I recently returned form the Chicago White Sox training facility in Phoenix Arizona and I was asked how to fix a struggling minor leaguer's swing in 60 seconds. My first thought was, "I can't."
But if you know who I am then "I can't " is like saying a four lettered word that gets your mouth washed out with soap to me, so my wheels began to spin....and spin quickly.
The Answer: Be on time. Don't be early or late be on time.
Thank you I'll take that signing bonus now, oh and that big league hitting coaches job while you are at it.
Wait a minute you are saying it can not be that simple. To this I say it can be that simple of an answer but not that simple of a thing to execute. If you have heard me talk, or speak, or give a lesson then you know that 9 out of 10 balls put in play are miss hit. Meaning not hit potentially as hard as they can be hit. The bat is a little ahead, or behind, above or below the ball. This is what I mean by miss hit. I used to swing test kids with a target test. I would set up a target 50ft. away with a tee and radar gun. I would instruct the student to swing as hard as they can and see if they could hit the target. The target was a 10 x 10 tarp with three scoring squares. Middle section was 3x3, then a 6x6, then the rest of the target was the original tarp. Scoring went 3 for a middle hit, 2 for a second ring hit, and 1 for and outer ring hit. Complete misses were 0 points. On average the best hitters scored 18-21 out of a possible 30. Really bad hitters 1 to 6. Yes, they would miss hit a ball sitting on a tee almost every time. I took that test about 300 times in a 2 year period. I never hit 30 for 30. My highest score was 24 and I hit the target center 6 times that round, 3 in the 2 ring and absolutely missed my last ball. So this hitting a baseball business is not as easy as it looks.
So getting back on track, be on time or have a better swing? I am so conflicted on this on because I have known so many great hitter that I would say they were more on time then having a great swing. Frank Thomas for example. I personally do not think he had a great swing yet he was a career 301 hitter with 521 home runs and over 1000 extra base hits. In his career the Big Hurt had 2,468 hits and 1000 of them hit the wall or went over it. How did he do it? He sat on pitches. Meaning he would sit on a fastball in a certain area of the plate and he got ready to hit that particular pitch. When that pitch showed up and he was on time then the result was a very hard hit ball. When a hitter is on time then usually his hands and bat head are together in the same area. The hitter is locked out on the front side, driving off the backside and arms are at extension. That is what I mean when I say on time. If you as a hitter can get all these things in the right area at the precises moment then the ball can be hit potentially the hardest you can hit it. Frank didn't like the inside pitch and would jump out of the way and make it look like it would almost hit him. I didn't say he couldn't hit the inside pitch. I saw Frank get pounded in there and turn on one and hit it about 500 feet foul so the pitcher would get a little scared about throwing another one in there. The next pitch would be outside and Frank would smash it into the left center gap. Frank liked to get extended on the ball. You can't teach raw strength and power. Frank had both.
"He's got a sweet swing!"
Have you ever heard that? Tony Gwynn had one. Rod Carew had one. Ken Griffey Jr had one and still does. Albert Pujols has one. Barry Bonds had one, Hammering Hank Aaron, Stan Musial and even Babe Ruth had one. Pete Rose gets on my list because he consistently miss hit balls hard and got hard ground balls through the infield. What can be said about a sweet swing is when the player starts to swing the bat head gets in the flight of the ball and stays there a long time. The result is if the hitters timing is a little off it's okay because the bat head is in line and the ball will be hit solid in any direction. Effectively miss hitting the ball better. Now if the hitter has a good swing on a ball and is on time then maximum exit velocity and sometimes distance is achieved. And this occurrence happens more with a good swing. An Example would be Ken Griffey Jr and his career. There were spurts where he would hit 1 home run a night for four or five nights in a row and he would hit a few doubles and some very hard singles. Not only was his timing on his swing was good too. Barry Bonds was another hitter that I saw change over the years. Early in his career I would see him lean back and try to lift the ball. Later in his career I saw him stay more upright and get off his back side. He transferred more weight into the ball and kept his shoulders more level. Even his follow through was level and finished below his shoulders. His strike out ratio went way down and the year he hit 73 home runs to 8 per 100 at bats. How good were Barry's guesses and swings? I his career he had 2935 hits and 762 of them were home runs. That is 1 home run ever 3.8 at bats. That means if you are pitching against Barry Bonds and he is 0-3 against you then it is probably time to intentionally walk him.
Barry is a great example of sweet swing and timing come together. Between Frank and Barry hands down Frank was the bigger and stronger of the two. Frank never took and performance enhancers. Barry refined his swing into speed, power, and simplicity and possibly had a little boost from the juice.
