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.
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