Learn Your Swing by Finding Patterns: Simplifying the Path to Hitting Success

Hitting a baseball is one of the most challenging feats in sports. The combination of a round bat, a round ball, varying pitches, and different velocities creates a unique challenge for hitters. Despite these difficulties, success in baseball is often measured by achieving a 30% success rate, a stark contrast to most other fields where such a percentage would be considered a failure. This blog explores how simplifying your approach and finding patterns in your swing can lead to greater success at the plate.

The Complexity of Hitting

As a former hitter and current hitting coach, I understand how difficult it is to achieve consistent success at the plate. The mechanics of hitting require precise timing, balance, and coordination. However, by simplifying our approach and focusing on key elements, we can improve our chances of success.

Simplifying the Process

To simplify hitting, it's essential to break down...

Stealing Information from Other Players: A Key to Baseball Success

In baseball, the term "stealing" usually brings to mind swiping bases, but there's another kind of stealing that can significantly benefit your game: stealing information. This blog post explores how gathering insights from fellow players can help you improve your skills and reach higher levels in baseball, from high school to pro ball.

Why Stealing Information is Important

As a player aspiring to improve, you can't rely solely on your own experiences or even just on your coaches' guidance. Other players, especially those who have already achieved the levels you aim for, are valuable resources. They have firsthand knowledge of how to apply the mechanics and techniques that coaches teach.

Real-World Application

Coaches provide critical information and training, but players often have unique ways of applying this knowledge based on their individual experiences. By learning from your peers, you can discover practical...

The Currency of Trust in Baseball Coaching: Key to Player Development

Players who want to improve their skills can't do it alone. They need guidance from a coach who can help them navigate the path to success. The relationship between a player and coach is essential, as the player has the raw talent but lacks the knowledge to reach the next level. A coach provides this knowledge, creating a partnership where both parties benefit. This blog explores the importance of building trust in baseball coaching and how it can lead to player development and success.

The Importance of Trust and Rapport

In a successful player-coach relationship, trust and rapport are the foundation. Trust allows players to believe in their coach's guidance and commit fully to the training process. Rapport ensures open communication, mutual respect, and a positive environment where players can thrive.

Developing Trust

1. Consistency: Coaches must be consistent in their approach and expectations. This consistency...

Mastering Lead Shoulder Control for Improved Baseball Hitting

In the realm of baseball hitting, the ability to control the lead shoulder is a fundamental aspect that can significantly impact a hitter’s performance. Lead shoulder control is a critical component within separation, contributing to a linear path through contact and ensuring the hitter maintains optimal control over their swing. This blog delves into the importance of lead shoulder control, its effects on hitting mechanics, and actionable tips to improve this aspect of your swing.

Understanding Lead Shoulder Control

Lead shoulder control refers to the hitter’s ability to manage the movement of the lead shoulder during the swing. Proper control of the lead shoulder allows the hitter to create positive separation between the body and the hands, resulting in long, linear barrel extension through contact. When the lead shoulder is out of control, often described as “flying out” or “pulling...

Mastering Barrel Accuracy in Baseball: The Key to Elite Hitting

Barrel accuracy is the cornerstone of elite hitting in baseball. It means hitting the ball's center mass with the sweet spot of the bat, a skill that separates great hitters from the rest. Launch angle and exit velocity are important metrics, but consistently hitting the middle of the ball on the sweet spot is what all elite hitters do and do often.

Understanding Barrel Accuracy

Barrel accuracy can be measured by a hitter’s batting average, which is the number of hits divided by the number of at-bats. While there will always be some lucky hits, baseball is a game of duration. Over time, a hitter’s success reflects how often they can hit the ball on the barrel. As Ted Williams, one of baseball’s greatest hitters, famously said, “Baseball is the only field of endeavor where a man can succeed three times out of ten and be considered a good performer.”

The Sweet Spot and Center Mass

Few sounds...

Dreaming About Being The Best? Here's How You Set Goals To Get There.