My last example is a hitter that seals my case for better swing vs better timing. That hitter is Mark McGwire. He always had big power, but certain pitchers blew him away. You see a good hitter hits everyone even the guys throwing in the upper 90's. Hitters with a slight upswing or dip in their swing struggle with the really hard throwers because the bat head is only in the line of the ball for a spit second. If contact is made there then the hitter is on time. If the head is just a little off then its a total miss or fowl ball. In 99 I saw something change in Mark's swing. He started to release his back side through the ball. He began to push and turn with his back foot. That year he was staying on pitches longer through his swing and even when he was out in front of a pitch he was still able to hit it hard enough to get it over the fence. Instead of leaning back and popping the ball up and hitting a 400 ft by 250ft pop fly the ball began to level out into more of a line drive. I knew something had really changed when I saw him hit a line drive about 105 mph over the left fielders head and it went out. And just like Barry, Mark started to get timing with a good swing consistently and began hitting some monster shots. I had pictures of Mark early in his career with a full hip turn and the left foot on the ground. This creates a tremendous amount of strain on the ankle, knee, hips and lower back. As he got older these repetitive flaws began to show up in injuries all over his body. Once he started releasing his back side and ankle this allowed his hands to stay in the flight of the ball longer and hit more home runs.
I would love to train Barry or Mark for 3 months and see how well they hit the ball.
If they did train with me I will give this disclaimer......You will want to come out of retirement and play again.
Hitting is Mastery. Mastery is a lifetime process. As hitters mature and are put in situations over and over again they become better at them. If you do the same thing over and over again eventually you become very very good at it. Your mechanics get better, your timing gets better, and your instincts get better. It really sucks that by the time a hitter becomes really really good their body begins to fall apart and it's time to retire.
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Little League vs Club Baseball
When I was a kid growing up in rural Michigan I played baseball in the summer. That was little league. When I say summer I really mean during the months when school was out. Actually we started about three weeks before school let out, but the vast majority of the season was summer and during summer break. I so loved the little league that I grew up playing. I is really nothing like what it is today. A big business of fair play and everyone gets to be a winner. Everyone gets to play. Everyone gets to be happy in fantasy land called little league. When I was a kid there were about 11 kids on a team. Of course everyone played, well almost. There were some games I didn't play. Yes, I was a terrible player back then. And when it got down to playoffs I remember getting picked up by a team after the district tournament and not playing one single inning of the regional tournament. Was I upset? Hell yes I was. By age 12 I was becoming a decent little player. I was good enough to get pick up, but not good enough to play on this team that had just won the districts. Was it the end of the world? Was it fair? Life's not fair and baseball is life too. End of the world? I think not. Actually it made me work harder. I was so heart broken that I didn't play I went home and built a pulley device and put a ball on one end, attached to a rope, and the other end a weight. I used it for the next 5 years to strengthen my throwing arm. Then I attached a bat to it so I could strengthen my swing. From then on out when I made an All Star team for Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, or little league. I started at either pitcher or outfield. The bottom line was because I realized I needed to be better I went out and bettered myself. Nothing was handed to me on the baseball field. I had to work for it and I"ll be the first to tell you that in the talent pool I wasn't rich with it. I was short, fat, slow, and not that coordinated. I learned all those things through hard work.
Today with Little League everyone gets to play. You pay and you are guaranteed to play. I really think that sometimes this is DANGEROUS. Today I get 10 year old kids to hit the ball 250 which is about 73 mph. So put a 10 year old boy in the outfield or even at third base and let another kid hit a 70 mph ground ball right at them then watch it hit them in the face. Oh and don't forget that this is Little Jake's first year of playing baseball and he's got to play according to the rules. I have seen coaches try to hide these kids that "have to play" in right field for 2 innings. A pop fly and Jake hasn't got a chance in heck of catching this ball. When the ball was hit he was looking at the butterflies all around him and has no idea that the ball is quickly bearing down on him. At the last minute he hears the parents shouting at him and he starts looking around to see where the ball is. POW! Right in the face. Now blood and tears pour from his head.
I hear about this all the time. What a joke little league is. Do you realize that the All Star Teams that you watch in the Little League World Series are really all the top Club player that still happen to be playing Little League? For me it's a safety issue. I get players from L.L. as clients when the L.L. season starts. If they don't play club baseball I usually don't see them after the season. It's very rare to have a player that doesn't play top club actually make a high school team. I had one this year, but he has quickly learned that he is not at the level that the rest of the kids on his team are. He has had to work 5 times as hard as they have had to just to make the team. So safety is the first issue, talent is the second, and the rules are the third.
