I have played baseball my whole life. However up until I was in college I didn’t really think about the training methods and how to get better. I just did whatever my coach told me to do. I got most of my hitting practice by mindlessly hitting BP, hitting soft toss in the cage or occasionally hitting the ball off of a tee. I would also go to the local batting cages and hit off the machine in my free time.
If I was at practice and my coach told me to “throw my hands at the ball”, “swing down” , “squash the bug” or any other typical hitting cue, I would try and do it. I assumed that they knew what they were talking about. I listened to what they were saying, even though their “help” was making me get worse.
I clearly remember, my first inkling of doubt about what I was taught. I was watching a Yankee game one night, and super slow motion cameras were a new feature of baseball broadcasts. A-Rod had just hit a home run and they were showing the super slow mo replay. From the front view, I was shocked that you could clearly see that his bat was moving on an upward plane. The barrel of his bat dropped below the ball, then moved back upward towards the ball. and then he makes contact.
After thinking about what I just saw, I realized that it only made sense that he was swinging like this. How else were you supposed to hit the ball hard and in the air? I knew this was different than what my coaches had taught me, but I just assumed they knew this,and the reason they teach you to swing down is so you don’t hit too many pop ups. I would later find out, I was giving my coaches too much credit.
I didn’t really think too much about my hitting revelation until I got into college a couple years later. I had just had a decent freshmen year. I was able earn a starting position and I batted over .300 but I knew I could do better. Even though I was 6’3″ 210 lbs, I mostly hit singles. We had guys on the team, smaller and not as strong as me hitting multiple home runs, some 400+ feet. I had never played with that kind of power before. Very rarely did I see home runs in high school. I knew I had to learn to hit for power, but I had no idea how.
Not too soon after this, I was on the internet looking for a recommendation for a wood bat for that summer. Luckily, I stumbled on a message board where a lot of coaches were talking about hitting mechanics. But not in any way I was used to. They had slow motion video of MLB players hitting home runs, and they were breaking down the various movements. They were able to compare these videos to amateur players and point out the flaws of the amateurs. They were not talking about “swinging down” or squashing the bug”. They were talking about how these cues were myths and outdated. Slow motion video proved these cues wrong.
Quickly, I realized I had to record my swing and compare it to the best players in the world. I assumed I had some flaws because clearly I wasn’t a MLB player. Even knowing this, when I first saw my swing in slow motion I was shocked at how bad it was. It was brutal. I was actually wondering how I was able to play at the college level and be somewhat successful with that swing. Even though I was upset it wasn’t better, I started to be very positive, realizing I had a lot of room to get better. This was actually a good thing. I thought “If I could hit at a college level with a terrible swing, imagine how well I will hit with a great swing!” And the best part was, I now knew what a good swing looked like.
The combination of seeing A-Rod’s swing in slow motion, realizing I needed to get better and finally stumbling upon the hitting message board, made me realize how much about hitting I had to learn. I knew what a good swing looked like, but I still had two questions I needed to know. What causes a good swing? and How do I train to develop a good swing? From this point on, I was fixated on hitting.