So what do you do on the last practice before a tournament? Well I focused on getting hitters ready for high velocity pitchers. So we set the machine at 59 — didn’t set it but used pocket radar to get the speed. In an indoor facility I think it’s fine — the light isn’t the same. 59 seemed fast enough for most of our batters. I had them bunt 10 pitches and then swing at 10. If they missed the pitch entirely I saw a few just not get their lead leg down before the swing started. I asked them to focus on that and lo they hit a couple of balls. Then I said, now how hard are you swinging on a scale of 1-10 — most said 6 or 7. To that I made the standing 6-7 sign to show I’m in the know (if you don’t know it, look it up but it’s all the rage in the 10-12 year old crowd). I told them to get their emotions going and go for a 9 or 10. Suddenly they started ripping the ball. Just shows how much of this stuff is in their head. Read the MENTAL GAME OF HITTING if you haven’t seen it. It’s fantastic.
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