Counteracting Pitcher's Strategies - Moving a Hitt

Kokes, a renowned coach, friend and co-host. Jake Epstein, that I mentioned was a player evaluator and now he's texting me with the text you're gonna want to talk about. He texted me before he started the show and he said, on my way and he said, LFG, that means in Tom Brady language, let's fuck this up. So I don't know if you're ready. Excited or mad or

what? I was ready man. I've been ready all day just waiting. This is apparently it's snowing in Colorado today. I've been record this on a Saturday afternoon and it's like 82 degrees of humidity in Tampa, Florida. Yeah, that's what's going on with the humidity. I don't know about that. No, we'll take it. My hands are cracking. It's so dry here. Yeah, we were. We was nice

early in the week and then sports weekend now. The sudden sides to thank you intern. Was it a good day? I bet the intern I was supposed to be she just if those not watching handed him a glass of water. Is that the intern that was supposed to be playing softball today? Yeah, we're supposed to be playing softball today, but two inches of snow will put

a damage on damper all that. Instead she's getting her father acting as an intern, getting her father water for stupid podcast. She's having a great day. Seven a great day. Like I heard grandmother's in town. So that's kind of fun for her. And she can't even she can't even watch the Rockies because they're not very good this year. No, nobody wants to watch the Rockies. Most

people in Colorado were like boycotting the Rockies and ownership because they really don't care. Yeah, we would love to have the new Broncos owner by the Rockies so that they would at least spend and feel the team. Right versus do nothing in the off season. What I wonder what Chris Brian is feeling right now. He has to be like, no, dammit. What did I knew he

was getting into? I hope he did because I mean, it's not getting there's no light in the tunnel. I in my opinion with the Rockies right now. There's no light in the Rockies. They're fighting the title. No, they were they were hoping to finish above 500. That was their goal this year. That's a goal to start the season was to be above 500 in the America

or a national league West. So yeah, I will say that Chris Brian is doing quite well. He's he's doing okay here the first couple of weeks of the season. He's still healthy. But yeah, they, you know, we had Crohn's off to a pretty good start too. Now, yes. Yeah, I think he had another home run last night. It's just there's too many holes and they have

some good. Good guys in there and they're learning how to play baseball. And at some point, those guys that are learning how to play baseball will likely get traded to other organizations and. The whole cycle will end. The whole cycle will keep going. You know, the aeronautos cycle, the story cycle. All their prospects that come up, they come through, they get traded for other prospects. Those

guys come up for a couple years, do well and they get rid of those. So it's it's how they make money. I will say the Rockies make money. They have a nice stadium. They have. Whether in the summer, people like to go to the ballpark, they keep their payroll down and people still show up. So those guys make their, you know, $80 million a year and

thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you. What's it? Wambam, see you later, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. That's right. That's how that's what the Rockies and their fan base apparently. I have to give you credit by the way. June Carlos, then they showed. Thank you for what the credit you're about to give me. I just I'm going to take it when you say it.

I'm going to take it. Well, June Carlos stand, there's a picture that surfaced on Twitter a couple of weeks ago actually and it showed that there I guess it was a sticker on on the novice bat that he swings a 35.5 ounce bat. Yeah. And I want to give you credit because you talked about this with your dad years ago and you still talk about it

to this day. And it breaks that myth of players not swinging heavy bats. They do swing or heavier bats that gives them that opportunity, that velocity. That quickness and speed that velocity against all science kids, right. Give them that that velocity and speed to hit that fast. I'm not a science nerd here. Yeah. No, it's baseball. Hit the baseball fast and to be able to create

that backspin and and hit it very, very far. It's exactly what June Carlos stand does. And boy, does he generate that back sweetness and bat speed with that. He's been five ounce bat. Yeah. A big strong guy can swing a big bat. You know, I mean, because that is obviously a big bat. But you have to find as a hitter, you have to find what works

for you. You know, is a heavier bat better. People never think that. They never think heavier is better. Sometimes we we use our body more when we use a heavier bat. We see at a young age when I'm working with and softball, especially, because the bats are so light. You know, they're dropped 10 sometimes drop 11s at the younger age, but the softball is still heavy.