So why is club baseball better in my opinion? Because it forces the bad players to get better if they want to stay. It makes the better players better because players are continuing to throw harder, hit harder, run faster, steal bases. I look at a club ball catcher and a little league catchers and it's amazing how much better the club ball catchers are. They have to learn to block and throw. The rules are just like real baseball. There are lead offs, and the runner can leave whenever they want. So catchers have to be able to catch and throw. Pitchers have to learn how tho throw from the stretch and the wind up. They also have to learn how to pick runners and hold them. In USSSA they can even head first slide into the bases and even home plate. Some of the tournaments they have to avoid contact at the plate. In others they don't if the catcher is up the line without the ball then he is fair game to get smashed. That's life and baseball all rolled into one. It's not fair but that is the way the game is played. I also like that in club ball just because you payed doesn't mean you have to play. Kids that pay just to get a spot soon fizzle out and quit because they don't get to play. Parents who have really talented kids get upset when coaches play kids that are poor as player but have all the money behind the team. Those parents eventually find another team. I like the fact that in club ball you have to earn you spot. You have to be the best or at least be outworking everyone. There are no rules in club ball that everyone has to play at least one inning in each game. Just like in life, one has to work hard to get to the top. No raises are handed out because you just showed up and didn't contribute. No promotions in life are given out because you didn't do something to add more value to yourself. Little League baseball gives the impression to kids that all you have to do is show up and you will be rewarded. Everyone that pays gets to play. Well not everyone that goes to college and get a degree gets a job! This is Vegas. How many college grads are out there in this town dealing Black Jack? Plenty of them are. I met a young gentleman a 6 years ago that was broke. Dropped out of college and penniless he asked if I could give him a job. I paid him to paint my garage. We had a conversation while he was doing it and he told me what he was doing. I was amazing, but in the back of my mind I was thinking to myself this kid can't even finish school how is he ever going to do this? He said he would stay later and learn everything about mortgages. He did and helped as many people as he could get into their first homes over the next three years. In his third year he bought a $600,000 property that he rented out and later a 1.2 million dollar home. He had risen to the top of the company he was working for and even offered me a job! No one gave him anything. He outworked 90% of the people in his field and the bottom line is that in life and in sports he who works the hardest becomes the best and creates their own luck. My story is the same. I was a terrible player growing up. I wanted to be the best. When I asked the best what it took they all said the same thing. I takes a lot of hard work. Blood, sweat, and tears are another key factor. It takes a little more to be a champion. A few more swings, a few more grounds balls, a few more throws down to second base, a few more sprints, shag a few more fly balls and work on getting a good jump, a few more bunts, and a few more dreams to be the best. So I just flat outworked everyone around me, and even when the talent was better than me I still pushed them to be better. Why am I one of the best hitting instructors around on this planet today? I just out work all the others. I'll take an extra minute to make sure my student learns what I am trying to show them. I give add extra value and I do more than I am paid for. I also create relationship with my students. They always know they can call on me anytime and ask me questions. I practice the habit of going the extra mile and doing more that what I am paid for. I learned that from one of the best, Andrew Carnegie and Napoleon Hill. One was the greatest steel producers of the modern world and the other a best selling author that wrote about Mr. Carnegie.
So my parting words are these. Not everyone can play baseball, except in Little League. If your kid likes baseball and wants to continue to play let them. Or let them until it becomes dangerous. There are other sports too, football, soccer, basketball, tennis, golf, lacross, you just never know. I had two really good baseball clients that wanted to go to college and play baseball. Life dealt them another card. On played golf as a second sport and the other tennis. Neither got asked to play baseball in college but both were asked to play their other sport and received scholarships. I once played stick ball with Pete Sampras, we went to high school together, he could kill a baseball. We all begged him to play baseball. To told us he was going to be a pro tennis player. Three years later he was.
Today with Little League everyone gets to play. You pay and you are guaranteed to play. I really think that sometimes this is DANGEROUS. Today I get 10 year old kids to hit the ball 250 which is about 73 mph. So put a 10 year old boy in the outfield or even at third base and let another kid hit a 70 mph ground ball right at them then watch it hit them in the face. Oh and don't forget that this is Little Jake's first year of playing baseball and he's got to play according to the rules. I have seen coaches try to hide these kids that "have to play" in right field for 2 innings. A pop fly and Jake hasn't got a chance in heck of catching this ball. When the ball was hit he was looking at the butterflies all around him and has no idea that the ball is quickly bearing down on him. At the last minute he hears the parents shouting at him and he starts looking around to see where the ball is. POW! Right in the face. Now blood and tears pour from his head.
I hear about this all the time. What a joke little league is. Do you realize that the All Star Teams that you watch in the Little League World Series are really all the top Club player that still happen to be playing Little League? For me it's a safety issue. I get players from L.L. as clients when the L.L. season starts. If they don't play club baseball I usually don't see them after the season. It's very rare to have a player that doesn't play top club actually make a high school team. I had one this year, but he has quickly learned that he is not at the level that the rest of the kids on his team are. He has had to work 5 times as hard as they have had to just to make the team. So safety is the first issue, talent is the second, and the rules are the third.
