Dr. Yessis Sports Training Blog

An article in one of the leading San Diego newspapers had the following to say about Will Venable of the San Diego Padres: “the key to his recent (hitting) success is the adjustments to his batting stance - he crouches more at the plate which allows him to see the ball better.”

Question: how does getting into a deeper crouch allow you to see the ball better? He is also quoted as saying, “as good as I felt standing tall, it wasn’t doing me any favors.” Keep in mind that the difference between a high stance and a crouch is quite small.
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I’ve written quite a few blogs bringing out how sports writers and commentators are usually way off base when addressing a particular topic, player or a specific game play. Although most readers agreed with me in my comments, some thought I was in errror since many of these commentators are considered great analysts and game experts.

However my comments are directed mostly not to their knowledge of the game, which is usually superior to mine, but to their analysis of game skills. This is an area in which they are not well versed and it is understandable, because they have never been exposed to this. Their knowledge of game skills is based on things that they’ve heard over the years and to some extent, based on what they think occurs from their playing experiences. Read more… »

In sports such as tennis and other racquet sports, you can hit the ball to direct it to a particular spot or area. But can you also do this in baseball? If we take the comments made by many hitting coaches seriously, the answer would be yes.

However, according to Tony Gwynn, one of the best hitters in recent times, this may not be possible. According to him, “You just see the ball, hit the ball. If it’s in the zone you put a good swing on it and see what happens.” This implies that you have no control over where the ball goes. Read more… »

To find the many baseball swings lost in a season, it may be time to bring in a detective like Sherlock Holmes. It appears that the teams and their coaches are unable to help the players find their lost swings.

The number of lost swings seems to keep increasing since it is common to read about another player spending countless hours swinging the bat in order to find his swing. And it is not unique to any team or league. The concept that you should keep swinging to find your swing appears to be the only method that the teams use. Sadly, it is also the poorest way of resolving the problem. Read more… »

To get an answer regarding which bat you should use, it seems logical that you would go to the team coach. However, this does not appear to be standard operating procedure in the major leagues. For example, Adrian Gonzalez of the San Diego Padres, talked to Ryan Howard of the Phillies and NL home run leader two of the past three years, regarding his use of a bigger bat.

He liked what he was told, tried it for himself and found that it definitely helped. According to Gonzalez, “the leverage you create with a 35 inch, 33 ounce bat is going to be far greater than with a 34 inch, 31 ounce bat, which is what I used to use.” Read more… »

A recent article in USA Today related the story of many baseball home run hitters, who, after having productive careers, seem unable to hit any more home runs when they hit the mid-30s. According to some baseball hitting coaches this seems to be a natural consequence. “It happens to the best of them.” But does it really?

For example David Ortiz, 33, has yet to hit a home run this year. Bobby Abreu and Magglio Ordanez, both 35 years of age and coming off seasons of at least 20 home runs, have zero and one homer respectively. George Forster went from 52 homers homers in one year to 13 in a five-year span. Jim Rice hit 39 homers when 30 and never more than 15 after reaching 34. Cecil Fielder hit 95 homers from 1990 to 1991 but had only 13 when he was 33 years old. Read more… »

When you read the write-ups of what baseball coaches and players say to explain their losses and what they are doing to get back on the winning side, you invariably shake your head finding it hard to believe. The words may be apropos for a T-ball or Little League game but certainly not for a professional team.

For example, Jim Lefebvre, hitting coachof the San Diego Padres, in explaining the lack of hitting in recent losses stated, “Put the blame on me. Don’t put the pressure on the players. These players are busting their butts doing everything we ask of them to do. They just haven’t had that luck, but we’re close, real close. … we’re frustrated yeah, but we’re going to keep battling and it’ll start to come together. Read more… »

I’ve been watching closely what the Padres are doing to get Brian Giles back to hitting as well as he has in previous years. His average is over .300 lifetime but only about .160 as of this writing. Note that even though I am talking about a specific player, it can apply to many, if not most MLB players.

Ordinarily this would not be something that I normally do since most hitters will go through a slump and then come out of it without a major disruption in their hitting abilities. However, I was intrigued with this player mainly because of what I read in regard to how he was working “to get his groove back.” Read more… »

Does the concept of a “bat whisperer” seem far-fetched? I don’t think so. It appears that baseball players and coaches will migrate to anyone who’ll give advice on what they should do to improve their hitting. The main criterion that they appear to use is whether he played baseball and sometimes if he was exceptionally good in hitting.

This was brought home quite vividly in an article about a blind hitting coach who relies on his peripheral vision to see what the batter does. Even high-level players such as Tony Gwynn are among those influenced by this coach. But is this legally blind coach really any different from present day hitting coaches? Read more… »

It was sad to read about baseball player Allan Dykstra and his hip problems, which may prevent him from moving up to the major leagues. According to him there’s a possibility of the injury occurring again. Rather than dwelling on the injury I was disappointed in that the reporter did not report information that could be of value to up-and-coming players.

For example according to Dykstra, since there’s nothing that he could do about it except try to prolong the injury from appearing again. To that end, he is doing stretching with extra work. However, the kinds of stretches or what kind of extra work is being done is not brought out. But yet, this is important information. Read more… »

The Padres have a new batting coach who is giving the players some sound advice that can help the team greatly. Coach Lefebvre “preaches that the Padres should put the ball in play more often and keep it out of the air”. In addition, Lefebvre encourages the players “to modify their offensive approach to be more like Ichiro Suzuki and Tony Gwynn, who became stars by hitting line drives and ground balls.

