For the Ultimate Baseball Batter

How to stop chasing breaking ball pitches in the dirt & lower strikeouts.

Strikeouts are on the rise...

In the era of the launch angle, there have been more strikes and pop-ups now than at any point in the history of the game

Why?

Because pitchers have made an adjustment.

Pitchers are seeing hitters obsessed with launch angle and hitting the ball in the air, creating an early collapse in their backside, so pitchers are now elevating the fastball.

2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022 all had 40,000+ strikeouts.

That's almost half the amount of strikeouts Major League Baseball saw during the days of tough-as-nails hitters like George Brett, Andre Dawson, and Robin Yount.

Understand: There will be a huge opportunity for hitters who adopt a Post-Up approach while being aggressive on pitches up in the zone and geared up for the Fastball.

What is the Post-Up Method?

It starts by being aggressive on strikes up in the zone.

Here’s why it’s effective.

Ever since a pitcher is 9 years old, what are they taught to do? Keep the ball down.

Why?

Because a pitch up in the zone is an easier pitch to hit. That’s why they call mistake pitches up in the zone, a mistake pitch. Hanging breaking balls, flat chest high fastballs, etc.

This is why some of the furthest balls you will ever hit are the chest-high fastball and hanging breaking ball.

A breaking ball that starts down in the zone (below the hitter's waist) will end up below the strike zone or in the dirt at point of contact.

A breaking ball that starts up in the zone, (at or above the hitter's waist) will be in the strike zone at point of contact.

This is why to increase plate discipline and to avoid chasing pitches in the dirt, we Post Up. We look for pitches up in the zone to attack.

From here, we can sit, Dead-Read on anything up and adjust to breaking balls that are strikes without chasing breaking balls that end up as balls in the dirt.

You can train the Post Up Method Drill in the Applied Vision Baseball vision training app here.

How to perfect your timing and stop being late on the Fastball.

It happens to every hitter... 

We take the fastball right down the middle of the plate.

We can’t seem to pull the trigger.

We’re like a deer in headlights. Frozen and unable to take the bat off the shoulder.

Why?

Because we don’t have our finger on the Swing Trigger.

What is the Swing Trigger Method?

It starts with the hitter’s mentality being “It’s a strike until it’s not”.

In other words, the hitter must assume that the next pitch is going to be a strike.

Not only a strike but the best pitch they were going to see all day.

The thinking needs to be “yes, yes, no” on a ball and “yes, yes, GO” on a strike.

As my friend Steve Springer says, “Take the IF out of our swing.”

Stop thinking you’re going to swing “if” it’s a strike.

Assume the next pitch is going to be a strike and assume you’re going to swing.

This is how you keep your finger on the Swing Trigger.

You can train the Swing Trigger Method Drill in the Applied Vision Baseball vision training app here.

How to decrease weak contact & take back control of every at-bat.

The numbers can’t be ignored... 

The more “selectively-aggressive” hitters are early in the count, the better the hitter's overall performance will be in the batter's box.

At the higher levels, statistically the deeper in the count you go, the harder it is to hit.

Most of a hitter's hard-hit contact will be done earlier in the count or when they have count-leverage.

1-0, 2-0, 3-1.

These are called hitter’s counts.

In other words…

Hitter's need to work themselves into good counts while being selectivly aggressive early in the at-bat.

Pitcher’s want to get ahead early in the count.

This is why as a hitter, it’s your job to capitalize on mistake pitches, by taking quality swings early in the count on pitches in the zone.

One characteristic that all elite hitters have is off-the-charts pitch recognition skills.

When their pitch-selection is on point, and they’re recognizing spin, speed, and location efficiently, they’re not swinging at where the ball is out of the pitcher’s hand, rather, they’re signing at where the pitch will be at point of contact.

This vision skill is called Saccadic Vision.

It’s the ability for the eyes and brain to predict the direction of a moving object.

It’s how elite hitters are able to make adjustments during the path of the pitch.

This is another vision skill you can train and sharpen in the Applied Vision Training App.

Train to become the ulimate baseball batter with pitch selection training in the Applied Vision Baseball App. 

You can get access to over 1,000+ pitch sequences while simulating at-bats against pitchers from all levels. 

Join us and start your VR and non-VR vision training for $1.

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