After many years of coaching baseball and experience many different theories on how to hit a baseball I still believe that around 90% of all baseball batting issues arise in the load. If a player does not load properly, his ability to time the pitch properly suffers, and his mistakes will carry forward through the rest of the swing. The load is largely more complicated than just the physical actions of the load, there is entire pitch recognition and timing phase that is integrated into this portion of the swing. Without encompassing all facets of the load in your batting training sessions, players will inevitably be searching for answers they already have answers too.
The load consist of three main action steps: taking the hands back and weight back towards the catcher, striding forward with the front foot, and reading the pitch. Although the physical steps of the load seem fairly simple to master, these steps can be easily complicated if player's are not relaxed at the plate. As the pitcher is delivering the ball to plate, player's want to "load back" with their hands, taking them 2-4 inches towards the catcher. As the hands, and a portion of the players weight "load back", the front foot wants to stride towards the pitcher 4-6 inches.
As players begin the load, they want to visualize that their hands are on a tight close line that is parallel to their body. This will keep players in the mindset that they want to work more north and south into the baseball instead of east and west. As players bring their hands back, you will notice a slight shoulder curl in towards the plate. Some coaches like to train the shoulder curl in effort to try to squeeze more power out a players swing. However, my thought is to let this happen naturally as it is my experience that a player will over exaggerate any action that he feels will get him more power. An exaggerated shoulder curl will take a players head and eyes away from the baseball which we never want to do.
A common mistake during this step of the load is "drifting" the hands to far away from the body. "Loading back" to far will decrease a players ability to drive properly through the zone and will cause a long loop in their swing decreasing bat speed and power. If a players bottom arm begins to straighten out during the load, they have gone to far. Another common mistake during this load portion of the batting swing is loading the hands to quickly. Loading the hands too quick causes tension and actually slows bat speed and consistency through the zone. Have your player load on a two count to slow the speed in which his hands load back and reduces tension in his body.
As the hands come back, a slight portion of the weight loads back as well. At the conclusion of the load, you want no more than 60% of your player's weight on his back side. Since 60% is an arbitrary number, you want to make sure that your backside knee does not break the plane of the backside foot. If this happens, players have too much weight on their back side. This will ultimately cause one of two things to happen, their weight will stay back and not allow for transfer into the ball, or it will cause players to leak to much weight forward to quickly.
As players load their hands back towards the catcher, they want to step out towards the pitcher 4-6 inches. Anything more will cause to wide of stance and won't allow a hitter to properly throw his hips into the ball and will decrease balance and stability in the swing. As the foot lands, players want to be sure that their foot is "closed off" to the rest of their body. This means that their foot is parallel with the front of plate. This will give the player a strong frontside resistance helping to propel his hips and weight into the ball. If a player opens his front side during the baseball swing, he will leak open and loose his power.
The final component of the load is the most vital, and the most under trained. Two things that players and coaches seemly take for granted is idea of pitch recognition and timing. Although it seems natural, I can assure you it is not as natural as you might think. Most players assume that when their foot hits the ground during the load, that they are ready to engage the hips and swing. This is wrong, and any player who has this mentality will struggle for the rest of his career with his timing. After a player's foot hits the ground, and before a player engages his hips, there should be a conscious moment of pitch recognition.
In this moment, players should give themselves the ability to hit the pitchers fastest pitch, but more importantly give themselves the opportunity to more accurately read other pitches. I never liked the idea of set-up for the fastball and adjust if it is an off speed pitch. That just seems too difficult because you constantly battling your natual urge to swing. Instead I like to create a scanning process where you pick out the type of pitch and location and react to that spot.
This begins with a breakdown of the hitting zone and a concept I call the "Hitting Prism". The Hitting Prism is a mental construct of zone locations for players to identify pitches. It begins with a simple division of the plate into three separate sections, L for Left, C for Center, and R for right. This gives players a defined reference of where each pitch is located. As players get better at recognition, I break down the height of the pitch into 1 for high, 2 for middle, and 3 for low. Now, after each pitch, both players and coaches can interact as to where each pitch was located.
When you perform this drill, you will find that players will misidentify pitches more frequently than you might have thought. This happens for several reasons, but it all stems from the players brain. Players naturally want to hit the ball where they feel they have the most power, as a result players tend to "lie" to themselves about pitch location so they can hit the ball to their "power" fields. As a result, players will tend to misunderstand proper contact points and commit their timing and body to the wrong zones This causes their average to drop, and a constant search for better timing.
