My kid takes lessons but is not getting any better!

Although its rare, every once in a while a Parent may say something like this. The reason it seems like your player is not getting better is because kids learn at different speeds, some learn immediately, some take a long time to show improvement. What is important is to encourage your child to keep working and stay positive Remember, one silly comment can ruin it for your child. Former Oakland A's player Jose Conseco said it best when he said "it's not how you get there, it where you end up"
I have seen kids come in to the Academy and show what looks like no improvement for months and then one day bam! The whole thing comes together.
Some kids get better real fast then it looks like they taper off. This is because almost all kids are not fundamentally sound and once we teach them the basics, they improve quickly, but it takes tons of reps to really get proficient and that is when it looks like they have stalled out. When I played D1 baseball, I took 100 ground balls a day, every day, and I was a Pitcher.

Mechanics Of Hitting: Part Six – Baseball is 90% Mental

By: Coach Theune

I believe yogi said "baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical".

I think we can all agree that we don’t do our best work when we are angry. Well its is true for hitting too. I have seen many, many players swing at a bad pitch or let a good pitch go by and get upset and they let it affect them to the point where they can not focus on the most important thing, the next pitch! Baseball is a game of failure. You need to control your emotions, if you can’t you are worthless to the team. I know that’s a harsh statement but it's very true. (remember, there are other players on the team and you have a moral contract with them to do your best at all times.) Look at it this way, you can’t change what has just happened but you can focus on what happens next, don’t let the last pitch dictate how you feel about the next one. Just take the game one pitch at a time. The best way to stay focused and not let your emotions get the better of you is to realize that in every at bat, you have a specific job to do, whether it is to hit behind the runner or to execute a bunt or to hit the ball to the outfield, each at bat has a purpose and its already predetermined for you, just focus on the job at hand. With practice and dedication you will not only believe in yourself but you will have the confidence to execute. For me, I always wanted to be up with the bases loaded or with the game hanging in the balance because I knew that I had practiced and drilled and i believed in myself because I had the confidence to execute the play.

Listen, hitting a pitched baseball is arguably the single most difficult thing to do in all of sport, so don’t get all uptight if it takes a while to get the fundamentals down. Familiarize yourself with what you’ve read, call me or use the blog. The best advice I can give you is when it comes to hitting, do your homework (I mean read and understand the info I have given you) then seek out a true professional and get lessons. Be prepared to commit yourself to getting better over a long period of time. It’s well worth it because a sports scholarship is a lot cheaper than college tuition.

When it comes to choosing a professional I always tell people this; if a coach tells you or your player something that just doesn’t seem right, or that you or your kid don’t understand, ask him to explain it. Ask how will it help? Can you demonstrate it? A good coach will gladly answer and demonstrate anything he teaches, if he can’t or is obviously lost, its time to get a new coach.

I am well aware that my views my seem to be somewhat uncompromising, but a good coach is 2 things, confident of his knowledge, and not afraid to learn.

Mechanics Of Hitting: Part Four - Hitting

By Coach Theune

Ok we are all ready and comfortable in the box, (by the way, this takes practice. You may not feel right at first because of existing bad mechanics and muscle memory, but with hard work and dedication, you will).

As the pitcher begins his windup, we shift our weight to our back foot just a little, almost in a rocking motion. When the pitcher delivers the pitch we take a small 6-8 inch stride with our front foot and start to shift our weight forward, this gets our lower body in motion and starts the hitting sequence. We then begin to rotate our hips and back foot towards the pitcher and begin the actual swing. (there are several complex movements that go into the swing but i wanted to give a full description before i went into detail.) Ok here is the technical breakdown of the swing. We shift our weight back as the pitcher goes into his windup, then as the pitch comes at us, we shift our weight forward using the stride. (When we take the stride we should understand that what we are doing is starting the momentum that builds the torque that will travel up our body and out our arms).

When you stride, your front leg or stride leg moves about 8 inches forward towards the pitcher and hits gently on the ground. Next you begin to rotate your hips and back leg towards the pitcher. Your stride leg locks which forces the momentum go up, instead of towards the pitcher, and allows you to become balanced. (It is the lower body that is responsible for generating the torque that flows up and out.)

Next, you swing, upon making contact, your back arm should be bent and the palm of your top hand should be facing up. Only after you have hit the ball do your arms straighten out and follow through. Your head should be down, by that i mean you should see the ball hit your bat every time!! Many coaches call this the point of contact. You need to be focused on the ball from start to finish for this to happen. Your head should still be down looking at the point of contact even after you have hit the ball, for a split second.

Mechanics Of Hitting: Part Five - Stride

By Coach Theune

But wait there’s more! Did you ever wonder how some players can hit the ball to the opposite field with wicked power? I’ll tell you, it’s the stride! Say what? Yes it is the stride! Great hitters position themselves during the swing with the stride to get the sweet spot of the bat on the ball, its no secret that to hit the opposite way, you need to hit the ball at the back of the plate, but to do so with power takes positioning. You stride towards the plate for an outside pitch, straight ahead for a pitch down the middle and away from the plate for the inside pitch. (this is also why hand position is so important, it gives you that glorious thing called time to see the ball and react to it!!!) When a player is said to have “gone with the pitch” or has “turned on a pitch”, it means his stride positioned his body to get the sweet spot on the ball.


