While we’re still on the subject of practicing our hitting.  There was one mention of practicing in the batting cages with their heavier balls, which might break your wood bat and you certainly can’t use a broom stick or a whiffle ball bat in the batting cages.

Easton has produced a couple of solutions for you with this very issue in mind.  One is called a "Thunderstick". It comes in a full 34" size or a 30" junior size.  It’s a hardened piece of steel with a grip that weighs about like a -3 or -4 bat.  And it’s strong enough to hit cage balls or real hardballs.  With it’s 1" diameter, it’s a great way to keep your focus on the ball hitting the bat.  Maybe combine today’s tip with yesterday’s to get the benefit of both!

The other is called the "Torpedo".  It’s designed to keep you focused on hitting the ball with the sweet spot of the bat.  Notice the shape of the practice bat.  The only area that you get a break is by hitting it where you should be hitting the ball with a real bat.  So by practicing with this practice bat you’ll be hitting the ball with authority with your real bat.

Yesterday we talked about practicing with a bat that forces you to concentrate more. 

Today let’s talk about hitting objects that will force us to concentrate more.  If you can hit smaller objects, then the theory goes that a baseball will look like a beach ball when it’s your turn to hit.

Here are some items you can try: Plastic golfballs, dry pinto beans, marshmellows, and for extra work, mini-marshmellows.  We used to hit bottle caps with a broom stick. 

Try using a whiffle ball bat on any of the above mentioned items. 

Please make sure your eyes or the "pitcher’s" eyes are protected if using hard objects like beans or bottle caps.

I’ve been encouraging us all on this journey of how to hit like a major leaguer to look at pictures of major league batters, batting.

If you want to know of a cool place to visit to find these go to Google and click on their images link.  Then type into the search ~ hitting baseball.  You’ll find over 7,000 entries returned for that search.  Some of which are really good and some really interesting.  I’ve created a link that will already do all of that for you, so click on this.

Of course you can always check out mlb.com and watch from time to time, looking for the elements we’ve already talked about and when we bring up another topic, you’ll have a resource to check it out.

Have you ever noticed where a major leaguer’s hands are when they’ve made good contact?

I’ve heard coaches advocate rolling the wrists to create wrist snap and they feel that will increase bat speed, but again, as I’ve challenged you from the beginning, let’s see what they actually do.

Notice this picture where is the top (the one up the bat) hand’s palm facing? 

It’s pointing to the sky or top hand – palm up.  In other words the ball is struck and you drive through the ball before the wrists "break" or roll. 

Try to find another picture any other way.

For another discussion, is the bat barrel above or below the hands?  Maybe we’ll need a larger sampling to determine this one.

I found this quote at the Baseball Hall of Fame site, discussing Wade Boggs, on the 3 things that made him the great hitter he was.

In 1985, Boston’s hitting coach (and Lau disciple) Walt Hriniak described what made Boggs so good. "Three things. He’s got a balanced, workable stance. He’s got great discipline for the strike zone. And he lowers his head on the baseball better than anyone else in baseball. He’s not a good hitter, he’s a great hitter. Exceptional. When it’s all done and over with, you’ll see some of the greatest stats of any hitter in the last 30 years."

When it was done and over with, after the 1999 season, Boggs had a .328 lifetime average (currently 34th all-time), 3,010 hits (23rd), 578 doubles (15th), 4,445 times on base (18th), and a .415 on-base percentage (26th).

The intent of this blog is to help you discover how to hit like a major leaguer or continue getting closer to hitting like a major leaguer.

So it almost needs to be read from the first day (the introduction) through the current day, so from time to time I’ll remind readers as we pick them up throughout the Void (you’ll need to see the earlier post on why it’s called that).

The hitting tip for today is the answer to why there’s no day 4 – rest.

In order to get to the very highest levels of hitting you need to walk a very fine line of practicing day and night and pacing yourself.  Most people fail on the side of not doing enough work.  A common theme I’ve heard from the highest level athletes is around 300 swings a day.  The big key in that is the "a day" part.  It’s not hard to get motivated once in a while to take 300 swings in a day.  Where it gets hard is in doing it day in and day out, week after week, month after month, year after year.

But every once in a while there is the individual who does the work side, but ignores the other side of the fine line, which is resting occasionally.  Letting your body recuperate, letting your mind, spirit, and emotions recharge.

So this is for those few individuals who over work, get some rest.

But for the rest of you it’s a charge to get to work.  Find a way to practice, whether the weather’s good or not.  Commit to having 45,000 swings in by the start of the season, but it only happens by breaking it down to an hour each day.  If you take my idea of a day of rest a week, you’ll still have over 38,000 swings in your bank account of hitting.  How many do you think your friends or competitiors will have?

Maybe an hour is too much to devote each day.  How about 20 minutes, that’s 100 swings a day. that would still give you 10,000 – 15,000 swings in by the next season.  It begins today (and each day).

You do want to hit like a major leaguer, don’t you?

We’ve talked about what we see when the major leaguers hit.  We talked about whether the weight was on the back foot or not. 

I got a private e-mail mentioning that it wasn’t about where the weight is but that it’s about weight transfer or momentum shift and the weight on the back foot (or lack there of) is like watching the magician’s hand while the trick is being done elsewhere.

I agree with that.  I wasn’t focusing on that, I was just trying to start a discussion. 

The more I study coaching, the more I feel that if you learn for yourself the principles the coach is trying to get you to do, the more you’ll own it for yourself and you’ll do it naturally.  As opposed to just doing it because the coach says so.

Ted Williams’ mantra was "Hips lead the hands".  Many other coaches focus on the importance of the hips in hitting.  I would join these coaches as well.

But here’s what I mean about just following the coach.  There’s a drill that coaches use to show how to get the hips involved in hitting.  Get a baseball and put it next to the heel of your rear foot when taking your stance, when you swing will you turn your foot in such a way that it knocks the ball away or will you raise up your foot, getting to your toe (see Posednik picture below) and thus you wouldn’t move the ball at all?

There are lots of coaches that will use this drill.  But it’s obvious you don’t want to get both results. And I know you can find coaches that will want you to get the one result and I know of other coaches that will want you to get the other result. 

So which is right? 

Can we learn from looking at pictures and videos of major league hitters and see if they consistently do it a certain way?

Let’s keep watching throughout the Void as we get ready for next year.

We’re going to look at hand positions, head positioning, elbows, and anything else where we can come up with a major league way of hitting.