Be athletic

If I had the ability to sprinkle pixie dust on any player and immediately change something, I think most times it would be to get the player to be more athletic in everything they do.  I’m not talking about improving their natural, God given athleticism. I’m talking about making sure every player becomes athletic before they do anything in the game.  

As an example, when I work with young hitters, one of the most frustrating things is trying to get the hitter into the most athletic position possible just before the swing. You would think that this would be simple but it never seems to be.  Most young hitters do not come close to generating the amount of energy their bodies are capable of producing.  They start in an upright stance and continue in that upright position through the entire swing.  Many major league hitters start in a relaxed upright position to start their stance.  However, when they load up and stride, they put their bodies in the most athletic position possible so they can explode all that loaded up energy into the ball.

Here is a visual of what I mean.

In the three photos, Miguel Cabrera goes from a relaxed set up to a very athletic load up position and then just fires that loaded up energy from there to the ball.

You would think that young hitters would naturally know to do this in order to hit the ball hard.  Unfortunately, very few do.

This doesn’t just apply to hitters.  Pitching, fielding, base running, and everything else in sports for that matter require the person to be good at getting to the most athletic position at the right time to maximize whatever natural abilities they have.

In the off-seaon, kids cannot work on this part of their game enough.