Building A Hitting Culture

Building A Hitting Culture Hitters develop better in cultures where they have easy access to everything they need to thrive.

Building A Hitting Culture gives you ideas about how to build that environment wherever you are.

People say that baseball has become a sport for only wealthy people. If you don’t spend tens of thousands each year on ...
10/22/2021

People say that baseball has become a sport for only wealthy people. If you don’t spend tens of thousands each year on high price travel and professional coaches you have no chance of success long term.

I want to challenge that idea just a little.

I understand what they are saying. The high priced route has certainly exploded over the last 20 years.
I even agree on some levels.

But there is an even more important and influential barrier to success in my opinion.

That barrier is the lack or dedication to the time needed to learn to play the game well.

Baseball isn’t really a game kids can go practice on their own.

You need someone to play catch with, you need someone to throw you batting practice.
And you need it every day.

How many kids out there have someone to play catch with every day? Not many.

How many young hitters have someone to pitch balls to them every day? Not many.

It takes a ton of time and practice to be a good hitter. And it’s 10x more difficult if you are always on your own.

The biggest barrier to kids playing at a high level is not money.

The biggest barrier is time.

This is why so many good players are coaches kids.
Coaches understand the time commitment that’s necessary.

What you do daily is more important than that high priced hitting coach you see 10x a year for lessons.

Most of the time hitting lessons don’t work.

They don’t work because its a flawed model for development.

Hitting instructors need to coach you up during your $80 per hour lesson to justify the price paid.
They have to change your mechanics to make it look like they fixed you.

What that kid often needs is usually not mechanical overhauls delivered verbally.

No one learns to hit well based on verbal instructions.
All it does is get in your head.

Does anyone have a hitting instructor that will throw a young hitter 100 balls 5 days a week?
Ive never heard of that because it rarely, if ever happens.

What that kid usually needs is someone to pitch him 100 balls a day on an actual baseball field, not a batting cage.

That kid will learn to make great mechanical adjustments on each swing based on the results.

A 2 hopper to the SS? Adjust an hit a line drive over his head in the gap.

Fly out to left? Swing faster and drive it over the outfielders head.

Trying to pull outside pitches and always missing the barrel? Let it get deeper and drive it oppo.

Ten parts time spent doing the actual thing you want to do mixed with 1 part solid coaching from someone who knows what they are doing.

I firmly believe time invested in a young player is much more important than throwing tons of money at the problem.

Literally bootstrap your development on a small budget.

Get creative.

Spend the time with them.

Youth baseball has a bigger time problem than it’s money problem.

If you play enough baseball, eventually every hitter goes through a period where they aren’t living up to their potentia...
10/22/2021

If you play enough baseball, eventually every hitter goes through a period where they aren’t living up to their potential at the plate.

The first place most hitting coaches go to is swing mechanics.

Sometimes mechanics tweaks can help but usually thats not the root cause.

Often the root cause is hitters simply are not seeing pitches well. They aren’t tracking the ball.

They will think they are tracking just fine but they aren’t.

Distractions like pressure and expectations make hitters press and try to force outcomes over processes.

Here are a few things that distract hitters from seeing pitches well.

-self imposed expectations about results.
-outside expectations about results.
-getting to the next level as a player.
-who is in the stands recruiting them.
-worrying about batting average or any other stat.
-where they are hitting in the batting order verses where they want to be in the batting order.
-high pressure game situations where the game is on the line.

These things and an infinite amount of other distractions can cause a hitter to be distracted from seeing the ball well.

Results come from a aolid process.
The process is all you can control.

Hitters have to let it happen, not force it to happen.

Hitting is such a fickle mind game that it’s easy to be distracted from the main goal.

Seeing the ball and finding barrels.

That needs to the number one focus with no exceptions.

You may think this advice is too simple and obvious.
But the best hitters in the world fall victim to distractions.

Stay in the moment.
See the ball better.
Keep it simple.
Find a barrel and run like hell.

10/17/2021

As parents of young hitters, we sometimes focus exclusively on the process of our kids learning skills like hitting.

But what about dad’s skills?

The skill of throwing great batting practice is vitally important for the young hitter.

Can you locate a 4 and 2 seam fastball?

Can you effectively throw change-ups, curves and sliders?

Can you see little adjustments in their swing while throwing bp?

When he needs to work on driving a two seamer on the outter half to opposite field can you locate that spot 10 out of 10 times so he gets the consistent work he needs?

