Here’s a couple videos from the post that give a close up look at hip rotation from the side and front views:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

The article itself describes what’s going on in the videos based on EMG research from both golf and baseball, and has some thoughts on how you can work on your hip action in the weight room as well as the batting cage.

One line from the article warrants repeating here:

Here’s the key point: good hip rotation has an element of hip extension!

Give the article a read and spend some time at Eric’s website or follow him on twitter.  He’s doing a lot of good things in the world of baseball training.

I believe 90 percent of the game revolves around controlling the strike zone

Theo says: Know thy zone

_____________________________________________________

If you don’t want to take Mr. Epstein’s word for it, here are a pair of interviews from minor league prospects who are getting recognized for their approaches at the plate:

• Mike O’Neill, St. Louis Cardinals, OF

418 AB’s – 78 BB/26 K in 2012

David Laurila just did an interview with O’Neill over at FanGraphs (full interview) :

DL: Does a hitter need to take a lot of strikes to have a high on-base percentage?

MO: Not necessarily. I’m not up there looking to walk. I’m looking for a specific pitch and if the pitcher doesn’t give it to me, I’m taking until I get it. I’m not going to swing if it’s out of the zone I’m looking for. That’s kind of what generates walks for me. I’m patient, and once I get my pitch, I’m swinging. I’m attacking the baseball. I’ve just been fortunate to get a lot of walks, especially this year.

 

• John Andreoli, Chicago Cubs, OF

And Jay Kolster recently gave a in-depth look at Andreoli’s hitting approach and off-season training (full interview):

412 AB’s – 75 BB/89 K in 2012

Hitters need to take their walks. When they don’t hitters end up miss hitting a lot of pitches and get themselves out. The key here is to know what pitch you want to hit, to put a good swing on it when you get it, and not be afraid to take a pitch.

_____________________________________________________

With all the training out there addressing baseball’s 5 traditional tools, it’s important that we don’t overlook one of hitting’s most fundamental skills – knowing the strike zone.  Learn to identify your strengths and weaknesses within the strike zone, pay attention to what the pitcher can and can’t do in the strike zone…now you’re on your way to having a plan at the plate!

Very interesting that despite 20/15 vision in a couple of the hitters, Dr. Lampert was quickly able to find areas for potential improvement – vergence, convergence, peripheral vision, focusing, tracking, and teaming of the eyes are all examples of how the eyes work to provide information to the brain.

Fortunately, these areas can be improved and the muscles controlling the eyes can be strengthened like other muscles in the body.  After Dr. Lampert’s evaluation, he set the players up with his internet based vision training program with directions specific to their areas of need.

vision training in the warehouse

Dr. Lampert is local to the Palm Beach area with an office in Boca Raton.  He’s worked with top level athletes of several sports, not just baseball.  Here are some links where you can find more information:

• Dr. Lampert’s articles on the STACK blog
• Dr. Lampert’s home website
• Dr. Lampert’s Eye Performance Computer Software
• Sports Vision Training Facebook Fan Page

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

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:

1.  His load stayed more to the inside of his back leg.  This helps create a better angle on the back leg that helps the player move back into his actual hitting position more efficiently.

Better Load

2.  His hitting position is more “balanced” or “centered”.  Since the player hasn’t had so much sway back towards the catcher, he does not have as long of a distance to move back into his hitting position, and he isn’t off balance from having to reach too far forward with his stride foot while his upper body “hangs back”.  Basically, he is able to move to a better hitting position due to what happened during his load.

Better Hitting Position

3. He unloads the bat (the actual swing) more efficiently.  What you see in the load and hitting position create a base that allows the rotation to deliver the hands and bat on a better swing path that is more direct to the ball.  Not to mention more powerful…

Better Contact Position

What is interesting here is that this player actually stays “inside” the ball better (or releases the bat head later) with a bat that is two and a half times the weight of his regular bat.  The bat image is blurred but you can still see the angle of the bat at contact and how it affects the direction of the ball – in this case, the ball on the left is slightly pulled, whereas the ball on the right is hit up the middle.

If you recall another post I made about warming up with weighted bats, I suggested that the swings with the weighted donut, when used correctly, could actually improve your swing, rather than hurt is as implied by the Sports Science video.  Why is that?

I wish I could remember where exactly I heard this, but it was a few years ago and I didn’t write it down, I just never forgot the saying that…

heavier weight exposes inefficieny

This was said in reference to lifting weights, but it also applies to the baseball swing.  If you cast the bat, come “around” the ball, drag the bat…..all of those things are going to be magnified when you add weight to the bat, especially the barrel.  While finding a lighter bat might be the quick fix in some cases, reducing the weight will not require that you use and sequence your larger/stronger muscles more efficiently like a heavier bat will.

What is typical for the first few swings with a weighted bat is that the ball gets pulled on the ground (coming “around” the ball) or missed altogether.  But as players learn to move effectively and transfer energy to the bat more efficiently, they learn how to swing a heavier bat under control (as opposed to having the bat swing them, as some might say).

The feedback of the Bratt Bat drill, as shown in BOTH examples above, is such that if you can hit a solid line drive up the middle or towards the opposite field gap (now staying “inside” the ball), you are creating a better, more efficient sequence of your swing.  Once you get the FEEL from the drill, it will be easier to recreate the movement when you switch back to your regular bat.

The Bratt Bat

• 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:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Don’t forget to visit and subscribe to our YouTube Channel!

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…

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:

Hi ******,
you could switch to a 34″ bat if you feel like you can handle it, especially if you’re a taller/bigger guy. While it’s very difficult to say without seeing what you’re actually doing, it sounds like more of a timing issue that’s related to your pre-swing move. Guys who describe this type of issue to me are usually stiff or lack some type of rhythm early in their swing that allows them to adjust to different pitch types. Your load or pre-swing move is one of the first things that allows you to make adjustments to different speeds.

You can work on this a few different ways. On the tee or soft toss just make sure you have some rhythm in your load. Then have someone sit on a stool behind the L-screen and throw to you from a short distance – do one round slow, one faster, then alternate fast/slow, then have him throw random where you don’t know. I do this with guys and when they get in a good rhythm they hit everything.

Here are two reference points for your timing (based on a 90 mph fastball):
1. you should be ready to make your shift/stride/positive move at the time the pitcher is releasing the ball
2. your stride foot should be landing at about the time the ball is halfway home

this means that you are loading while the pitcher is getting ready to throw the ball

and it also means that you are seeing the ball as you are moving from your load into your hitting position

Stride foot down with ball about halfway

A couple of weeks later, I received a nice follow up:

Hey Jeff, I was actually about to email you back and thank you for those drills. They have helped my swing tremendously and I have been hitting the ball a lot better.

 

Glad to hear it!

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:

I visited Superstar Team Sports (STS) in West Palm Beach for the first time (can’t believe I hadn’t heard about it before now) last week and was impressed enough to do this little write up.  STS is a baseball and softball specialty store that has everything you’d find in a catalog like Baseball Express or Eastbay, but of course you can pick it up and try it out for yourself.  They have metal and wood bats, gloves, batting gloves, helmets, uniforms, footwear, training aids….you name it.

Plus, their staff members – Mike, Brian and Shawn – are incredible.

Superstar Team Sports website

STS is located in West Palm beach at 3169 Forest Hill Blvd. (take Forest Hill exit off 95 and head west).

Visit their website and check out their Facebook page which has a nice photo gallery of the shop.