So why is club baseball better in my opinion? Because it forces the bad players to get better if they want to stay. It makes the better players better because players are continuing to throw harder, hit harder, run faster, steal bases. I look at a club ball catcher and a little league catchers and it's amazing how much better the club ball catchers are. They have to learn to block and throw. The rules are just like real baseball. There are lead offs, and the runner can leave whenever they want. So catchers have to be able to catch and throw. Pitchers have to learn how tho throw from the stretch and the wind up. They also have to learn how to pick runners and hold them. In USSSA they can even head first slide into the bases and even home plate. Some of the tournaments they have to avoid contact at the plate. In others they don't if the catcher is up the line without the ball then he is fair game to get smashed. That's life and baseball all rolled into one. It's not fair but that is the way the game is played. I also like that in club ball just because you payed doesn't mean you have to play. Kids that pay just to get a spot soon fizzle out and quit because they don't get to play. Parents who have really talented kids get upset when coaches play kids that are poor as player but have all the money behind the team. Those parents eventually find another team. I like the fact that in club ball you have to earn you spot. You have to be the best or at least be outworking everyone. There are no rules in club ball that everyone has to play at least one inning in each game. Just like in life, one has to work hard to get to the top. No raises are handed out because you just showed up and didn't contribute. No promotions in life are given out because you didn't do something to add more value to yourself. Little League baseball gives the impression to kids that all you have to do is show up and you will be rewarded. Everyone that pays gets to play. Well not everyone that goes to college and get a degree gets a job! This is Vegas. How many college grads are out there in this town dealing Black Jack? Plenty of them are. I met a young gentleman a 6 years ago that was broke. Dropped out of college and penniless he asked if I could give him a job. I paid him to paint my garage. We had a conversation while he was doing it and he told me what he was doing. I was amazing, but in the back of my mind I was thinking to myself this kid can't even finish school how is he ever going to do this? He said he would stay later and learn everything about mortgages. He did and helped as many people as he could get into their first homes over the next three years. In his third year he bought a $600,000 property that he rented out and later a 1.2 million dollar home. He had risen to the top of the company he was working for and even offered me a job! No one gave him anything. He outworked 90% of the people in his field and the bottom line is that in life and in sports he who works the hardest becomes the best and creates their own luck. My story is the same. I was a terrible player growing up. I wanted to be the best. When I asked the best what it took they all said the same thing. I takes a lot of hard work. Blood, sweat, and tears are another key factor. It takes a little more to be a champion. A few more swings, a few more grounds balls, a few more throws down to second base, a few more sprints, shag a few more fly balls and work on getting a good jump, a few more bunts, and a few more dreams to be the best. So I just flat outworked everyone around me, and even when the talent was better than me I still pushed them to be better. Why am I one of the best hitting instructors around on this planet today? I just out work all the others. I'll take an extra minute to make sure my student learns what I am trying to show them. I give add extra value and I do more than I am paid for. I also create relationship with my students. They always know they can call on me anytime and ask me questions. I practice the habit of going the extra mile and doing more that what I am paid for. I learned that from one of the best, Andrew Carnegie and Napoleon Hill. One was the greatest steel producers of the modern world and the other a best selling author that wrote about Mr. Carnegie.
So my parting words are these. Not everyone can play baseball, except in Little League. If your kid likes baseball and wants to continue to play let them. Or let them until it becomes dangerous. There are other sports too, football, soccer, basketball, tennis, golf, lacross, you just never know. I had two really good baseball clients that wanted to go to college and play baseball. Life dealt them another card. On played golf as a second sport and the other tennis. Neither got asked to play baseball in college but both were asked to play their other sport and received scholarships. I once played stick ball with Pete Sampras, we went to high school together, he could kill a baseball. We all begged him to play baseball. To told us he was going to be a pro tennis player. Three years later he was.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
The Greatest Game Ever.
I hope when you read this you will be inspired to live an extraordinary life.
From the time I was about 6 I was fascinated by baseball. My father wasn't the most gifted athlete. I never was given the chance to have a real catch with him or travel and play with him at my side. He died just before I turned 8. I thank my mother for all her patience an for taking the time to play a little catch with me. There came a point where I just threw to hard for her and it was no longer safe for her. She did her best. I played other sports and excelled at them all. I had offeres to play college football and baseball. My first year of College I even played basketball, but I dreamed about baseball. Every shirt I owned had a baseball on it and I was always pounding my hand like I had a glove on it. When I closed my eyes at night and laid my head on the pillow there was Reggie Jackson stairing me down and I was pitching in the World Series against the Yankees. Now I know there are some people reading this now thinking I am a Yankee Hater. Not at all, I always wanted to be the best and in order to be the best you got to beat the best. When I was a kid in the late 70's and early 80's the Yanks were the team to beat. When family members asked me what I wanted to be when I was older I said without hesitation, "A baseball player." They laughed and said things like, "What an imagination." Then came a day when I was playing in front of them in a minor league game in my home town of Battle Creek, Michigan. Now they were saying things like, "You actually did it!" I will be honest with all of you reading this, I was not a very good little league player. There are kids like Chad Hermansen that everyone knew was going to be a super star. He was a great player naturally. The same with Bryce Harper. He just out works people. I had a chance to see Chad swing in my cage in the off season and he was so smooth an fluid it was amazing and it was natural. I was a short, pudgy, slow, awkward, clumsy kid. My coaches hid me in right field and prayed that nothing would be hit my way. I just loved to play. The best thing my Dad did do while he was alive was turn me to the left side of the plate. I naturally grab the bat with a left hand grip, but went to the right hand side of the plate. Instead of changing my hands he turned me around and put the bat on my other shoulder. A pure left handed hitter was born that day.
