Up to Down, not back to front. Kevin Brown swing evolution.

 Kevin Brown was a 22nd round pick by the Cubs that got up to AAA. If he was drafted by not such a loaded organization he would of got to the big leagues. Kev was a good college player. Freshman all-American and a solid Sophomore and Junior year, The first video is of his junior year where he had a good college swing, the rest of the videos are from his senior year when he had a pro swing playing college baseball and his numbers showed that. Kev wanted to learn the pro swing and I taught it to him. However, he is still my favorite hitter I've ever coached because of his consistent work. He was the same everyday in the cage and always had an intent to get better. He wanted to be uncomfortable, because he knew that meant he was trying something new that might help him in the game. The best cage hitter I've ever coached name is Who Givesashit. Brownie understood that and was always trying to prepare his swing for the game when the pitcher is 60 feet away.

Kevin's swing evolution took a consistent daily focus in the cage. Most hitters are trying to perfect the first swing that was taught to them. That's what Kev did for 3 good years at Bryant. In Kev's senior year I asked him if he wanted to get drafted and Kev said, " I'm getting to the big leagues and getting drafted" and I said, "well you gotta start loading the barrel and preparing for the incoming pitch like a pro. Pros make the decision to swing or take way later than amateurs and pros can drive balls within their body cause their swing path is longer." Amateurs need to hit the ball out front to drive it." Brownie just said, "ok lets do it." Kev was obsessed with making his swing pro, he spent tons of time working on his craft in the cage with and without me. By the time the spring rolled around he had a pro swing. When you have a pro swing in college the numbers you put up are a joke. Brownie led our team in everything that year but the most impressive thing to me was if you didn't throw it over to Kev he just walked. He broke the NCAA record for most times on base in a row with 19. 9 of those plate appearances were walks. Brownie understood that it's about the pitches you take to set up pitches you will get later in the AB. If you swing at a 1-0 ball and roll it over, the 2-0, 3-0, 3-1 pitches are lost in history. When the pitcher executes and you don't have 2 strikes take it, because 99% of the time the amateur pitcher can't do it again.

Below are Kev's swing from Junior, where he hit "back to front" like almost every amateur hitter. If you time it up perfect you can hit it a long way. Kev had 9 HRs that year but only hit 280 because he would chase the ball down because he made his decision to swing at the amateur level so the pitches that ended up bouncing look liked strikes to his eyes when he made the decision to swing. For another post, you should go back to front, only in a plus count when you are cheating to a fastball.

 Your body can move the barrel better if your foot is away from the ground, it opens space for the body to store energy.

 Leaning on the back leg to load BACK 😞

 land like you are stepping on ice to see if it will break with most of the weight still on the back leg.

finish forward with most of the weight on the front leg.

Below is Kev's absolute bomb off a good pitcher from Ohio State early in his senior year. Illustrates the adjustments he made to his swing to make him pro. He loaded up not back and he is storing energy in his back groin but his knee is still inside his back foot. 

When he lands he has "separation" of his lower and upper body, his shoulder is pointed at the ball and his belt buckle is pointed at 3rd base. 

He TURNS his back shoulder down into the zone to start the movement of the barrel and as he starts to rotate to contact his weight is even and his head is in the middle of his body. The pro swing is up to down to rotate, once a pro lands he doesn't go forward any more HE JUST TURNS.

He makes the pitcher do his job which is to throw the ball the distance to the catcher not to home plate. The amateur umpire calls balls and strikes based on the location of the pitch when the catcher catches it. If it bounces before the catcher they can't call it a strike. 

Out front the right way, not going to get the ball and his back arm is still connected to his body. Once the arm starts to straighten the barrel is decelerating. 

The back shoulder is pointed to the pitcher at the finish, "replace the shoulders"

And as a pro when you know its out, you flip your bat 😎

Kev's transformation from a good college hitter as a junior to a professional hitter still playing in college was really fun to watch. He dominated and obviously cause he paid his dues to the Baseball Gods throughout the year with his work, Kev had the biggest hit in Bryant University's history. Jelen Beeks who is on the 40 man for the Boston Red Sox right now came in to pitch for Arkansas in a 1-1 game and threw a 97 FB on the black in and Kev trusted his pro swing that was late but had good enough bat path that he hit a line drive over the SS head to win the game in the NCAA regional to beat an SEC team. Weird how shit works out when you pay your dues and love the work that makes you a STUD.

If you want to be a pro you gotta act like a pro and WORK LIKE A PRO ON A SWING THAT A PRO WOULD HAVE. You can do it, so save the excuse that you can't because those guys are just naturals. That's bullshit, decide what you want to do and do the work to make it a reality. 

Establish your dominance.

