In this specific case, it’s Wimbledon (tennis) champions, but take a few minutes to watch this video about Russia’s most well known tennis academy – Spartak:

I first heard of Spartak when I read Daniel Coyle’s book, The Talent Code, and this video gives a glimpse inside the facility and training approach.

What’s the difference between the Spartak approach?  Here is a key piece:

In Russia, it’s about the coaches – not the schools, Volkov believes.

“A coach in this country is a graduate, with a specific degree. All our coaches are Spartak alumni. And it’s a known fact that European and especially American methods refer to the physical rather than the technical side of things – which is different here in this country,” he said.

At Spartak, it starts with the goals of the kids (which you can hear in the video) and grows with the focus on the quality of deliberate practice and expert instruction.

These are the same principles that create the foundation for the Swingtraining.net hitting & training facility – The Warehouse:

The Swing Training Warehouse in Palm Beach, Florida

2 years ago, I made a post describing how I used a weighted Bratt Bat to help some professional players improve their swing mechanics during their off-season workouts.  I am still using the Bratt Bat as part of my training program to help players improve their hitting, and here is another example of how it works.

From the previous post (linked above), here were the “rules”:

What to do:

• Use a weight appropriate for the strength-age-level of your player (65-75 oz. for high school, up to 100 oz. for stronger college players and pros)
• Avoid a high volume of swings.  5-10 is enough to get the right feel, then switch back to a regular weight bat
• Avoid trying to swing too hard.  Save that for your overload-underload swings.  Just get the feeling of the drill.
• Focus on hitting line drives up the middle and towards the oppo gap
• Remember this is just a drill and stick to the main principles of swing training for larger numbers of swings

Looking back, I still stick pretty closely to these rules.  But in the upcoming example, we’re actually hitting a baseball off of a tee with a full swing (note: the Bratt Bat is not designed to hit baseballs.  It’s better to use tennis or wiffle balls for higher volume or intensity of swings, as shown in our previous drill).

Now here is a comparison of a high school junior hitting off the tee with his regular bat (left side) and using a 75 ounce Bratt Bat (right side).  After he took several tee swings with his regular bat, all I did was give him the Bratt Bat and tell him to try and hit it up the middle (tee is placed right down the middle, a bit forward of where the stride foot lands).

regular tee swing vs 75 oz bratt bat tee swing

Here’s what happened:

Read more…

Swing training is a highly specific hitting workout that is designed to improve swing mechanics, bat speed, quickness and power all at the same time.  How do we do that?

• dynamic warm-up activates predominant “swing muscles”
• movement skills isolate patterns and sequences of the swing
• overload-underload creates strength & speed (POWER) through full range of motion
• specific measurement gives direct feedback to speed up the learning process
• hitting drills that transfer improved physical capabilities to actual hitting skill
• conditioning to improve rate of force development, stamina and reinforce movement patterns

Check out a sample workout that we used to help a player improve his bat speed by 8 MPH in just 6 sessions:

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The 2011 Perfect Game World Wood Bat Championship is back starting this Thursday and running through Monday here at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter, FL.  It is pretty cool to have basically the biggest amateur baseball tournament held locally in Palm Beach and get to check out some of the best high school talent in the country all in one place.

I attended the 2009 tournament and met a lot of nice people, so if you’re going to be there, send me a message.

Couple other event destinations – Alaska (yes, Alaska) and Los Angeles – coming up soon…

“Hitting is timing”……”Get ready sooner”……”Get your foot down early”

You’ve heard these, right?

Timing is a critical component to good hitting, so this edition of Mailbag gives a pair of reference points to help gauge your timing.

Here is the question I received:

 

I have a quick baseball question if you don’t mind helping me. I just got back to school off of summer baseball and I am way in front of all the pitching, I was thinking if I should move up to a 34 inch bat to try and slow my hands down a bit. I have been trying to wait back and go the other way but that leads me to trying to inside out everything and getting jammed on pitches that I should be hitting into the gaps.

Slow the hands down?  No way!  Most guys wish that their hands are too fast or that they have too much bat speed.  Having the ability to unload the swing with power is a great asset to have.

Inside-outing the ball to go the other way?  Now that’s just another way of changing the way you unload or swing the bat (in a bad way).

If the issue is consistently being out in front on all types of pitching, that suggests a timing issue that is related to the PRE-swing move (or the load) rather than the actual swing (the unload).

Loaded and Ready on time at Release

Here was my response:

Read more…

Had to make a quick post with the Albert Pujols home run from the NLCS game 2 against Milwaukee…

I was just impressed with the way Pujols was able to maintain his hitting position and pull his hands in without rolling over (aka keeping it fair).

Pretty much looks like this: