Great video thank you. Quick question... We have always been told to point the knob of the bat at the catcher when loaded. But, this seems to result in exactly what you explained in this video. His left side pulls out. So, two balls back and don't worry about pointing the knob at catcher?
Not rich so I've been trying to coach my son on my own. Been checking out videos and this is the best drill I've seen yet. I have a question......my son is great during BP but having problems when facing live pitching. What is the best drill to improve this?
Hey Joseph, thanks for the question! Transition from BP to pitching is always a process... The main issue is the distance the ball is coming from, which tends to throw off timing. Best thing you can do while transitioning is taking batting practice from full pitching distance... Ideally this would be done with a batting practice thrower, but a machine works as well! Hope this helps out! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Thanks for the videos! I'm a sports science guy myself and this has helped my understanding of how a swing should be developed through the 3 phases. I have girls but I think the principles still apply. I coach my 5 year old and will be applying what I've seen in a few of your vids to help her develop a correct swing, even though the ball path is a bit different than a baseball. My 7 year old will benefit from these greatly! She refuses to stride and rotate through the ball, but with a your videos I think I can break it down to her to help her develop the swing she needs to compete at a higher level as she is the youngest on her team, and since she's not real quick, hopefully hit better to get her on base and help her team. thank you again. I'll be watching more of your videos. And to those who want to compare what is seen here to elite athletes, I say this, what ever you coach from what you see them doing or saying, they are elite and can do things the average hitter cannot because of their elite strength and quickness! let the science here help your kid because 98% of us don't have a young Mike Trout sleeping under our roof no matter what you believe! Thanks again! Love the vids!
great video and easy to understand. Besides the "double check drill" that you explained, are there any other exercises that can help a youngster rid this wrapping habit?
I watch all of you're videos for drills to use for my 10 yr old son. he also watches theses videos. and through practice and repetition he has made great improvements in his overall base ball skills, and he is seeing that through practice, hard work and good baseball fundamentals he is able to achieve the results he is looking for. You're drills reinforce what I have been teaching him and through hard work and his determination, he is improving and building fundamental skills, and confidence in his game. keep up the good work, and thank you.
Hey Kathleen, thanks for the comment! Glad you liked the video! We're not based in Ca, but we do have a great online training program if you all were looking for some help. Feel free to visit the website and shoot us a message anytime! :)
Great video one problem I was having was bringing my whole body back now I realize that you need to just move are hands back just a little bit and it will make such a big difference great video this really helped can’t wait till season
Hi! Great video, but doesn't this contradict Josh Donaldson's style of hitting? Because he emphasizes on using shoulders and not to really think about hands
Thanks RinoDG! This is a whole thing isn't it :P Getting a lot of comments about this. The thing about JD's swing, along with most good hitters, is they talk mostly about what they "FEEL" they are doing. I'm sure what he said he actually believes that's what he's doing, but might not be quite right for the next guy to FEEL. If the hands are holding the bat, and we want to hit the bat with the ball, at some point the hands will have to lead the bat to the ball. Unless we are swinging it with our feet, that's just the long and short of it... That being said, there is an efficient way to do this and there are many inefficient ways of doing this. Be weary of the great hitters out there, they are very good at what they do, just not all are the best at explaining exactly what they are doing! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Thanks for the video it really taught me a lot. 1.question if your lining up at your shoulders dosnt that cause you to pop it up easier because you have to drop down to get the ball?
Hey Pro speed baseball I just have a quick question. I have seen multiple MLB hitters who show their back numbers to the pitcher (or turned their upper body away from the pitcher to create more torque) which contradicts what u show in the video. I am a really young player and just want to know what the correct mechanics are. Thanks!
+Nick Publicover You are most welcome! Nice job on making the change, loading correctly will really free you up to get to contact much more efficiently! Really glad the instruction is helping out! Thanks for the awesome comment! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
+Nick Publicover Nice! Not sure if I mentioned it in this video or not, but the proper load will promote/give you a much better chance at creating backspin! Nice work! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
I love watching these I was so mechanically out of wack from lack of correction at a young age. I have a question though do you recommend having a downward swing or slight uppercut, my coach told me to try to beat the ball into the ground and it started to work, but I often struggle to stay on plane. Is their a video that can correct this if so can you leave the link, please and thanks.
+donavon pip Have just the video for you! Check out the swing plane video here: th-cam.com/video/a_tJvSCvgRE/w-d-xo.html I would also check out this video as well: th-cam.com/video/hKM7S2P_LVY/w-d-xo.html This will help explain what your coach was trying to get you to do. To put simply it is FEELING that will get you to swing in a certain way. The first video will explain exactly what happens with the swing as far as how you should take the bat to the ball. The second video will give you a method to implement this into your own game. Hope this helps! If you have any questions at all, just let me know! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball Show less
+Pro Speed Baseball Ok, thanks :) One more thing, can you tell me where to find all or most of the proper techniques for both defense and offense. when I say that I'm referring to little things like breaking your thumbs downwards when you throwing, little things like that have made a huge difference in the way I play. (I am an out fielder and 1st baseman)
+donavon pip Hey Donavon, sorry it's been a minute since I could get back to you!! Not quite sure where you could find "good" stuff on defense, however, we will be coming out with a lot of defensive stuff in the future. If you have any requests, just let us know! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Everything we teach is 100% transferable to fast pitch softball. I personally train high level softball players and they ROCK it. The big difference between the two is that softball players are better at hitting rising pitches!
Great explanation of this. I tried explaining it but left out the toe line, and I don't think it got across. This video helped better explain what I tried to get across last week. I learned how to swing as a kid, so the motion and mechanics are kinda 2nd nature to me. But explaining it to my step daughter who is new at softball, I feel lost trying to explain some parts of it. Your channel helps me better communicate and explain things simpler. Where, idk, I kinda get lost in the sauce explaining, and I realize at some point how difficult a youth is to trying to decipher what I'm trying to say.
Excellent video. As a baseball coach looking to help my hitters, I was taking careful notes and will be using this information to help them improve their mechanics first and foremost. As Tony Gwynn often said Process before Results.
Revisiting this. Thanks for the this video. My average has dropped and power has significantly decreased over the past couple of seasons. My issues have been different to what you described but still from the same source, my hands don't seem to be slow to the ball but I keep getting out in from and toe ending it, getting lazy pop flies or huge top spin grounders to 3rd (my pull side). I think a lot of it is because there's no acceleration into the ball at contact so there's very little force (Or maybe starting earl to compensate for the slower hands). I'm burying my front shoulder too much so I rip it open and my power all leaks to the 3rd base dugout and very little gets behind the ball. On top of all this inside pitches feel very close because my shoulder is turning in and getting close to the plate, the outside pitch is also an issue because it feels far away from my hands. I think a lot of the teacherman hitting instruction style has caused this, trying to manipulate the swing into feeling like a lot of the pros look has made me feel like my swing needs to powerful. Dry swings after this makes it feel like my bat is quick and my body is doing very little. Not that the teacherman style is wrong, it seems to work for some guys but I think it caused me to over emphasise a lot of movements and swing my body rather than swing the bat.
This helped me a lot my school coach was getting on me about bat speed. Also he was getting on me about the load. I’m still so confused & I want to be a coachable kid 2. So if anybody can help me more that would be great! 👍
@@nicholaswidel Do you have any solo training tips? i practice everyday on my own for a few hours.Im gonna practice till i go to the mlb. Did you make the mlb or are you like a senior or college ball.
Great video! I have always felt that the primary reason for the slower bat speed when the hands are close to the body is for two reasons. First, the tighter the arms are to the body, the more the arms and body move (rotate) with each other. The real speed is when the hands and body are disconnected and the hips/core can lead the hands creating a catapult or whip action. If you have a stiff whip, the end does not pop. or like popping a towel. if there is no disconnection of the base and the tip, the speed is only that of the base. Secondly had to do with the bat head. When the hands are close to the body, the bat head travels with the body and the speed is only what would be as if you just put the bat stiff on your hip and rotated your hip. By getting the hands away from the body, the bat head stays back until the hands are out front, then it creates it's own circular rotation out in front of the body, but this is after the velocity has picked up and has an opportunity to be whipped through the zone, again like a whip. Although I agree and like your three step drill at the end, I did not like that you kept your weight on your back leg during the stride and you rotated and moved forward at the same time. This is a bad habit to do. The stride pushes your body to a balance and your rotation takes place on a stationary axis, not a moving one. There is a tendency for hitters to stay back too much during tee work for this exact reason. Please review your video again and take a look.
Wonderfully said Chris! You are definitely an above average thinker when it comes to hitting! I actually released a video today on something very similar. Hard to get everything you went over in one video, yet it is exactly how true speed is created in the swing. I also agree with the stationary axis after the stride, if you watch the swing slowed down you will see that my center moves on this stationary axis after completing the weight shift. One thing to think about is that you don't necessarily need to stride to push your body to the balanced position, it's a great way to do it, however the weight shift can do the exact same thing with the same, if not better, efficiency. *Note, this isn't something I'm just pulling out of my hat :P we tested a number of different stride and swing variations with sensors measuring bat and ball exit speeds. Thank you for commenting and the critique, you have an excellent mind for the swing! If you have any interest in doing instruction, or would like to chat further, just shoot me an email through the Contact portion of the website: ProSpeedBaseball.com (Scroll to bottom of page) ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
I recently saw an Instagram post saying that he (the owner of the account) tells his hitters to think of the hand loading as "rocking the baby" instead of "rotating". I think this is similar to what you're showing here in the video except if I think about "rocking a baby", my shoulders kind of also sway back and forth. In your video the load seems to truly be "all hands", do advocate letting the shoulders back a bit as well, or should those "stay level/parallel to the ground"?
This is awesome. Just joined my church softball league, and having never really played the game except in backyards as a kid, I feel kinda like a fool out there lol. Think this will help with my batting.
I take it you're not a big fan of Joey Myer's "Catapult Loading System"? If your not familiar with it, it's basically show your numbers (to the pitcher) at load and hide your hands.
I agree with a lot of what you guys say and I am fully on board with the need to be more efficient as velocity increases. I disagree that adding a small turn is a power drain. While I agree it takes a bit of time to unwind I feel it will likely add power. Golfers turn to add power. Boxers also use their back hand for power and while the punch is straight it’s coming from a pre-turned position. A ton of examples also of guys turning a bit to load. I prefer a middle ground philosophy here.
Hey I have a question why do hitting coaches tell players to show the letters of their jersey to the pitcher when they are hitting would this require the player to turn his shoulders a bit?
Thanks for the question Tommy! First of all this is one of the WORST things you can do as a hitter. It will bury your hands behind your body and toe line, making it very difficult to get back around to contact. You here coaches say this mostly because of the off-center camera angles you see during Big League games on TV. If the angle is offset to the hitter's side, it will seem as if they are turning much more than they really are.... Look up Camera Angles Pro Speed Baseball here on TH-cam, I have a video on exactly this... Hope this helps out! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Show me a video of a MLB player that moves their hands back, away from his body. In all the slow motion videos I can find on TH-cam (Trout, Ted Williams, Pujols, Yelich, Soto, Freeman, Bryant, Altuve, Betts, JD Martinez, DiMaggio, etc...), NONE move their hands back and away from the body.
@@michaelgreenley1174 In the load, yes. He’s wrong about cooking though, basically every MLB player coils over their back leg, meaning their shoulders are torqued back towards the catcher, as opposed to their hips which are square to the plate.
I am working with a Philippine National Team member right now with this issue. She also pulls the ball foul on anything on the inner half, because her hand path wraps around the ball, hitting the outside of the ball. This video is perfect! Oh, I forgot, I am a fastpitch coach.
So much confusion in baseball. Our 14U team now following a "scap load" hitting system of loading, emphasizing an extreme torso stretch from (righty) left hip to right shoulder so feel a pinch in scapula, and showing Jersey numbers to the pitcher, then swapping shoulder positions in extreme rotation.
Couldn't agree more Aaron... things can be very confusing... biggest problem is that there are guys who can twist their bodies off the planet and still hit well. The issue with that, is that for most players, that would be difficult. What we strive to do is maximize bat speed and consistency of solid contact. "Showing your numbers" to the pitcher, may work for some, but it's not always the model we want to follow. The upper body does load when the hands go back... it's bio mechanically impossible for the body to not rotate to accommodate the hands loading. (unless the load is short) Yet, when we overdo the torso rotation, we start burying the hands and make solid contact harder to achieve. Even if we could get more bat speed, better pitching will exploit the issue unless, of course, you're in the small minority that can get away with it. Hope this makes sense/helps out at all! Thanks for commenting! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
+Adam Smith (Adawg2015) Hey Adam, thanks for the question! For a right handed hitter the left hand will be on the bottom (or closer to the knob of the bat) and the right hand will be on top (closer to the barrel). And vice-versa for left handed hitters. If you have any other questions, just let us know! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
When is the proper time or how do I teach my son when is the correct time to "load" he is trying to do it when the ball is on its way. And a lot of the time he is getting jammed. Ideas please...
Hey Jason, apologies for the delay in feedback! Every hitter will have their own timing, I tell my hitters to start their hands back when the pitcher starts to take his throwing hand back. Kind of like tug-of-war. If he is trying to load after the ball is already released, he will be at a huge disadvantage and that is most likely the main cause of him getting jammed. Hope this helps out! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Check out this video we have on TH-cam: th-cam.com/video/Bc4aM-hjiM0/w-d-xo.html If you have any other questions on this, just let us know! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
+Calebs_Random_Life Thanks for subscribing Caleb! More great stuff coming out soon! If you ever have any questions, feel free to let me know anytime! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Bat Wrap is a misconception. Look at every great hitter from Ruth to Trout and they all have the barrel behind their head right before launch, not to mention the extremes like Juan Gonzales and Julio Franco. It is geometry and physics. Centrifugal force. Baseball is all about coiling up and then unleashing that energy. If you take the traditional camera angle from the left field side of center field, you can read the back of every lefty jersey and most of their hands will disappear behind their bodies right before launch. Coil, load or whatever you want to call it is a GOOD THING. You just have to know how to fire the systems properly to maximize your output. Hips, obliques, deltoids, forearms and wrists. This sequence will unleash more power than most guys are aware they have. Robinson Cano is a great example. He wraps the bat, turns his back almost completely to the pitcher and still manages to hit over .300 in the big leagues for his entire career. Create angles, use leverage and hit it hard!
YES YES YES. Precisely, Tom. You've got it right. Kinetic chain and on the better side of the Law of Inertia. This positional, start n stop crap all these false prophets teach kill the kinetic chain and force batter to fight the inertia of being STOPPED!STILL.
I noticed that in your video and your drill, don't address counter rotation of the hips as part of the load. Aside from generating lower body power in a powerful rotational swing, counter rotating the hips ensures that hitters' weight/power are still back when their front foot gets down. Many young hitters I see that don't have counter rotation in their hips during their load also have trouble staying back on off-speed and breaking pitches, as their load tends to just launch the swing forward immediately (or even prior to) getting their front foot down.
+G&D Hitting, thanks for the comment! This video in particular was simply addressing one common load mistake that had to do with upper body separation. However, as far as the hips go, they can simply be put in the right position if the front foot strides correctly. There is a correlation, biomechanically, between the feet and the hips. Meaning, you need the hips to open and close the feet, and you need the feet to open and close the hips. So if you have a hitter who is firing the hips too early, you can simply make sure that their stride foot stays closed a little longer and this will effectively keep their hips in a good position! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
But in the video, your front foot is wide open when it gets down, (obviously) stays that way, and the hips are never closed at all indicating no counter rotation (also referred to cocking) of the hips. You can view that position vs. the position of Mike Trout in another one of your videos, and clearly see when Trout's front foot gets down his hips are still cocked/counter rotated and the hips start to fire after his front foot gets down. I understand that this particular video wasn't addressing this issue, but a youth coach/dad would see what you're doing in this video/drill and teach his hitters to do the same. If a young hitter was being taught to have his front foot land open with his hips open, he will have a hard time generating any lower body power in his swing not to mention that his swing will begin to start drifting forward (starting to get linear, rather than rotational). Not meaning to appear argumentative, but several of your videos have great drills/tricks to fix youth hitting issues (I love the glove on the head trick, to keep a hitter from 'diving' his head) and in this instance the lower body (hips and front foot) simply isn't doing what you'd want a hitter to actually be doing.
+G&D Hitting This is actually exactly what I would want hitters to be doing. The example I gave you before was for cases when hitters are having a hard time with opening up too quickly/soon. (which is usually the culprit of something else going on in the swing) The hips, ideally will stay relatively square as the stride foot lands open. This creates a stretch-shortening cycle in the hips, which is physically the most powerful way a human can move. We will ideally want the front foot open and the hips square when the lead foot gets down because this is the most efficient way to stride the foot. Reason being, the foot will have to turn regardless to to the rotation of the hips and landing this way will eliminate that move! Trout, although a fantastic hitter, doesn't stride as efficiently as he could and he is actually loosing lower body torque with his foot being so closed. (not effecting him too much though!) You can see this very easily being as his foot is rolling over onto its side throughout the swing and is acting as a break to the hips. Note: there can be a slight amount of rollover regardless, however Trout's rollover, in particular, is too much. Also, if the foot lands too closed, the foot will eventually turn open, closer to the position you see in the video. Therefore, by not landing in this position, we are adding a break and an extra move in the swing, therefore making the swing slightly less than efficient. As far as hitters landing with an open foot just to name a few: Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, Buster Posey, Jose Bautista, Chris Davis, Nelson Cruz... these are just off of the top of my head. The important thing to understand about hitting is that we can take less than ideal/efficient swings and still be successful. Landing with a properly open foot will give us the ability to be more efficient by taking out unnecessary moves. Hope this helps clear things up! I truly appreciate the critique, it makes me much more conscientious about my own teachings and helps me grow as an instructor! I have a great video coming out in the near future that I think you will thoroughly be interested in on rotational/linear hitting, and would really like your critique on that as well! If you'd like to discuss this further I'd be more than happy to! Thanks for commenting!! :) ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
But look at slow-mo swings of the examples you listed. Although they may land with more of an open foot than some other high level hitters, they also incorporate different levels of hip counter rotation (from mild to extreme) to impart hip/lower body power and explosion in their swings. Simply landing with your front foot open, your hips square, with no hip counter rotation is just asking a hitter to start drifting forward at the ball (getting linear, and front foot centric), not having a mechanism to stay back on off-speed and breaking pitches, not to mention the power loss.
+G&D Hitting The issue here is athletic personality. Some hitters get to this position in different ways. Meaning hitters doing relatively the same thing in different ways. Yet, if we understand how biomechanics, physics and how the kinematic sequence works in the swing, we will understand that every movement done before the front foot gets down is meaningless to the stretch shortening cycle between the hips and feet. Whichever way we slice it, mechanics are hardly the ROOT reason as to why we cant stay back on pitches, it is mostly from hitters getting too anxious. However, there are mechanical things we can do to help. This is where we have to address the issue of efficiency, by counter rotating the hips too much, we will add an unnecessary move to the swing which will effectively slow down the time it takes to get the bat started. This adding of movement to slow the sequence down will help us stay back on off speed pitches simply because it slows down our timing. One of the best way to have a hitters "stay back" is to have them maintain flexion in their back leg which will force them to keep their swing back. From there it will be their own timing. As far as power loss, this has been non-existent, in fact it has been the opposite when performed correctly. We've seen measurable increases in bat speed and consistency of contact due to more efficiency and less movement. Everything we teach at PSB is thoroughly researched from theory all the way to measurable facts. Through testing bat speed and ball exit speed we've easily determined this to be extremely efficient. I will say that if you look at the swing objectively as a total movement swinging a lever, versus looking at it as rotational or linear, these issues tend to work themselves out. FYI, when we went to test this stuff, I was convinced that we needed more hip turn for speed, yet the numbers spoke for themselves. Totally get where your coming from! Thanks again for the critique! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
I know this video is 6 years old … but our coach always says hide the hands and to scalp load. Your video paints a different picture. It can get very confusing. How do we determine which one is correct. Or is there no right or wrong here?
No he is saying that your body is getting in the way and it makes you bat speed slower and your hands will move out around your body and if the ball is inside then you have little time to bring your hands back and will likely go off the handle
There should be a law that requires people who coach young kids to look at pro speed video. GREAT presentation and not just this video but your entire program....
+Alex Soler Well thanks a million Alex, your comment made my day! Really glad you like the instruction and the whole PSB program. Got some more great stuff coming out soon! If you ever have any questions on anything, feel free to contact me anytime! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
+Miguel Moncion Hey Miguel, I'm not quite sure exactly what you're asking... If you'd like to clarify, we'll be sure to get back to you! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
+Miguel Moncion Hey Miguel, I'm not quite sure exactly what you're asking... If you'd like to clarify, we'll be sure to get back to you! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
I have watched a lot of your videos and I love them. About four or so videos ago I thought to myself "I love that this guy has a channel that doesn't have obnoxious music playing at the intro." The end of this video made me cringe however. I still "liked" the video because the information is awesome. But not everyone wants to feel like they are being attacked by robots while trying to watch a baseball tutorial.
+Edward Prest Hey Edward, thanks for the comment. Really glad to hear you like the instruction. Sorry to hear you didn't like the outro music, kind of tough to find usable music that everyone will like :P Just wanted to give viewers the option to click in the video if they wanted to check out the new program and figured it would be kind of weird if it played and there wasn't any audio haha. We will always be mixing it up, and we'll try to keep the music to a minimum for our instruction videos. Thank you for your input, it helps us to know what the subscribers want to see! Thanks again! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Broken bat handles! Everything here is spot on again. I hate that round hand path, and the vertical line hand-launch position at the shoulders is the key. You want to see how someone with huge talent does everything wrong against these principles, look at Javier Baez during the 2014 season.
Check points one and two are great....number three is not valid, the farther from the body the hands are the slower the bat speed, ....your gonna kill the bat speed and keep the hitter from getting to the inside pitch.......nice try guys!
+Matius M Hey Matius, thanks for the comment! Having the hands too far out in front will be counter productive, however having them behind the vertical toe line will also have adverse results. Having a good balance between too far out in front and behind the line will give us the best balance between consistency and power. Having the hands behind the VTL, will also make the hitter lose the ability to be efficiently dynamic in adjusting to inside and outside pitches. We have video coming out soon on the vertical toe line showing some of the best hitters in the game hitting that particular checkpoint! Be on the lookout! Thanks again for the comment! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
+I AM SUPERMAX Not sure if this is a good "wow" or not, but I'll take it as a good one! haha. Thanks for watching and commenting. ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
You are teaching hitters to be hands hitters,,not using your big leg muscles and core to deliver the arms and hands..DONT SEPERATE YOUR HANDS FROM YOUR BODY ,LET YOUR HIPS BRING YOU TO THE BALL
hands should never separate from the body in load,this let's the slow back muscles take over instead if the fast front muscles, don't walk away from your hands, figure skaters pull their arms in to speed up rotation, hitting is NOT A STRAIGHT LINE TO THE BALL
Hey Johnny, thanks for the comment! The load demonstrated here doesn't disengage anything from the body, it puts the stretch shortening cycle more in the lead shoulder, (which is very explosive movement) and the further back we can get the hands, to an extent, the more room we have to build up speed! Concerning hands straight to the ball: Using the example of figure skating in relationship to hitting doesn't makes sense from a physics perspective. A figure skater pulls his/her arms in to increase and move force towards their center... In hitting, we are using a top heavy lever and we want the maximum force to be at the end of that lever. In simple terms, the closer the end of the lever is to center, the slower it goes... vice versa the further the end of the lever is propelled from center, the faster it goes. These are basic lever physics. Therefore a the hand path being straight to the ball, coupled with the lag and release of the bat, allows us to get the end of the lever away from center and increasing speed where it matters... which is in the bat! Hope this helps out! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
+Jeff Lang Hey Jeff, thanks for the awesome comment and subscribing! The new membership website is getting put together nicely and we're adding new lessons each week. If you get a chance to check it out let us know how you like it! And if you ever have any questions, just let us know! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Hey Hunter, thanks for the comment! We're always open to criticism! Every facet of Pro Speed instruction goes under strict ridicule and if there's something we can make better we're all ears! If you have any questions or if there's anything we can help out with, just let us know! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Great video thank you.
Quick question...
We have always been told to point the knob of the bat at the catcher when loaded.
But, this seems to result in exactly what you explained in this video. His left side pulls out.
So, two balls back and don't worry about pointing the knob at catcher?
Not rich so I've been trying to coach my son on my own. Been checking out videos and this is the best drill I've seen yet. I have a question......my son is great during BP but having problems when facing live pitching. What is the best drill to improve this?
Hey Joseph, thanks for the question! Transition from BP to pitching is always a process... The main issue is the distance the ball is coming from, which tends to throw off timing.
Best thing you can do while transitioning is taking batting practice from full pitching distance... Ideally this would be done with a batting practice thrower, but a machine works as well!
Hope this helps out! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Wow thanks for the quick reply and the feedback. Appreciate the advise thanks 😎👍👍
Thanks for the videos! I'm a sports science guy myself and this has helped my understanding of how a swing should be developed through the 3 phases. I have girls but I think the principles still apply. I coach my 5 year old and will be applying what I've seen in a few of your vids to help her develop a correct swing, even though the ball path is a bit different than a baseball.
My 7 year old will benefit from these greatly! She refuses to stride and rotate through the ball, but with a your videos I think I can break it down to her to help her develop the swing she needs to compete at a higher level as she is the youngest on her team, and since she's not real quick, hopefully hit better to get her on base and help her team. thank you again. I'll be watching more of your videos.
And to those who want to compare what is seen here to elite athletes, I say this, what ever you coach from what you see them doing or saying, they are elite and can do things the average hitter cannot because of their elite strength and quickness! let the science here help your kid because 98% of us don't have a young Mike Trout sleeping under our roof no matter what you believe! Thanks again! Love the vids!
great video and easy to understand. Besides the "double check drill" that you explained, are there any other exercises that can help a youngster rid this wrapping habit?
I watch all of you're videos for drills to use for my 10 yr old son. he also watches theses videos. and through practice and repetition he has made great improvements in his overall base ball skills, and he is seeing that through practice, hard work and good baseball fundamentals he is able to achieve the results he is looking for. You're drills reinforce what I have been teaching him and through hard work and his determination, he is improving and building fundamental skills, and confidence in his game. keep up the good work, and thank you.
thank you so much, im in a bit of a slump right now and could definitely use this
Glad we could help!
@@ProSpeedBaseball I have a game today actually, got any tips to prepare for my game
Great video, will show my son. Wish we could see you in person but I am sure you aren’t in Ca.
Hey Kathleen, thanks for the comment! Glad you liked the video! We're not based in Ca, but we do have a great online training program if you all were looking for some help. Feel free to visit the website and shoot us a message anytime! :)
Great video one problem I was having was bringing my whole body back now I realize that you need to just move are hands back just a little bit and it will make such a big difference great video this really helped can’t wait till season
Hi! Great video, but doesn't this contradict Josh Donaldson's style of hitting? Because he emphasizes on using shoulders and not to really think about hands
Thanks RinoDG! This is a whole thing isn't it :P Getting a lot of comments about this. The thing about JD's swing, along with most good hitters, is they talk mostly about what they "FEEL" they are doing. I'm sure what he said he actually believes that's what he's doing, but might not be quite right for the next guy to FEEL.