These are commendable suggestions and the players have been practicing to implement them during spring training. Will they however, be successful during the season? I certainly hope so but I do not see it happening. There are several major reasons for this.
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Weighted bats or bats with a weighted doughnut are typically used to help develop greater strength of the muscles involved in hitting. They are effective for this purpose, but you may have to pay a high price for the strength development. The price you pay is that you may become a worse hitter.

The reason for this is that the strength you gain from using a heavier bat is not proportional to the muscles and joints that are involved in the swing with a regular bat. In other words, you over develop certain muscles and under develop others. In essence, you do not develop strength as it is needed in the usual hitting pattern. Read more… »

There was an article in the local papers the other day describing what batting coaches teach to minor leaguers as well as to the pros. They are all in accord with the statement that “you’ve got to hit it … {the ball} … with backspin. That way it skips through the infield.” It was also brought out that a ball hit with backspin carries better.

There’s no questioning the fact that the ball will carry better if it has backspin. But this also means that the ball stays in the air longer before it makes contact with the ground. Yet, at the same time, the coaches tell the players to “hit through the ball”, “smack hard line drives” and “hit hard ground balls with backspin.” Read more… »

Much lip service and print space is given to weight shift and the role it plays in execution of a swing to hit a ball. However little attention is given to this factor when analyzing swings both in golf as well as in baseball. It appears that most teaching pros take this action for granted.

But yet, learning and mastering the golf or baseball swing is relatively easy if you do not rush movement of the hitting implement. In the golf swing, there should be a distinct shifting of weight onto the forward leg before beginning movement of the club. Similar actions occur in baseball and other sports. Read more… »

In an interview with Jim Lefebvre, new hitting coach for the San Diego Padres, there were a few questions directed to how he was going to improve the team’s offensive power. It was stated that players should “constantly put the ball in play. They focus in on a line drive/down kind of ball flight and if you can do that you’re going to be a productive hitter”

When questioned what was meant by line drive/down ball flight, the response was “Line drives. Hard ground balls.” This was accomplished as follows: “we really focus on staying over the ball and looking for a good ball to hit, early in the count, I don’t care when it is, and when you get it, hit it. Put it in play. Hard…” Read more… »

Much press was given to Tony Gwynn when he was inducted into the baseball hall of fame. This was great to see since he certainly deserves the honor. He was a great hitter with a distinctive type of swing (swing technique).

At present, Tony is coach of the San Diego State University baseball team that has not been very successful. In addition, he has not turned out any great hitters, at least none that can be compared to the greatness that Tony achieved in his playing days. Read more… »

The rotator cuff muscles of the shoulder play a very important role in the prevention of shoulder injury and in the execution of overhead throwing and hitting actions. The four muscles of the rotator cuff are strategically placed so that they are very effective in holding the shoulder joint together.

For example, the supraspinatus on top of the shoulder helps to prevent the arm from popping out when you support your body on your arms. The subscapularis, located in front of the shoulder, helps to prevent dislocation of the arm in front when you bring the arm to side and to the rear. Two muscles on the back of the shoulder (infraspinatus and teres minor) are especially important in the prevention of injury and for execution of some unique arm actions. It is these latter two muscles that are most often injured. Read more… »

It appears that more and more baseball players are getting more strikeouts than hits. One of the reasons for this is that coaches don’t seem to care. It is OK to have many strikeouts. Even though it appears acceptable to coaches, I’m surprised that more fans don’t complain about this.

The trend toward more strikeouts I believe began with Reggie Jackson when he was hitting many home runs with the Angels. It seemed as though everyone talked about his home runs but few looked at how many strikeouts he was getting. Because of his popularity, many players soon began to emulate his success and started copying his technique.

In time the “sit and spin” type of swing evolved and it appears that most every player on all levels of play, uses this type of swing. It is effective for faster rotation of the body and thus getting greater speed of the bat. But it is not an effective swing for making good contact with the ball. Good contact with the ball is the key to a good batting percentage and many but not necessarily the most, home runs. Read more… »

If only they applied a little science.

It appears that when sports reporters must constantly write about a losing team, they inadvertently look for related topics to help explain why the players are not as good as they could be. For example, reporters who cover the San Diego Padres are now writing many articles about Petco Park and how it is not a hitters ballpark. The park design requires good pitching and good defense in order for the team to be successful.

Their definition of a ballpark being bad for hitters is related to the number of home runs being hit. In this case, because of the greater distance that the ball must travel, there are fewer home runs. Statistics show that there are much less than in other ballparks. However, if they would think beyond the obvious, such a ballpark can be a good hitters dream. Read more… »

I may be spoiled because of my scientific background but I would hope that on the elite level, coaches would show some expertise based on sound information and not just opinion and guesswork. However, I have seen few examples if any, of true expertise in regard to improving the baseball swing, especially expertise that is based on facts.

For example Adrian Gonzalez of the Padres credits Tony Gwynn for his improved hitting. What he learned from Gwynn was, “Staying on pitches a little more. Take the ball where it’s pitched. I’ve been able to apply that at times. I’ve gotten out of it because I felt like they were pitching me in, in, in, and in, and I was getting beat. But I felt I had to show them I was going to pull the ball, and so at times I got away from it. But lately I’ve been concentrating on it, especially against lefties.”
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