Surrounded By Eagles
One summer I had a friend who was a junior in high school. I was in sixth grade and I was taller than he was. I don't even think he was five feet tall. He loved baseball too and would bat boy for a college summer league team. He asked me to help him one summer. Suddenly I was surrounded by the best players I had ever experienced. Most of them were top college players in the country. Today two of those players are minor league managers Bruce Fields and Kevin Bradshaw of the Detroit Tigers. That summer I learned how to track down a fly ball, turn a real double play and throw a curve ball that wouldn't hurt my arm. I worked part time as a paperboy fill in and mowed yards in between my own games and the college summer league. These guys taught me some of the most memorable things that I have learned in life and I got 8 cavities that summer from all the soda they bought me. For the first time in my life I had a sense of direction. If I did what these guys did then one day I would be where they were. I asked lots of questions and they made comments like, "If I could do it over again I would do this." So I decided to do the "this".
So next summer when school was out and my birthday was just around the corner my mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I handed her a cut out picture from the JC Penney catalog. It was a Joe Weider weight bench with a squat rack. She was surprised and agreed that this was a good thing. So that summer I spent playing, as a bat boy, and lifting weights. I even designed my own devices and exercises that developed baseball specific muscles. that was the summer of transformation. I was able to transform my pudgy uncoordinated body into a lean work of art. I grew three inches that summer and when I returned to school the heads were turning. I would ride my bike 5 miles three to four days a week to the batting cage and hit till my hands blistered. I had a unorthodox swing that worked for me. I willed myself to hit and had no instruction. I just watched hitters and tried to figure out a way that was comfortable and quick. I looked like Ricky Henderson. Low to the ground with an up swing. Today I look at that swing and wonder how I was ever successful. I just loved to play and I out worked more talented players at my age. I was always throwing a ball of a wall and pretending to be Ozzie Smith. I drew boxes on walls and pitched game seven of the college world series about 800 times for Arizona State. It was funny to think that one day I was called by them and was all set to go there. I had an injury and they wanted me to pitch. I wanted to play short. So I went to junior college for a year. Here is how much I loved baseball. When other boys were discovering girls I still didn't even know they existed. When friends where going to movies and parties I was lifting weight in my basement on a Friday night. Just about ever choice I made was followed by the question....Will this make me a better player? Yes it will then I'll do it. No it won't then never mind. I passed up vacations, holidays, dates, girls, some social gathering, and family time to do what I truly loved to do. When I got to college they instituted maximum practice schedules. That's is right they actually limited the amount of hours a team could practice together. That is like telling Mozart he can only practice 20 hours a week or Lance Armstrong can only train for the Tour-De-France 20 hours a week. I learned what "Can't See" hours are. "Can't See" hours are the hours when people are sleeping or can't see you working. I hit after practice on my own at least 10 hours a week. Once again doing it until my hands were bloody and blistered. I hit so much my senior year my hands were tapped up like a boxers all the time. I'm not gonna kid around here I like baseball, but I love to hit. Today I see the swing in slow motion. I have dreams of hitting still, but also I dream of my students swinging. Sometimes while I am sleeping I will wake up and have the next drill or the answer to whats going on with one of my students swings. I come up with drills to teach a specific movement so they can feel what the right move feel like.
