Behind Scenes Look at Softball Lesson

Okay, so you stand right there for a sec just so I can show you. All right, so we're gonna start off on the bag. The reason I like to start on the bag is because it's super easy. You can hit literally anywhere on the bag. Just kind of aim for the middle, but all I want you thinking about is whatever it is I tell you to try to do. There's no failing because there's no ball, okay? You're gonna choke up, I would say about a foot or so. The reason we wanna have space down here is because when you hit, so right now, your swing, your upper body is working this way and then like this, right? So your hands are always down here. If you put an extra foot of space down here, you're not gonna wanna do this because when you do it, you're gonna get this right in the side like this. So you're gonna hit the bag and then this is gonna hit you like right off the side. If you do it the right way and turn better, see how that will finish above my forearm? So it gives you good feedback. It's not this, it's that. I always start with the, I call it a full coil, toes pointed forward. So we're gonna go toes pointed forward, light on the outside foot. You're gonna coil around this leg. So you're gonna coil and then when I say go, what you're gonna try to do is you're gonna start to make this turn like this, but the biggest thing is that I wanna feel like, remember, this is gonna get turned up like this, not down and across. So this is gonna turn up. It's gonna be inside the bag. So if you go out with it, you'll hit the bag like that. If you stay tight and go up with it like this, you'll be able to hit the bag like that. This will finish up here. So that's all I want you to do. You're gonna start here. You're gonna coil back and around. You're gonna hold it. I'm gonna say go. You're gonna try to turn this inside here and up in the bag and hit it. Go. Okay, so what I wanna show you first, get in that same position again. So coil back. Good, stay there. Now I'm gonna kind of pull you and put you in a different position, okay? First thing I'm gonna do, if you think about how your weight's distributed, right now you're probably, you're not 50-50, but you're kind of close. I want you to feel, bring your weight with me. Ready? Come this way. Okay, good. Now, go up even more. Feel like there's nothing there. Now come back and around and now come over. Stay there. Okay, so that's where I want you to feel. See how now you're like, what do you think? 95-5 maybe for weight? Like that's what you wanna feel and it brings you over the plate like this. So now from here, you can go like this more. So you're like over the plate and inside it more. So that's what I want you to feel now, right? Stay over here with me. Okay, ready? So go, stay there. Go. Do it again and don't, you went, when you went this swing, you started to go that way a little I want you to really feel like, watch me, like I go boom and I stay over the plate this way. So stay over right there. Ready? Go. Now you're gonna feel over and back more. So ready? Not in your stance. When you go, feel over and back. Cool? So good, come this way a little more. Right there. Okay, ready? Go. That's better. Do that again. Ready? Stay, yep, good. Ready, over and back. Go. A click more back. So do it again, come here. When you go now, you're gonna feel over and that a little bit more. Go. One more. Now go faster and do it. Ready? Go. Right there. And you're just gonna turn your hands back quick. Ready? Go. That's a good start. See how I kind of like load you? Instead of loading you like this, see how I'm kind of like loading you like that? So if you think about loading and unloading like think about your upper body. When I tuck this kind of down this way, just a little bit like this, when you unload it, it's gonna go back like that. Does that make sense? So if you think about almost like a seesaw, right? If you load something heavy on one side and then put something heavy on the other side, it's gonna go back that way. Like if you take a tree and you put a rope around a tree and you pull the tree so the tree started to lean like this and then you cut the rope, boom, it goes back the other way, right? So it's same thing with your upper body. If you load it here, so it's a little bit of a coil, but this is also going a little down. When I unload this, it's gonna go up and back. And when you go up and back, you can then go, it's the same thing. It'll allow you to turn deeper like that. The other thing you wanna think about is when you're turning that this connection between your hands and your shoulder, you don't want your hands and really your hands to outrace the turn of this. So when this starts to go like this, you don't want that to happen. Because once your hands start to outrace everything, even if they start back here, if you start to go back and they wanna go like this, you're probably gonna do that. Or you'll go like this and at the last second, you'll try to do that, but that's no good either. Cause you want the barrel in the zone deeper. So when you turn, like when I do this, when I do this, my legs turning, my upper body's going back, but see how my hands aren't pushing forward. So I say like the turn of your hands, this turn right here has to happen behind the turn of your leg and your upper body. Like this should be happening like that. Then as you keep turning, turning, turning, turning, now you can get into the bag this way, like that. But if this goes, if this wants to go here, when you go back, you go hands first and then your swing's like out of sequence and it's hard to get the barrel turned up into the ball. So now we're taking what you just did