Softball is still the same size, whether you're 18 or 20 years old or you're 10 or 10 years old. And what happens is the ball just has way more mass than the bat. And so if you don't hit it perfectly, if you're a quarter of an inch or an eighth of an inch below or above the ball, it stops the bat. And then the bat moves

up or down a lot. You see that with baseball players to had a young age until you get to like a drop three. And then there's enough momentum. So you got to figure out, are you strong enough to swing a heavier bat? And what's great about hit tracks and and all the different devices that measure the ball. And the ball speed is, you know, let's try

a heavier bat. Let's try a lighter bat. How does it come off? Are you more consistent? Do you use your body more? Is it too heavy? Did you see a decrease or an increase in exit velocity? Are you seeing you're hitting the ball higher and further? You know, you have to, it is an art form just like golfers go through that same kind of thing. What's

the, what are the right lofts or the right ball, the right club? And we just have to figure out it's not all the same for every single play. I've, I've had a player that was swinging a metal bat that was like a 32 29. And then I said, well, why don't you swing, you know, he had a wood bat that was bigger. It was a 33

30. I said, why don't you swing that? He actually swung the heavier bat harder on blast. So not only was his bat speed higher with a heavier bat. That doesn't make any sense except for leverage and whip. So he created whip and a swing. But the exit velocity and he was like, I never would have thought about that. I said, yeah, now imagine it's a metal

bat. That's a 33 30. You're probably going to get a little bit extra, you know, exit velocity off that too. So try different sizes. People, it's okay. Big, small. Doesn't matter. Try, see what works best for you. How do they know what works best for them though? Is there certain data points that they can point to? You know, I mean, using the, using the hit tracks

will tell you or, or, yeah, am I hitting the ball harder? Okay. Wow. Now I took 10 swings and my hardest ball was two miles an hour harder than with my, other bat. Okay. That's telltale number one. But that has to be not just off a tee. That has to be off of somebody throwing or I like to use a machine. So there's some velocity there

because we might be able to swing a harder off a tee. But can we swing a harder when the balls move and, you know, 80 miles an hour, 85 miles an hour. So you just have to test it. That's the best thing I can do. Barrow a buddy's bat. It's okay. Yeah. Everybody has their own bat now. We all use the same thing that one I

was growing up. Right. That big metal hunk of shit. Yeah. And I was like, oh, somebody's got a new bat. Let's all use that. Oh, it's got so many hits in it. So, yes. Right. Just, just try, try different bats. People on your team, bigger, smaller and see what works. Did I ever tell you that story of a teammate I had in high school? He had

those Nike aluminum bat. Remember those Nike aluminum bats in like the late, to late 2000s decade, like 2006 to 2010. Those, those, they were, you felt like they were made of Teflon because so many of them cracked. Well, I ended up cracking my friends, my teammates, Nike bat. But I hit a home run, an opposite field home run. I was like Bryce Harper that time when

at city field, when I was running. Yeah. I was joking. Bad. That's what happened with me at one time in high school. I just, the bat just cracked. Didn't break into two. But it cracked and it created a huge hole in the sweet spot. I felt really bad. I never paid him back for it. They got rid of those bats. I did work for the University

of Oregon. That's when they, I don't know, whenever that was revitalized, it had to be in the late, yeah, 2008, 2000, somewhere around there. Yeah, they had, it was Nike, right? Nike helped him raise all the money for a new stadium and to bring the sport back because the organ didn't have baseball for, I think it was like 25 years. You know, got kind of, was

the dominant program. Organ say it was great. Yeah. And so for a long time, I mean, they were better than the Chicago. They were better than the Futon, you know, name one guy, but there's a lot of guys that came through there, that Oregon State Program. They, they were better than USC, UCLA, for a long time, even better than Cal State, Fullerton. And they're a baseball,

a school at baseball powerhouse. Sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, they ruled, well, they won the college World Series, I think, three times in six years. I don't know. Pack AC Legendary Coach, they haven't quite been as good since he, he stepped down. But yeah, anyway, Oregon had a, you know, a big deal. Yeah, they were, they were really, again, they felt like they were made a tough

one. Hey, coming up on the lab Epstein Hitting podcast, and future episodes, we will be doing a couple of mechanical breakdowns. Jeff McNeil, I'm going to talk about the Bay of Legends, you know, the coming up in a couple of weeks, breaking down his swing. By the way, I mentioned what was it last week, my favorite hitters that I like watching on a daily basis across

