Baseballsmith

I’ve been wrong about confidence.

For years I’ve talked about helping players become more confident.

I still believe confidence matters. But after more than 30 years of coaching, I think I had the order wrong.

Confidence isn’t the starting point. Discipline is.

Discipline to work when nobody’s watching.

Discipline to take care of the little things.

Discipline to stick to your routine when you’re playing well and when you’re struggling.

Because when the game gets stressful, you can’t always rely on feeling confident.

You can rely on your preparation.

Confidence is the result of disciplined preparation.

Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves.

Dominate the routine. Enjoy the boring parts.

Make sure you’re following.

Staying inside the ball is only part of it.

This drill can help two hitters with two very different problems.

One hitter may work around the ball too early.

Another may stay inside it, but cut the swing off before getting through contact.

By changing the target in the cage, we can challenge the hitter to work inside AND through the ball.

But here’s the bigger point:

Don’t copy a drill just because you see someone doing it.

Know what you’re trying to change first.

Not sure what your hitter should be working on?

Send me his swing. I’ll show you what I’d work on first and give him a specific plan to work on it.

$47. One time. No subscription.

DM SWING and I’ll send you the details.

A good drill isn’t necessarily the right drill.

This hitter is working on directional momentum.

One of the things we’re addressing is the tendency to move toward the plate during the stride, then compensate by pulling away during the swing.

So this drill has a purpose.

But that doesn’t mean your hitter needs it.

After more than 30 years of coaching, I’ve learned that the goal isn’t to find more things to work on. It’s to figure out what I’d work on first.

That’s the difference between collecting drills and having a development plan.

Not sure what your hitter should be working on?

Send me his swing. I’ll show you what I’d work on first and give him a specific plan to work on it.

$47. One time. No subscription.

DM SWING and I’ll send you the details.

Three Key Reference Points I look for in high-level hitters:

1. Stride to center
2. Rotate around a center axis
3. Back knee works down through contact

The goal isn’t to find everything we can change.

It’s to identify the Key Reference Points that can make the biggest difference for you and give you a plan to work on them.

That’s exactly what I’m now offering with my BaseballSmith Swing Assessment + Development Plan.

Send me your swing. I’ll personally analyze it, identify what I believe you should work on first, and build your personalized Daily 20 development plan.

$47. One assessment. One plan.

Comment SWING and I’ll send you the details.

Failure is part of baseball. Regret does not have to be.

A player can learn from a strikeout. He can fix a bad swing, learn from a bad game, and come back better tomorrow.

What he cannot do is get back the time he chose not to use.

The goal is not to avoid failure. The goal is to prepare, compete, learn, and keep moving forward.

Send this to a ballplayer who needs to hear it.

Coaching is a compliment, not a criticism.

When a coach takes the time to correct a player, it should mean he believes that player is capable of doing it better.

Players have to learn how to receive information, make an adjustment, and go compete. That is part of becoming a ballplayer.

The next time your son says, “Coach was on me today,” try asking him:

“What was he trying to get you to do?”

That question can change the whole conversation.

Send this to a baseball parent or coach.

The top hand release isn’t the problem.

Letting go too early is.

Some hitters are very successful releasing the top hand. Colin Hynek, formerly at UNC and now with the Cubs, is a good example.

Watch WHEN his top hand comes off the bat.

He gets through contact first. He gets to extension. Then the top hand releases as the barrel works up near the front shoulder.

Too many young hitters let go in the middle of the contact phase.

Now instead of driving through the baseball, they’re taking a hand off the bat right when they need to be applying force.

If you’re a top hand release guy, that’s fine.

Just make sure you’re not releasing it before you’ve finished the job.

Save this for the next time you hit.

If you know a hitter who needs to hear this, send it to him.

And make sure you’re following for more hitting and player development.

If everything is somebody else’s fault, there is nothing a player can fix.

The umpire may have missed a pitch. The field may have been bad. Something may not have gone his way.

But none of those things help him improve.

The useful question is:

“What part of it was yours?”

That is not about beating yourself up. It is about taking ownership of what you can control, making an adjustment, and competing again.

Good hitters do not make excuses. They make adjustments.

Follow BaseballSmith for more player development content.

Lunging and weight transfer both move the weight forward.

One is bad the other is good.

Look for ONE thing to know the difference.

Save this for your next hitting workout.

Send it to a player who needs to hear this.

And make sure you’re following.

Thank you MLB Mechanics Lab

Telling you baseball players to squish, the bug is robbing them of power.

When they merely “squish the bug” the hip turns, but the weight doesn’t transfer from the backside into the front side.

A better queue is to tell players to “get off the backside” when players learn to turn to transfer, they turn their hips in order to transfer the weight from the backside into the front side.

I’ve got a drill that will fix this in one session.

If you comment “HAPPY”, I’ll send it to you.

Make sure you’re following.

Thank you MLB Mechanics Lab