One of my managers in pro ball used to tell us, every time two Bucks meet in the woods to mate with the same Doe most times they do not fight. Usually one yields to the other more Dominant body language Buck and carries on with his day. As a baseball player we have to act like we are the dominant person of the relationship. Confidence and confident non verbal actions are truly important to being great. Baseball is an individual matchup sport in a team setting but success and failure comes down to individual players being confident, acting dominant and trusting themselves. You have to believe everyone is there to watch you play and you are the best player on the field. If someone showed up in the 7th inning they shouldn't know how your day is going based on how you act. My favorite quote about consistency was about Jeter they said "the first thing I learned from Jeter is to be the same no matter if you're doing good or bad"  We show our dominance by how we react to failure (act like you did it on purpose), success (act like it was inevitable) and also how we react to the other teams/fans verbal eye wash. A lot of the pissing matches amateurs teams get into is ridiculous to me. Players get bent out of shape over issues that have nothing to do with the game. Each team gets 27 outs, 3 strikes is a K and 4 balls is a walk, every 3 outs you switch. A lot of the issues that players deal with during the game, they don't have control over and therefore should be ignored. You can't control the umpires bad call, you cant control the other team making a great play, the weather, the field, your coaches lineup decisions, your batting average. The hardest thing to do in baseball is play in the present and execute your job on this pitch. We can control this pitch and that's it. When you fail act like you did it on purpose and when you succeed act like it was inevitable. That is dominant body language. There are also small things you can do during the game to give the opponent the impression that you are bored/dominant and know what they are doing. Look in for the sign from the catcher when you are at first and steal on off speed, catch a popup with one hand, like "whatever" body language, when you walk look disappointed, etc. The 2 videos below are my favorite two acts of dominance during the game, Papi knows they are pitching around him and just walks to first. This isn't bush league, this is awesome. I wish more guys at the amateur level would do this when the pitcher is showing you he is scared to face you. Cliff Lee is pitching in the World Series and he catches that pop up like he is bored. Talk about being confident and in the moment on baseball's  biggest stage. Most players do not appreciate the significance of the message you send to your opponent during a game. Be Dominant, show that whenever you can to your opponent.

Most Hitters are just trying to improve the first swing that was taught to them

The definition of INSANITY is repeating the same action but expecting different results. Most amateur are average hitters because their swing is average at best. The swing is not something that can truly be explained and also felt. If you ask great hitters about their approach or swing their answers are most times very simple. For example, I asked Mookie Betts why he is big on hitting the ball to the middle of the field and his response was, "there are less defenders in the center of the field" One day as a young boy I finally got to meet Mo Vaughn, he was the bad ass cleanup hitter for the Red Sox and I loved how he hit. So awkward Mikey Ged walks up and says, "Mr. Vaughn, what is your approach when you hit" he response I will never forget, "Well Kid, swing as hard as you can, just in case you hit it."😍 My dad used to say to me all the time, "Just relax and be good with your head" but I didn't know that he was just simply saying, a tense muscle is a slow muscle and your eyes are the most important muscles to hitting, so relax and trust that your eyes will show your body the swing it needs on this incoming pitch. You work on your actions in the cage. Off the tee and flips you can and should experiment with NEW actions. You should experiment with a leg kick, double tap, starting open, starting closed, going no stride, doing any of the MLB players stances because your stance and your leg movement is completely irrelevant 😶All that matters is the position your body lands in and how you move your barrel before you launch it, but thats for a later post after my season is over, can't give away all the secrets 😘 A Punching Judy is a player that hits singles and luckily hits a double when he hits a ground ball down the line. You are not a Judy because you are small, Altuve isn't a Judy and he is smaller than you. The reason you are a Judy is because you swing like a Judy and your coach teaches you the Judy swing. Experiment with the MLB players actions in the cage, watch how they move their barrel and the position they land in. You can do it, just try. The eye wash excuse is,"those are MLB hitters, I can't do that or teach my players to do that." You're wrong MEAT, I hate you for thinking like a squid because it's not true. The MLB players are just there because they worked way harder than you, not because they are God-given more talented even though that's the excuse you use to fall asleep at night. They decided want they wanted to do and did the work to make it a reality.....PERIOD. Experiment with your swing in the cage and stop trying to be the best cage hitter of all time. The point of your cage work is to get your swing ready for the game when the pitcher is 60 feet away. The best cage hitter of all time's name is WHO GIVESASHIT.