Major League Baseball. Luis Arise, I forgot about him on the Marlins. I love his swing. I love watching. I can watch him hit all day long. I love his swing. Yeah, he's aggressive, dude. Yeah. We'll be breaking down Paul Goldschmitt as well, and talking about how to counteract pictures strategies. I can talk today about moving a hitter's feet and how to counteract that if you're a

hitter. It's the pitcher's goal to move a hitter's feet. We're talking about that today as well. But those are some upcoming topics on the lab Epstein Hitting podcast. If you have not subscribed, please do if you're a new listener, Apple Google Spotify, you can watch the show on YouTube as well. The lab Epstein Hitting podcast YouTube page. I want to a couple of Major League Baseball

notes that want to bring up with you. By the way, you know, we didn't bring up the pitch clock last week. I love the fact that the games are going as quick as they are for whatever reason. I feel like it's a lot easier to watch. Like I can consume a game a lot easier for whatever reason. And I don't feel like the game is rushed.

Some people may feel that way. I don't. I tell you, these rules that have been put into place. I don't know if Major League Baseball knew that they did this or not. But these new rules that have been put into place. The pitch clock, for example, it's made the game faster and it's made it easier for fans like you and I or people who watch the

game every day like myself. Like myself who watch the game every day, consume it every day, watch it when they're warming up in the gym or listen to games on the audio feed when we're working out or in the car, whatever. It's made, I don't know if Major League Baseball intended for this. I think the rules were intended for the casual fans to get them back

and get more of the casual fans to be interested in baseball. But I think this, these new rules have really helped the die hard fans and gotten them more so into the game and being able to get the game. So to consume more games, because the games are actually going a lot quicker, I like it personally. Yeah, I do. I like the pace for sure. I

think they did it. Again, it's still kind of a work in progress and everybody's getting used to it. But it's, hey, 30 minutes, 30 minutes. That's big and not having guy step out and fixing everything and pitchers the same thing. Step it off the mound and so many trips, you know, stepping off and throwing the first and stepping off the first and trips to the mound.

I don't know. We'll see if it's good for the game or not, but it's definitely good for cutting time off of the game. Yeah. I see. I saw it. You moved the camera. I thought we're going to go week. We almost made it. Yeah. By hit it again. We almost didn't have a microphone on your end this week too. Yeah, mute. What a killer man. Also

too. For those who may disagree from what I said a couple of weeks ago, how baseball is not fair and the game. Never even out. I wanted to point to a statistic that Buster only tweeted about Jason Hayworth's line drive out. This was earlier in the week against. I think the Dodgers, the exit velocity on that line drive was 99.6. It went 180 feet. And it

was a diving catch. I don't know. Maybe catch. It doesn't really matter. But it was an out. Okay. David Peralta of the Dodgers. He broke up a perfect game earlier in the week against the Cubs. He hit the perfect game breaking hit that little looper that he hit. This is whatever you want to call it. The exit velocity. It was 32.9 miles per hour. It was

a squibber. I should say squibber. It went three feet. Baseball is not fair. And it will never even out, especially if you're a hitter. So you better be dedicated to this game and you better understand failure because it's coming for you out. Yeah. Crazy statistic. That is, by the way, dedication. The topic on this week's cross functionality, talking about dedication and not just dedication to your

craft, but having that fortitude to get through the tough times. And sometimes it's Cassie put it this week. Be a little bit lonely when you need to work and you need to get better. It's not an easy road. You need to be dedicated, especially in all athletics. If you want to play at a high level, that's why athletes tend to flock together. But you also better

be dedicated, especially when it comes to the game. It comes to baseball and softball and the skill position sports because any skill position sport is very, very hard. We talked about that this week on cross functionality. Yes. It's the one minute call. Oh, you already talked about it. Well, Eric talked about it. You want to comment. You can. You go to dark places real quick in

this game. And then really any sport where you're putting the spotlight, you know, baseball and softball and golf. You're kind of out there by yourself. When you're in the batter's box or you're on the mound, it's you. Everyone's looking at one person. And if you make a mistake, then it's magnified and you have to be able to say, man, I messed that up. Right. I got

a, I got a bad jump on that ball or as a catcher, I didn't get my glove quick enough or as a pitcher guy couldn't find the strikes on and then you're going to let your teammates down. But you're also going to help your teammates out, you know, and your teammates are going to have rough times too. Everybody's got to work together on a team to

