The Making of a Hitter
Following is a short book excerpt from the making of a hitter.
Getting a hitter out of a slump is never easy. The only way I know to do it is to get back to the basics and put in the work. Many slumps seem to occur right after a very hot streak. Sometimes it’s just the law of averages catching up with them. Other times the hitter becomes too confident and forgets about performing the little things that go into a good fundamental swing. It was very common to have a hitter come back for lessons about three weeks into the season to say “I started out great but have struggled the last few games”. It is common before the season to be working on batting tees and drills that adhere to the basic fundamentals. However, when games begin the hitter tends to get away from these drills and the fundamentals can start to deteriorate. The next thing you know the hitter is not getting enough positive swings and a slump occurs.
It can be very difficult for even the best hitting coaches to figure out what a hitter may be doing wrong in a game situation. The distance the coach is away from the hitter and the limited swings they may get from at bat to at bat makes this a difficult task. In batting practice there is the repetition of swing after swing so it is easier to analyze the hitter’s mechanics. In a game though, the coach doesn’t have this luxury of constant repetition. In the major leagues every at bat is filmed and can be immediately analyzed. This is not a usual convenience for the lower levels. The coach should film the hitters once in a while in a game situation and have a qualified coach analyze the film. Often, the swing that a player produces in a game is totally different from his practice swing for whatever reason. Because of this difference, it is important to film their game swing and review it. The saying “the video won’t lie” is true. Thus, filming can be a great teaching tool for the players (and anyone looking to learn more about hitting for that matter).
