Summer Hitting Tips

Now I can give you some summer hitting tips, since many of you are at the end of your seasons. For those with all-stars coming up or travel teams, then these tips should work immediately.

I'm going to tell you about 3 hitting tips, 1) look for clinics, 2) reading, 3) watching TV, and a bonus 4th thing) my rant on what I saw hitting-wise in a tournament.

Clinics

Many times, colleges in your area are putting them on or even high schools. They have them for baseball and softball in just about all areas of the country.

If you're wanting to put on a clinic in your area and need to add a heavyweight hitting coach to your program to add internet exposure and maybe a higher profile for the local news media, check out how I could help you - https://www.theinternethittingcoach.com/hitting-clinic.html

Reading

I just picked up the book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis.

There are some real gems in there as to what the Oakland A's value in hitters (and it's not what you'd always think). They are "looking for batters to approach the plate like a lead off guy, get on base." They found that On Base Percentage was 3 times more important than Slugging Percentage and they totally depend on those two statistics, while ignoring the more standard measurements, like batting average, RBI's, stolen bases, and sacrifices.

This means they place a high premium on a person who walks and takes marginal pitches (this latter fact means that the pitcher will throw more pitches, tiring them out sooner and allows them to hit more pitches they can drive for doubles, triples and home runs).

This is really good stuff. There's a ton more that has huge implications on how to hit and how to teach hitting, although it's probably more for the 12 year olds on up, who have fundamentally sound swings already.

Here are some other book recommendations for you.

Watch TV

Actually, if you'd signed up for the updates of my website through MyYahoo, RSS, MyMSN, or Google's feeds that I have listed below the list of topics you would've been alerted to the Women's College World Series, that just ended with Arizona winning again.

You would've seen a lot of hitters who've not converted over to the rotational swing playing at the highest level of fastpitch softball. Tennessee's almost entirely linear and the rabbits at the top of Arizona's lineup are distinctly linear. Of course, for power many of 4-5 type hitters are rotational, so it would be a good chance to see the differences by watching it on TV.

The boy's college world series is finishing up and according to Moneyball, College players make better, more reliable players to go to the major leagues. So watch a major league game or catch the men's college world series on TV.

GAMES BEGIN FRIDAY, JUNE 8 – All Times are Eastern

Texas A&M (48-17) at No. 2 Rice (52-12): 7 p.m. (ESPN), 6 p.m. (ESPNU), 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Oklahoma St. (41-19) at Louisville (44-21): 2 p.m. (ESPN2), Noon (ESPNU), 4 p.m. (ESPN)

Clemson (41-21) at Mississippi St. (36-20): Noon (ESPN), Noon (ESPN2), 1 p.m. (ESPN)

South Carolina (45-18) at No. 3 North Carolina (51-12): 7 p.m. (ESPN), 7 p.m. (ESPN), 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

The following four best-of-three super regionals will be played Saturday, June 9, Sunday, June 10, and Monday, June 11 (if necessary). The four winners will play their first MCWS games Saturday, June 16.

GAMES BEGIN SATURDAY, JUNE 9 - All times are Eastern

Michigan (42-17) at Oregon St. (42-18): 3 p.m. (ESPNU), 4 p.m. (ESPN), 7 p.m. (*ESPN or *ESPN2)

UCLA (33-26) at Cal St. Fullerton (36-23): 7 p.m. (ESPN), 10 p.m. (ESPN2), 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

Ole Miss (40-23) at No. 5 Arizona St. (46-13): 9 p.m. (ESPNU), 7 p.m. (ESPN2), 7 p.m. (ESPN2)

UC Irvine (43-15-1) at Wichita St. (53-20): Noon (ESPN2), 1 p.m. (ESPN), *12:30 p.m. or *7 p.m. (*ESPN or *ESPN2)

(*Time and station will be determined after completion of Sunday’s games. Please consult www.NCAASports.com for updates on starting times)

The determination of the order of first-round games both Friday, June 15, and Saturday, June 16, will be announced Monday, June 11, depending on the if-necessary games for the four super regionals scheduled for June 8-11. The ESPN family of networks and www.NCAASports.com will release the MCWS game times as soon as they are available.

My Rant

I was appalled at the hitting. This was "high level" ball, with some of the best teams in the area playing on the final day, but I must have watched 3 games and only saw 3 runs scored and 2 of them were right as I was leaving the parking lot.

It looks like my prediction was coming true right before my eyes. The swings I saw were pathetic. It seems like a few years ago the girls were all swinging with a linear swing and they would use that with as much force as they could generate.

While I'm the first to admit, that more power can be generated with a rotational swing (and many of you have thanked me personally for helping you make this transition) and if your team hits for power that's better than singles, but what I said even from the beginning was, make sure you learn it correctly.

The swings I now was observing weren't as good as the "weaker" linear swings I saw in the past, they were poor attempts at the rotational swing (actually not mastered at all), which created what I observed.

Please choose a swing that you'll commit to and really nail the swing perfectly. This will serve you better than swinging with a "better swing" only 50%.

For more about the two swings - https://www.theinternethittingcoach.com/hitting-video.html

Thanks for reading and talk to you next time.

Coach Andy

6801 Dove St. Ventura, CA 93003

805-642-5827