and trying to get your left leg involved more now on the stride. The whole idea is that you want to feel like as this left foot is about to come into the ground, you're essentially almost in the exact same position you were in when you were working on the coil drills. And so what happened before, get in your stance again. Good. So now coil up a little, just a little right there. What happened before is when you start the stride, this wants to go this way, that wants to go that way. Everything gets forward. You're going to want to push. So your goal is you've got a coil, set everything right here, pick this foot up. And even though that foot's striding out that way, all of this remains loaded back. So this, I call this pulled back. It's just that little bit of a load right there. This stays here. This stays loaded. Everything stays back as you move forward. And then when your foot's about to hit the ground, what happens in the game is you're going to time everything up so that your brain's going to say swing somewhere like right there. And you're going to go, boom. Everything's going to work back. Your leg's going to turn. And your swing is going to look a lot like what we just practiced on the coil drill. So try it again two more times. No swing, just load up. Good. Now stride out and keep this back. Do that again. Yup. And do that again. And don't let these turn too far this time. So you're going to start here. Go ahead and do a little coil. Good. And now that's all it needs to go. Now you're going to stride out. Good. Do that again. Okay. This is going to stay here. These are going to stay here. And you're going to feel like you're going to hover the ground for just a little bit longer. Then I'll get out of the way. Ready? Go. Yup. Even more. Back. This back. Ready? Again. Make all of this more subtle. Just a little pull back. Doesn't have to be huge. Little pull back. Doesn't have to be a big shoulder turn. It's just a slight roll in of your shoulder. This is just slightly down. But it's more of just holding as you move out. Get here. Hold, hold, hold as you move out. If you turn too much, if you get here, the way to get out of this position is to come there. Everybody slightly turns in. But your move's got to be a slight turn in. This is down. And that's going to set you up to do that. If I go here, I go there. I got to get out of that. I'm like a little stuck. And then you'll come across. You'll go out, down, and across. You start off jumping. Start off getting low forward. Then you did a better job of controlling it and keeping it back. And started doing a better job of getting turn palm up, palm down. But you've got to feel like the next part of it is you've got to think like if we were to lay this down, say like that, towards let's say the second basement. You've got to feel like when you get this turned and you're going to start to come through that your palm up, palm down, but that your barrel is going to feel like your extension is working to right center, to the second basement. So you're from the inside out like that. Because you can get palm up, palm down, but if your swing starts to move this way, see how you're not covering the hitting zone? The one way you hit it off the very end, just think about it. If I'm flipping from there, you hit it back to me off the very end of the bat. Because even though you were like this, you were moving this way, the ball's coming from there, clipped there. If you had more through that way, you'd drive it to right center. So this is happening much better. Now we've just got to get it a bit tighter and feel like your extension is going through the second basement. Like you're going to drive everything to right center field. Doesn't mean every ball is going to go to right center, but that's like your thought process. From the inside and your extension is going to happen to right center. And then if the ball is out there, you can let it out there. If the ball is middle, I'm already inside, then I can just let it out middle. If the ball is in, I start in. Oh, the ball's in, I just keep turning in and then I let it out inside. So it lets you hit the ball, whether it's outside, middle, in, it doesn't matter. But if you come this way a little bit, now you can't hit anything out there. And you get off the end of the bat, you'll be around it, and it just doesn't let you cover as much of the hitting zone. We'll start off with these balls again. Same thing. Everything feel back, palm up, and then through me. Extension through right center field. Palm up through me a little longer. Again, through me more, longer. Better, feel it again. Back and over the plate. Again. And so make sure you pull back and load, and then your hands start to turn before they go forward. They can't go forward, then turn. Feel them turn before they go forward. Again. Turn. Longer, just hold it back a little bit longer. Hold it, turn it. Yes. You pull back, you load. When I say go, pump the body back behind your leg. Palm up, palm down. Go. Let the ball do the work. Let it get there. Make sure your left arm is up and not pulling to your left. Drive the ball to right center. Keep feeling back. Three more. Back with your upper body. Keep them back there. Okay, so same thing. Just get to extension. Feel it go in the right center. If you've got hitters that you're looking to improve before the start of next season, this is essential for you. Matt Antonelli here, former major league player, first round pick, and college coach. With this course, we're gonna show you exactly, step by step, how to generate power, develop at speed, and enhance swing mechanics. 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