make it work because everyone's going to make mistakes. And it's how can we bounce back? Exactly. So that's our topic this week on cross functionality. So be sure to subscribe to that podcast on Apple Google Spotify or watch the show on the softball strength Academy YouTube page. As we cast the Riley Boehm. I discussed players having dedication. She made a great quote by the way. That's

going to be the title of this week's episode. It is the title of this week's episode. Everything has a price. Very, very true. Hey, speaking of college, by the way, I'm Cassie, but tender Alabama, Segway Vanderbilt, for those worried. I was thinking about this earlier in the week. For those worried about the transfer portal and all that shit that's surrounding that. Just just one of note

here that Tim Corbin, one of the best coaches. If not the best coach in the country, he might be baseball's version of Nick Sabin someday. He's younger than Nick Sabin. The guy who didn't collect the paycheck, coaching base. baseball until what the age of 35, I think it was turned out to be the best coach in all of college baseball. For many years still is. Context

purposes Vanderbilt has not recruited from that portal yet. So maybe all hope is not lost. Mr. Epstein. What about LSUs and everyone in the country and dominating everyone? I guess I don't know. They own the portal. Who has had countless major leaguers come through their program Vanderbilt or LSU? I'm sure there's more out there. So email me, Jimbo podcast, 21 who? Right. Greg, Greg, Greg, Greg,

Greg. Okay. It's pretty good. Yeah. David Price is pretty good. Swanson. Swanson wins a Vanderbilt. Yeah. I mean, I'm just telling you. I like both those teams. I don't like the portal, but I like both those teams. All I'm saying is that the best coach ever in college baseball, one of them doesn't recruit from the transfer portal. That's all I'm saying. It's pretty cool. Man down

my throat. It's pretty cool. So I'm just there's all hope isn't lost. No, I think unless you're unless you want to look at like app, there was you. There's so done. Pour LSU. So there's I think I was watching a little bit of the LSU and they were they had two players. They were talking about two or three starters that were there last year. Yeah. That

were good. They had well over 300. They had extra bases and whatnot. They're not even playing this year, because they had somebody guys transferring that were like the best. Right. Tommy White being one of them. Tommy tanks. Tommy tanks. Anyway. All right. Well, moving on with the show here. Let's get into today's topic episode 138. Is scushing moving a hitter's feet and how hitters can counteract

that picture's strategy. If you have any questions, email us, dream about podcast 21 at gmail.com, reach out to us on social media, add Jim Tara and at Epstein hitting moving a hitters feed how pictures do that. It used to be the old adage just throw inside a little bit off the corner, make the hitter move their feet a little bit. Maybe a fastball across the belt,

making them limbo out of the way. But with all the new technology now that's out there for coaches right at their disposal, they get the opportunity to look at the horizontal and vertical movement of pitches. And now they can better understand what those pictures throw and how to move a pitchers a hitters feed. How to counteract a hitter strategies. It used to be, hey, you know

what, you throw inside, move the hitters feed, open up the other side of the plate. A lot of a lot of times now and it's all this the other night. I see it almost every day with certain hitters when pictures are going really well. They're moving the hitters feet, even on pitches that are low and away, sliders low and away pitches that are high and away,

fastballs that are up and in fastballs that are low. They're changing these pictures. The eye levels of hitters and in turn they're moving those hitters feet and hitters have become, when a pitchers going well and the pitchers moving that hitters feet, the hitters become very jumpy. Hitters never want to be jumpy at the plate. No successful hitters jumpy at the play. No, no, you have, and

I think it's an old adage, right? You know, hey, moves feet a little bit. You know, don't let that player get too comfortable in there. They've gotten good swings off of your good pitches. You move there, you got to move there for you got to make them uncomfortable. And I think that's what it is. It used to mean, you know, no one Ryan thrown, you know,

buzzing somebody's chin, something like that, you know, chin music would come to mind. But you're right, moving, moving feet is essentially making a hitter uncomfortable. Okay. If you have a hitter that's just dug in there and they're not budget on breaking balls and they're not budget on fastballs and they're just very comfortable and locked in. You know, a good catcher or a good good pitchers like,

okay, we got to move their feet somehow. And sometimes it's a slider down and in from an opposite hand at pitcher. Sometimes it's a fastball running up and in. Sometimes like, you said it's you throw something at their front hip and make them kind of jackknife away. But what it comes down to is is I, you, you said it. It's moving their eyes. You don't want