I've seen many college players teach themselves to swing like pros. One of my favorites is John Mullen, who has the biggest swing in Bryant baseball history. He hit a pitch from Jelen Beeks who was just put on the 40 man for the Boston Red Sox with a swing like Jeff Bagwell and murdered the pitch which hit off the fence in dead center for a stand up triple to beat the University of Arkansas in the NCAA regional. Mullen was a tough kid that worked hard but his swing was average until he decided he was going to make it pro and he did. He should of got a chance to play pro ball but most scouts are blind 😶 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWJ4e5KvwjQ&feature=youtu.be 1:50 mark for the Mullen swing, but watch all those sickos in that video, they all hit like pros 😎

Low Breaking Balls go really far :)

Get me overs or "hangers" are easier to be accurate with your barrel because they are closer to your eyes, but if you can master the proper bat path to a low breaking ball they go really far, if you are on time to the hitting zone with the barrel. I'm not into physics but I think this is because the low breaking ball has traveled more rotations down before contact at a steeper angle so when you square up this pitch with the proper upper cut it makes the ball go far. I don't know exactly why but just learn how to hit them so you can ruin the pitchers day :) The amateur curveball is brutal, but they get away with it. They throw the get me over that no one swings at and then they bounce their "hammer" lol, 2 strike curveball and most hitters swing at it but it would bounce before the catcher so if you take it the ump can't call it a strike because it would bounce before the catcher catches it. I'm pretty sure I've said it like 15 times in this blog but thats the biggest downfall of the amateur hitter. They don't make the pitcher do his job. His job is to throw the ball to the catcher, but most amateur hitters are not in the back of the box and are trying to protect home plate. Therefore, they let the pitcher throw the ball a shorter distance before they have to make their decision to take or swing earlier than they should. Every single possible reason for moving up in the box to adjust to a pitcher is hahahahaha to me. You are really just letting the pitcher throw it a shorter distance to the catchers glove and good catchers will move up with you as you move forward in the box. Amateur Coach Billy says, "I tell the hitters to move up because the pitcher throws too slow or to get the curveball before it breaks" lollolol. Just tell your hitters to start their load later. The biggest advantage hitters have is time, time for their eyes to tell the body the swing it needs to barrel up this particular incoming pitch and time to tell their eyes that this pitch is going to be a ball by the time it reaches the catcher. Most amateur hitters make these decisions when the pitch is 20-30 feet out of the pitchers hand so the breaking ball in the dirt still looks like a good pitch to hit at this point in its ball flight to home plate. The MLB hitters' eyes make this same decision when the ball is 45-55 feet out of release point because they trust their quick and explosive swing and stay relaxed during their load and trust their eyes to show them the swing/or take that's needed on this particular pitch. The pitcher's job is to throw pitches that initially look like strikes but become balls and pitches that look like balls and become strikes. This is WAY easier to do to a hitter than loads too early, gets his foot down too early and makes his decision to swing/take too early. Make the pitcher do his job which is to throw the ball to the catcher and make the distance to the catcher as far as possible.

This is a Homer Trout hit off a 95mph fastball in, at this point the amateur would have his foot almost down and he wouldn't be relaxed and letting his eyes work. Loading too early activates your slow twitch muscles, loading later, relaxed, allows your body to be quick and explosive which is great for hitting if you can stay relaxed until it's time to launch your barrel.  

Sorry I got a little side tracked, back to the point of this post. In the pictures below notice how Donaldson lets the pitcher do his job and as the curveball moves towards him he is timing up the pitch with his body as he tracks the pitch flight with his eyes. He has good timing but is not accurate with his barrel, he hits it towards the end but because he launches his barrel quick and explosively it's a no doubter homer, if he had squared the ball up it would of been a moon shot. However, to hit a homer you just have to hit it the distance to hit it over the outfield fence. A great quote Harold Baines use to always say when a reporter asked him after a game he hit a homer in, "Harold you really crushed that home run you hit tonight." Harold just responded, "Apparently", almost mocking the reporter in a sarcastic way because he got paid to hit homers, whether he hit it 500 feet or 330 just over the fence they both count the same. So No Doubters are kewl but you are just trying to hit it out. The distance it travels past the fence is irrelevant to the result.

