Make Aggressive Mistakes

 Baseball is a game of failure, hardest game in the world, learn from your mistakes, don't get bitter get better. Those are all just ok. A more positive mindset helps you play better.  "Screw it baseball." "If mistakes are inevitable, I might as well be aggressive, trying to execute my job on this pitch. If I fail, whatever, it's part of the game. Refined Indifference. It's how you play baseball the best. Focus on seeing the ball well and being quick/accurate then onto the next pitch. "Getting the outcome you want increases when you let go of the need to have it." Play in the present, be where your feet are for that pitch and try to execute. Review the results after the game, that's the time to learn from them. Know the count and the outs the whole game for every pitch. Best way to stay playing in the present. 

Use the Velocity in Machine Work

 Train your eyes to be accurate at a speed that you will never see in the game. If your machine can't go that fast then move closer to machine. Our body will naturally swing quicker when training above the swing speed. Just relax, focus and try to be quick and accurate with the barrel. Try to pull it if you can. My best player Graham Roberts does our machine at Dbat as fast as its goes. He has great top hand path and is short to the ball. He is still working on seeing the ball more out front and making contact more out front with a strong wrist at contact but it's great for a 12 year old. The ball travels longer and faster to the pull side.The perfect swing is in the pull side gap, not up the middle. We can be more accurate on the ball up because it is closer to our eyes and barrel. We have to be short to the ball to get there on time. Up are mistakes by a pitcher most of the time. Do damage on mistakes. Learn how to drive balls pull side and you can play. Learn how to hit velocity and you will never go to the plate without your confidence which is the most important thing in hitting. Train off the machine going fast, use that tool and you will see the results in the game when it counts. SEE IT UP.

Cage Work

Most of cage work should be spent focusing on trying to hit the ball on the barrel. Doesn't matter the drill the coach makes you do just try to hit the ball on the barrel. Strong Top wrist at contact, straight to the ball. Start with the drill below in the cage if you have the choice.

Important to strengthen your wrist. Squeeze a tennis ball until you are strong enough to squeeze a baseball. Build up your hitting muscles in your wrist. Do pushups, a lot of them, they help with your load and controlling your body.

Until your top wrist is strong use a toddler bat to work on your mechanics of your path with your top hand. Still try to be accurate with your barrel even though the bat is light and small. 

Finish with Velocity off the machine that is faster than you will face in the game. The results won't be great but it's good for you. Try to relax, see it well, and be quick/accurate with your barrel with a strong top wrist at contact.  

Homercoach

 The stronger your top wrist gets the farther the ball will go. Most hitters make contact with a weak TOP wrist so the ball makes the bat move back at contact. Swing the bat with a strong top wrist, squeeze the bat tight quickly when you want to swing. This will start the forward move. Its not "hips before hands" It's TOP HAND FIRST! The rest of the body should follow the direction the top hand leads to the ball. The eyes and body set itself up different behind the top hand based on location and speed of pitch but the STRONG TOP HAND LEADS THE WAY. This move is not hard to learn but then you can focus on being more accurate with your barrel. Where did the ball hit my bat. AIM SMALL MISS SMALL. You're not trying to hit the ball. You're not trying to hit it with your bat you're trying to hit it on the barrel because it goes faster off your bat. There is an art and craft to hitting. The calm and accurate dudes are the best players. 

Make sure to do a lot of TOP hand swings in the cage. Your top wrist can't get too strong. 

If your ego lets you CHOKE UP! Being accurate with the barrel becomes easier because the top hand is closer to the barrel. CHOKING UP  is a cheat code that only some guys use like the 2022 NL batting title winner or the best hitter of all time, Bonds. 

Choke up and catch the ball with the barrel with a strong top wrist at contact. Please try this, its fun to high five your player rounding third after a homer. 

Your players need to do a lot of pushups and squeeze a baseball with their top hand  In practice put the machine where the pitcher your age would release the ball. Now put the machine on the hardest velocity you will see. Then play a game. Hit in the cage during game. Get another machine for the cage, if not just flip and throw to each other, a lot of top hand swings. Focus on accuracy of barrel. When players throw to each other they should throw different pitches but still try to throw strikes. Good for both guys. Pitcher is working on being accurate and his stuff. Hitter sees different ways the ball moves. Youth players struggle with off speed because they don't get a chance to practice hitting it. Offspeed are easy to hit when they are a strike because they are slow, learn to hit the off speed if you want to hit bombs. Amateur baseball is hanger central because no-one swings at it. Be the team that crushes hanging breaking balls and never worries about velocity because they hit it everyday in practice, SEE IT UP. 

