Braden #11

Personalized Instructional Video 1, 4/14/2020

Email any additional video to LeadOffBaseballAcademy@gmail.com. One of our instructors will review the video and get it uploaded to your personalized site.

Daily Drills for Braden:

1. Gather Drills– Perform each Gather Drill (Med Ball Drill) for 10 minutes a day. Focus on keeping your pressure on the inside part of your back foot and the back knee inside the back Ankle.
2. Load Drills.  Perform the “Pole Drill” for 5 minutes.  Make sure the pole stays straight up and down and your weight stays in your back him.  Ensure your back elbow has plenty of space between your side.
   1. Perform the 2nd load drill for 5 minutes by hitting off of the tee, pausing in the load position before you start your rotational move.
3. Staying connected- Hit of the tell but slow everything down as laid out in the drill.  Focus turning the barrel and keeping the back elbow connected to the back hip and the front elbow working up.

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Based on the videos we have been provided Braden needs to continue to work on the following mechanical adjustments within his swing:

1. Rotation- Braden still does not trust the rotational part of this swing as discussed in video 1.  This probably results in a lot of ground balls the other way.  He has a short swing and probably doesn’t strike out much but lacks the power his is capable of.  By doing the rotational drill and the pole drill we laid out in his training videos he will improve on this.  Once he works on this for a week we will upload some additional videos for him to incorporate into his training.
2. Turn the Barrel- Braden, like most players, wants to push the hands/knob to the ball.  This creates a swing that is not as quick to the ball, explosive, or a bat that is late to enter the hitting zone.  Turning the barrel and staying connected in the swing is a slow process that requires a lot of slow “feel” drills and work off of the tee.
3. Stay loaded in his swing.  Braden brings his back elbow to slot to early.  As we discussed in his video he does not stay in his scrap load.  The load is the first part of the swing that needs to be perfected in order for the rest of the hitting mechanics to work in order.
4. Approach- Just about every youth player needs to work on his approach at the plate.  If you have a bad approach at the plate the mechanics will break down.  Most players are standing in the box waiting to decide if the pitch is a strike before they decide to swing.  In most cases this is to late.  We won’t our players to be thinking the pitch is a strike first (not a ball, or waiting to see if its a strike).  He should be thinking strike out of the pitcher’s hand and his movements should indicate that as well.  We call this the “yes, yes, yes, approach!  Yes, this is my pitch and I’m going to kill it!  We won’t the player swinging until its time not to (until he decides its a ball). There are some drills we can do with this but most of it is mental and something the hitting, coach, and parent need to constantly think and talk about.  Make this part of his dugout routine and on deck routine.