There will be several articles included in this “Common Cues” series. Below are some important notes to consider before we get into the actual article (these will be included at the beginning of each article in the series):
- Cues are not the same as reality. Cues create reality. Therefore, some of the cues will not match reality, or in other words, what actually happens. Their purpose is to create the reality, not be it.
- Every cue is not meant for everybody. There will be a list of examples in each article, detailing athletes that both demonstrate characteristics of the cue, and athletes that don’t. It’s tough to say exactly which athletes the cue will or won’t work for. Let your intuition be the measuring stick. If the cue makes sense to you, try it out. If not, move on.
- Over time there will be a growing list of “Common Cues” articles. To search for these, simply click the 3 little bars you see at the top of the site and enter “Common Cues” into the search bar to get the full list.
- Let’s get started.
A couple days ago I put out a short series of tweets detailing what had allowed me to go from hitting a ball 350 feet, to hitting a ball 425+ feet. It wasn’t that I tried swinging harder or faster, but instead that I figured out how to move better. In that tweet series, I talked about the “bailout” swing and how, while it may look fast, explosive, and feel good, it likely won’t produce maximal results for you.
What is a “bailout” swing?
Here are the swings I’m talking about. The first swing in the video is what I would term a “bailout” swing, and the second is not. The first swing produced a max distance of roughly 350 feet, and the second a max distance of over 425 feet:
While I don’t have a K-Vest to measure the actual sequencing of what a “bailout swing” looks like, it’s pretty easy to see that the energy I’ve created is much better directed in the second versus the first swing. Let’s get into some more examples.
Here are some clips of JD Martinez working in the cage last offseason:
Martinez has been noted as a guy who had to make some big swing changes once he got into the league to be able to survive and thrive as he is now. These clips give us a glimpse into what he’s been working on. Here’s one more:
What do we notice? Unlike the “bailout” swing I took above, Martinez is NOT spinning left. Instead, he’s taking and directing his energy, his swing flow, in a very specific way.
Something I struggle with daily is how much we need to focus on “batspeed” and results, versus movement patterning and direction, while in practice.
(*Important Note* – We need to see results in practice to know that our training is working. But how much should we directly work on those results, and how much of those results should come as an effect of the other, seemingly non-related practice that we’re putting in?)
It has been well documented in the golfing community that swinging harder and faster is a positive, especially when you’re young and looking to develop the overall speed and power that is required to play at the highest levels of the game. The same is true in baseball. We NEED to spend time developing the pure rotational ability that’s required to compete at the highest levels of the game. Hitting a ball 100+, swinging the bat 70mph+, etc. The question is, how do we do that while maintaining good patterns?
Every athlete interprets the “swing hard” cue differently. I’ve talked about this before, but athletes that would be classified as “gym rats” often interpret swing hard to mean decreased rhythm and increased muscle tension, as if they were throwing 450lbs on their back and squatting it.
On the other hand, smaller athletes, who might be less prone to enjoy the weight room, may in fact need to be told to swing as hard as possible. So what do we do?
Well, getting back to the original purpose of this article, we need to do whatever each individual case calls for. In the case of eliminating the shoulders, I’ve found it generally works best with those athletes that are already big and strong, and need to feel what patterning maximally is, instead of continually trying to swing maximally.
Through the weight room, we are able to build the athletic qualities that are required to swing fast and hit the ball hard. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an athlete that has deadlifted 500 lbs, squatted 450 lbs, but doesn’t have the ability to hit a ball 400+ feet.
With that being understood, a “shoulder dominant” swing tends to be utilized by hitters that misinterpret what it means to “swing hard”. And if we can build the athletic qualities that are required to swing hard and hit the ball far in the weight room, it may be best for those types of athletes to focus more of their energy on patterning. And “eliminating the shoulders” is a big part of that.
What it looks like
I want to take a second to back up and look at an example of Vlad Jr. hitting a pitch that’s up and in. It’s much like the pitch I hit in the “bailout” swing, but he attacks it in a much different way:
Note how Vlad Jr’s body seems to be “quiet”, allowing his barrel to work out front and get good bat on the up and in pitch. Myself, on the other hand, spin left as fast as possible in an attempt to yank the ball foul as far possible (lol).
This is the essence of eliminating the shoulders. Vlad has to decelerate his torso so that his hands and barrel can properly get out in front where it needs to go.
If we revisit the Martinez clips from above, we can see JD working on that very thing:
And finally how it plays out in his in-game swing:
Who is this cue not for?
In my experience, young athletes that don’t have a good base of strength built will not do well with this cue. Becoming too “handsy” is a real concern, and is something that this cue can create if it’s executed with the wrong hitter and with the wrong intention. Those who haven’t built up much power, strength, or speed, have larger issues to worry about than swing patterning. And for most of those athletes, I would instruct them to swing as hard/fast as possible, and save this cue for those who already have that ability, but aren’t displaying it.
Wrap-Up
To close, I want to emphasize that the goal of this cue is in fact to allow athletes to, objectively, swing faster. If we throw a Blast sensor on, they should be swinging faster and hitting harder after use of the cue. If not, then the cue didn’t work. The purpose of writing this article was simply to demonstrate the relationship that being strong can have with the swing, and supply a cue that can help to bridge the gap in that relationship.
As in the previous “Common Cues” article, this one was tough to explain without demonstrating. If you’re still confused or skeptical on what his cue is and how it works, I explain it in more detail below:
If you have additional questions, comments, or are interested in figuring out how this and other cues may apply to your own training, I can be reached via email at brady@dacbaseball.com.
Stay Hungry.
Brady