hitters to lock in. If you get a pitcher that throws a ball up and in, you know, pitchers don't want to throw the same spot multiple times in the same tunnel. If they're trying to throw an inside fastball, they're probably not going to throw more than one or two. And as a catcher, what you want to do and I learned this from a young age catching

and having good people. Around me that taught me how to so Bruce Boeget and Jeff Torborg were my two coaching mentors as a young kid. I would sit and watch games. They would come over and when they were in town or Bruce lived in town and we would watch like offseason games. Like he would, you know, they would bring because obviously they were still coaching at

the time. And we would go through what do you think here? What do you think there? And it was all mental. It was nothing was physical. But every pitch has has a has a meaning. If I'm looking, if I call a pitch, a fastball down and away and that pitcher misses too far down and away and that hitter kind of leans into it down and away,

I just changed their eyes. I just changed even though it wasn't a strike, even though it wasn't a very good pitch. What did it do to that hitter? Now all of a sudden, let's run something inside on them. Okay. Now all of a sudden, they're looking away, away, away because you got them leaning that way. Even if you don't hit a perfect spot middle end, you

might be able to tie them up or vice versa. Hey, we throw something. Fastball, let's call fastball and we miss. There's nothing better than missing in looking, trying to throw a fastball inside. Maybe it's a strike. Maybe it's a ball. It ends up being a ball because it's close. Now all of a sudden that hitter is, oh, they're trying to trying to get in on me.

I've opened up the entire other part of the plate. I can go with the sinker away or I can go with something off speed away. So we're trying to work corners for the most part like corners of the strikes on. So if we miss up and then we want to go down and away. If we miss down and then we want to go up and away,

everything is opposite as a pitcher trying to make that hitter feel uncomfortable. Now you could totally blow your mind by thinking about this as a hitter. Oh my God, they just threw me a pitch low and away. I bet they're going to throw it in now. Well, maybe, maybe not. Maybe maybe the book is just a throw you away. Well, also to remember that the catcher,

the catcher sometime, oh, not sometimes all the time, the catcher could predicate where the pitcher might go next, because the catcher's looking at the hitter and how uncomfortable or comfortable they may be in the box and they're trying to counteract now what the hitter strategy may be from pitch to pitch. That's part of the catcher's job. A good catcher's job. And that's part of that is

at the professional level. Unfortunately, we don't let amateur catchers learn like that. And we should catchers don't catchers don't call games in travel baseball or high school. I don't know why I think we play that to learn. Like that's why we're playing baseball at a young age is to learn. And catchers don't really learn if they're just little robots back there. And pitchers don't learn unless

you have a conversation about it. But I digress there. Yes, a good catcher will absolutely know what's going on with that hitter. He's watching feed. He knows how their balances are they jumpy. Are they stepping out slightly? Are they diving towards the plate? You know, these are all things we can pick up. But moving the feed is definitely more of a comfort level. They don't get

too comfortable. If they move your feet, if you're a hitter and you're in the box and you're trying to take away the pitch middle away because 80% of the pitches you've seen during the high school season or whatever are middle away. And all of a sudden they move your feet. They're not trying to get you out in. Okay. They're not trying to get you out there.

They're trying to make you uncomfortable so they can still go middle away. So it's important to know that just like anything else we talk about with this podcast is you have to pay attention during the game. What is that pitcher doing? Not just for the 12 pitches or eight pitches or four pitches. You see that game. How is that pitcher throwing other people? How are they

throwing other right handers? How are they throwing other left handers in the lineup? You have to be able to absorb all of that information to help with your plan when you go to the plate. So how do hitters counteract the pitcher strategy? And you kind of make it somebody's feed or they move their eyes, they throw something really far inside. Do they stay inside or are

they going to back that up with a change up is usually the likely depending on, especially if it's an opposite handed pitcher. So if you're a left handed hitter and a right handed pitcher and they move your feet then something off speed is going to be they're going to go change up low and away. So what is the tendency of that? So as a hitting coach,

