Track ball with front shoulder

   If a pitch was a 20 frame camera shutter shot the swing happens in the 18/19 frame for the professional hitter. Average amateur players make the decision to swing in say the 14th frame. Hitters should always search for more time. The more time you have to track the ball coming towards you, the more accurate your eyes can be with the barrel. 

   I hate, "get your foot down early" because right when you get your heal down your body begins telling your eyes, "swing, swing swing" That creates tension in the body and a tense muscle is a slow muscle. As hitters we want to be quick and accurate with the barrel. The biggest misconception is that guys like Paul Goldschmidt are foot down early guys. Its not true. Goldschmidt is a big guy that developed consistent timing with toe to heal front foot load. This load is simple but is the most difficult to master in my opinion because it is very easy to start the barrel turn with the heal still in the air (more to come in a later post on the different timing choices) I believe the shoulders/eyes control the swing. The shoulders are joints that control the rest of the body in hitting. Everything you do before the pitcher releases the ball is irrelevant unless you have a big leg kick and have to begin that before release. At release point your front shoulder should act like the scope to a rifle or pretend that the front shoulder has a red laser pointer attached and you want to line that up with release point. Early in the game your "scope may be little off but unless the pitcher is throwing 95 you have plenty of time to find the ball with your front shoulder.  I believe the self talk is, "relax" at release so that your eyes can relax and track the ball. As I mentioned earlier, great hitters give their eyes time to track the ball. Hitters forget that the pitcher has to throw the ball to the catcher not to the plate. Amateur umpires make judgments based on where the catcher catches the ball not where it crosses home plate. I consistently see hitters making the pitchers job easier by going out to force contact in front of home plate or even worse moving up in the box for a variety of reasons that are all wrong. Make the pitcher's job hard, thats your goal as a hitter. Even if the pitcher is throwing 70, just start your load way later and make him throw the ball to the catcher. Track the ball with your front shoulder as long as possible and then at the latest possible moment be quick and accurate turning your back shoulder and barrel to contact the middle of the ball. 

   Two quick side notes:

1) In practice/cage figure out what zone YOU are most accurate in with your barrel. The umpires zone should be irrelevant until 2 strikes. Most are accurate on balls the are closer to their eyes, this is why the  pitch down and away is a take until 2 strikes. Pitchers are taught to throw the ball there because its difficult to be accurate with the barrel down and away. Hitters want to take when he pitcher executes down and away for a strike. Pitchers can't consistently locate for strikes down and away. If a pitcher could throw an 80 mph straight fastball down and away for a strike every time that pitcher would not only pitch in the big leagues he would be in the hall of fame. They can't do it. Remember that when hitting. All pitchers stink and will make mistakes.

2) If you are not cheating to a certain location/pitch and your approach is just to react then you should set your front shoulder up knowing the pitch is a FBALL In then adjust front shoulder to a FBALL away, then off speed. That's the segment of time that makes the most sense. From release the FBALL up and In hitters have the least amount of time to track and the off speed pitch down and away hitters have the most time to track with front shoulder.