So Where am I going with all this? I see something in kids and parents today that concerns me. The first is parents that want it more than their kids. Parents....Your kids confide in me and tell me things that they are afraid to tell you. I treat it as coach/client confidentiality. I tell them that I will not tell you anything unless they want me too. I also tell them that it's okay and they should not be afraid to tell you the truth. They are kids and they want your love and acceptance. They are scared to disappoint you or let you down, so they keep playing hoping eventually they will either grow to like the game or that you will see that their heart is no in it and give them a chance to get out. And yes I have told parents that little Johnny needs a break or even that he doesn't look like he is having fun. Remember baseball is still a game and game are supposed to be fun. The other thing that concerns me is a general lack of passion for the game. A just showing up is half the battle attitude. Showing up is half the battle, but it is not the most important half. That half is call blood, sweat, and tears. Mastery is a lifetime process. Aikido masters, violinists, golfers, take decades to become the best. Even when they are the best they keep working and training the same skill over and over until it is a reaction or until it is natural. I see kids begin to experience success in hitting after a few months and then they never come back. Like they are fixed, not that they were ever broken. All the "I would have done this" stuff is what I teach. My students will one day surpass anything that I have ever done because the stuff I learned I learned at 20 years of age. They are learning it at 10. I am accelerating their learning by a whole decade. I have high school freshmen that I have worked with for three and four years now that hit harder then college sophomores. I will have 7th and 8th graders that hit the ball farther and harder than high school juniors and seniors. I know why Bryce Harper is the best. Because at 10 years old he lived at the batting cage. His dad has probably thrown 10,000 hours of batting practice to him. He has traveled all over to be put in front of and educated by some of the best players in the game today. If you went to his house I am guessing there would be all sorts of devices, books, videos, and whatever else is out there to become a better player. I would bet my life on it. So now you are seeing the ripple effect of starting out at 10. He will be a first rounder and get somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 million as a signing bonus. Was it worth it? I'm sure it will be. Was it worth it to me? People have told me that my obsession with baseball has cost me a lot and that I missed out on important things in life. Let me put your mind at ease baseball has given my just about everything that has been important to me in life. I have traveled on the dime of baseball, been in 2 movies, 5 or 6 commercials, gone to acting school, modeled, sat with owners of some of the largest and most successful companies in America, dated models, actresses, hit three home runs in a game twice, and four once, pitched a no hitter, hit the cycle, and hit a walk off home run in one of the most exciting games in my life. I wouldn't trade my life for all the gold in the world. I feel people that do not pursue their life long dream are really missing out on the real juice in life. In baseball the only way to the top is to outwork 99% of the other players. It takes a little more to be a champion. It takes "Can't See hours" of work. Hitting until your hands bleed then hitting 20 more balls, diving for ground balls in practice and not just the game, watching video, taking lessons, and finding a friend to do it with. It's also not letting the excuse of I don't have anyone to play catch with or hit with stop you. Your success is dependant on one person and one person only. That person is YOU! Along the way you might meet someone that cares about your success, but they are not dependant on it. I guess Napoleon Hill sums it up when he explains that one of the keys to success is the habit of "Going The Extra Mile". We are a slave to our habits. So if we are to be a slave to them then we might as well be a slave to good ones. Go The Extra Mile today. Do more and give more than expected. Average people give what is expected, below average people give less than is expected, but extraordinary people give more than is expected or even than they are paid for. I challenge you to be extraordinary.
From the time I was about 6 I was fascinated by baseball. My father wasn't the most gifted athlete. I never was given the chance to have a real catch with him or travel and play with him at my side. He died just before I turned 8. I thank my mother for all her patience an for taking the time to play a little catch with me. There came a point where I just threw to hard for her and it was no longer safe for her. She did her best. I played other sports and excelled at them all. I had offeres to play college football and baseball. My first year of College I even played basketball, but I dreamed about baseball. Every shirt I owned had a baseball on it and I was always pounding my hand like I had a glove on it. When I closed my eyes at night and laid my head on the pillow there was Reggie Jackson stairing me down and I was pitching in the World Series against the Yankees. Now I know there are some people reading this now thinking I am a Yankee Hater. Not at all, I always wanted to be the best and in order to be the best you got to beat the best. When I was a kid in the late 70's and early 80's the Yanks were the team to beat. When family members asked me what I wanted to be when I was older I said without hesitation, "A baseball player." They laughed and said things like, "What an imagination." Then came a day when I was playing in front of them in a minor league game in my home town of Battle Creek, Michigan. Now they were saying things like, "You actually did it!" I will be honest with all of you reading this, I was not a very good little league player. There are kids like Chad Hermansen that everyone knew was going to be a super star. He was a great player naturally. The same with Bryce Harper. He just out works people. I had a chance to see Chad swing in my cage in the off season and he was so smooth an fluid it was amazing and it was natural. I was a short, pudgy, slow, awkward, clumsy kid. My coaches hid me in right field and prayed that nothing would be hit my way. I just loved to play. The best thing my Dad did do while he was alive was turn me to the left side of the plate. I naturally grab the bat with a left hand grip, but went to the right hand side of the plate. Instead of changing my hands he turned me around and put the bat on my other shoulder. A pure left handed hitter was born that day.
Surrounded By Eagles
One summer I had a friend who was a junior in high school. I was in sixth grade and I was taller than he was. I don't even think he was five feet tall. He loved baseball too and would bat boy for a college summer league team. He asked me to help him one summer. Suddenly I was surrounded by the best players I had ever experienced. Most of them were top college players in the country. Today two of those players are minor league managers Bruce Fields and Kevin Bradshaw of the Detroit Tigers. That summer I learned how to track down a fly ball, turn a real double play and throw a curve ball that wouldn't hurt my arm. I worked part time as a paperboy fill in and mowed yards in between my own games and the college summer league. These guys taught me some of the most memorable things that I have learned in life and I got 8 cavities that summer from all the soda they bought me. For the first time in my life I had a sense of direction. If I did what these guys did then one day I would be where they were. I asked lots of questions and they made comments like, "If I could do it over again I would do this." So I decided to do the "this".
