Episodes
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Episode Overview
In this insightful episode, baseball experts Joey Myers and Perry Husband explore the nuances of hitting and pitching strategies to improve player performance. From dissecting hitting techniques to understanding swing flaws and diving into pitching analytics, they cover a comprehensive range of topics. The duo emphasizes the importance of data analysis and encourages players to be mindful of their own capabilities instead of merely mimicking professionals. Listeners will also get actionable advice and resources to elevate their game.
Key TakeawaysHitting Techniques: The importance of a locked-out lead arm, wrist stretch, and maximizing swing leverage for optimal hitting.
Trade-offs in Hitting: Balancing between hitting homers on low and away pitches and mastering the top of the strike zone.
Swing Flaws: Understanding and identifying swing flaws that can affect a player’s ability to make solid contact with the ball.
Copying Pros: The risks of emulating swings of professional players who have different physical capabilities.
Pitching Strategies: The significance of speed differential between pitches and keeping track of pitch counts for effective pitching.
Ground Ball Focus: The necessity for pitchers to induce ground balls to minimize the number of pitches thrown.
Timing and Angles: How timing tendencies and angles at which hitters hit pitches are often overlooked in scouting reports.
Data Analysis: The critical role of data and real-world testing in refining both hitting and pitching strategies.
Resource Sharing: Perry Husband’s books and website are mentioned as resources for further learning and improvement.
Mutual Respect: Both experts express admiration for each other's work and contributions to the field.
Resource LinksBlog Post on Hitting Performance LabYouTube VideoPerry's website Effective Velocity -
Unlock your hitting potential with data-backed techniques! Debunk myths about the best adjustable baseball power swing drills for youth to high school. Dive into at-home hitting mechanics supported by science.
Here's a little bit of what is discussed in Part-3 between Perry Husband and Joey Myers:
The discussion in the video focuses on baseball hitting mechanics and strategies, specifically critiquing traditional emphasis on exit velocity. Joey Myers and Perry Husband are in their third part of discussing these topics.Perry Husband shares extensive data and examples to argue that the common practice of teaching hitters to extend their arms for outside fastballs while pulling their hands in for inside fastballs may not be effective. He cites league averages and Mike Trout's specific stats to emphasize his point.The talk delves into what Husband calls "Effective Velocity," which considers not just the speed of the pitch but its location, trajectory, and the hitter's reaction time. According to his research, hard-hit balls usually occur against the toughest pitch combinations, like fastballs up and in.Both Myers and Husband lament that mainstream baseball, including the Major Leagues, often misses the nuances in hitting mechanics. Husband even proposes a hypothetical Discord discussion with pitching experts to compare philosophies.The discussion is framed around the broader idea of what constitutes a "successful hitting mechanic." Husband argues for a method that allows hitters to be less than perfect but still successful, while Myers questions the prevailing philosophies, opening up a dialogue on what metrics and strategies should really be used for teaching and evaluating hitters.Other ResourcesBlog PostYouTube Video -
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Joey Myers from hittingperformancelab.com and effectivevelocity.com hosts a part two discussion with Perry Husband, touching on critical perspectives about baseball hitting mechanics and methods.There's controversy around the value of increasing exit velocity as a primary focus for hitters, with some in the baseball community mocking this approach.Effective velocity research indicates a challenge in the education and understanding of proper hitting techniques, with many instructors leaning towards trendy drills rather than scientifically-based methods.Perry delves into the details of the swing, emphasizing the importance of hitting a baseball correctly, which does not always align with popular teachings.
They hint at a possible part three discussion, with Perry expressing his plans to share more on platforms like YouTube and Twitter.Here are the links to:
Blog Post, andYouTube video. -
Why instruction to increase exit velocity? Learn baseball and fastpitch or slowpitch softball bat speed tips to improve hitting power that are supported by data and science. The following video is a conversation I had with Perry Husband of EffectiveVelocity.com.
The Importance of Exit Velocity in BaseballIn the world of baseball and softball, one term that has gained significant attention is 'Exit Velocity.' Exit Velocity refers to the speed of the ball as it comes off the bat, and it has emerged as a critical metric for evaluating a player's hitting ability.
The Emergence of Exit VelocityThe concept of Exit Velocity was first introduced, by Perry Husband, in a video with J. Bell. The idea was to come up with an efficient and effective teaching method for young players that would maximize their output on the field. Thus, Exit Velocity was born.
The Impact of Exit VelocityThe average Exit Velocity in Major League Baseball hovers around 75-80% of a player's maximum.
Teaching based on Exit Velocity can lead to immediate improvements in a player's performance. It's not uncommon for players to see their ball exit speeds increase significantly after just a few sessions. This not only boosts their performance on the field but also their self-confidence.