This understanding of contact points is the foundation for creating a consistent rhythm or timing at the plate. Timing is consistent with when to throw your hips to a specific contact point in the zone. This all begins with a smooth and consistent baseball load. Without consistent batting training that perfects the skills above, players will constantly be searching in the dark for why they mishit the last pitch, or what they can do better the next time up. Implement these training methods in your next batting training session and your player's ability to hit a baseball will increase dramatically.
The load consist of three main action steps: taking the hands back and weight back towards the catcher, striding forward with the front foot, and reading the pitch. Although the physical steps of the load seem fairly simple to master, these steps can be easily complicated if player's are not relaxed at the plate. As the pitcher is delivering the ball to plate, player's want to "load back" with their hands, taking them 2-4 inches towards the catcher. As the hands, and a portion of the players weight "load back", the front foot wants to stride towards the pitcher 4-6 inches.
As players begin the load, they want to visualize that their hands are on a tight close line that is parallel to their body. This will keep players in the mindset that they want to work more north and south into the baseball instead of east and west. As players bring their hands back, you will notice a slight shoulder curl in towards the plate. Some coaches like to train the shoulder curl in effort to try to squeeze more power out a players swing. However, my thought is to let this happen naturally as it is my experience that a player will over exaggerate any action that he feels will get him more power. An exaggerated shoulder curl will take a players head and eyes away from the baseball which we never want to do.
A common mistake during this step of the load is "drifting" the hands to far away from the body. "Loading back" to far will decrease a players ability to drive properly through the zone and will cause a long loop in their swing decreasing bat speed and power. If a players bottom arm begins to straighten out during the load, they have gone to far. Another common mistake during this load portion of the batting swing is loading the hands to quickly. Loading the hands too quick causes tension and actually slows bat speed and consistency through the zone. Have your player load on a two count to slow the speed in which his hands load back and reduces tension in his body.
As the hands come back, a slight portion of the weight loads back as well. At the conclusion of the load, you want no more than 60% of your player's weight on his back side. Since 60% is an arbitrary number, you want to make sure that your backside knee does not break the plane of the backside foot. If this happens, players have too much weight on their back side. This will ultimately cause one of two things to happen, their weight will stay back and not allow for transfer into the ball, or it will cause players to leak to much weight forward to quickly.
As players load their hands back towards the catcher, they want to step out towards the pitcher 4-6 inches. Anything more will cause to wide of stance and won't allow a hitter to properly throw his hips into the ball and will decrease balance and stability in the swing. As the foot lands, players want to be sure that their foot is "closed off" to the rest of their body. This means that their foot is parallel with the front of plate. This will give the player a strong frontside resistance helping to propel his hips and weight into the ball. If a player opens his front side during the baseball swing, he will leak open and loose his power.
The final component of the load is the most vital, and the most under trained. Two things that players and coaches seemly take for granted is idea of pitch recognition and timing. Although it seems natural, I can assure you it is not as natural as you might think. Most players assume that when their foot hits the ground during the load, that they are ready to engage the hips and swing. This is wrong, and any player who has this mentality will struggle for the rest of his career with his timing. After a player's foot hits the ground, and before a player engages his hips, there should be a conscious moment of pitch recognition.
In this moment, players should give themselves the ability to hit the pitchers fastest pitch, but more importantly give themselves the opportunity to more accurately read other pitches. I never liked the idea of set-up for the fastball and adjust if it is an off speed pitch. That just seems too difficult because you constantly battling your natual urge to swing. Instead I like to create a scanning process where you pick out the type of pitch and location and react to that spot.
This begins with a breakdown of the hitting zone and a concept I call the "Hitting Prism". The Hitting Prism is a mental construct of zone locations for players to identify pitches. It begins with a simple division of the plate into three separate sections, L for Left, C for Center, and R for right. This gives players a defined reference of where each pitch is located. As players get better at recognition, I break down the height of the pitch into 1 for high, 2 for middle, and 3 for low. Now, after each pitch, both players and coaches can interact as to where each pitch was located.
When you perform this drill, you will find that players will misidentify pitches more frequently than you might have thought. This happens for several reasons, but it all stems from the players brain. Players naturally want to hit the ball where they feel they have the most power, as a result players tend to "lie" to themselves about pitch location so they can hit the ball to their "power" fields. As a result, players will tend to misunderstand proper contact points and commit their timing and body to the wrong zones This causes their average to drop, and a constant search for better timing.
This understanding of contact points is the foundation for creating a consistent rhythm or timing at the plate. Timing is consistent with when to throw your hips to a specific contact point in the zone. This all begins with a smooth and consistent baseball load. Without consistent batting training that perfects the skills above, players will constantly be searching in the dark for why they mishit the last pitch, or what they can do better the next time up. Implement these training methods in your next batting training session and your player's ability to hit a baseball will increase dramatically.
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