On Deck Swing

https://www.ondeckswing.com/post/bad-habits-at-the-batting-cages

BAD HABITS AT THE BATTING CAGES I am way passed my playing days, but I still love going to the batting cages 2-3 times a week. It is my meditation place, my happy place. There is nothing like hitting balls until I get exhausted to clear my mind and soul.As a private and college batting coach, I also go to the cages to teach and to...

https://www.ondeckswing.com/post/is-your-child-shortstop-material

IS YOUR CHILD SHORTSTOP MATERIAL? I believe every child that steps on a baseball/softball field should be given the opportunity to play every position at rec and traveling levels, especially when they are young (5-12 years old). As they start getting older and serious about the sport, they should start focusing on learning 2-3 posit...

THE AVOIDABLE STRIKEOUTS A strikeout is just an out and putting a ball in play consistently is hard. As a coach, I repeat this mantra to relax my players and to avoid psychological slumps. It is true that a long flyball to centerfield and smashed line drive to shortstop that are caught have the same statistical value than a...

GIVE ME A GOOD REASON TO BUNT Bunting with control and precision is not an easy thing to do. When bunting, a player must change the grip on the bat and move her/his body and head to square towards the pitcher readjusting the perception of the pitch plain and location. Even good bunters have trouble controlling the trajectory of....

Exit Speed - it’s not rocket science but it’s science. Who has not dreamt of hitting a homerun? Who is the player, the parent or the coach that is not frustrated with infield pop-ups and soft grounders? Let me tell you a secret, teaching to hit a ball hard or to increase exit speed is all about science. When batting, power is reflected in exit speed. In...

TIMING - DANCE WITH THE PITCHER Are you swinging early or too late? When it comes to hitting some may argue that seeing the ball or pitch recognition is more important than timing. I argue that timing is the most important thing when hitting, obviously you do have to see the ball. But you can see the ball and recognize the pitch,....

THE STATS THAT MATTER Technology has made collecting, analyzing and sharing data about your roster’s and opponent’s performance very easy. Nowadays, any youth coach, using one of the many apps to score games, has an abundance of data to help them on the difficult task of managing and coaching a team. For better or wo...

https://www.ondeckswing.com/post/tips-to-create-a-great-batting-lineup

TIPS TO CREATE A GREAT BATTING LINEUP I used to create my lineup using batting average stats, common sense, and players' game performances as I remembered them. I was tweaking my batting lineup card from game to game constantly. Sometimes, I stumbled into a good batting order by shuffling and reshuffling players until something worked.....

https://www.ondeckswing.com/post/swing-sequence

SWING SEQUENCE A complete swing sequence is a millisecond event. A baseball pitch at 90 mph from 60 ft, or a fastpitch softball pitch at 65 mph from 43 feet reach home plate in 0.66 seconds. Therefore, a player needs to get ready, identify, adjust and swing at a pitch within that timeframe. Understanding and getti...