2013 Clinic Summary

Over the past few weeks, I have had the pleasure of attending the ABCA convention in Chicago, the I-70 clinic in Greenville, Illinois, and the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association clinic in Lombard, Illinois.   It is the first time I can remember that I attended three clinics, and while I admit it was a bit overwhelming to imagine incorporating all of the great ideas that were presented, I am going to summarize some of the best and most innovative ideas from each of the clinics below.

ABCA
Andy Lopez, Head Coach, University of Arizona
Coach Lopez wrote the first book I bought when I became a head coach, so getting to hear him speak was very exciting.  Coach Lopez is a very engaging, and demanding player.  After hearing him speak, I understand why he gets the most out of his players.  The greatest takeaway from his speech for me was the using kids as demonstration.  I have done this in the past, but he talked about having freshmen watch the bullpens of their seniors to see what it takes to be great.

Mark Senk, Head Coach, Stony Brook University
It would be hard to argue with the success that Coach Senk has had at taking Stony Brook from DIII to the College World Series last year.  The best drill he talked about was putting a tee at first base and third base (with protective screens to the home plate side of them), having the player at 1B working outside tees (for RHH) and the player at 3B (again for RHH) working inside tees while the batter at home plate hit live.

Butch Thompson, Pitching Coach, Mississippi State
Coach Thompson was an incredibly engaging an entertaining as a speaker.   After hearing him speak we will be throwing all of our bullpens with a string about 18 inches off the ground.  This allows your pitchers to focus on one thing, getting the ball under the string and working on the top half of the ball.

Justin Stone, Elite Baseball Training Facility
Justin is one of the best clinicians on hitting that I have seen.  He gives a pretty similar presentation every time I see him talk, but each time it reinforces the absolutes of hitting that I should be teaching.  This talk reinforced the concept of a scap-load and pointing the back hip pocket to the pitcher while resisting the upper half of the body in the “hitting position.”

I-70 Clinic
John Cohen , Mississippi State, Head Coach– Hitting Drills
Even though it took him a while to get to the hitting drills (trust me, I didn’t mind, he is incredibly entertaining to listen to), he did give a few great drills as well as concepts for hitters to think about.  He simplified the hitting process by saying “hitting is the act of transferring weight from back to front on time.” This is a great cue for young hitters.  He also gave a great drill where you put a helmet up against the outside of the hitter’s back foot.  When they swing, they should not hit the helmet.  If they hit the helmet, they are not transferring their weight effectively.  If them miss the helmet, they are transferring their weight correctly.

During his speech on practice organization, the best idea I took away was having a different “challenge” each day after throwing in practice.  The example he gave was having your catchers have to block two balls each and keep them inside a circle around them.   Do this while the whole team watches to try to create a pressure situation.

Brad Mills, 3^rd Base Coach, Cleveland Indians
Coach Mills is an incredibly passionate baseball man, and many of the qualities that made him a major league manager came out during his presentations.  I feel like with such a knowledgeable baseball man speaking to me, my biggest takeaway shouldn’t have been something so simple, but sometimes it is the simplest things that make people great.  He talked a lot about personal accountability including being on time.  It was obvious to me that we should start on time, and should hold players accountable for being on time.  What struck me, was his insistence that you be done on time as well.    If you plan for practice to go two hours, then practice should go two hours.  You owe it to your kids to keep your word, just like they owe it to you to be on time.

IHSBCA
Perry Roth, Assistant Coach, University of Alabama Birmingham
The thing I liked most about Coach Roth’s two speeches was his attention to the process over the results.  The process scrimmage they run is very innovative and gives teams points for things like hustle, blocking pitches with a runner at third, advancing on dirtballs, and taking quality at bats.

His zone hitting concept was also unique.  They divide the strike zone into five zones.  Their hitters then look the pitches in certain zones based on count and the pitcher.

Jacob Goebbert – Houston Astros Minor League Outfielder
I coached against Jacob when he was in high school.  He was one of the best high school players I have seen, and a great person as well.  He did a great job for what I would assume was one of his first public speeches to a group a coaches.  His “bill of the cap” rule for line drives right at you was very good.  The rule is, if there is a line drive at you and the ball goes over the bill of your cap, you will probably have to go back on it, if the ball stays under the bill of your cap, you will probably need to come in.  I do not accept this as a perfect rule, but I intend to try it out to see how it works.

Travis Kerber – Elite Baseball Training Facility
Watching Travis’ presentation was like watching the pitching version of Justin Stone (this is a good thing in my opinion).  His talk reemphasized the reality that pitching and hitting have many of the same mechanics, especially with the timing and sequence of the body.   He gave some really good warm-up drills for helping to create separation between the lower and upper half while throwing.


I have never attended three clinics in a month before, and the amount of information was quite overwhelming.  When I started writing this post, I intended on summarizing every speaker I heard this January.  Shortly after starting, I realized what an undertaking that would be.  There were many other excellent speakers at each of the clinics, but I would not be able to summarize them in a reasonable amount of time.