Here's something else that nay help, the way to hit a good curve ball is the same way you hit the outside pitch, position your body and hit the ball at the back of the plate.

Here are some keys to knowing your swing is getting there. After you swing you are still in balance. Your front foot is at a 45 degree angle inward. Your front leg is locked. Your head is down. You have hit the ball.

This is the physical aspect of hitting and it is extremely difficult to learn and maybe impossible to master. Many professionals argue that the mental aspect of hitting is even more important.

Mechanics Of Hitting: Part Three – Body Language

By Coach Theune

Let’s move on to body position or body language, its important to be relaxed when at the plate so we want to be in a position that does not require any type of balancing act. We want our feet to be shoulder width apart, or close to it. If your feet are too close together, you can’t get your lower body into the swing and if they are too far apart, balance becomes a problem. With our feet shoulder width apart we bend our knees slightly so the weight of our body is on the balls of our feet, not on our heels, our back is straight or just slightly bent forward, head straight and level. Some coaches tell you, your chin should be at your front shoulder at the start of your swing and on the back shoulder when you are finished. This is sound advice. Remember we are supposed to be comfortable. The reason we don’t want to be bent over too much is because our head will be tilted and our eyes will not be level, all you have to do is tilt your head down and look at something sideways to understand the importance of that!
So, just like that we know the how to's, and the what for's, of positioning ourselves in the batter’s box, our stance, grip, hand position, bat position and body position, whew!

Now we can move on to actually hitting the ball!

Mechanics Of Hitting: Part Two – Grip & Hand Position

By Coach Theune

Ok, we know where to stand and what stance to take.

Lets talk about the bat, more specifically, how to grip or hold it. Since how we grip the bat has an effect on how fast we can swing it, we want to use the grip that best allows us to swing the bat freely. The proper way to hold the bat is to open your lower hand, lay the bat handle in you fingers, not in your palm, with the other hand grip the bat the same way, close your hands aligning the middle knuckles on both hands, this will put your wrists just about on top of each other, swing the bat gently and you can feel how easy its swings, remember not to grip the bat tightly, a loose grip allows more freedom in the hands and thus, more swing speed. Try this, put the bat in the palms of both hands grip it tightly and align the top knuckles on both hands and try a easy swing, if you can’t feel the difference, remember, the bat should be a natural extension of the arms.

Now we have talked about where to stand in the box, what kind of stance to use, and how to hold the bat, now lets talk about where to hold the bat or our hand position. I have always taught the kids at old school baseball academy that keeping your hands in front of your back shoulder with the top hand no higher than the top of your shoulder and the bat at a 45 degree angle back is the best place and here’s why. Time, that’s right, time. All decent swings, no matter where you hold your hands, end up going right through the area in front of your back shoulder; all you have to do is try it. If you start your swing there, you will have more time to recognize the pitch and there is nothing more valuable than time.

There are other benefits to this approach, you will have decreased reaction time, that’s the time from the first movement of your bat until it makes contact with the ball, the lower the reaction time, the higher the bat speed, the higher the bat speed the more power. These facts are indisputable and will be agreed with by any good professional coach.

Mechanics Of Hitting: Part One - Stance

Mechanics Of Hitting: Part One - Stance
By Coach Theune

When it comes to hitting a baseball or a softball, every coach seems to have all the answers, and no two of them are alike especially when it comes to softball. Any good softball coach will tell you that hitting a softball takes the same mechanics as hitting a baseball.

If you have professional experience or have been to a major division one baseball/softball program like university of Miami or UCLA, then what I am about to explain to you should sound familiar.

What I am going to explain is the process every player needs to take during a game when in comes to hitting. The process begins as soon as the pitcher from the other team starts warming up, that’s right, a good hitter takes notice of how well the pitcher is doing during warm ups, for example, is he throwing all fastballs? If he is then don’t expect a curve or changeup right off the bat. Does he have control? If he doesn’t then be patient at the plate and make him work. Look at his body language, it will tell you if the pitcher is feeling good that day. Is he easily distracted while warming up? A good pitcher is focused on what he is doing. A lot of being a good hitter is knowing what to expect at the plate, after all, it would be easier to hit a fastball if you knew it was coming.

Now, on to the mechanics of hitting. This is the real nuts and bolts of how to become a good hitter. The fist thing a batter needs to know is that standing in the same place in the batter’s box is extremely important, that’s right, always stand in the same place. I’m sure someone is asking why. I’ll tell you why, the strike zone does not move, it is the front edge of the plate. Let that sink in, it is the front edge of the plate, the strike zone is 2 dimensional, it is 18 inches wide and from the bottom of the knee to somewhere around the letters, but it does not extend beyond the front of the plate. Armed with that knowledge, there is no reason to move around in the batters box. If you move back in the box a pitch at the knees will be lower when it gets to you, and if you move up in the box then a high pitch could be a strike by the time it gets to the zone. And we all know hitting is tough enough without handicapping ourselves even more.

Now that we have learned that we need to have one spot we stand in the next thing is our body position, some players use an open stance where they face the pitcher more directly, some use a closed stance where they are turned inwards away from the pitcher and most use a neutral stance where they are facing the other batter’s box. For anyone who is learning the game a neutral stance is the way to go. The open and closed stances are for very advanced players and are used for a specific reason and usually are temporary. With a neutral stance a hitter can learn to hit inside and outside pitches well.