A drill program for winning baseball.At Tennessee we have no compunction about using anything that works. We use quite a bit of gadgetry gadg·et·ry n. 1. Gadgets considered as a group. 2. The design or construction of gadgets. Noun 1. gadgetry - appliances collectively; "laborsaving gadgetry" in helping our hitters get the most out of their quickness, strength and natural aptitudes. Since we believe in developing the hitter's swing in the cage area, we spend much of our time working on tee stations, short toss, flat bats, etc. Once the basics are honed, we will take the field for live BP. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Too many coaches will go right into live BP at the start of practice. We advise against it. We believe it is imperative to keep hitters in the cage in Verb 1. cage in - confine in a cage; "The animal was caged" cage detain, confine - deprive of freedom; take into confinement the off season, pre season, and regular season, even when they are practicing every day or playing three to five games a week. The cage is where we develop the swing and fine-tune the timing. The moment the hitter moves out of the cage and starts doing all his hitting in live BP, he will start developing bad habits bad habit Unhealthy habit Clinical medicine A patterned behavior regarded as detrimental to physical or mental health, which is often linked to a lack of self-control. Cf Good habit. or lose a little bit of his timing, possibly taking something off his grooved swing. The following drill program will give you an idea of the devices we use to enhance our batting swings over a period of time. SWIFT STIK STIK STIS Thermal Interface Kit STIK Stop the Teen Intoxication Kick DRILL (PHOTO 1): To improve your swing, you have to practice. Regulation bats are too heavy to swing enough times a day and will cause muscle fatigue. The lightweight Swift Stik will allow hitters to work on fundamentals through underloading (lighter than normal training), enabling the hitter to get many more swings a day. Its lightweight shaft is approximately 13 ounces and is made of durable reinforced fiberglass fiberglass, thread made from glass. It is made by forcing molten glass through a kind of sieve, thereby spinning it into threads. Fiberglass is strong, durable, and impervious to many caustics and to extreme temperatures. . In addition to extra swings, it helps build muscle memory and provides a great workout Workout Informal repayment or loan forgiveness arrangement between a borrower and creditors. workout 1. The process of a debtor's meeting a loan commitment by satisfying altered repayment terms. for the fast twitch twitch (twich) a brief, contractile response of a skeletal muscle elicited by a single maximal volley of impulses in the neurons supplying it. twitch v. 1. muscle fibers in the forearms and wrists, helping to increase bat speed. The shaft is 7/8" diameter with a 1 1/4" diameter foam "sweet spot." This makes Swift Stik ideal for working on hand-eye coordination hand-eye coordination Eye-hand coordination Surgery Oculomanual synchronization, required by surgeons, especially for laparoscopic surgery. See Laparoscopic surgery, Paradoxical movement. . The use of golf-ball sized wiffle balls Noun 1. Wiffle Ball - (trademark) a hollow plastic ball with cutouts Wiffle ball - round object that is hit or thrown or kicked in games; "the ball travelled 90 mph on his serve"; "the mayor threw out the first ball"; "the ball rolled into the corner will enable the hitter to get the most out of this drill, while the concave Concave Property that a curve is below a straight line connecting two end points. If the curve falls above the straight line, it is called convex. foam "sweet spot" will provide the instant feedback on whether the ball was hit with the right part of the bat. The ball will sound and react differently when it hits the shaft vs the "sweet spot." This foam head will also adjust to match any bat size. ADVANTAGES OF SWIFT STIK DRILL: 1. Great for extra batting practice before a game--eliminates muscle fatigue. 2. Great for indoor training during the off-season or inclement in·clem·ent adj. 1. Stormy: inclement weather. 2. Showing no clemency; unmerciful. in·clem weather. 3. Great for dry swing repetitions. 4. Can be used with wiffle, tennis, and/or soft foam balls. I like using this aid because it helps develop hand-eye coordination. When it gets right down to it, seeing the ball is the most important part of hitting and anything you can do to improve your ability to track the baseball is invaluable. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] FLAT BAT (PHOTO 2): We want the hitter to feel that he is hitting three baseballs while keeping his bat on the plane of the ball as long as possible. Many hitters get to the first ball and pull up, causing a pop-up, or they will roll over the ball and induce a grounder. The hitter can get the feel of hitting three baseballs by hitting the first ball and then the other two right behind the first on the same plane. This will allow him to hit those hard ground-ball line drives that coaches love. The flat bat will give the hitter an instant feedback while grooving his swing during practice. You can start this drill by taking an ordinary bat and shaving an 1/8 of an inch off each side, creating a flat surface, as shown in the photo. I like to use this bat with a tee, flip, or front toss. The flat bat allows the hitter to get immediate feedback from his swing after contact. If he rolls wrists, he will hit the ball off the top corner of the bat. If he swings up, he will hit the ball off the bottom of the bat. I like to use the flat bat because it lets the hitter immediately know if he has had a good swing. This provides a great feedback after swinging. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE TOWEL BAT (PHOTOS 3-4): The two common muscles that are used and developed in the swing are the slow-twitch muscle fibers (the strong muscles) and the fast-twitch muscle fibers (the quick muscles). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The hitter should train these muscles in the same motion he uses in a game. Playing football or basketball will not make you a better baseball player and in a lot of cases will do more harm then good. To gain speed and strength with the same coordination, the player has to develop his fast-twitch muscles more (60-70%) than he does the slow twitch (about 30%). To develop muscles you have to use an overload/underload principle training. 1. Acceleration training develops fast-twitch muscles (speed, little strength). 2. Deceleration deceleration /de·cel·er·a·tion/ (de-sel?er-a´shun) decrease in rate or speed. early deceleration training develops strong muscles (strength, little speed). 3. Ballistic bal·lis·tic adj. 1. a. Of or relating to the study of the dynamics of projectiles. b. Of or relating to the study of the internal action of firearms. 