Your Career.

                                                                   Get Better Today

1. Being accurate playing catch is the most important thing you do on the field. Every time you have a chance to throw a ball, focus and try to execute a good throw. Firm and accurate around the infield after a groundball out, strike out. In the outfield make a good throw to the cutoff man after an out. Be accurate but if you make a bad throw so what, it doesn't count, it's just practice. Take those practice chances you get serious so the throw shows up when they are keeping score.

2. When you are throwing, you need to get your arm loose first but then as you separate from your partner, throw it harder and still try to be accurate. David Price told me, "if you want to throw hard, you have to practice throwing hard." It's simple but true, most guys lack velocity because they have never trained their arm to go fast. There is no consequence to making a bad throw in practice. Have the courage to push the envelope with your skills and they will develop faster.

3. With hitting, until two strikes, swing hard just in case you hit it on the barrel. Hard contact. Ruin the pitcher's day :) You can swing and miss 0-0 and still set the tone for the AB. Play offense when you hit and then battle with 2 strikes. Short and quick but explosive with your barrel. Great hitters have quick, short, and accurate moves when they hit. You should choke up on your bat to make your top hand move closer to the barrel to be more accurate, just like Barry Bonds. 

4. Less is More. Breathe. Everyone feels tension and different levels of emotions during the game based on result, that's normal. Just focus on your breathe to get back in the present moment. If you need a reset or flush breathe, it's breathe in for 3 seconds hold for 2 and out for 3. Breathing is a skill you should practice. A tense muscle is a slow muscle, before you try to execute, calm your body with your breathing routine to prepare to be quick/accurate. 

5. Fight or Flight. Every pitch we have to decide what we are going to do. "The warrior is CONFIDENCE and the demon is fear and they battle it out every pitch."-Augie Garrido Trust yourself, and just go play hard, control what you can control. What's my job on that pitch?  Check the score at the end, because it's the only time that it matters. 

6. Play with a self confidence mental edge. Positive self talk. Mentality that whatever I got today is good enough to find a way to help us win. If you're not getting any hits that day then go make plays so they don't get any hits either. Hit with confidence even when you fail, play offense when you hit, set the tone, be calm, quick and accurate. FYIB

7. You never get it back, it's your career, someday someone will tell you that you can't play baseball anymore, it happens to everyone. At what level is up to you and your work/development. Good Luck!

Barrel Accuracy=#1 Always

 "Timing, Approach, Mechanics, swing path, exit velocity,"=WHATEVER. Hit it on the barrel and you can play. Start with Barrel accuracy always. AIM SMALL, MISS SMALL. You are trying the hit the middle of the ball with the middle of the bat. Now you will be productive if you invest time in the cage to work on your swing. Your work will never get boring, because you can always be more accurate. Hit it on the barrel in the air, stay away from the end of the bat. If you have this focus your mechanics will develop on their own. Just think, "be athletic and hit it on the barrel" Social Media is great but these platforms are creating robots. We have primal instincts that you can use when you play. When a Caveman saw a rabbit running by, he grabbed a rock and tried to be accurate so he could eat. We have pretty much that same brain. Major Leaguers are just the most accurate in the world at throwing the ball where they want and hitting it on the barrel. 

 

Its not how you Start, It's how you FINISH

     Baseball is a marathon, filled with failure, with some success mixed in. Always remember that you are never as good or bad as one day. The game will humble you when you get over confident. The best players/ teams stay consistent with their work. Practice should be harder then the game. Make yourself uncomfortable because that means you are working on your craft in the areas that need it. Work to play your best at the end of the year. Take care of your body and do the work consistently. Rome wasn't built in a day.

     In 2019, the Washington Nationals won a ring. They were sick to watch at the end but most forget how it started:16-25.  Baseball is an individual sport in a team setting but when your squad learns how to win and trust each other then other teams are in trouble at the end. The Nationals could of packed it in at 16-25 but its not how you start its how you finish. 

 

    By the end, Washington had learned how to win. They finished the regular season 10-1, is that good?  In the playoffs, they were a different team, locked in. They had learned how to win and used their early season failures as motivation to keep going. They played hard and confident.

In game 5 they got smoked and everyone was already giving a good Stros team another ring. Backs against the wall, but the Nats had bad dudes on their team that knew that they still had it. Down 3-2 in the series against the best team in baseball.......... 7-2, 6-2, Game, Set, Match. Rolled them back to back nights for their ring because its not how you start, its how you finish, always.