If the hands are holding the bat, and we want to hit the bat with the ball, at some point the hands will have to lead the bat to the ball. Unless we are swinging it with our feet, that's just the long and short of it...
That being said, there is an efficient way to do this and there are many inefficient ways of doing this. Be weary of the great hitters out there, they are very good at what they do, just not all are the best at explaining exactly what they are doing!
~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Pro Speed Baseball Thank you so much!!
Thanks for the video it really taught me a lot. 1.question if your lining up at your shoulders dosnt that cause you to pop it up easier because you have to drop down to get the ball?
Hey Pro speed baseball I just have a quick question. I have seen multiple MLB hitters who show their back numbers to the pitcher (or turned their upper body away from the pitcher to create more torque) which contradicts what u show in the video. I am a really young player and just want to know what the correct mechanics are. Thanks!
Niko Tarasenko Look at their hands. Their hands separate from their body. But hitting is an art. And art is purely subjective. So whatever works
Do front arm only swings if you want mechanics like Griffey.
Thank you so much I would always have my body turned way to much when I load and would get it off the handle but now I'm making way better contact.
+Nick Publicover You are most welcome! Nice job on making the change, loading correctly will really free you up to get to contact much more efficiently! Really glad the instruction is helping out!
Thanks for the awesome comment! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
+Pro Speed Baseball I actually tried it again today abs 2 balls went over the fence
+Nick Publicover Nice! Not sure if I mentioned it in this video or not, but the proper load will promote/give you a much better chance at creating backspin!
Nice work! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
I love watching these I was so mechanically out of wack from lack of correction at a young age. I have a question though do you recommend having a downward swing or slight uppercut, my coach told me to try to beat the ball into the ground and it started to work, but I often struggle to stay on plane. Is their a video that can correct this if so can you leave the link, please and thanks.
+donavon pip Have just the video for you! Check out the swing plane video here:
th-cam.com/video/a_tJvSCvgRE/w-d-xo.html
I would also check out this video as well:
th-cam.com/video/hKM7S2P_LVY/w-d-xo.html
This will help explain what your coach was trying to get you to do. To put simply it is FEELING that will get you to swing in a certain way. The first video will explain exactly what happens with the swing as far as how you should take the bat to the ball. The second video will give you a method to implement this into your own game.
Hope this helps! If you have any questions at all, just let me know! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
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+Pro Speed Baseball Ok, thanks :)
One more thing, can you tell me where to find all or most of the proper techniques for both defense and offense. when I say that I'm referring to little things like breaking your thumbs downwards when you throwing, little things like that have made a huge difference in the way I play. (I am an out fielder and 1st baseman)
+donavon pip Hey Donavon, sorry it's been a minute since I could get back to you!! Not quite sure where you could find "good" stuff on defense, however, we will be coming out with a lot of defensive stuff in the future. If you have any requests, just let us know!
~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Will do thanks for the reply :)
Do these these work for slowpitch softball too ? Seems counter to some of the softball hitting videos on here. Thanks.
Everything we teach is 100% transferable to fast pitch softball. I personally train high level softball players and they ROCK it. The big difference between the two is that softball players are better at hitting rising pitches!
Thanks. I should have said Men's slow pitch.
Pro Speed Baseball I play Mens Modified Fast pitch softball I will try this thanks.
freebird1963 î
Great explanation of this. I tried explaining it but left out the toe line, and I don't think it got across. This video helped better explain what I tried to get across last week.
I learned how to swing as a kid, so the motion and mechanics are kinda 2nd nature to me. But explaining it to my step daughter who is new at softball, I feel lost trying to explain some parts of it.
Your channel helps me better communicate and explain things simpler. Where, idk, I kinda get lost in the sauce explaining, and I realize at some point how difficult a youth is to trying to decipher what I'm trying to say.
Excellent video. As a baseball coach looking to help my hitters, I was taking careful notes and will be using this information to help them improve their mechanics first and foremost. As Tony Gwynn often said Process before Results.
Revisiting this. Thanks for the this video.
My average has dropped and power has significantly decreased over the past couple of seasons. My issues have been different to what you described but still from the same source, my hands don't seem to be slow to the ball but I keep getting out in from and toe ending it, getting lazy pop flies or huge top spin grounders to 3rd (my pull side). I think a lot of it is because there's no acceleration into the ball at contact so there's very little force (Or maybe starting earl to compensate for the slower hands). I'm burying my front shoulder too much so I rip it open and my power all leaks to the 3rd base dugout and very little gets behind the ball. On top of all this inside pitches feel very close because my shoulder is turning in and getting close to the plate, the outside pitch is also an issue because it feels far away from my hands.
I think a lot of the teacherman hitting instruction style has caused this, trying to manipulate the swing into feeling like a lot of the pros look has made me feel like my swing needs to powerful. Dry swings after this makes it feel like my bat is quick and my body is doing very little. Not that the teacherman style is wrong, it seems to work for some guys but I think it caused me to over emphasise a lot of movements and swing my body rather than swing the bat.
This helped me a lot my school coach was getting on me about bat speed. Also he was getting on me about the load. I’m still so confused & I want to be a coachable kid 2. So if anybody can help me more that would be great! 👍
SO... Wassup now?
@@rslwannabe9475 hahaha this is crazy I’m now 6’3 200 pounds and my bat speed is the farthest problem 🤣 I fr hit tanks now
@@nicholaswidel Do you have any solo training tips? i practice everyday on my own for a few hours.Im gonna practice till i go to the mlb. Did you make the mlb or are you like a senior or college ball.
@@nicholaswidel Good that your hitting nukes now tho. Whats your batspeed?
Great video. Loved how positions were explained and example shown.
Great video! I have always felt that the primary reason for the slower bat speed when the hands are close to the body is for two reasons. First, the tighter the arms are to the body, the more the arms and body move (rotate) with each other. The real speed is when the hands and body are disconnected and the hips/core can lead the hands creating a catapult or whip action. If you have a stiff whip, the end does not pop. or like popping a towel. if there is no disconnection of the base and the tip, the speed is only that of the base. Secondly had to do with the bat head. When the hands are close to the body, the bat head travels with the body and the speed is only what would be as if you just put the bat stiff on your hip and rotated your hip. By getting the hands away from the body, the bat head stays back until the hands are out front, then it creates it's own circular rotation out in front of the body, but this is after the velocity has picked up and has an opportunity to be whipped through the zone, again like a whip. Although I agree and like your three step drill at the end, I did not like that you kept your weight on your back leg during the stride and you rotated and moved forward at the same time. This is a bad habit to do. The stride pushes your body to a balance and your rotation takes place on a stationary axis, not a moving one. There is a tendency for hitters to stay back too much during tee work for this exact reason. Please review your video again and take a look.
Wonderfully said Chris! You are definitely an above average thinker when it comes to hitting! I actually released a video today on something very similar. Hard to get everything you went over in one video, yet it is exactly how true speed is created in the swing.
I also agree with the stationary axis after the stride, if you watch the swing slowed down you will see that my center moves on this stationary axis after completing the weight shift.