Uppercut the Breaking Ball like Wiffle Ball

The biggest advantage I don't see Amateur hitters exposing is the get my over breaking ball that is thrown consistently throughout the amateur game. The reason pitchers are comfortable with this pitch is that hitters take it because it initially looks too high to be a "good pitch to hit" so they give up on it. A lot of the time it crosses at your neck but amateur umpires call balls/strikes based off the height and location of the pitch when the catcher catches it. That amateur brutal get me over curve ball most of the time crosses home plate above your chest but then gravity makes it drop down to where the catcher catches it in the "strike zone" Amateur umpires do not call balls and strikes based on the pro white home plate. They give at least 6 inches off the plate both sides. The only way the amateur blind umpires can't expand the strike zone is down. If the amateur gravity ball, I mean fastball bounces before the catcher, he can't call it a strike even though the pitch crossed home plate at your knees. Lay off the balls down, thats the pitchers comfort zone but its not a strike, almost all of the amateur thumpers don't throw hard enough to throw a fastball that crosses home plate at your knees that the catcher can present to the umpire as a strikes, gravity brings their gravity ball down out of the strike zone before the catcher catches it. Make the pitcher do his job, his job is not to throw the ball to home plate, his job is to throw the ball to the catcher. When you come out to hit, stand at the back of the box even if the pitcher throws 75mph because then the catcher has to move back which makes the pitcher have to throw it farther. Also, when you are in the box look to see how far back the catcher is because that determines the strike zone. When you take a pitch follow it all the way into the catchers glove so you can figure out what are balls/strikes and where those pitches crossed home plate compared to where the catcher catches it. These Pictures below are of a no doubter Donaldson hit this summer, almost all Amateur hitters would take this pitch because it was initially "too high" but the MVP makes the pitcher do his job which is to throw the ball to the catcher. Another self talk I like is, "Don't go try to make it happen, let the game come to you." Because the breaking ball has way more downward ball flight than a heater you have to use gravity and allow the ball to come down into the hitting zone and then uppercut the shit out of the barrel turn and try to be accurate with your barrel. If you do this right the pitcher needs a new ball from the umpire. :)

Whats Important Now? WIN

1. Confidence is #1.  
2. Continue to work on playing/practicing in the present. You can evaluate after the day is done. 
3. Constantly ask yourself between pitches W I N. What's important now? 
4. When you fail act like you did it on purpose/ when you succeed act like it was inevitable.
5. Leave your distractions in the locker room/ clear it and come to work
6. Motivation is a daily decision, develop a routine, Have intent to get better at all aspects of your game. 
7. If you don't like it play better
8. Perspective: Why do you play, create goals and a clear vision for what you are trying to accomplish. 
9. Most players waste a lot of time and energy worrying about things out of there control.
10. The most consistent players will be the best. How are you going to play when you are not feeling well, or nothing is going right. Force yourself to act differently then you feel. --Body language and presence should always be the same. 
11. Can't let the results dictate how you feel. 
12. Look like a pro, should be calculated what you are going to look like. Act like the player you want to become until you become the player you act like. 
13. Whatever emotions you are feeling during a game, recognize them and figure out if they are artificial or real. WIN, Whats important now?
14. Don't care what you tell me: prove it.
15. Acknowledge the Excuses you create for yourself. Live with the consequences and regret if you decide to go along for the ride. 
16. A tense muscle is a slow muscle. relax, so your eyes can process the information the ball is giving them.
17. When you struggle 90% of the time its pitch selection, tension level, NOT THE SWING
18. Your self talk is important. Keep it simple. What makes you confident and relaxed?
19. Warrior is confidence and demon is fear they battle it out everyday

Consistency=Greatness

• Get Organized/ Take Care of the little things/ they are Easy. The more organized you are the less time you will waste.

• Get a planner or calendar or you can just use your phone.

• Read, it makes you a more efficient human.

• You are trying to chase perfection in baseball and anything else you invest time in. You can enjoy doing a bunch of things but to be great you have pick one thing to invest time in. 10,000 hours of practice to become great. A lot of people are okay with being average.

• Associate with people that are chasing perfection. Ignore the haters/use them as fuel.

• Don’t ever let anyone tell you you cant do something. If you want something go get it, PERIOD.

• Life is not that hard, people just use that as a crutch. We are capable of way more than we give ourselves credit for.

• People who say they don’t have enough time are just making excuses. 

• Excuses are everywhere and people blame others for their down falls. It makes it hurt less. 

• Everyone has weaknesses the great ones just to decide to invest time to work on them.

• Speak up if you are right. But only make statements when you have proof and can answer why.

• Money does not equal happiness. If you have enough money to eat, wear clothes and have a roof over your head. What else do you need?

• Find a way to get it done..It’s never the arrow its the Indian, who gives a fuck what equipment you have. Altuve used a random glove in the world series.

• Rocky Balboa/Ivan Gragor, when you find a way it gives you the edge when the lights turn on.

• Victory happens when 10,000 hours of training meet one moment of opportunity. 

• Because of modern technology it is easy for your opponents to get distracted. Who gives a fuck if they are better than you right now. Be more consistent than them with your work and you will catch that mother fucker. 

• When you look back at your career you will see opportunities you had to stretch towards your potential that you let go because things were easy and you could always do it later.

• Average people sleep walk through life. You don’t want that. Easy days are a waste. Have perspective, be grateful you are healthy and attack the day, Carpe Diem. It’s a way of life, its a mentality and average people don’t like you cause of it. 

• My dream is going to become a reality at some point. Act like the player you want to become until you become the player you act like. Decide what you are going to do and put the work in to make it a reality. 

• Why aren’t you there yet? Stop hitting the fucking snooze button. I’m not great because I’m lazy, I’m not doing what I am suppose to be doing to be great.

• Shut up, you talk too much, Prove it, talk less grind more.