Mastering Barrel/Ball Accuracy

   The skill of hand eye coordination is not a God given ability that can't be developed through practice. Optimal swing mechanics does not equal offensive production. It definitely helps make your swing movements efficient but it does not guarantee success. Work on your ability to track an object with your eyes and make flush contact with an object you hold in your hand(s). "It's not the arrow it's the indian." Like I mentioned in the "Aim small miss small" article, as hitters you are trying to be quick and accurate with the middle of your bat to the middle of the baseball. Why? because thats how you hit the ball the farthest/hardest. Distance/exit velocity of the baseball depends on your bat speed/ball type/bat type/ pitcher velocity and weather/field conditions.
   The evolution of technology and indoor hitting facilities has definitely helped create more information for hitters to learn from but it has also created Robots. There are around 800 MLB players on current MLB rosters and over a quarter of them were not born in the United States. There are over 85 players alone from the Dominican Republic. Why? The United States has an advantage over every other country in baseball for the simple fact that the best facilities and coaches almost all reside in the US. This has created a competitive industry of baseball development where thousands of "private instructors" and indoor baseball facility owners make a potentially lucrative living teaching and providing a facility for player development.
   Everyone is in search of the "holy grail" in hitting: the one mechanical adjustment that will turn good players into Major League players. You could spend a month straight reading articles and viewing websites promoting hitting gadgets that lead to better bat speed, shorter swing, perfect swing path and on and on. The simple reality is none of these will turn you into Bryce Harper.
   Harper has simply mastered the craft of hitting a ball on the barrel with a bat. In his E60 story when he was still a 16 year old kid https://youtu.be/gGZ1SUsFnzM Harper talks about playing over 100 games a year as a 12 year old and having his Dad throw him sunflower seeds/ red soup beans because he found out that kids in the Dominican Republic hit bottle caps to practice their barrel accuracy. In the video they say, "Harper hits the ball harder then anyone else" How does that happen? He has better barrel accuracy than anyone else. That happens by swinging more than anyone else. Your swing will evolve if you swing enough.
   Parents pay hitting instructors to give lessons to their children and expect to see results for their money. Because of this reality in the business of baseball, hitting coaches have turned to video and mechanics to fix flaws that give instant positive feedback. Hitting instructors have to do this or the parents are going to go somewhere else to try to pay to have a "hitting guru" give their child the magic hitting potion that will turn them into a stud. The reality is simple: if you want to play in the big leagues you need to master the art of tracking a ball with your eyes and hitting it flush on the barrel of the bat.
   In the book Outliers author Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. So from the time you are old enough to swing a bat you have to practice for a cumulative amount of time= to hitting for 417 straight days with no sleep. It can be done but it takes a huge time commitment that most are unable to endure. It's really that simple. My old assistant the current hitting coach at UMASS Lowell Jerod Edmondson used to tell our hitters, "everyone wants to be rich but most just hope to win the lottery" I say to the players, "decide what you want to do and put the time in to make it a reality"
   Individual players rely on excuses to justify their current career situation. I played 3 years of Independent professional baseball because I did not work hard enough on my swing to excel at that level and my lack of work was exposed at this point in my baseball career. It happens to every hitter at some point in their career, someone eventually tells you you are not good enough to play the game anymore. The hardest thing to do as an athlete is to understand that it's your fault, plain and simple. The excuses are comforting and can be valid if it was injury related but the reality is you didn't put enough hours in to make your dream a reality. If you are still playing you have to understand that you have to deal with that harsh reality when your career finally ends.
   Baseball is the greatest sport in the world because it's the only team sport that doesn't care how physically gifted your are (Pedroia, Altuve) or how wealthy you are (in the Dominican republic the current poverty rate is 41%) You just have to enjoy working on your craft to the extent that you are obsessed and think its fun. In the movie "Alice in Wonderland" The Mad Hatter asks Alice, "Have I gone Mad? " and Alice responds, I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are." If you want to play in the MLB you have to be obsessed with mastering hand eye coordination and ignore average baseball players that had average careers that try to convince you that you are crazy to believe you can play in the show. Ignore the statistics about your chances and find ways to work on your craft. Invest time in things that will help you hit. Like going to the cage, playing in as many games as possible to get at bats, read books/blogs on hitting, play wiffle ball, stick ball, have someone throw you sunflower seeds, bottle caps, soup beans, play golf, play tennis, play MLB the Show. Invest time. The game eventually rewards the players who consistently invest time in developing their craft. Have perspective, it may seem important now but no one cares what you hit in little league, high school, college and minor league ball, if you get to the big leagues.
   The simple fact is the game remembers the men who get to the Major Leagues and have success there. The game has also shown that you can be a Hall of Famer with a flawed mechanical swing aka Wade Boggs, Ty Cobb etc. The only thing every Hall of Fame hitter has in common is they were the best at hitting a white ball on the middle of the bat consistently throughout their MLB career. "Heroes get remembered, but legends never die, follow your heart kid and you'll never go wrong."--The Sandlot

Barrel/ball accuracy= consistent success AIM SMALL MISS SMALL

   The swing is evolving and it is an exciting age to be an offensive player. However, with the technology advancements, over analysis of the body has followed. There are too many variables that effect the result of any given pitch to pin point the one mechanical flaw that led to the negative result. The explosion of indoor facilities around the country is awesome for repetition but it has created a culture of amateur/even professional players that search for the perfect "mechanical swing" in the cage either off the tee or when a "hitting coach" is flipping the ball with similar timing consistently where the hitter can have success. Then when it "clicks" with positive results in the cage the individual hitter expects this to automatically translate to the game. There is one simple variable that hitters forget about when analyzing their in game results: the pitcher in the game is trying to upset your timing and his success is based on you failing. 