The Controversy around Exit VelocityDespite its effectiveness, not everyone is on board with the concept of Exit Velocity. Many players and coaches have pre-existing belief systems about hitting based on traditional methods or advice passed down from previous generations.
However, it's important to note that the proof is in the pudding. One of the best examples is Carlos Pena, who transformed from being a slugger to a hitter and led the Major Leagues in exit velocity the first year it was recognized as a crucial metric, working with Perry.
The Future of Exit VelocityWith the advent of technology and data analysis in baseball, Exit Velocity is likely to play an even more significant role in the future. A player's ability to produce high Exit Velocities consistently is seen as a marker of their potential to play at higher levels. For instance, a high school player aiming to play in college should be able to achieve an Exit Velocity of at least 80 mph off the tee.
As baseball continues to evolve, so too will the importance of metrics like Exit Velocity. As we move forward, it's essential to keep an open mind and remain willing to test and adopt new strategies and techniques to improve player performance.
Links:Blog Post, and
YouTube Video.
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In this interview, we discuss the following:
Many things that differentiate you from others and it's MAT, explain MAT a little bit...Talk a little bit about some of the things you're seeing out there the pitchers that are coming to you...“I've got one research paper with 3D mathematical models showing you need over 2000 pounds of force, as compression shearing to get even a 1% change in length. And a 1% change in length for, ligaments that's called a grade one strain or sprain.”Is all stretching bad or is there a time and a place for it?What’s your view on weighted ball throwing programs?What’s your view on the force plate metrics some experts are relying on?The Kinetic Arm reduces stress on elbow-shoulder and guides arm into the right positions, is that a fair assessment?And pitchers are using the Kinetic Arm to rehab Tommy John surgery?Is the Kinetic Arm available in youth sizes yet?Where can people find you, Jason? -
In this interview with Physical Therapist Dr. Jocelyn Vartanian in Fresno, CA, we discuss:
You've had a huge influx of new clients, athletes... what are you seeing coming in right now?What do you see different in softball, girls coming in with injuries versus the guys? Or is there any difference?What's your advice on the ankle side of things?What top two things would you suggest they do to help with those ankles?On low back stuff, what kind of advice would you give the ladies?What's your advice on shoulder? You mentioned that the boys are the elbow really elbow heavy shoulder...“And your shoulder blade strength starts to pick up, your shoulders start to feel better. You add like 2, 3, 4 miles an hour on your velo like that, but I didn't throw harder”Let people know where they can find you... -
In this episode I interview one of my former Fresno State teammates, who was a pitcher and is now a Chiropractor. Here's what we cover:
If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice, what would that advice be?What were some of the pain symptoms you experienced in your pitching shoulder in college?The dangers, causes, and how to fix reverse cervical curve in young athletesWhat is a “Denner roll”? Not sushi?What other things are you seeing in young athletes; besides neck stuff, that we need to look out for?Where can people find you? -
In this interview with clinical Sports Performance Psychologist, Dr. Bhrett McCabe, we go over:
What are the top two mistakes that athletes make when it comes to dealing with those injuries? Psychologically?Dad's saying you need to tough it out. You need to get out there. What's your advice for some of those?What’s your advice on a player that is VERY hard on themself?“To me, the first thing we can do as the coach is never assumed that they're going to be better. I think we must assume that they're going to struggle.”What do you, and it leads into some tough talks where, we're talking about suicide rates and things like that. What's your initial analysis?“Every coach strength, coach hitting coach, every coach should know what to do. If a player comes to them and says, coach, I just don't think about living anymore.”Where can people find you? Do you have any, so that could be social. That could be the website. I know we mentioned the beginning any kind of workshops or anything coming up? -
Here's what we go over in this episode:
“...hitting approach, something we've really used this fall to help assess our hitters and swing decisions”What would you suggest, to say a little league coach, if you were to pick one of those [Blast, Hitting Approach, Quality At-bats,etc], what would you say would be the best for 12U?“...you manually put in where the pitch crossed the strike zone, and it's almost like having a spray chart, but just digitally and the cool aspect of it, from what I've gathered, what I've seen, is that it creates a heat map.”You mentioned competitions in the outfield. Take me through that. What does that look like?The four-seam spin, just by putting a thin piece of athletic tape on the four-seam, in the middle. Talk a little bit about that...One of the other drills that you mentioned you didn't go into it too deep, but I'd like you to here, from Sammy's podcast, was a bucket drill. I think it had to do with the fly balls at the peak...What do you see as being the top two things when it comes to organizational practice at the high school level that maybe is missing?Where we can find you, give us a talk about your book Rounding Third and where people can buy it? -