These skills need to be developed.

You can learn them all with persistence and hard work.

No one, not even a great hitting coach is as important to your hitters development than dad.

He’s going to be the one thats there day in and day out.

This not only helps you hitter improve faster but it also helps to strengthen your relationship with your son.

They will have more respect for you when you are continually building your skills right along with theirs.

I hear this all the time from dads, “my son just won’t listen to me when i give him tips”.

This problem can always be addressed and improved.

The goal is to have him respect you enough to listen to your advice.

Here are some practical tips to strengthen your working relationship with your son.

-let him have full ownership over his skills and love for the game. Don’t live out your unfulfilled fantasies about your career.

-Have lots of workout sessions where you don’t coach at all. Just be there for him and work alongside him. Don’t over-coach. Don’t look to improve everything today.

-Stay in great physical shape. If you two are working out right alongside each other you will build respect.

-don’t only talk about the things he needs to improve. Also talk about the skills you need to work on. You bp curveball is weak? Make it better through daily work.

-Don’t constantly harp on him to go play or practice.
Make it so much fun that he’s begging to go play with dad.

-listen listen listen. What does he want to work on today? Do what he wants no matter what you had planned for him.

-don’t use language that makes it sound like you have all the answers and all he needs to do is listen to you. I promise, you don’t have all the answers.
No one does.
Both of you are learning, engaged and having fun together.

-talk about the game and about hitting at various times throughout the day. Build a strong, healthy working relationship.

-promote his other interests outside of baseball.

-when he has questions, help him fond answers from other places than you. You won’t always be there.
He needs to have a large variety of places to learn from.

There are few things more rewarding than still being a good hitting coach to your high school or college hitter.

My son recently told me. “Dad, you are still my second best hitting coach. I’m my own best hitting coach and you are my second.”

That was awesome to hear because he’s had some very good college coaches. But they always come and go. I’m still here, no matter what.

That relationship was intentionally built over the last 21 years. And it’s continuing to pay off.

Don’t hit the top of the cage they said.
03/17/2021

Don’t hit the top of the cage they said.

02/02/2021

For any young aspiring baseball player, playing multiple positions is one of the best things you can do.

Learning to hit well might be number one, but being a versatile defensive player is a close second.

I made my son very aware from a very young age that eventually a high school or college coach would ask him some version of this question.

“I know you (catch) _____, but can you also play (outfield) ____?”

Well it finally happened at 20 years old at the 4 yr school he transferred to this summer.

I know you cant always control where the coach puts a player defensively. But they can be their own advocate for playing multiple positions and greatly influence the coaches decisions based on their attitudes and skills.

Lots of kids in college miss out on playing time because they have only played one position their whole lives.

When that College coach asks the question, he’s not only looking to get an answer but he’s also evaluating your body language. If he sees panic in your eyes about being put somewhere else he has less confidence in you.

We worked and practiced from a young age about how to answer that question.

“Absolutely coach, I would LOVE to play ____ if thats what the team needs!”

But it actually needs to be true.

My son was a good catcher as a young 8 yr old player.

In some ways thats a curse that haunts a baseball player for years.

As an assistant on my sons teavel team, I told the coach that my son needs to catch, but he also needs to pitch, play ss, centerfield and first, and anywhere for that matter.

Too much catching is one of the quickest ways to burn a young player out, especially in travel ball and especially on hot days with 3 games per day.

I didn’t just demand it.

I also came to him with solutions.

I said ive been studying catching, and i can help teach other kids on the team to catch.

The head coach totally agreed.

We worked with 3-4 other team members and before long we had 4 very competent catchers on the team. Each catcher caught one game per tournament.

They all had fun showing off their new skills and no one got burned out.

So through 8th grade my son played and got very comfortable with many positions.

All the while knowing that his bat would get him into the lineup everyday, and being versatile defensively would out any team he played on a better chance to win.

Then came high school and the curse of being a good catcher reared its ugly head again.

He caught almost every game he played for 4 years straight and really got burned out on catching.

He rarely wanted to work on his catching akills on his own because it was just too much, we play 40 high school fames in Iowa in the summer, 5-7 games per week for 8 weeks.

When he went to juco he was securely pigeon holed as a catcher. Another two years of catching.

Day one on campus at Missouri State he finally got asked the question he had been preparing to answer for 15 years.