   When a successful amateur hitter climbs the ranks from little league to travel ball to high school, to college and finally to professional baseball he is facing pitchers that have made similar jumps because they have consistently been successful at forcing hitters to fail by upsetting their timing and consistently executing pitches that are tough to hit on the barrel. There are also positive advantages to climbing the ranks of baseball; at each step the balls get better, the bats get better, the umpires get better and the fields you play on get way better. 

   Hitting is confidence, consistency, perspective and dominant body language. Hitting is mental, you have to come to terms mentally that offensive success in any individual game is almost completely out of your control. To be successful you can't simplify a game to the box score. You HAVE TO ACCEPT THAT YOU ARE AN OUT! You just want to be a tough out for the pitcher. Hitters that get frustrated with individual negative at bats have not come to terms with the fact that even the greatest in the world are outs at least half the time at almost every level from little league to pro ball with a few exceptions. For example Bryce Harper hit 700 in high school because he will be the greatest hitter of all time when his career is over. That means that the greatest hitter of all time still was an out 3 out of 10 times in HIGH SCHOOL! As hitters, mentally get away from trying to perfect your "mechanics" in the cage, work on your craft with the tools of your trade, your bat and the ball. More specifically the middle of your barrel with the middle of the baseball (the baseball is a leather cover with string wrapped around a small ball/cork, as hitters you can develop the ability to feel when you hit the "small ball" inside the "baseball") 

   Aim small miss small, I got this phrase from "The Patriot" Benjamin Martin played by Mel Gibson. (https://youtu.be/F-BQi0JjY2w) Martin tells his young children to "aim small miss small" to aim at the necks of the Red Coats because they lack protection in the area. and then Martin says a prayer right before they start shooting to himself, "Lord make me fast and accurate." It's just a movie but is an example of great task oriented self talk that a hitter can use. You need to remind your body what you want it to do to be successful in that moment. I love this scene because Martin knows his kids are scared and the threat of death is obvious but you can't focus on things you can't control. You have to stay in the present and give your brain the freedom to focus on the task at hand. With perspective as a hitter it allows your brain/muscles the freedom to relax. "A tense muscle is a slow muscle": your eyes are the most important muscles in hitting. On offense the threat is failing, the threat to your ego is the embarrassment that failure artificially creates. Acknowledge the artificial threat of failure and know statistically there is a good chance you will make an out which allows your brain/eyes/body the freedom to release artificial tension and relax. Focus on the task at hand which is to be accurate with the barrel to the middle of the baseball. If you embrace these realities then hitting in the cage never gets boring because it is impossible to have perfect barrel accuracy and ball strike but each rep is a test to see how accurate you can be. The pictures below are contact from home runs hit the last two nights in the MLB. Below each is a quick caption based on barrel accuracy, ball strike accuracy and the pitchers ability to execute a pitch. I challenge you to do this when you see clips of a "good swing" and when analyzing your own at bats. How accurate was my barrel? How accurate was I hitting the baseball? How accurate was the pitcher in executing his intent on that pitch? Hitting is not black/white and you don't need a "perfect mechanical swing" to hit a home run.

okay/okay/ mistake/ strong human with short porch, an out everywhere else besides Boston

perfect/perfect/ missed location long homer

perfect/perfect/mistake/ no doubter 

off end/ perfect ball strike/ average pitcher execution

off end/ perfect ball strike/ mistake pitch

okay/perfect/ executed pitch/ betts is a freak can do things others can't

off barrel/ okay ball strike/ mistake pitch/ strong/powerful hitter

jammed a little/ perfect ball accuracy/ mistake pitch

okay/okay/ mistake pitch

Perfect/Perfect/Executed pitchers pitch

A little off middle of barrel/perfect ball accuracy mistake from pitcher

Perfect barrel accuracy/ a little below middle of ball/ mistake pitch

Barry Bonds is the greatest hitter of all time, listen to him!!!

With the improvement and easy access to video the swing is beginning to change. However, the new issue I am seeing with video breakdowns and all the different color circles and lines "hitting experts" draw to show all the different angles, path, trajectory etc etc is they are making the swing more difficult then it actually is. Who said hitting is hard? Why? At the big league level hitting 300 is impressive but why is that still good at the amateur level? Hitting is hard because hitters make it hard on themselves. I have spent years trying to take what great baseball minds write/say about the swing and simplifying down to a feel that the amateur hitter can understand.

