there. Problem is, most pitcher's can't throw it where they want every single time they throw a pitch because they lack the basic fundamentals associated with throwing a baseball. Let's stop putting the guy on the mound that throws the hardest but has very little control and start developing his mechanics. Nolan Ryan is always asked how to improve one's velocity. His response is always "learn to throw the ball correctly and improve your mechanics."
Today's young players use little of the lower half of the body. Why is that? It is the strongest part of our body. We want pitchers to have strong legs and then we never use them. We teach them to lunge off the mound leaving the arm behind them and then get on them for not being able to locate. Today's college teams open most practices with basic throwing drills like flip, power, blanace, glide to stride and flash. Why don't we do that with our younger teams? They are the ones who REALLY need it. The answer is usually that there is not enough time. I would argue that if we took the first couple of practices and took our time teaching them the drills, then we would have better games because we would not be throwing the ball all over the field like we do. We would have better player pitch games because we would have pitcher's who could throw the ball where they wanted to. Even more importantly, we would have far fewer arm injuries because we would be throwing the ball with better mechanics. I would also question wether or not we are actually developing today's young players by having them pitch at nine years of age. We have a player who struggles getting the ball across the plate, hitter's begin to get frustrated because they can't get a pitch to hit and so they start swinging at bad pitches. Defensively, players begin to get bored because there is less "action." In the end, it seems that we are sacrificing the development of our young players for the sake of one guy. That just doesn't make much sense.
Let's spend more time teaching kids to throw properly. Let's get them to throw the ball with the feet moving and try and create better athletes. When we throw mechanically correct, we develop better arm strength, which can lead to better velocity. We cut down on the number of arm injuries and give our young players the opportunity to develop. Click on the following link to get some throwing drills which will help your son (or daughter) become a better thrower. They will also isolate different parts of our pitching mechanics which will allow you to become a better pitcher. Remember, we can all become successful pitchers if we are willing to practice regardless of how hard we throw. http://www.contentedits.com/img.asp?t=2&id=26076
When I left the college game in 2003 I had no idea what I wanted to do with myself. I had traveled the United States for years looking for the next great high school prospect. What I had found were way too many high school seniors who lacked the basic fundamentals associated with this great game. They could not get to the five basic check points in a swing nor could they throw correctly. All too often we would sit at a weekend showcase and leave with just a handful of players to follow up on. So when some friends asked me to work with their children I decided that maybe I could make a difference.
The first thing I purchased was a top of the line video system complete with cameras and the Dartfish Video Analysis Software. Dartfish is the number one analysis system in the world today. It is utilized by everyone from sport coaches to the United States Olympic Teams. There is no better system out there, in my opinion, to evaluate a persons athletic abilities. If you are currently working with a trainer who does not conduct routine video analysis it may be time to look elsewhere. Video may be negative in nature but it is a vital tool to improve one's technique. Rather than argue about what someone is or is not doing, record and show them. I do believe, however, that finding the good is just as important as finding our flaws.
Since those early days, we have recorded over 6,000 baseball players of various ages. We see the same faults in every one of them. Some do them "more wrong" than others but their mistakes are all the same, weight out front early, front side flying open and the bat dragging behind. I listen to what is being taught in our parks and on our travel teams and I cringe as a lot of it is wrong. Some coaches will admit that they don't know what to tell the player and will encourage them to get some outside help. I applaud them. There are others, however, that continue to teach "what worked for them" or even the typical textbook philosophy to hitting a baseball. We are not all the same!!! One person may be rotary, another linear or still another a hybrid mix of everything. Turn the television on any night and you will see any number of different approaches to hitting. The one constant that remains is that we are looking at two completely different levels of athletes. Those guys are big and strong but more importantly they are fast. They can make mid-swing adjustments that the average player can only think about after they have swung.
So what do we do to make a difference. I think most young players can trace their problems to one of the first two check points, Stance and Trigger. If our stance is bad, the rest of our swing will be poor. Even if our stance is good but our load or trigger is poor, so will our swing be. BUT, if we can start our hands out of trigger and still be closed, then we have a better chance of succeeding. Almost all players fly open (the front hip turns too soon) and that is why we try to pitch everyone outside. Problem is, the guy on the mound usually doesn't throw the ball correctly so he can't always get it where he wants to. He misses 6"-8" outside and good hitters will take it. Or he'll miss down the middle and the ball will get hit hard. But it can be hit harder if we can generate more hand speed.
In our stance, step 1, I try to get players to remember four things. First, feet apart. We are going to eliminate our stride. Wait a minute coach, we need to stride to get more power. Maybe, maybe not. Bottom line is, when players stride, all their weight goes out front so I'll argue that you actually loose more than what you are trying to gain. Everyone would agree that if you find a hitter with his weight out front you'll throw change-ups or breaking balls instead of fastballs. I have yet to find someone who has perfected the stride. Second, toes down, shoulders over the toes. One of the biggest problems we face is getting kids to get their weight on the balls of their feet. They squat, bend their knees too much, the list is endless. If your weight is on your heels, you'll never stay through the ball. Third is the elbows in which ties directly into the hands, number four. Kids today, grip the bat way too tight in the bottom of their hands. This slows the hand speed down. We need to get the bat into our finger tips. Problem is, with the elbows flared out at the side, we can't get it all the way down into the fingers. When air exists in a pocket between the fingers and the bat, the hands will rotate when we load. They'll actually move. When that happens, the front elbow comes up and it becomes virtually impossible in today's young players to throw the hands. The hips spin, the bat drags way behind and we fly open. Now we have to get way up on the plate to hit the outside pitch and when we do come across that guy who can hit his spots, he's coming inside. By keeping that front elbow in, we will be better able to use the hands, create more "pop" in our swing and remain closed a lot longer.
Out of stance, we'll move into our trigger or load. I always tell players remember two things. Trigger is nothing more than raising the hands to a "punching position." The top hand is slightly above our back shoulder. The back knee slides back towards the catcher (NOT DOWN AND OUT) to a point just inside our back foot. One neat trick to help them find that spot is to make two fists and place one in front of the back knee in their stance and the other right beside it. Tell them to move the knee back and in front of the other fist but not to touch it. They'll pick that up quick. Do it at the same time we raise our hands. After that, take the knob and the hands and "stick" them into the pitch.
In the end, I think it is important to note that I believe our job as coaches is to prepare players for their next respective levels, whatever that may be. Winning makes the game enjoyable, yes. But so does succeeding on the field and being better prepared for that middle school or high school team. Who cares what your philosophy is in hitting or what worked for you. Have that player balanced and able to cover the whole plate and watch how many more quality at bats he has. Until next time.....