I had a little matrix that I used on, I had every hitter in there and then I had what pitches did they get in what counts and then I would make notes, did they move feet, did they try to get them out with fastballs up or did they try to just get them to look for fastballs up. So a good, a good hitter or a good

hitting coach is absorbing that information. Okay, every time they throw fastball up and I fell that off, they would go a little bit higher. While that's just good coaching right they call it step laddering or every time they threw a fastball up, they would come back with a break and bone the dirt. Okay, file that one away for my next to pass. And all of a

sudden you go up, it's your second or third time up and you get a count of one and then the next pitch they throw up and in right or they move your eye line and they move your feet. Now all of a sudden it's like, okay, well the last three times he's throwing a pitch like that he's backed up with an off speed pitch, especially now

the counts one and one. Boom, I'm going to sit on that off speed pitch. Maybe my third at bat is the one that matters. Maybe my first at bat of the game didn't. So you have to learn from whether you're successful your first couple of ads or whether you're not successful. That pitcher is going to do the same thing. If he's getting you out or she's

getting you out with certain pitches, they're going to keep throwing that and you can use your past experiences from an hour earlier. When that game's on the line now in the seventh inning or the ninth inning, whatever it is. Now all of a sudden we have the edge because we know every time that pitcher moves our feet, they've been throwing this pitch. You know, back to

back with it. And now I'm going to sit on that pitch and I'm not going to miss it. And you know what coaches say. Just fall under ruts. Coaches do that all the time. Coaches that call pitches. Every time they call a pitch here, they call a pitch high. Every time they call, yeah, there's this. And if we're smart enough and we're paying attention, we can

take advantage of that. Yeah. And that's the key. I guess one of the keys to today's episode 138 counteracting pitchers moving hitter's feet. You have to pay attention and you have to go off what happened an hour ago rather than just getting upset and angry. I know it's very easy to get upset and angry with the result. You have to understand how the pitcher threw to

you and what he may do next and strategize for that and try to be one step ahead. Yeah. And maybe he just lost lost the pitch to you know maybe maybe it slipped. Maybe McTurzer had a little bit too much sweat going on before he kicked out of his rosin and the ball slipped out of his hand and he moved your feet. Maybe it was accidental.

But you just have to be you just have to pay attention. And you have to enjoy the game. If you don't watch games on TV, you're not going to understand any of this. If you just show up and play on the weekends, you're probably not going to understand this. But if you pay attention and you watch games and you listen to commentators on TV when you're

watching your favorite teams that the Yankees or whatever they're on every single night. You're watching the game and you hear people talking. They're smart. They watch games all the time and most of the color guys all played and are pretty like A-rod people don't like A-rod. A-rod says really smart stuff when it comes to pitching and what pitches are trying to do to you. So listen

to those experiences and try to put them to use. But we had a meeting with a team with my kids team and they're young and they're starting to see change ups now and some curve balls right at age 12. And so I asked the team to do that. We have a hitter. She was slung at the first pitch and it was a change up. And she

swung through it and she's our best hitter. And so I asked her. I said, have you, how many change ups have you seen this year? She said, oh, probably, you know, 20 or 30. I've seen a decent amount. I said, how many times have they thrown two change ups in a row to you? And she says, I don't think they've thrown two change ups in a

row to me. I said, okay. So what would you look for after you swung and missed it? She said, well, I'd look for a fastball. And then I said, did you do that? No, you were late on the fastball that happened after. But know that or maybe it's just the opposite. If now all of a sudden people are starting to back up change up to throwing

two in a row, right? Which you don't see. But getting young kids to think about that is really important. Because they don't know they just go up to the box and hit. So giving them a plan and giving them an idea of what may be happening. How did this pitcher having a conversation after the first at bat? This is pitcher throwing you. Every pitch I saw

was either on the outside corner or off the plate. Let's take it away. Crab the plate, dive into it. Take away that outside corner. So it feels like it's down the middle. If they start throwing you inside, you can blame me as the coach for telling you to do that. Okay. But then they're like, oh, okay. But, you know, what do we talk about? You know,

don't just hit your head against the wall and expect different outcomes, right? You can't do the same thing over and over again. So just be smart. Have conversations with your players. I know a lot of people who listen to this are parents and coaches. Talk through it. Game changer. So great now. You can look at all your kids at bats and where the pitches were and

how what kind of movement were they? What were we thinking this at bat? And it can be a really good tool for kids to be able to go back and look at their at bats and kind of relive them. And they can talk to you about what were you thinking? You know, I was looking for this here. Usually they're not looking for anything. But hey, you

were late on this first pitch. Why were you late on the next one? It was a fastball. That's right. Like if you're late on a fastball, they're probably not going to throw you an off-speed pitch. Okay. They're going to speed up your bat. They don't want to speed up your bat. So, you know, let's let's go ahead. Let's make that adjustment get that bad head out

in front. So conversations, communication. I don't care what it is in life. But communication in sports and baseball and softball with your parents, with your coaches, very, very important. And don't just work on, Cassie used this couple of weeks going cross-functionality. This example, don't just set up a T in the middle of the plate and then hit balls back up the middle and feel good. Right.

