‼️My Swing Journey‼️ I’m here to help the players coming up but haven’t ever talked about the journey I had to take to learn what I know today. It’s impossible to explain in a post but here’s a little information🧵:

There are three facets to hitting: mental, physical, and mechanical. When a hitter is at their best, all three work together. At the MLB level, physical ability is rarely the limiting factor. These guys are freak athletes, but that doesn’t mean mechanics suddenly stop mattering. In fact, I would argue that the better the competition gets, the more important efficient mechanics become. Shohei is a great example. His ability to stay organized over his backside and maintain an elite pattern is a huge part of what makes him so special. Those movements aren’t accidental, and I don’t believe every way of swinging a bat is equally effective. To me, Shohei checks both the physical and mechanical boxes. He’s an unbelievable athlete with elite mechanics, but even that combination doesn’t make a hitter immune to the mental side of the game. Watching him struggle over the last couple months of the season, I believe that was where he was fighting the biggest battle. When confidence starts to slip and frustration builds, even the best hitters in the world can struggle to perform at their usual level. That’s why I love this moment. You can see the raw emotion after that swing. Every ballplayer has experienced a stretch where the game feels impossible, and sometimes one swing can release weeks of frustration. I’m not a Dodgers fan, but I love seeing moments like this captured on camera. Elite mechanics don’t make you immune to struggles, but they give you a foundation to trust when the mental side of the game gets difficult. #ShoheiOhtani #HittingMechanics #BaseballDevelopment #MentalGame #Hitting

Two swings, two very different patterns. In the first swing, I stay organized around my back leg, allowing my torso and barrel to turn around my backside. The barrel works up through the ball rather than being pushed toward it. In the second swing, I’m much more push-oriented, with my hands and upper body working out in front of my back leg. This creates a more downward path through the ball. One swing works around the back leg and up through the ball, while the other works in front of the back leg and down through it. #HittingMechanics #BaseballTraining #SwingMechanics #HittingDevelopment #FYP

‼️How to Get to the Inside Pitch‼️ The key to getting to the inside pitch is understanding that you don't need to shove your hands forward to get the barrel there. We want to turn and tilt inside the baseball while maintaining space on the backside. The feel is working toward the middle of the field, but that direction should be created by how the body organizes and rotates, not by independently pushing the hands toward the ball. When hitters start forcing their hands forward to reach the inside pitch, they often lose the space and adjustability that allow the barrel to work properly. Let the body organize the direction of the swing while the hands turn the barrel. #HittingMechanics #BaseballHitting #HittingDevelopment #SwingMechanics #BaseballTraining

We want the barrel in the hitting zone as long as possible, but we’re teaching hitters to chop down at the baseball? Are we sure about that? Watch what his hands are demonstrating, then compare that to what his hands and barrel actually do during his game swing. If we’re going to use elite hitters as examples of how to swing, shouldn’t the movements we’re teaching resemble the movements that made them elite? #HittingMechanics #Baseball #HittingDevelopment #fyp #MLB

Ted Williams understood the importance of matching the plane of the pitch and creating a larger window for solid contact. This is a huge part of why I teach the barrel to work rearward rather than pushing the hands directly toward the baseball. When the hitter stays organized over the backside, maintains space with the back arm, and allows the barrel to turn behind them, they can create a path that works up through the incoming pitch. The slight upswing isn’t something we should have to manufacture by lifting the arms. It’s a product of how the body organizes, tilts, and turns the barrel. The goal is to create a swing that gives you more room for error, more adjustability, and the ability to hit the baseball hard without having to be perfect with your timing. #HittingMechanics #TedWilliams #BaseballHitting #SwingMechanics #HittingDevelopment

The problem is “swing down” doesn’t create the lower-half pattern that makes this work. If the lower half is poor, that cue can turn into a linear push toward the ball really quickly. A lot of old-school hitters could use old-school cues because their actual swings were much better than the words they used to describe them.

Watch how Ohtani organizes his spacing and maintains it throughout the swing. His torso stays connected to his back leg, and as that back leg and hip turn, they turn the torso with them. The elbows and hands aren’t independently moving toward the ball or trying to create the swing on their own. This is a huge part of what I teach. Stay organized over the backside and let the back leg turn the torso, which allows the shoulders, arms, hands, and barrel to work around the body without losing that connection. Elite athleticism matters, but so does elite technique. Ohtani has both. #Hitting #BaseballHitting #HittingMechanics #MLB #ShoheiOhtani