    The greatest hitter to ever live was Barry Bonds. The witch hunt that ended his career and left him out of baseball until this year says that because he may/may not have used performance enhancing drugs we shouldn't talk about how great he actually was.  Everyone (or most) were taking something and Bonds became the bad guy but what he took is completely irrelevant to the fact that he was the toughest out in baseball for over a decade and statistically put up the most impressive overall offensive numbers the game will ever see. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/bondsba01.shtml

Bonds had the most efficient "short to the ball" swing of all time. The last picture is one I see all the time talking about the proper contact position. That's great but how do I do that? The sexy videos right now are of Josh Donaldson and Bryce Harper. I love watching those dudes hit but I can't do that.  Trust me I've tried. I have no idea how Donaldson adjust his timing with his lower half and alters his stride and foot strike based on approach and pitch execution. I have no idea how Harper literally strides from one end of the box to the other and swings as hard as he can and hits it on the barrel more times than not. My guess is both of them have internal cues similar to this, "I'm the greatest hitter on the planet, everyone came here to watch me hit. This pitcher stinks, if he throws it over the plate I'm going to ruin his day." Why can't you have that mental self talk? No one has to know what you are thinking. Back to Bonds. He used a 34 inch bat but he choked up on it a 32.5 but it had the barrel length of a 34 inch bat. I think more than anything Bonds understood how long he could wait to swing if he stayed relaxed and confident and just tried to be accurate with his barrel. If you didn't throw bonds something he could hit on the barrel he just walked. I also think he understood that the pitcher's job is to throw the ball to the catcher not to home plate so you very rarely saw bonds chase in the dirt because as he says he was just trying to play catch with his barrel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfoXaNZQce4   He says, "the barrel has to become an extension of your arm and you have to keep your hands up. I think he says that because the closer you get your  your top fist to your shoulder the quicker the shoulder can turn the barrel.

The action of turning the barrel is very similar to a boxer. Boxer's do not punch with their hands they punch with their shoulders. The shoulders are the joints that control your arms and your eyes can be accurate with these limbs if the brain gives direction to shoulders for accuracy. Watch tyson punch:

 Thats the same exact shoulder turn a RHH would use to hit a low curveball. Bonds had power to all fields because he let the pitcher throw the ball to him. Even with a 32.5 inch bat if you make the pitcher throw the ball to the catcher thats plenty of bat to cover the strike zone. If you think like Bonds does about just catch the ball with your barrel it will relax your body when you go to hit and if you can't catch the ball with your barrel don't swing its not a good pitch to hit.

"Get your foot down" and the sacrifice bunt are ruining amateur baseball

A coach putting the sacrifice bunt sign on is telling the hitter, "hey I think you can't hit so I am going to make you do what pitchers do in the national league" Then they give you some crap about doing it for the betterment of the team and teaching the concepts of selflessness....blah blah blah etc. Bunt for hits are a good play but the sacrifice bunt in the first 5 innings is a joke. Let your guys swing the bat.  A coach telling his hitter to get his foot down before he swings is also ridiculous on many levels. First, it gives the hitter the impression that all he has to do to have success is get his foot down. Yes your foot has to come down before you swing, but it has become a phenomenon across amateur baseball to yell, "Get your foot down" I remember wanting to turn around to the parent or coach and yell back, "no shit!" Yelling get your foot down at a player is like telling him to put his helmet on and batting gloves before he goes up for his ab. Getting your foot down early actually makes it harder to hit in the GAME. In bp great, get your foot down works because tempo and location a very similar. However, in the game once both feet are down the eyes begin urging the body to swing the bat. While the front foot is in the air the eyes are in tracking mode. The longer you can stay in tracking mode the tougher it is on the pitcher.  If the pitcher is throwing 90mph or slower then front foot should not come off the ground until release point at the earliest, where most coaches make their players have their foot down by this point. Our eyes are very powerful muscles and they control the entire swing. Track the ball with your foot off the ground and relax, your eyes will tell your body when its time to swing. Rhythm, Timing and Style; find how your body moves in rhythm with the pitcher. Don't get confused with the different forms of foot down. Heal down is what coaches mean because there are hitters in the show that put their toe down and then their heal. Toe heal is an timing mechanism that I do not like because it creates issues if you begin the turn with the heal still in the air. Watch the MLB players below to see that each has their own tracking style but none have their heal down as early as it is taught at the amateur level.