At every level of baseball today pitchers are throwing harder and harder. 95 is the new 90 and the number of pitchers who have touched 100 mph is staggering. We have even seen a handful of HS pitchers throwing 100 mph. How can hitters adjust to this kind of velocity? The answer isn’t swinging harder or overswinging. MLB hitters have a controlled rhythmic swing using roughly 75-80% of max effort. The answer may lie in a more measured approach to creating a short, compact swing with a “quick bat”.
We begin our Bat Speed Program by getting Hit Trax measurements and exit speeds off the tee. We learned from the Russians many years ago that a strict Underload/Overload Program definitely works. The key with that is that your Overload bat should be no more than 20% heavier than your game bat, and your Underload bat should be no less than 20% lighter than your game bat. For example, if your game bat is 30 oz., your Overload Bat should be 36 oz. and your Underload bat 24 oz. We encourage our hitters to do their Overload/Underload swings as part of their warm up.
Once we do our warmups and our various drill stations, we then hit off the pitching machines. We use three plates spaced 3-4 feet apart so we can start the machine at normal distance, knee high, and then move up to a second and third plate, thus elevating the pitches in the strike zone. By the time the hitter moves up to the third plate, the pitches will be chest-high, and the hitter will have to learn how to stay on top of the high pitch!
We do sets of either 3 or 4 swings at each plate and we can do a lot of different rounds to accomplish various goals but when we are doing Bat Speed it is important to monitor each player’s proficiency at 3 levels: Comfortable-Challenged-Overspeed.
We can vary the drills and sets every day, but the key is to monitor scores at the 3 speeds for each hitter.
Let’s define the three speeds:
COMFORTABLE speed is one that the hitter is proficient at, and he begins his workout with a couple of rounds where he rakes.
CHALLENGED speed is 4-5 mph faster and it must be a challenge for the hitter to hit line drives.
OVERSPEED should be so fast that the hitter is fighting just to foul it off. He must complete his load, and stride into a strong hitting position with his hands up in order to catch up to the pitch without moving his head.
- We try to do a set or two as we move up from one speed to another, and after completing the Overspeed round we finish by backing down to Challenge and then Comfortable so the kids leave with a smile on their faces knowing they just finished smashing the ball.
- We try to raise the speeds 1-2 mph every two weeks knowing that their eyes will adjust. Their bodies will get stronger the most from the Overspeed rounds.
- Your brain registers failure as a signal to send more growth hormone, testosterone and myelin to the muscles.
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