One thing to think about is that you don't necessarily need to stride to push your body to the balanced position, it's a great way to do it, however the weight shift can do the exact same thing with the same, if not better, efficiency.
*Note, this isn't something I'm just pulling out of my hat :P we tested a number of different stride and swing variations with sensors measuring bat and ball exit speeds.
Thank you for commenting and the critique, you have an excellent mind for the swing! If you have any interest in doing instruction, or would like to chat further, just shoot me an email through the Contact portion of the website:
ProSpeedBaseball.com (Scroll to bottom of page)
~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
does the scap load pull your hands behind the vertical toe line?
my issue was always wrapping the bat behind my head. My dad would get mad, but i couldn't grasp the concept. I see the issue now. Thanks!
We will work on this. My 10 yr old Js moved up 10-12yr. He can hit, but trying to improve his bat speed to catch up to the way faster pitches
Thanks for this video. I love the punching bag analogy. Think I'll be using that with my team very soon.
great video. this really explains a lot going on with my 11yr old . Appreciate the knowledge. keep paying it forward
I recently saw an Instagram post saying that he (the owner of the account) tells his hitters to think of the hand loading as "rocking the baby" instead of "rotating". I think this is similar to what you're showing here in the video except if I think about "rocking a baby", my shoulders kind of also sway back and forth. In your video the load seems to truly be "all hands", do advocate letting the shoulders back a bit as well, or should those "stay level/parallel to the ground"?
This is awesome. Just joined my church softball league, and having never really played the game except in backyards as a kid, I feel kinda like a fool out there lol. Think this will help with my batting.
I take it you're not a big fan of Joey Myer's "Catapult Loading System"? If your not familiar with it, it's basically show your numbers (to the pitcher) at load and hide your hands.
I agree with a lot of what you guys say and I am fully on board with the need to be more efficient as velocity increases. I disagree that adding a small turn is a power drain. While I agree it takes a bit of time to unwind I feel it will likely add power. Golfers turn to add power. Boxers also use their back hand for power and while the punch is straight it’s coming from a pre-turned position. A ton of examples also of guys turning a bit to load. I prefer a middle ground philosophy here.
When do you start to power the hips, is it when you start your swing or a little bit before your swing
Practice front arm only swings, and don't focus on the big muscles.
Hey I have a question why do hitting coaches tell players to show the letters of their jersey to the pitcher when they are hitting would this require the player to turn his shoulders a bit?
Thanks for the question Tommy!
First of all this is one of the WORST things you can do as a hitter. It will bury your hands behind your body and toe line, making it very difficult to get back around to contact.
You here coaches say this mostly because of the off-center camera angles you see during Big League games on TV.
If the angle is offset to the hitter's side, it will seem as if they are turning much more than they really are....
Look up Camera Angles Pro Speed Baseball here on TH-cam, I have a video on exactly this...
Hope this helps out! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Show me a video of a MLB player that moves their hands back, away from his body. In all the slow motion videos I can find on TH-cam (Trout, Ted Williams, Pujols, Yelich, Soto, Freeman, Bryant, Altuve, Betts, JD Martinez, DiMaggio, etc...), NONE move their hands back and away from the body.
None wrap the bat around their shoulders either, which is what I think he was looking to correct.
Perhaps it could have been explained better.
when you move the body towards the pither then the hands stay
Elbow pulls back during load is what I’ve always seen, especially in slow motion swings from the big hitters.
@@michaelgreenley1174 In the load, yes. He’s wrong about cooking though, basically every MLB player coils over their back leg, meaning their shoulders are torqued back towards the catcher, as opposed to their hips which are square to the plate.
Not sure I follow though this seems different than when you reviewed Trout, he has a pretty good rotation on those shoulders at load.
this is some great coaching and love the slow motion and re-check each step. good stuff !
I am a Professional Hitting/Catching instructor and have been teaching for 26 years. Where is your facility located
+BIG NAW Just replied to your email! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Not how I was touch. I was taught separation occurs between your load and when the toe of your stride foot touches down.
i agree this is good stuff however, seems this advice is geared for exceptional hitters and D1 or Pro ranks.
I am working with a Philippine National Team member right now with this issue. She also pulls the ball foul on anything on the inner half, because her hand path wraps around the ball, hitting the outside of the ball. This video is perfect! Oh, I forgot, I am a fastpitch coach.
So much confusion in baseball. Our 14U team now following a "scap load" hitting system of loading, emphasizing an extreme torso stretch from (righty) left hip to right shoulder so feel a pinch in scapula, and showing Jersey numbers to the pitcher, then swapping shoulder positions in extreme rotation.
Couldn't agree more Aaron... things can be very confusing... biggest problem is that there are guys who can twist their bodies off the planet and still hit well. The issue with that, is that for most players, that would be difficult. What we strive to do is maximize bat speed and consistency of solid contact. "Showing your numbers" to the pitcher, may work for some, but it's not always the model we want to follow. The upper body does load when the hands go back... it's bio mechanically impossible for the body to not rotate to accommodate the hands loading. (unless the load is short) Yet, when we overdo the torso rotation, we start burying the hands and make solid contact harder to achieve. Even if we could get more bat speed, better pitching will exploit the issue unless, of course, you're in the small minority that can get away with it. Hope this makes sense/helps out at all!
Thanks for commenting! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Thank you I really needed to learn that cause im playing baseball
This was excellent good for Softball team as well.
Thank you so much! This has all my questions about hitting!
Your awesome man
Whenever I get my load to where you say is correct I always drop the barrel way to low and it always gets pop ups. I use my hips as a coil
this is simply and outstanding video;
thank you very kindly;
You are most welcome! Really glad you liked it! Thanks for the comment!
~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Pro Speed Baseball such a good video
can i send i some hitting vids to make sure a was doing it right plz
vettevet2002
vettevet2002 jjjjjjjj
Since you were hitting righty isn't it right hand on the bottom left on the top?
+Adam Smith (Adawg2015) Hey Adam, thanks for the question! For a right handed hitter the left hand will be on the bottom (or closer to the knob of the bat) and the right hand will be on top (closer to the barrel).
And vice-versa for left handed hitters. If you have any other questions, just let us know!
~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Great teacher
When is the proper time or how do I teach my son when is the correct time to "load" he is trying to do it when the ball is on its way. And a lot of the time he is getting jammed. Ideas please...
Hey Jason, apologies for the delay in feedback! Every hitter will have their own timing, I tell my hitters to start their hands back when the pitcher starts to take his throwing hand back. Kind of like tug-of-war.
If he is trying to load after the ball is already released, he will be at a huge disadvantage and that is most likely the main cause of him getting jammed.
Hope this helps out! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
very useful, thanks a whole lot
Beautiful swing my man. I wish youtube was around when I was playing the game.
Thank you so much helped greatly
What is the best way to get your back leg bent almost to a 90 degree angle?
Check out this video we have on TH-cam:
th-cam.com/video/Bc4aM-hjiM0/w-d-xo.html
If you have any other questions on this, just let us know! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
thanks for the tips!