“Absolutely coach, I would love to play outfield and first base!”

His skills prevent him from being a SS or centerfielder at that level, but he can now be available to play corner outfield, first base or catcher at anytime.

Every team in baseball, including the big leagues needs a couple versatile players.

Kids need to experience the game from lots of different perspectives.

They need to build athleticism and different skills that various positions teach.

Catching teaches leadership, quickness, reactions and seeing the game as a whole.
SS teaches pure athleticism.
Corner infield teaches first step quickness.
Pitching teaches arm strength, the running game and max effort precision.
Outfield teaches top end speed and patience.

Prepare your kids well to answer one of the most important questions they will ever get asked as a baseball player.

They often only have one shot to answer confidently.

And also, learn to MASH!!

Have you ever noticed that the kids of high school and college coaches are often the best players on youth teams? They ...
12/21/2020

Have you ever noticed that the kids of high school and college coaches are often the best players on youth teams?

They are also often the ones that go in to play past high school.

Now at the same time i hear lots of coaches say you cant really teach just any kid to be a top level hitter.
They either have it or they don’t.
Like its all genetics or something.

So do coaches kids just have better genetics?

Or do they simply get raised in better baseball cultures.

It’s a combination of some sort.

But the environment kids are raised in has a massive effect on their skills as well as how much they grow to love the game.

12/21/2020

As a parent, learn to just enjoy watching your child compete in games.

They don’t need the added pressure of you offering coaching advice from you in the stands.

Parents who help their kids prepare for competition properly feel no need to yell instructions from the stands. They simply enjoy watching the player play the game they love.

Coaching instructions from the stands often distracts hitters from their main focus, seeing the ball and hitting it squarely.

If you are watching the game properly as a parent, your child shouldn’t even know where you are in the stands. And they for sure should not be looking to you in the stands at any point in the game.

They should be focused 100% on interacting with their teammates and coaches and competing.

After the game also try to avoid being critical of their performance.

They know they if they failed or had success.
They don’t need you telling them. It only ads to the pressure they already feel to do well.

Just tell them you enjoyed watching them play.

If they want to talk about it more in depth they will initiate the conversation.

Hitting results are there for the whole world to clearly see. That’s pressure.
Make that pressure situation more comfortable for them by never getting upset about failures.

After a game only make positive comments about their performance.

Remember how difficult it is to play the game well.

Development and improvement is more about the process than about results.

Focus on the process and the results will come.

Enjoying practice time together as a parent and child can be an amazing experience.
But you have the power to optimize that experience or make it worse.

Let them have ownership of their playing and practicing experience.

If it’s all for you as a parent it won’t last long.

12/21/2020

One fun challenge about hitting at the youth level is that technology is not able to change it.

In 100+ years of kids trying to hit a round ball with a round bat almost nothing has changed.

Learning to hit still comes down to playing and practicing more and better.

Batting cages and pitching machines have changed things for sure, but not necessarily in a only a positive way.

No matter what changes in technology, kids still must get outside and play in order to improve.

That’s one of the most beautiful things about learning to hit.

Hitters need to progressively become comfortable with higher velocity pitches. One easy way to build this comfort is to ...
12/21/2020

Hitters need to progressively become comfortable with higher velocity pitches.

One easy way to build this comfort is to continually play catch with higher velocities.

Starting at the age a young hitter can catch a ball with a glove, slowly increase the velocity of the throws they catch.

This progressively gets them comfortable with higher velocities while hitting.

There is nothing more devastating to a young hitter than being intimidated by high velocity pitches.

This can be easily overdone and even dangerous, so don’t progress too fast. Take it slow.

This is NOT the time to overpower them and make them even more scared of the ball.

This is the time to build the confidence to stay in there and catch the ball with confidence.

Find the fastest speed a player is comfortable catching with a glove.

Then add 1 or 2 mph to that throw.

You will know they are out of their comfort zone when you see them get their body out of the way and reach for the ball with their glove.

This gets them slightly out of their comfort zone.

Only playing catch with their peers often prevents this slow steady progress.

Playing catch with an adult is a good way to push their comfort zone.

If you aren’t comfortable catching a certain velocity, you will likely not be comfortable standing in the batters box and hitting that same velocity.

A good hitting culture pushes kids to the edges of their comfort zone so they can grow.

After a few years of this mindset, hitters will never see velocity in a game they are uncomfortable with.

This gives hitters a huge advantage while competing.

It just becomes one variable they have complete control over.

Ive seen hundreds of high school games won simply by pitchers throwing at velocities the opposing hitters are not comfortable with.

If a hitter walks up to the plate worried about velocity, doing serious damage at the plate is not even on their mindset radar.

Fear becomes the primary controlling emotion.

Hitters need to walk up to the plate with the confidence to square up a ball and do serious damage.

Develop hitters that have confidence to handle velocity that is 5-10 mph faster than anything they will see in a game.

Youth hitters need a good balance of hitting to build confidence and hitting pitching that challenges them. Easy bp la...
12/21/2020

Youth hitters need a good balance of hitting to build confidence and hitting pitching that challenges them.

Easy bp laid in there for the hitter to destroy is fun and necessary to build confidence.

But like all skill acquisition, hitting requires you spend time in the edges of your capabilities.

Without time spent here your skills don’t grow and develop for the next level.

Having a good batting practice pitcher is one key to developing as a hitter.

A good batting practice pitcher helps the hitter in these key areas.
-higher velocity pitches
-recognition of off-speed pitches
-hitting locations in the strike zone where the hitters weakness are.
-work counts in practice where the hitter is challenged and needs to battle for solid contact.

A good batting practice pitcher that is there for the hitter everyday can help him much more than only facing good pitchers in competition.

Hitters skills rarely get challenged enough in games alone. You simply don’t see enough good pitchers and you also don’t get enough repetitions.

As a parent, learning to throw great batting practice might be the best thing you can do for your young hitter. There is simply no replacement.

Someone outside your home just won’t be there to throw bp like you will everyday.

This is an area where you cant simply throw more money at the problem and expect it to get solved.

A new bat or expensive hitting lessons won’t address the issue.

Money often cant buy your son good daily batting practice that challenges him.
If it could, many more kids would be great hitters. People have money, they don’t have skills.

Building a good hitting culture around your hitter means you have good hitting conversations daily and good practice daily.

This prepares the hitter and builds skills he will need 1-2 levels ahead of where he is right now.

Stay ahead of the game.

Let him see the velocity today he will compete against 2 levels up.

Let him see breaking balls and change-ups he will see 2 levels up.

Work counts against him he will see 2 levels up.

Millions of young hitters fail because they go into a season unprepared. They have never seen that velocity or learned ahead of time to hit the breaking ball.

They try to adjust in game situations and simply cant do it.

Excessive failure in any one particular season often leaves the hitter frustrated and disinterested in continuing to play the game.

By preparing ahead of time you are making competition more fun and keeping intrinsic motivation for additional practice high.

Success is fun and fulfilling.

Failure is frustrating and not fun.

This doesn’t mean they will not still have the occasional 0-4 game with 3 strike outs.

This means that in general, they feel prepared and confident in their skills during the season.

They enter the season having already seen everything they will encounter from pitchers.
They have hundreds of reps against that velocity, they have seen hundreds of curve balls and sliders.

The only thing you cant give them is reps against a pitcher that throws with the opposite arm.
And in my experience, seeing the ball pitched from both sides regularly gives you only a marginal advantage.

Work on your pitching and batting practice skills.

It’s absolutely essential for your hitters future success.

Pete Rose famously said “see the ball, hit the ball”.Lots of hitting coaches ramble on and on about the mechanics of hit...
09/09/2020

Pete Rose famously said “see the ball, hit the ball”.

Lots of hitting coaches ramble on and on about the mechanics of hitting.

I listen and to learn but sometimes still think, how on earth would this information ever help a hitter.

Listen to good hitters talk. They keep it simple.

No hitter ever got good by listening to someone talk for hours and hours about hitting mechanics.

They get good by lots of practice and simple but profound conversations about hitting approach.

Here is Mark McGwire’s stance a split second before he hit the record breaking 62nd homer of the season. The thing i not...
09/09/2020

Here is Mark McGwire’s stance a split second before he hit the record breaking 62nd homer of the season.

The thing i notice first is how loaded up his knees and hips are.

He’s in a strong athletic position and ready to launch.

This loaded up, athletic position is one of the only things I coach hitters to do when they are very young.

Start learning to hit from an athletic stance.

Far too many young hitters are just too high.

They aren’t loaded up so they have nowhere to go.

No base.

From this position, lots of good things can happen.

Keep hitting simple.

Load up and launch.

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