Dreaming about being the best is easy–but setting goals to get there? That’s hard. Taking the necessary steps to accomplish those goals is even harder. But it doesn’t have to be.

We’re all guilty of it—especially baseball players—finding ourselves dreaming of the day we drive in the winning run, get the ring, and get awarded the MVP trophy. I bet you have even imagined (or maybe actually practiced) your post-game on-field media interview.  We get this far-off gaze in our eyes and dream of accomplishing these Big Hairy Audacious Goals (or BHAGS) that leadership guru Jim Collins taught, almost as if they are already a reality. 

That far-out gaze you get and that sense of hope for the future aren’t goals. They’re dreams. I know that truth probably stings a little. But if you are confusing dreams with goals, you lie to yourself, and you will no doubt...

Why Motivation Might Be Actually Fooling You

Are you feeling motivated? Ready to take on that goal? Not so fast. That urge or desire to do something might actually be the wrong path toward the goal you set. Motivation can’t be fully trusted. Yet you rely on it. Almost as if it was the sustenance you need for performance survival. Don’t believe me? Google it. 

“How to Motivate Yourself”

"8 Psychology-Based Tricks for Staying Motivated"

"15 Tips on How to Be More Motivated in The Morning"

"30 Tips for How to Get and Stay Motivated"

I could keep going, but for the sake of getting to the point, I won’t. But trust me; there are millions of articles espousing every idea imaginable for how you can stay motivated. The problem is that while motivation sounds nice, we mistakenly believe it will help us achieve our goals. 

It won’t

What’s your favorite sports movie? Take a moment and think about it. Think...

Want To Become A .300 Hitter? Learn Your Swing Feelings

Anyone can swing a bat. But learning how to swing doesn’t make you a .300 hitter. I can still hear those very first instructions from my tee ball coach. Point your shoulder to the mound, feet apart, and put the bat up by your inside ear. Eye on the ball. 

Swing!

Those first few swings were both exhilarating and intimidating. But over time, every young player begins to understand the feeling of swinging the bat. But as you mature, that feeling needs to be replaced with the feeling of hitting. Because swinging the bat and hitting a baseball are not the same thing. 

What would you say if I asked you what your swing felt like? What does a smooth, early building trigger feel like? How about your thoughts on the feeling of a long-full-robust extension after contact? Many of you have never stopped for even a fraction of a second to consider how your swing feels. 

That’s...

How to Move From Belief Into The Kind of Confidence That Breeds Success

In our last post, Belief and Hard Work are Actually Only Part of Athletic Success. Here’s Why.

we discussed the subjectivity of belief. We want to be a great athlete. We can believe that we will win the game, the championship, or go undefeated. But the truth behind belief will only take you so far. 

Your belief may produce the right work ethic, a commitment to the team, and the grit needed to keep moving forward when the obstacles are too much. That’s still not enough. The key is transforming your belief into tangible, measurable, and objective proof through simulated execution.

That objective proof is in the execution and the confidence that comes from consistent and successful execution. In other words, putting the time into practice simulating the circumstances you will have to perform in. Then correct the errors, re-simulate, and prove to yourself, your teammates, and...

How To Avoid The Dangerous Trap That Belief and Hard Work Guarantee Success

“If you work hard and believe in yourself, you can accomplish anything.”

You’ve perhaps seen this on a bumper sticker, read it in a book, or heard a video proclaiming this grand truth. If you’re a parent, you’ve likely repeated this to your kids on more than one occasion. And if you’re an athlete, you’ve tried to convince yourself of this every time you’re staring at a lofty goal you want to achieve. 

Except that it’s not true. Make no mistake. We desperately want it to be true. We want it to be that simple. We want confidence that the playing field is level, that my kid has just as much chance as any other, and that we can simply overcome every obstacle if we just believe. 

It makes excellent movies, bumper stickers, books, and even great T-shirts. But it’s not reality. 

Of course, hard work and believing in...