John Mallee Hitting Camp Results

John Mallee, Hitting Coordinator for the Florida Marlins, hosted a hitting camp at our facility this past weekend. John is, bar none, the best hitting coach I've come in contact with. A few times a year, I get together with John, break down video, and pick his brain about hitting. What John confirms is that with the amount of body parts moving in the swing, there are a lot of things that can go wrong. Before coaches start to work on fixing one piece or another, there is always one thing that has to come first: Is the synchronization of the swing correct?

Dads will come to me during lessons and tell me they want their son to hit for more power. While I can't magically add twenty pounds of muscle to their son, I can make sure that their synchronization is correct, thus giving them a chance to maximize their bat speed.

The swing begins from the ground, up. To create torque and to maximize bat speed, the hips have to begin to fire while the hands are still back. Kids do not do this naturally very often. 99% of players we have come through the Academy have to be taught this.

Beyond creating bat speed, keeping the hands back at launch allows hitters to recognize the pitch before they swing. While players that have their hands and their stride foot coming forward at the same time, are swinging, then trying to react to the pitch. That is why so many players struggle with fastballs away or any off speed pitch. To wait on those pitches the hands have to remain back.

The stride-seperation drill is a good one for this. Check below in my blogs to find the video for that one. I'll add some more good "torque" creating drills soon!