You got to really challenge yourself. This is the thing in the gym. When it comes to fitness called progressive overload, I'm sure a lot of people know what I'm talking about. It's a strength system gets people stronger for those who don't know what I'm talking about. And it's supposed to challenge your muscles. It's supposed to challenge your central nervous system. Challenge yourself as a hitter. And

work on the things you need to work on. If that's a mental approach, if it's trying to counteract any picture strategy, or if it's just simply trying, working on a fundamental or trying to pull the, pull the base ball or trying to go the other way. Let the ball get deep. Take 10 pitches to the outer half of the plate. Let it get deep. Go the

other way. Release the bat from the bat leg early. Do things like that. Don't just work on pitches right down the middle or just go into the cage and start like I do now. I'm playing anymore. I could. But going to the cage and just start hitting balls, you know, whatever willy nilly. Understand, have a plan as you approach your practice. And that part of it

is trying to counteract picture strategy. And to feast on their weaknesses, just like they're trying to do to you. Yep. Yeah. I mean, challenge yourself is. Front toss is great. Teaser grade. To warm up. If you're working on one little mechanical thing, but. You know, I had lessons all morning, this morning and one of the players. That I was working with was, you know, let's. Let's

shout your swing. Whatever, whatever the stress level is in a game. I need to try to create that stress level here in the cage. Okay. We're writing them in all the season. We're not going to make any swing changes. We're not going to try to do a different stride or do a different leg kick or do a different swing plane. Right. In a stressful environment. I've

seen your swings in games. Right. They're sending me swings. This is what shows up. Let's try to. Create that same environment here. And I'm going to challenge you. Right. And that's what we did. I challenged him the whole day. He was he had a rough week last week. He's been in the ball. Good. But he had a rough week. And he was getting in his own

head. And he was thinking, oh, I got to change this and change that. It was like, no, let's have a session where we're competitive. Everything off the machine is competitive. I made him step out between pitches. He had to step out. I would adjust the machine slightly in the out. Sometimes I would slow the speed down and we created a game environment. And. I'm not going

to get fresh. That doesn't mean you have to do that all the time. But I'm telling you during the season, creating a competitive environment in there where we're not just. Hidden cookies off front toss. I could look good off front toss right now. Okay. Doesn't mean I can go out and hit in the game. But creating that environment is very, very useful for players. There's a

time. There's a time and space for everything. There's for teamwork and mechanical changes and rhythm changes and whatnot. But when we're in a season, we want to try to create that competitive environment so that they're comfortable. What else? What am I forgetting here? Subscribe. Did I say that already? I did. Sure. You can. People can subscribe. That's going to. Subscribe to the show and watch the

show on YouTube. The lab Epstein hitting podcast YouTube page. Next week, episode 139, the requirements of a successful coach, successful baseball coach, successful hitting coach, the requirements. Oh, man, we could do like a two part series on this. Yeah. Like an hour episode last week. Maybe a two hour episode next week. Yeah. Maybe probably not. But it's a good one. It'll be a good one. Requirements

of a successful hitting coach. Yeah. Oh boy. There's a lot in that. I'm actually building a. It'll probably be ready this fall, but it kind of a course content. How to be a successful coach at the amateur level. Okay. Not just at the professional, but the amateur level. You know, you have to have the right personality to communicate with kids. And you have to have the

right information to help those kids. So I'm putting together courses and videos and really a big knowledge base to help people help their team help people help their kids. Because if we can get them the right information at a young age, not only are they going to have fun, but they're going to play longer. And that's the key. To the longevity of this wonderful game. Yeah.

All right. So that's next week episode 139. Any questions? Email us your podcast. 21 at gmail.com. And we will talk to you next week. Have a great week. Take care, everybody.