Stack TV has a series of hitting, workout & training video clips featuring Evan Longoria from the Tampa Bay Rays.  These cover aspects of his baseball specific workouts in the weight room that target power development through the lower body and core muscles, as well as training the upper body for stability.  Just as important to the training, especially considering the daily repetition and long duration of the baseball season, is his mindset of taking quality reps in each area in order to maximize the training effect of his effort.

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Here’s a short video from Jr. Dodgers Coaches Corner featuring Los Angeles Dodgers’ hitting coach Don Mattingly.  He’s explaining his take on hitting and swing mechanics, especially for youth and little league players.

The Front Toss Drill

As I’ve stated before, I always enjoy listening to other coaches, especially those with such a great amount of experience, because I learn things regardless of how much I agree or disagree.  One of the main points from this video that I like is the emphasis of direction in a straight line back to the pitcher.  It seems like a minor detail, but that’s why it often gets overlooked and leads to problems.  Tee work and front toss (the soft toss show in the video) are simple drills to work on this, and are probably the most common things you’d see if you hang around the batting cage at any pro ballpark.

The Bratt Bat has been around for a long time and if you pay attention you can probably see one in the on-deck circle of most major league baseball teams.  Although Bratt Bat’s are traditionally used as a warm-up device, I think they can also serve a purpose for learning specific areas of the swing, such as rotation and swing path.  Even though these heavy weighted bats are out of the suggested range for use with standard overload-underload bat speed training, they still can be an effective tool for teaching mechanics that generate power and increased bat speed.

Weighted Bratt Bat

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This video clip is of a college player who was looking for a way to improve after a redshirt freshman year at a Division I baseball school.  I’d say he figured it out!  This is one of the most drastic improvements I’ve seen in such a very short period of time.  Bat speed work with overload-underload bats, reaction and timing training, several different drills for rotation and swing path…we did it all:

before & after

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Back in the summer of 2006 there was a college player I worked with a handfull of times after he played his freshman season at a very competitive Division 1 program (they won their conference this year and competed in the NCAA baseball tournament).

We mainly did some video review and worked on mechanics as I tried to give him the information I thought he needed to put things together and make the most of his talent.  I received this text message at the end of this May:

This is P***** P***** from **U. Just played my last game and wanted to thank you for working with me.  You turned my career around.  This year I hit .365 with 11 HR and 51 RBI.  Thanks.

For more success stories, check the Results page.

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Ken Griffey Jr.

“Line up the ‘door knocking’ knuckles” is the phrase I hear most often to describe the correct way to grip a baseball bat.  It seems to be widely accepted, but is it really true?  What is the correct or proper way to grip the bat?

Check out these pics and make your own conclusion: knocking knucles photos

Barry Bonds