2. training develops both muscles at the same speed and motion as in competition. The towel bat is used on deck to get loose before you get ready to hit in batting practice or in a game. It allows you to use your fast-twitch muscle fibers. As you can see in Photo 3, you take a regular bat and cut it off at the trademark, put a corkscrew corkscrew a deformity in which the affected part is spiraled like a corkscrew. corkscrew claw a probably heritable defect of the lateral claw, usually of the front feet, of cattle causing serious lameness. at the end, wrap a towel through it, and then put a tie around the bottom of the towel so that it allows you to pop the towel when you swing the bat. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] As you can see in Photo 4, the hitter takes his normal stance trigger and swings, keeping his hands inside, popping the towel and generating bat speed. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is better to swing something light, such as a towel bat or fungo fun·go n. pl. fun·goes Baseball A fly ball hit for fielding practice by a player who tosses the ball up and hits it on its way down with a long, thin, light bat. [Origin unknown.] in the on-deck circle to ignite those fast-twitch muscle fibers, as opposed to swinging a heavy weighted-bat that will allow you to activate your slow-twitch muscle fibers. At Tennessee, we use it on the on-deck circle as we prepare to hit. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] REVERSE GRIP DRILL (PHOTOS 5-8): The reverse grip drill is used to teach the hitter to keep his hands inside the baseball to avoid casting or barring out his front arm--allowing for a slow, long swing through the zone. The hitter reverses his top hand, putting the palm on the bat with the back of his hand facing him (Photo 5). He must remember to push the bat through the zone, not pull it through with his front arm. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] We want the hitter to keep his top hand dominant in this drill so that as he swings the bat and pulls with his bottom hand and pushes with his top hand, he will drive through the ball. As the hitter starts his swing, his hands are inside the ball, he is pushing the bat through with his top hand, and is going to finish with his palm pointing right at second base or back up the middle. This is an excellent drill with which to keep the hitter from casting or barring out his front arm. It will also enhance the hand speed needed to increase the bat speed through the zone. These are just a few of the drills that we use to develop more bat speed and to continue developing a grooved swing that will allow the hitter to be more consistent at the plate. It is one of Alex Rodriguez's favorite drills. WEIGHTED BALLS (PHOTO 9): Our drill program includes the use of weighted balls or heavy balls. You can buy the weighted ball or soak your old baseballs in water overnight. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One of our flip stations has a feeder feeder abbreviation for self-feeders. Used in feeding groups of animals at intervals of several days. Feed has to be dry and comminuted so that it will run down the spouts from the hopper into the troughs. off to a side who will flip the ball in front of the plate where the hitter can bang it. The feeder flips five weighted balls and five regular balls. The weighted balls provide some resistance and the batter must drive through it. You can use a tee or flip in this drill, but we prefer the flip with the weighted balls. We work on hitting the ball back up the middle, inside, and away. The swinging builds up the wrists and develops the hands and forearms. After hitting the weighted balls and regular baseballs, the hitter will begin feeling that the regular balls are like tennis balls. This is resistive resistive /re·sis·tive/ (re-zis´tiv) pertaining to or characterized by resistance. training though the point of contact. Hitters learn to hit through the ball, not at it. This creates the high energy, explosive swing that coaches and hitters refer to as "hitting through the ball." The ProCut system adds different overloads/underloads to all of the muscles throughout the entire hitter's motion. It will make the hitter quicker and stronger than would be possible with traditional deceleration training. Proper fundamentals are crucial in hitting a baseball. A hitter has to vary his practice hitting, using different amounts of swings and weights every day to maximize his performance. A player who trains excellently will play excellently. We like to use the wooden bats in all of our indoor cages because they teach the players where the sweet spot is. When we go out on the field, we allow the players to switch to the aluminum bats Aluminum bat may refer to:
GOLF BALL PITCHING MACHINE A pitching machine is a machine that automatically pitches a baseball to a batter at different speeds and styles. Most machines are hand-fed, but there are some that automatically feed. (PHOTO 10): Grand Slam grand slam n. 1. The winning of all the tricks during the play of one hand in bridge and other whist-derived card games. 2. Sports The winning of all the major or specified events, especially on a professional circuit. is the most effective pitching machine for working on hand-eye coordination and muscle memory. It automatically pitches golf-ball sized wiffle balls every 6-8 seconds. Each pitch is guaranteed to hit the strike zone. A hitter can experience a 90+ mph pitch when standing 16-20 feet away. We use solid golf-sized wiffle balls and balls with holes in them to give the hitter change of speeds and different breaks. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Grand Slam has a variable speed control and is powered by a durable blower motor that will last for years. Using Swift Stik and Grand Slam together will enable hitters to get the most from their practice. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This is a great pitching machine for indoor training during the off-season or inclement weather. It can be used both inside and out and doesn't require a batting cage Noun 1. batting cage - a movable screen placed behind home base to catch balls during batting practice cage baseball equipment - equipment used in playing baseball . It is also an excellent tool for sharpening For image sharpening, see . Sharpening is the process of creating or refining a sharp edge on a tool or implement. The term has a wide application but can be expressed as the creation of two intersecting planes which produce an edge that is sharp enough to cut through the target hand-eye coordination. By Rod Delmonico, Head Coach, University of Tennessee The University of Tennessee (UT), sometimes called the University of Tennessee at Knoxville (UT Knoxville or UTK), is the flagship institution of the statewide land-grant University of Tennessee public university system in the American state of Tennessee. |
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