So next summer when school was out and my birthday was just around the corner my mother asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I handed her a cut out picture from the JC Penney catalog. It was a Joe Weider weight bench with a squat rack. She was surprised and agreed that this was a good thing. So that summer I spent playing, as a bat boy, and lifting weights. I even designed my own devices and exercises that developed baseball specific muscles. that was the summer of transformation. I was able to transform my pudgy uncoordinated body into a lean work of art. I grew three inches that summer and when I returned to school the heads were turning. I would ride my bike 5 miles three to four days a week to the batting cage and hit till my hands blistered. I had a unorthodox swing that worked for me. I willed myself to hit and had no instruction. I just watched hitters and tried to figure out a way that was comfortable and quick. I looked like Ricky Henderson. Low to the ground with an up swing. Today I look at that swing and wonder how I was ever successful. I just loved to play and I out worked more talented players at my age. I was always throwing a ball of a wall and pretending to be Ozzie Smith. I drew boxes on walls and pitched game seven of the college world series about 800 times for Arizona State. It was funny to think that one day I was called by them and was all set to go there. I had an injury and they wanted me to pitch. I wanted to play short. So I went to junior college for a year. Here is how much I loved baseball. When other boys were discovering girls I still didn't even know they existed. When friends where going to movies and parties I was lifting weight in my basement on a Friday night. Just about ever choice I made was followed by the question....Will this make me a better player? Yes it will then I'll do it. No it won't then never mind. I passed up vacations, holidays, dates, girls, some social gathering, and family time to do what I truly loved to do. When I got to college they instituted maximum practice schedules. That's is right they actually limited the amount of hours a team could practice together. That is like telling Mozart he can only practice 20 hours a week or Lance Armstrong can only train for the Tour-De-France 20 hours a week. I learned what "Can't See" hours are. "Can't See" hours are the hours when people are sleeping or can't see you working. I hit after practice on my own at least 10 hours a week. Once again doing it until my hands were bloody and blistered. I hit so much my senior year my hands were tapped up like a boxers all the time. I'm not gonna kid around here I like baseball, but I love to hit. Today I see the swing in slow motion. I have dreams of hitting still, but also I dream of my students swinging. Sometimes while I am sleeping I will wake up and have the next drill or the answer to whats going on with one of my students swings. I come up with drills to teach a specific movement so they can feel what the right move feel like.
So Where am I going with all this? I see something in kids and parents today that concerns me. The first is parents that want it more than their kids. Parents....Your kids confide in me and tell me things that they are afraid to tell you. I treat it as coach/client confidentiality. I tell them that I will not tell you anything unless they want me too. I also tell them that it's okay and they should not be afraid to tell you the truth. They are kids and they want your love and acceptance. They are scared to disappoint you or let you down, so they keep playing hoping eventually they will either grow to like the game or that you will see that their heart is no in it and give them a chance to get out. And yes I have told parents that little Johnny needs a break or even that he doesn't look like he is having fun. Remember baseball is still a game and game are supposed to be fun. The other thing that concerns me is a general lack of passion for the game. A just showing up is half the battle attitude. Showing up is half the battle, but it is not the most important half. That half is call blood, sweat, and tears. Mastery is a lifetime process. Aikido masters, violinists, golfers, take decades to become the best. Even when they are the best they keep working and training the same skill over and over until it is a reaction or until it is natural. I see kids begin to experience success in hitting after a few months and then they never come back. Like they are fixed, not that they were ever broken. All the "I would have done this" stuff is what I teach. My students will one day surpass anything that I have ever done because the stuff I learned I learned at 20 years of age. They are learning it at 10. I am accelerating their learning by a whole decade. I have high school freshmen that I have worked with for three and four years now that hit harder then college sophomores. I will have 7th and 8th graders that hit the ball farther and harder than high school juniors and seniors. I know why Bryce Harper is the best. Because at 10 years old he lived at the batting cage. His dad has probably thrown 10,000 hours of batting practice to him. He has traveled all over to be put in front of and educated by some of the best players in the game today. If you went to his house I am guessing there would be all sorts of devices, books, videos, and whatever else is out there to become a better player. I would bet my life on it. So now you are seeing the ripple effect of starting out at 10. He will be a first rounder and get somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 million as a signing bonus. Was it worth it? I'm sure it will be. Was it worth it to me? People have told me that my obsession with baseball has cost me a lot and that I missed out on important things in life. Let me put your mind at ease baseball has given my just about everything that has been important to me in life. I have traveled on the dime of baseball, been in 2 movies, 5 or 6 commercials, gone to acting school, modeled, sat with owners of some of the largest and most successful companies in America, dated models, actresses, hit three home runs in a game twice, and four once, pitched a no hitter, hit the cycle, and hit a walk off home run in one of the most exciting games in my life. I wouldn't trade my life for all the gold in the world. I feel people that do not pursue their life long dream are really missing out on the real juice in life. In baseball the only way to the top is to outwork 99% of the other players. It takes a little more to be a champion. It takes "Can't See hours" of work. Hitting until your hands bleed then hitting 20 more balls, diving for ground balls in practice and not just the game, watching video, taking lessons, and finding a friend to do it with. It's also not letting the excuse of I don't have anyone to play catch with or hit with stop you. Your success is dependant on one person and one person only. That person is YOU! Along the way you might meet someone that cares about your success, but they are not dependant on it. I guess Napoleon Hill sums it up when he explains that one of the keys to success is the habit of "Going The Extra Mile". We are a slave to our habits. So if we are to be a slave to them then we might as well be a slave to good ones. Go The Extra Mile today. Do more and give more than expected. Average people give what is expected, below average people give less than is expected, but extraordinary people give more than is expected or even than they are paid for. I challenge you to be extraordinary.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
New Members and New Records.