You are most welcome! Thanks for the awesome comment!
~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Pro Speed Baseball n
👏 outstanding video thank you
+Calebs_Random_Life You are more than welcome, thanks for watching and for the awesome comment!
~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
+Pro Speed Baseball I subbed keep up the great work I look forward to using this method in my games
+Calebs_Random_Life Thanks for subscribing Caleb! More great stuff coming out soon! If you ever have any questions, feel free to let me know anytime! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
awesome video! Thank you.
Good rotation~
Thanks!
I have been told to never step as far as you do, but you obviously have a better swing. What should I do
Good video!! Thank you for the video
Bat Wrap is a misconception. Look at every great hitter from Ruth to Trout and they all have the barrel behind their head right before launch, not to mention the extremes like Juan Gonzales and Julio Franco. It is geometry and physics. Centrifugal force. Baseball is all about coiling up and then unleashing that energy. If you take the traditional camera angle from the left field side of center field, you can read the back of every lefty jersey and most of their hands will disappear behind their bodies right before launch. Coil, load or whatever you want to call it is a GOOD THING. You just have to know how to fire the systems properly to maximize your output. Hips, obliques, deltoids, forearms and wrists. This sequence will unleash more power than most guys are aware they have. Robinson Cano is a great example. He wraps the bat, turns his back almost completely to the pitcher and still manages to hit over .300 in the big leagues for his entire career. Create angles, use leverage and hit it hard!
Tom Lagreid you're right, you don't want to overkill it though. If you have too much your swing is gonna be off.
YES YES YES. Precisely, Tom. You've got it right. Kinetic chain and on the better side of the Law of Inertia. This positional, start n stop crap all these false prophets teach kill the kinetic chain and force batter to fight the inertia of being STOPPED!STILL.
Tom Lagreid I agree with you but also agree with mango you don’t want to do it to much
Thank you
Dude u r amazing this was such a good video this helped me alot
I noticed that in your video and your drill, don't address counter rotation of the hips as part of the load. Aside from generating lower body power in a powerful rotational swing, counter rotating the hips ensures that hitters' weight/power are still back when their front foot gets down. Many young hitters I see that don't have counter rotation in their hips during their load also have trouble staying back on off-speed and breaking pitches, as their load tends to just launch the swing forward immediately (or even prior to) getting their front foot down.
+G&D Hitting, thanks for the comment! This video in particular was simply addressing one common load mistake that had to do with upper body separation. However, as far as the hips go, they can simply be put in the right position if the front foot strides correctly.
There is a correlation, biomechanically, between the feet and the hips. Meaning, you need the hips to open and close the feet, and you need the feet to open and close the hips. So if you have a hitter who is firing the hips too early, you can simply make sure that their stride foot stays closed a little longer and this will effectively keep their hips in a good position!
~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
But in the video, your front foot is wide open when it gets down, (obviously) stays that way, and the hips are never closed at all indicating no counter rotation (also referred to cocking) of the hips.
You can view that position vs. the position of Mike Trout in another one of your videos, and clearly see when Trout's front foot gets down his hips are still cocked/counter rotated and the hips start to fire after his front foot gets down.
I understand that this particular video wasn't addressing this issue, but a youth coach/dad would see what you're doing in this video/drill and teach his hitters to do the same. If a young hitter was being taught to have his front foot land open with his hips open, he will have a hard time generating any lower body power in his swing not to mention that his swing will begin to start drifting forward (starting to get linear, rather than rotational).
Not meaning to appear argumentative, but several of your videos have great drills/tricks to fix youth hitting issues (I love the glove on the head trick, to keep a hitter from 'diving' his head) and in this instance the lower body (hips and front foot) simply isn't doing what you'd want a hitter to actually be doing.
+G&D Hitting This is actually exactly what I would want hitters to be doing. The example I gave you before was for cases when hitters are having a hard time with opening up too quickly/soon. (which is usually the culprit of something else going on in the swing)
The hips, ideally will stay relatively square as the stride foot lands open. This creates a stretch-shortening cycle in the hips, which is physically the most powerful way a human can move.
We will ideally want the front foot open and the hips square when the lead foot gets down because this is the most efficient way to stride the foot. Reason being, the foot will have to turn regardless to to the rotation of the hips and landing this way will eliminate that move!
Trout, although a fantastic hitter, doesn't stride as efficiently as he could and he is actually loosing lower body torque with his foot being so closed. (not effecting him too much though!) You can see this very easily being as his foot is rolling over onto its side throughout the swing and is acting as a break to the hips.
Note: there can be a slight amount of rollover regardless, however Trout's rollover, in particular, is too much.
Also, if the foot lands too closed, the foot will eventually turn open, closer to the position you see in the video. Therefore, by not landing in this position, we are adding a break and an extra move in the swing, therefore making the swing slightly less than efficient.
As far as hitters landing with an open foot just to name a few: Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, Buster Posey, Jose Bautista, Chris Davis, Nelson Cruz... these are just off of the top of my head.
The important thing to understand about hitting is that we can take less than ideal/efficient swings and still be successful. Landing with a properly open foot will give us the ability to be more efficient by taking out unnecessary moves.
Hope this helps clear things up! I truly appreciate the critique, it makes me much more conscientious about my own teachings and helps me grow as an instructor!
I have a great video coming out in the near future that I think you will thoroughly be interested in on rotational/linear hitting, and would really like your critique on that as well!
If you'd like to discuss this further I'd be more than happy to! Thanks for commenting!! :)
~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
But look at slow-mo swings of the examples you listed. Although they may land with more of an open foot than some other high level hitters, they also incorporate different levels of hip counter rotation (from mild to extreme) to impart hip/lower body power and explosion in their swings.
Simply landing with your front foot open, your hips square, with no hip counter rotation is just asking a hitter to start drifting forward at the ball (getting linear, and front foot centric), not having a mechanism to stay back on off-speed and breaking pitches, not to mention the power loss.
+G&D Hitting The issue here is athletic personality. Some hitters get to this position in different ways. Meaning hitters doing relatively the same thing in different ways.
Yet, if we understand how biomechanics, physics and how the kinematic sequence works in the swing, we will understand that every movement done before the front foot gets down is meaningless to the stretch shortening cycle between the hips and feet.
Whichever way we slice it, mechanics are hardly the ROOT reason as to why we cant stay back on pitches, it is mostly from hitters getting too anxious. However, there are mechanical things we can do to help.
This is where we have to address the issue of efficiency, by counter rotating the hips too much, we will add an unnecessary move to the swing which will effectively slow down the time it takes to get the bat started.
This adding of movement to slow the sequence down will help us stay back on off speed pitches simply because it slows down our timing.
One of the best way to have a hitters "stay back" is to have them maintain flexion in their back leg which will force them to keep their swing back. From there it will be their own timing.
As far as power loss, this has been non-existent, in fact it has been the opposite when performed correctly. We've seen measurable increases in bat speed and consistency of contact due to more efficiency and less movement.