Opposite field hitting: Theory, cues, and drills

The ability to spray the ball to all fields becomes more and more important as a player gets older and pitchers begin to locate their pitches.  Show me a hitter who cannot hit the ball to the opposite field and I will show you a player whose time in the game is limited.  At some point, regardless of how good their hands are, they reach a point where their inability to hit the ball the opposite way puts a ceiling on their playing career.  In this post, I will be discussing the thought process behind hitting the ball to the opposite field, a few common mistakes coaches make, some good cues to give your players, and a progression of drills to help them translate what you do in practice to the game (which is the ultimate goal).

Thought process and cues

One of the largest hurdles young players have in hitting the ball to the opposite field is mental.  At the early youth level, the best pitchers do two things well, they throw strikes (probably not yet locating) and they throw hard.  Hitters quickly learn that in order to hit the best pitchers in their league, they have to get the bat to the ball fast.  Many times they end up cheating by lunging forward, trying to start earlier, and greatly shortening their swing.  As they get older, the best pitchers not only throw hard, but can locate pitches on both sides of the plate, and change speeds effectively.  At this point, those “cheats” that may have been successful in the past, now make you susceptible to pitches on the outer third and off speed pitches.  At this point the good hitters are the ones who are quick enough to catch up to fastballs, but have the ability to wait on fastballs away and off speed pitches.  

The first step in teaching hitters how to go the other way is to ensure that they are working with a solid mechanical base.  If a hitter cannot demonstrate proper mechanics on a ball down the middle, trying to teach them to hit to the opposite field will be a lost cause.  Feel free to introduce the skill of hitting to the opposite field early (9 or 10 years old) to more advanced players, but for average players, this is a skill best taught with emphasis a year or so before when most pitchers begin to be able to locate (12 to 14 years old).

The phrase I like to use to introduce the theory of opposite field hitting is “let it get deep.”  This means that hitters need to hit the ball near the middle (or toward the back corner of the plate) of their body instead of out in front of the plate where they used to hitting it.  This is a difficult adjustment for many young hitters because they are afraid of being late.  To help them get over this fear, have them watch a major league game and see how many foul balls go the to the opposite field, and how many foul balls go to a hitters “pull” side.  Major leaguers are late all the time, by design.  

Getting your players to wait to let the ball get deep is the single most important concept to master when a players is trying to hit to the opposite field.  This will allow them to not feel as though they have to “guide” the ball to the opposite field.  You will know a player is trying guide the ball when they drag the barrel under their hands and have a very tentative swing.  It will appear as though they are “aiming” the ball that way.  The phrase we use to avoid this is “let it get back, and attack.”  This reminds them that they can take their normal aggressive swing as long as they let the ball get deep in the zone.  

Drill Progression

Deep tee slow to contact - Set up a tee on the outside corner toward the middle of the hitter’s body.  Have them take slow motion swings to their contact position.  Emphasize proper hitting mechanics, and not changing the swing to hit the ball to the opposite field.  

Deep tee drive - The set up is the same as the previous drill.  This time, the hitter is taking a normal stride and load, and “driving” the ball to the opposite field.  Emphasize that they take a normal, aggressive swing with the ball deep in the hitting zone.  Do not move to other drills until this drill is mastered.  If they cannot hit properly to the opposite field off a tee, they will not be able to hit execute when a ball is coming at them.  

Inside/outside tee - Set up one tee on the inner half (out in front of the plate) and one tee on the outside corner (deep in the hitting zone).  When the hitter begins their stride and load, say either “inside” or “outside.”  They are to hit the appropriate ball to the correct field.  If their mechanics begin to break down, or they begin guiding the ball to the opposite field, back up in the drill progression.

Outside front flip - From behind an L-screen, flip the ball to the outer third of the plate.  Emphasize that they let the ball get deep and don’t guide or “aim” the ball to the opposite field. 

Angle front toss (Described for a RHH, a LHH would be reversed) - Angle the plate to so that the front of the plate is lined up to where the shortstop would play.  Have the hitter line up as he normally would on home plate (he will also be angled toward the shortstop).  The pitcher will be tossing from the same spot as normal (will be at an angle to the hitter).  When the pitcher tosses, the hitters goal is to hit the ball back at the L-screen.  In order to do this, he will have to let the ball get deep in the hitting zone and drive the ball the other way (in relation to the hitter).  Do not allow them to start early and hook the ball.  

Front toss mix up - Once they have mastered front toss drills where they know the ball will be thrown to the outer part of the plate, you can do front toss drills where you mix up outside, middle and inside pitches.  After each pitch, have the hitter tell you if they hit the ball to the correct field.  

Outside short toss (overhand) - Set up the L-screen about 40-45 feet from home plate (less depending on age group) and throw pitches only to the outside part of the plate.  Since this is easier said than done, you will miss sometimes.  For the purpose of this drill, have them try to take everything to the opposite field by letting the ball get deep in the hitting zone.  

Short toss mix up - Using the same set up as the previous drill, mix up inside, middle, and outside pitches.  Similar to the front toss mix up, have them verbalize if they hit the ball to the correct field or not based on the location of the pitch.  

If at any point the drill seems too advanced or mechanics break down, move backward in the drill progression.  The ultimate goal is that the hitter is able to recognize the outside pitch and react appropriately.  In order to do this we must get players to make decisions on their own once they have the proper muscle memory.  

Teaching your hitters to hit the other way will not only help your current team, but it will also help your hitters reach the their fullest potential at the plate.