Page 20 - Fully Equipped Playbook

FUNCTIONAL TRAINING
HITTING DRILLS
If you're interested in a customized, one on one deep dive into your swing including a review of your mechanics and hitting drills, please check out the training plans available on fullyequippedathlete.com
“Launch angle” is all the rage right now in baseball. That approach wasn’t one I subscribed to in my career, but it may work for you. When considering that type of approach, understand that if you barrel up the ball and get under it just a little, you will hit a long fly ball. If you barrel up the ball and get on top of it just a little, you will hit a hard ground ball. Barreling the ball up consistently should be your #1 goal.
I personally feel that when young baseball players try to implement the “launch angle” into their swing, it can do a few things; create a very long swing, therefore causing you to get jammed more often, and create a bad bat path, leading to a lot of players coming around the ball when they swing. Having worked with hitting coaches at every level, focusing on hard line drives proves to be the best approach to have for hitting. The best example I can give you is my former Indians teammate Michael Brantley. He was easily the most consistent hitter I ever played with, and his sole focus during cage work, BP, and in games was hitting line drives. It’s no wonder he hits .300 every year.
Here's a typical pre-game hitting routine. CAGE WORK
Begin with a warm-up of 10 dry swings both lefty and righty.
Next up tee work where I focus on line drives up the middle and also move the tee around to practice different contact points.
From there I do underhand and overhand front toss, again focusing on line drives up the middle.
I start with balls away and work in.
Finally, I take swings off of a pitching machine (start standing close to the machine and slowly move to normal distance). This is really good for training the eyes and slowing the game down.
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