Jordan Blanchard currently pitching for Western Nevada Community College posted a 91 mph exit speed over the Christmas break. His younger brother Chandler, pictured here, bested him and set a new personal record of 93 mph. Way to go Chandler! Chandler has also recorded exit speeds with live pitching at 97 mph. Very soon I will be creating the 100 mph club and I am pretty sure that Chandler will be one of the first high school hitters in Nevada to join an elite group of hitters. Chandler is a freashmen at Coronado High School in Henderon, NV.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
MORE ON FUNCTIONAL HITTING PART 3.
IF YOU HAVEN'T VISITED THIS SITE YOU SHOULD!
ORDER THE E-BOOK "FILTHY"
Every pitching coach that has read this from the little league level to the major league level has reported amazing results. You can experience these results too!
Love you all and Merry Christmas!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
90 Club's Newest Member
Way to Go Carmen! Newest member of the 90 Club. Carmen is a freshman at Coronado High School and has been training with me since July 2009. His exit speeds have increased 12 mph in five months of consistent persistent effort and lots of hard work. 90 mph of exit speeds will produce a ball distance of 360 ft.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Umpiring Is a great way to learn the game.
First of all I would like to acknowledge my high school friend Mike VanVleet for introducing me to umpiring. That is Mike behind Mark McGuire hitting a home run. We both came through the minor leagues together. I as a player and Mike as an Umpire. He made it to the Majors, which is a feat in it's self. Umpires At that level are a small elite group. I was a college student home for the summer and I got to see Derek Jeter play in a summer league game for the Kalamazoo Maroons at Lakeview High School. I just worked the game before and was hanging around for a minute. There I saw Derek go deep in the hole for a ball and make a play that I had seen very few college players make. Then he came up and hit that right center field home run with a wood bat. Minutes later he told the Yankee's scout he would sign to play for them. I don't remember the scout, but he could hardly get the words out of his mouth right. He was so excited. Heck we were all excited, we were in the presence of greatness. Today I have about 60 games under my belt all from 10 years old up to high school.
Being an Umpire has really given me another perspective of the game. As a player I mostly watched the ball. As an Umpire I rarely watch it, unless I'm behind the plate. And some people would argue differently. There is a dance that happens when the ball is hit. The base umpire moves and watches the runner while I move to watch the ball. When a single is hit with a runner at first I move up to take the lead runner making sure he touches second on his way to third. The player in me wants to watch the ball and the ump in me fights to stay with the runner. Then, bad throw to third and the runner races home as my partner slides in to position to make the call at home. It is a perfectly choreographed dance. All the while I staying out of the way of players, runners and errant throws. Do I make mistakes? I make them daily. Do I learn something new? I learn something new daily. Sometimes something happens and I don't even know what to do. Thank God I have a partner. What I have learned from umpiring are the rules and interpretation of those rules. Everything from a balk and that the pitch is still live to what bases the runners get on a throw that goes out of play. What is interference, obstruction, and a catch. Yes, a catch is when i player catches the ball then removes it with their hand. If they dive then hold up their arm for two seconds and the ball come out, then it is not a catch. This is according to the rules and they are written. I have to tip my hat to the umpires I have worked with that have taught me this game. They keep the game moving so the kids can actually play a whole game before the time limit. When I was a kid you played seven inning with a ten run rule after 5 innings. Today because there are so many teams, so few fields, and most likely money issues a lot of games never make it to the last inning.
It is 15 runs after 3, 10 after 4 and 8 after 5 inning. All the while the umpires manage pitches in between innings, coaches making trips to the mound to talk to players, and my favorite talking to the batter after every pitch. Oh an lets not forget my favorite coach that keep asking how much time is left because he really wants the game called due to time so he can sneak off with a win. To those coaches I just say, "Respect the integrity of the game and play like you have no concept of time. It all about the kids and not how many wins you have as a little league coach."
If you ever wanted to get involved and be a servant of the game, then by all means take a class in being an umpire. So Thanks Mike VanVleet, Art Clendening, Mary MacDonald, and Gary White for showing me the ropes.
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