Everything we teach at PSB is thoroughly researched from theory all the way to measurable facts. Through testing bat speed and ball exit speed we've easily determined this to be extremely efficient.
I will say that if you look at the swing objectively as a total movement swinging a lever, versus looking at it as rotational or linear, these issues tend to work themselves out.
FYI, when we went to test this stuff, I was convinced that we needed more hip turn for speed, yet the numbers spoke for themselves. Totally get where your coming from!
Thanks again for the critique! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Thank you this should help me!
Hit marker at 5:12
First year in kid pitch for my son he’s gonna crush it thanks
I know this video is 6 years old … but our coach always says hide the hands and to scalp load. Your video paints a different picture. It can get very confusing. How do we determine which one is correct. Or is there no right or wrong here?
I like this. Makes good sense. Thanks.
+JediFight You are most welcome. Glad it was clear. Thanks for the awesome comment again! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Damn I wouldn’t have the self control to go that long without hitting a ball lmao
Are you saying that torque is bad?
No he is saying that your body is getting in the way and it makes you bat speed slower and your hands will move out around your body and if the ball is inside then you have little time to bring your hands back and will likely go off the handle
This is a good video
There should be a law that requires people who coach young kids to look at pro speed video. GREAT presentation and not just this video but your entire program....
+Alex Soler Well thanks a million Alex, your comment made my day! Really glad you like the instruction and the whole PSB program. Got some more great stuff coming out soon!
If you ever have any questions on anything, feel free to contact me anytime! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Watch Barry Bonds hands when he loads and stretches he creates lots of torsion in that back leg to generate Launch quickness
Barry Bonds starts with his hands low,then back and up to get that stretch to burst out of that back leg to create launch quickness like a pitcher
I used this batting load the first day I watched it and I hit a ground ruled double on the first pitch!!!!!!!
Basic easy to understand video.
ummm. how about if i charge doing that 2 things
+Miguel Moncion Hey Miguel, I'm not quite sure exactly what you're asking... If you'd like to clarify, we'll be sure to get back to you!
~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
good
what will happen
+Miguel Moncion Hey Miguel, I'm not quite sure exactly what you're asking... If you'd like to clarify, we'll be sure to get back to you!
~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Not true 2:51. brachistochrone curve
Everyone is different for me I bend my knees more and I don’t put my hands all the way back.
Hands in front of toe line is critical!
Great hitters have their hands, centerline (or spine) and the pitcher in the same line.
I have watched a lot of your videos and I love them. About four or so videos ago I thought to myself "I love that this guy has a channel that doesn't have obnoxious music playing at the intro." The end of this video made me cringe however. I still "liked" the video because the information is awesome. But not everyone wants to feel like they are being attacked by robots while trying to watch a baseball tutorial.
+Edward Prest Hey Edward, thanks for the comment. Really glad to hear you like the instruction. Sorry to hear you didn't like the outro music, kind of tough to find usable music that everyone will like :P Just wanted to give viewers the option to click in the video if they wanted to check out the new program and figured it would be kind of weird if it played and there wasn't any audio haha.
We will always be mixing it up, and we'll try to keep the music to a minimum for our instruction videos. Thank you for your input, it helps us to know what the subscribers want to see! Thanks again! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
+Pro Speed Baseball
My dad tells me to get my hands back but don't be stiff
The player with more hits than anyone had in history had that rotational swing.
I think it works for some and not others. Yuri Guriel is very rotational. Michael Brantley is more simplified.
Well the player with the most homeruns ever had a correct swing
Didn't Rose win an mvp with like 3 homeruns?
Can’t find a video of a major leaguer who does it that way.
So watch Paul Goldschmidt.
Broken bat handles! Everything here is spot on again. I hate that round hand path, and the vertical line hand-launch position at the shoulders is the key. You want to see how someone with huge talent does everything wrong against these principles, look at Javier Baez during the 2014 season.
+Quasimoto44 Exactly! Makes for a very difficult way to hit. Really appreciate the awesome comment again! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Check points one and two are great....number three is not valid, the farther from the body the hands are the slower the bat speed, ....your gonna kill the bat speed and keep the hitter from getting to the inside pitch.......nice try guys!
+Matius M Hey Matius, thanks for the comment!
Having the hands too far out in front will be counter productive, however having them behind the vertical toe line will also have adverse results.
Having a good balance between too far out in front and behind the line will give us the best balance between consistency and power.
Having the hands behind the VTL, will also make the hitter lose the ability to be efficiently dynamic in adjusting to inside and outside pitches.
We have video coming out soon on the vertical toe line showing some of the best hitters in the game hitting that particular checkpoint! Be on the lookout!
Thanks again for the comment! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
I don't get it
wow
+I AM SUPERMAX Not sure if this is a good "wow" or not, but I'll take it as a good one! haha. Thanks for watching and commenting.
~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
You are teaching hitters to be hands hitters,,not using your big leg muscles and core to deliver the arms and hands..DONT SEPERATE YOUR HANDS FROM YOUR BODY ,LET YOUR HIPS BRING YOU TO THE BALL
every hitting video i see here contradicts everything Josh Donaldson does and how he explains his swing
J
hands should never separate from the body in load,this let's the slow back muscles take over instead if the fast front muscles, don't walk away from your hands, figure skaters pull their arms in to speed up rotation, hitting is NOT A STRAIGHT LINE TO THE BALL
Hey Johnny, thanks for the comment!
The load demonstrated here doesn't disengage anything from the body, it puts the stretch shortening cycle more in the lead shoulder, (which is very explosive movement) and the further back we can get the hands, to an extent, the more room we have to build up speed!
Concerning hands straight to the ball:
Using the example of figure skating in relationship to hitting doesn't makes sense from a physics perspective.
A figure skater pulls his/her arms in to increase and move force towards their center... In hitting, we are using a top heavy lever and we want the maximum force to be at the end of that lever.
In simple terms, the closer the end of the lever is to center, the slower it goes... vice versa the further the end of the lever is propelled from center, the faster it goes. These are basic lever physics.
Therefore a the hand path being straight to the ball, coupled with the lag and release of the bat, allows us to get the end of the lever away from center and increasing speed where it matters... which is in the bat!
Hope this helps out! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
Great videos and suggestions!! SUBSCRIBED!! WIll be checking out your subscription membership also.
+Jeff Lang Hey Jeff, thanks for the awesome comment and subscribing!
The new membership website is getting put together nicely and we're adding new lessons each week. If you get a chance to check it out let us know how you like it!
And if you ever have any questions, just let us know! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
This is wrong on your load the knob is suppose to face the catcher watch every major league hitter
The knob of the bat is supposed to stay down until you start your swing and it should then face the pitcher
Do what Ken Griffey Jr did.
I wished I knew
You are incorrect
Hey Hunter, thanks for the comment!
We're always open to criticism! Every facet of Pro Speed instruction goes under strict ridicule and if there's something we can make better we're all ears!
If you have any questions or if there's anything we can help out with, just let us know! ~Michael Pro Speed Baseball
I disagree with this video completely