Monthly Archives: October 2013

Seeing the Pitch – the “Derek Jeter Drill”

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Seeing the Pitch

As hitters, we want to to “see” the ball out of the pitchers hand as soon as possible.  We want to track the ball when it comes out of the pitcher’s hand and watch the ball strike our bat.

Watch Derek Jeter in his first at bat of the 2009 World Series.  Notice how he watches the ball all the way into the catchers glove.

Go Practice

This is a great drill to do in the off-season or during practice (you don’t even need a bat!)

Have a partner throw you 10 pitches.  Act as if he is a real pitcher – instead of swinging, follow that ball all the way into the catchers glove.  Work in some changeups, curveballs, etc…

Go Hit

Visualization – What Is It and Why You Should Be Doing It

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What is Visualization?

“The night before the game I think about every pitch he might throw me, and then, after I’ve seen that pitch once the next day, my picture of that pitch is so strong, if he made any kind of mistake I would do some damage”

-Willie Stargell , 2x World Series Champion, Hall of Famer

Visualization is defined as

“the formation of mental visual images”

In other words, visualization is the act of imagining yourself completing a task in your head.

How Can Visualization Help You Hit?

That’s great…. so why should you do this?  Look at this study performed by Keith Randolph.  

The Study:

Researchers randomly selected basketball players and placed them into three groups.  For 20 days, each group would prepare for a test.  The test? Shooting free throws.  The 3 groups were divided as follows:

Group 1: Practice shooting free-throws everyday for 20 minutes

Group 2: Visualize themselves shooting and making free throws.  This group did not physically practice at all.

Group 3: Did not practice or visualize.

The Results:

As you can expect, group 3 did not improve at free throws.

Groups 1 and 2 improved almost the same amount!This study suggests that imagining yourself hit may be just as effective as practicing!

Go Visualize:

Before practice, take 5 minutes of your day and focus on visualizing yourself CRUSHING baseballs. See yourself hitting balls up the middle.  Focus on hitting balls to the opposite field.  Focus on keeping your weight back on a curveball and crushing it.  Feel the bat as you make contact with the baseball.   You can do this on the bus, in the car, in class (ok maybe not in class).

Try this for a 30 days and see what happens…..

Go Hit