Here's what we go over in this interview with hitting academy owner, team coach, and one-on-one hitting instructor in Tennessee, Nate Headley (brother to Major Leaguer Chase):
“I woke up to my first morning of college with the cops knocking on our door at five o'clock in the morning...”What do you see as the top two mistakes that academy owners make?“I think the toughest conversations I have are the ones with the parents that are so over the top that you have to sit them down and say, hey, look, man, if you don't back off, they're not going to make it.”“I think ultimately that's where you start to lose traction in the development process and building teams and I think that the more you can continue on a daily basis to pick up, if it's one thing a day...”What's your filter? How do you know to follow a guy or two to give it a try, what's your filter for that?“There's so much information available. If you're just paying attention to the game, if you're just paying attention to how they're attacking hitters in front of you, we force all our guys to get out of the dugout, out onto the field when they've got a guy getting loose.”“We can give you all the information you need to be successful, but what you do with it is ultimately all that matters, because the development process is not going to be there.”Where can people find you if they want to reach out, ask you questions, you got a website, social media, any of that? -
Here's what we cover in this episode:
What are the top-3 kid raising pitfalls parents fall into in middle school and high school in before college and professional ball?The DANGERS lurking in self-comparison from ages 14-18 years old“Getting repetition because through repetition, we're going to gain our retention....“They won a college world series. It was a great moment. But suddenly, everything's winding down. I suddenly realize that journey had concluded...”“I use the term and I've used 40 years where I tell parents the whole objective is to trade athletic ability for academic excellence.”“What's the difference of success levels between your son who just played through college and the one who went pro in the way you treated them and brought them up?”Where to find the book Committed and purchase, and where to find you guys on the socials? -
Here's what we go over in this part-2 episode with Joe Yurko:
Joe’s 10 Sports Psychology principles that are a part of his hitting systemFear: “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod Crane, in the story, he was afraid, but it was his own imagination that caused him to be afraid, there was no Headless Horseman.”“These kids were walking around saying, we're going to face a guy throwing 95 miles an hour. I'm trying to counter that.”Conscious Brain: “...your thinking parts, the parts that land rockets on the moon and invent sticky notes and whiteout and things like that.”“The moment you said, I don't care anymore, you just turned your brain on.”“He called it the paradox that the upper parts of our brains invent the games that we play... Then the lower parts are the ones that play it.”Where can people find you Joe? -
Here are some of the topics to be discussed:
What video analysis software do you use?Who is Chaz Henry? What’s his background in?The fascinating history of Powerchalk and machine learning...Difference of amateur hitter’s up shoulders at landing versus professional hitter’s down shoulders...What machine learning, aka “Artificial Intelligence” (AI), means to the future of video analysis...“What I've done is I've kind of shown how the machine can grade you, can look at these frames and grade you [the swing] ...”How to objectively take a swing “red” light and turn it “green” ...“I don't pretend at all that I'm doing away with, or that I'm automating a real hitting coach; I see it as a second opinion...”Using machine learning to recognize dysfunctional movement like immobile joint and diagnose corrective exercise, so that a hitter moves better...Where can they go to find Powerchalk obviously, and then is there a place they can go to check out this new AI machine learning stuff?Click short link for transcribed interview in pdf format: https://gohpl.com/chazhtranscription
Click short link for video of interview: https://gohpl.com/chazhvideo
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“You Can Have Average Mechanics and If You Have A Good Approach, You Can Still Be Successful”Mark Gonzalez, @EastBayMark on Twitter, and inspirational parent coaching his High School Junior hitter
Here's what we talk about in this episode:
What do you find to be the biggest mistake, one or two mistakes on hitting that you see out there?Was there an aha moment at some point where you finally said Oh, you know what, I might be over overdoing this being the helicopter parent?“You can have average mechanics and if you have a good approach, you can still be successful...”Is it all about hitting dingers and doubles?What ever happened to playing Whiffle Ball in the street, and can kids learn anything from video games?What things have you guys been doing on the recruiting side?“If this college wants a certain type of hitting approach and if that's the hitting approach you really don't like well maybe that's not the school for you...”Any other parting thoughts that you would give to those parents out there with freshmen, sophomores, juniors in high school, coming from a dad who's coaching their own kid?Where can people find you Coach Mark and powerful BONUS tips??? -
In this episode with Joe Yurko, a retired teacher and baseball coach who taught a Sports Psychology class, we go over:
Teacher-coach, what you were teaching, the psychology side, give everybody a little bit of a background...
Joe Yurko’s 10 Rules for Sports Psychology SuccessWhat do you mean by you can't ‘try’ to hit?“The more you forget, the better you are at doing it, and the better you are doing it, the more you can forget.” - Lawrence ShainbergHow did you get out of your head and just react when you play?
The ‘Pattern Interrupt’“The mind is a great thing unless you must use it.” – Tim McCarverJoe, where can people find you? -
Here's what we talk about in this episode:
Stephen was accelerating his barrel early, which is what we were teaching at the time, but by the time he got to contact, it was slowing down. Talk a little bit about that...When I looked at Javy Baez, I was seeing him really turn, they say when the pitcher shows you their back pocket, then the hitter shows the pitcher their back pocket. I think that’s flawed...It’s not how much hitter loads their upper torso that’s the issue with getting to inside pitch, it has to do with the barrel path...It was this way [swing down], but his barrel [Bonds] stayed this way [flat], and you'll look at videos, and it just stays flat to the ball that's up in the zone or inside in the zone. He was one of the best...There's a problem there if we want lower strikeouts, and we want a higher batting average, which some can argue isn't as important in today's game, but I still think it is...Where can people find you to get more information? -
Coach Neil McConnell, the founder of MaxBP whiffle ball pitching machines, et al. productsWhat Does It Mean To ‘Build The Database’ When It Comes To Hitting?
Here are some of the topics to be discussed:
You're doing a lot of really big things over the last year or two? Go ahead and let them know what you guys are up to?What are some of those tools? I know you have a bunch of them, but say like top two or so outside of the actual pitching machines?It's not just about a whiffle ball pitching machine to hit on?What does it mean to ‘build the database’ when it comes to hitting?You guys have done a lot of cool stuff with using max BP with catchers, how do you guys use that?“Where you're making them make a decision and ignoring one color versus being locked into another color...”“You can honestly get work in and probably 10-15 feet. 20 feet is a good space....”Do you guys test them before they go out?Where can people find you, the website, the social media, all that good stuff? -
Bill Masullo of Ultimate Edge at GoodSports “I saw 6000 guys; I didn't see anybody who could hit a curveball. It's like, how are we not hitting a curveball?”
What we go over:
Give me your sales pitch on you guys' Academy, what you guys do, where you’re located, etc.How long has it been since you started following me Bill?Do you guys do different experiments and stuff like that? Do you show those kids a part of your learning process?What's your advice on the biggest mistake you see some of these hitting academies making in the beginning?How are you guys applying Perry Husband’s stuff?What hitting strategies are you talking about to your guys? And how are you practicing them?Why ‘keep hands inside’ the curveball is a myth...Bill and Joey on the state of youth baseball and softball: ‘free play’Where can people find you Bill? -
Strength & Conditioning Coach Joey Wolfe, owner of Paradigm Sport of Santa Cruz, California
Do You Have Data Showing the Difference of AFTER Putting Athletes Through a Movement Screen & Do Corrections?
Here are some of the topics to be discussed:
Where did you end up on the baseball scene?Give me the origin story of Paradigm Sport. Why Paradigm Sport? What is you guys' main mission?Is there a specific kind of screen that you guys use a movement screen?Do you have any kind of data that's showing the difference after you put them through the screen and do the movement corrections?I could imagine that a lot of our shoulders were just dynamite waiting to explode...Is there a difference between your males and females? Or is there a pattern that emerges there?Yeah, it's like an incubator. You guys are creating an incubator for the result, obviously being the athlete and beyond performing the game, but there's a lot...Talk a little bit about the future of Paradigm Sport being online...Click short link for transcribed interview in pdf format: https://gohpl.com/joeywolfetranscription
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Geoff Rottmayer of StrategicHittingGuy.com
“I Think We’d Like To Tell Guys More Than Seeing How They’re Pitching Him...See How They’re Adjusting To Them...”
What we go over:
What are your 5 Pillars to Preparation Success?Who is Geoff Rottmayer?What are some of the two-strike mindset approach type things that you guys talk about?Basing plan at the plate on pitcher observations & PBR?“Pregame data research, where you combine on and try to figure them out...”“Every pitcher is different, his fastball, not his fastball, his curveball, not his curveball. It's really individualized and everything. That's the key to it individualizing as much as you can...”“I think we'd like to tell guys more than seeing how they're pitching him...see how they're adjusting to them...”“There are three mindsets that we've been able to identify over the last five, six years, and then it's really been an eye opener...”What are some of the questions that you ask to take a player from compare-convince phase to compete-contribute?So where can people find you as of today?Click short link for transcribed interview in pdf format: https://gohpl.com/geoffrtranscription
Click short link for YouTube video of interview: https://gohpl.com/geoffrvideo
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