Let's Hit Some Home Runs
Hitting home runs is not an accident. It can be an intentional practice. Get out on the field and try to drive the baseball.
Welcome to Get Better Baseball.
This project is intended to help elevate others. If you are looking for inspiration and ideas on how to make people and players better, sign up now to receive the weekly email delivered to your inbox Sunday night:
“I’m trying to homer. That’s the difference. I’m trying to homer.”
That was Joey Votto’s response after he was asked what was different about his approach during a stretch of games where he hit nine home runs in seven games. The 37-year-old had gone off. After several years of hitting an average of 13 home runs a season, Votto was suddenly popping off for 23 by the end of July.
Photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash
Hitting home runs has often been viewed as an accident. They are the unintended but welcomed result of trying to hit a ball hard. Votto, however, invoked a more recent line of thinking that home runs are intentional.
So how would you go about trying to homer? To start, most home runs are created in the weight room and batting cage. Strength and bat speed play a vital role. Sound mechanics do as well. But let’s say you have a player -- or are a player -- who possesses those prerequisites. How would you work on trying to hit home runs?
Self-toss might be one of the simplest practices that can improve a player’s ability to drive the ball.
Not long ago, as we waited for players to arrive between summer camp sessions at our high school stadium, the school’s head coach and I wandered over to home plate with a bat and a full bucket of balls. On the empty field, we took turns tossing up balls and trying to hit them over the fences. We were killing time -- along with a couple of baseballs -- but that activity is one that can actually help hitters move better.
While the practice does not replicate an in-game environment, self-toss swings can help a hitter understand contact points, what kind of spin you are imparting on a ball, and how to make adjustments. It can encourage intent to drive the ball -- a factor that is sometimes lacking with younger hitters who focus on just making contact. This sets an external goal (hit the ball over the fence) coupled with the element of self-discovery that is keenly important to player development.
This is not too different from what former Minnesota Twins slugger Justin Morneau went through when he was in the minor leagues. According to Morneau, the Twins would host a “power development program” in the fall where hitters would work on the field with a tee, trying to backspin baseballs over the fence. Morneau believed that it was this practice that helped hone the swing that led to 247 career home runs.
Both the self-toss and on-field tee drills give hitters immediate feedback on how it traveled. If you hook or cut the ball, the hitter will likely self-organize and adjust their technique in order to accomplish the task of sending it over the fence. Do this enough and they will have that skill locked in.
Let’s take this one step further. Now you have a player who is good at destroying baseballs. They are big, strong and able to lose rawhide with the best of them. Maybe, however, they are ensnared with trying too hard to hit home runs (think: Miguel Sano). What do you do? Hitting coach Michael Earley uses another simple drill that encourages hitters to hit home runs without trying to hit home runs.
In 2020, as the hitting coach at Arizona State University, Earley was dealing with supreme talent: Future first overall pick Spencer Torkelson was developing under his guidance.
Earley said he saw Torkelson’s raw power immediately. After all, Torkelson smashed 54 home runs as a freshman and sophomore. But the coach wanted Torkelson to command the zone better. Rather than muscling up to unload on a pitch, Earley encouraged him to have a relaxed approach and let the power work naturally.
In order to accomplish this, Earley said he took Torkelson out to the school’s field and fed him front toss.
“I said, 'hey, this is going to sound crazy, but I want you to see how easily you can hit the ball over the fence, meaning controlling your body, not muscling up,'” Earley told CBS Sports. “And for some reason that clicked with him, and it allowed him to have more plate discipline, where he felt he had more time, he felt like he didn't need to do too much to generate power, which allowed him to see pitches better.”
“[E]very Thursday before a series we're out there on the field and we just do the front-toss drill. And it's the most impressive thing. He'll get on a roll and I've seen him maybe hit 12, 13, 14 home runs in a row off of front toss on the field and he's literally just taking the easiest swings ever.”
It’s a very simple cue for a hitter: Try to hit home runs without trying to hit home runs.
Hitting home runs is not an accident. It can be an intentional practice. Get out on the field and try to drive the baseball.
Like what you just read? Check out a few other articles:
If you enjoyed this post and want to receive more like it, please consider subscribing for a weekly email:
And if you really, really liked it, please consider sharing it with others: