The Hitting Connection - Creating a Perfect Swing

So what makes it possible for good hitters to fall into a slump?  Why do hitters that possess solid mechanics and a strong mental approach suddenly stop hitting consistently?  The answer in most cases is lack of discipline and work ethic.  I have students in all age groups that can explain in detail exactly what I have taught them regarding rotational mechanics and will claim that they are working on it during the time between practices and yet when I see them on film they are not creating the moves to  deliver the bat to the ball correctly.  The student has not really developed the muscle memory to create the hitting moves mindlessly and properly during their training sessions.  I never expect the game swing to be perfect every time, there are many variables when the pitching is live, but in your mind you are delivering a perfect swing, every swing.  I do expect cage swings to be perfectly delivered because it is a controlled environment and designed for training.  The hitter must have a disciplined, perfect swing every time he drives the bat through the zone and let his eye-hand coordination take care of the rest.  Coaches say it all the time, “Trust your hands, and Trust your swing”!  What they are saying is be mentally prepared, execute your swing and trust it to be correct without thinking through it.  This can ONLY be accomplished through great effort in the training process.

When you are training in the cage, if you do not arrive at the launch position correctly and on time, you are putting yourself at a disadvantage in relation to the pitcher.  If you are off balance, casting your hands slightly, or not swinging on plane by even a small margin, when the pitching is outstanding you will FAIL at the plate!  If you are not mentally prepared to dominate the pitcher every at bat and be tougher than him, you will FAIL at the plate!  To succeed at the plate, for the 6-8 minutes you are there during a game, you must work tirelessly for thousands of swings and apply tremendous effort in training; your swings must be perfect.  It takes guts to be critical of yourself, but you must be if you want to be a great hitter.  You must be hard on yourself until you can create each part of the swing perfectly without thought.  Great hitting requires great effort, heck even I believe that is a gross understatement!

What are your thoughts?

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As a hitting coach, I see hitters of all ages and ability levels step into a training session and over swing, try to hit homeruns in a 70 foot cage and generally over focus on the ball instead of trying to create perfect swing mechanics.  Let's be serious for a moment about why we are training. The purpose of swing training is to create PERFECT SWING MECHANICS, not hit the ball hard or deep.  Nothing is more irritating than a student trying to impress me or one of our coaches with his or her power.  However, Hitting Connection coaches get very excited when we see the students concentrating on proper swing mechanics and letting their hands and brain make the small adjustments to the ball by instinct.  Hitting students cannot think their way through delivering the barrell of the bat to the ball, they have to launch a great swing to a ball they want to hit and let the rest happen automatically.  Believe me your eye-hand cooridination will make the adjustments required faster and more efficiently than you.  As a hitter you must find the ball early and deliver a properly executed swing first and the spatial information received through your eyes will cause your hands and eventually the swing to make adjustments to the ball flight. 

The point, stop overworking and just create a perfect swing each time you are training and let your eye-hand coordination take care of the ball.  You will be amazed at how well the ball launches off the bat if you keep it that simple.

Thoughts?

Coach McDonald

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Far too often hitters fail to hit because they simply are not mentally prepared to hit when they step into the batters box.  Given that the average amount of time that a hitter can impact a baseball game offensively is about six minutes one must ask, why would the hitter not be ready to hit?  Very often it is a matter of debate.  That's right; most hitters are ill-prepared to swing the bat because they hold a debate with themselves over whether or not to swing.  Unfortunately, there is not enough time to think that much when the baseball is in flight to home plate, trying to choose between whether or not to swing or not to swing takes to much time.  The key is to make one decision in the batters box and that decision is to not hit, otherwise you must always be ready to hit the next pitch, it might very well be your pitch!  What are your thoughts?

Coach McDonald

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Welcome to The Hitting Connection's - Creating a Perfect Swing!

There are so many items and issues involved in creating a perfect swing.  Many students of the major league swing have hard line positions on items they feel support a good baseball/softball swing.  These items include everything from mechanics and techniques to mental approach and or drills that will help to produce positive results.  Additionally many of these items work in conjunction with one another at various levels and can be confusing when covered in instruction settings.  Unfortuantely, instructor styles and delivery methods can skew the information and in many cases can lead to confusion on the part of the student. 

This blog is designed to work through some of these issues and support coaches and instructors that are attempting to help hitters of all ages.  Please feel free to post questions, issues, and drills or approaches that warrent discussion or require more explanation.

Again, welcome to the blog and please be respectfull and polite, but also passionate when holding discussions.

Coach McDonald

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