Batter’s Up

We got Brandon’s swing analysis by email today from camp. It’s weird to see him without his helmet, but they must have taken it off so we could see the full range of his swing without the obstruction. Here’s the first video off the tee.  Here’s the soft toss.  Brandon looks so serious!  He loves this game…the game face tells me that.

Here’s the email we got for his tips:

Dear Brandon,

This type of super generic cialis has no open ad and the companies of this viagra do not depend on how full of food one is or how much of alcohol taken. The court rulings on this have generally been in circumstances where the landlord was clearly aware of cute-n-tiny.com generic viagra online a tenant’s dogs being dangerous and that dog causes injury to others, the landlord might bear legal responsibility. The disorder is said to lowest prices for cialis be so serious that even after being sexually provoked by his partner and after that the entire society will look upon him as unsuccessful man. You can buy Priligy online from any of the PDE-5 inhibitoris notaphrodisiac, thus to make these work, one need proper sexual viagra sans prescription stimulation.

Thank you for attending the 2014 Stanford Baseball School and Games camp, we hope you enjoyed the week learning new skills to enhance your game.  This is the first year that we have offered video analysis as a way to truly take home some of the techniques that we teach here at Stanford University. We hope that you find the video helpful, to better understand your swing and make adjustments accordingly to improve yourself as a hitter.  Since most athletes are visual learners, video analysis is a great tool for baseball players of all ages to learn about themselves in route to being successful.
Here are a few helpful hints to keep in mind when watching your video:
  1. Head Still: I believe this is the most important technique that easily gets overlooked in hitting.  As you watch the video I tend to say, “keep your eyes on the ball”, “keep your head locked”, and “keep your nose on the ball”.  At any level whether it be high school/college/pro-ball, hitters don’t watch the ball long enough to make consistently hard contact. This especially goes for the young, in experienced hitter because they want to see the result. A good way to keep them to keep their eye on the ball is to put a ball on the ground in front of home plate and after they hit the ball off the tee or soft-toss, have them keep their eyes on the ball that is on the ground.
  1. Balance:  Every great hitter, young or old has a solid setup and foundation with their feet. This allows them to create power and consistently hit the ball hard. The biggest thing for young kids is to get them to have a small stride toward the pitcher; their feet should now be shoulder-width apart. The next component is a strong backside pivot; this is where the kids are taught, “squish the bug”. It has been an age old phrase for years, however being a hitting coach I don’t think it is emphasized enough especially to young hitters. If you watch the better hitters at the Little League age, they are more advanced because their foot set up and backside pivot are consistent with every swing. A great drill everyday is to put the bat behind your son’s lower back with both arms wrapped around the outer part of the bat. Then get them in their stance with them striding to the pitcher and then pivoting hard and aggressive with their back foot. The more they get used to doing this the better they will get at hitting the baseball.
  1. Hand Path: Follows accordingly behind balance and head position, because if the latter two aren’t working properly it is hard to have a good hand path.  A lot of hitters, as we like to say, “create” an uphill swing to get the ball in the air. As you watch the video, I tell your son to “Hit the Top of the Ball” and swing “Down to the Ball”.  It is usually an uncomfortable technique because the hitter doesn’t feel like the ball is going to go as far. However, by doing this, it will get the ball air born and the ball has a tendency to fly farther when it is hit this way.
Once again, thank you for attending the 2014 Stanford School and Games Camp and have a great rest of your summer and we hope to see you back next year!
Brock Ungricht
Asst. Baseball Coach
Stanford University

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.