I listened to Matt Kata this week on a podcast called the Diamond Dish and found it insightful in terms of hitting and how to teach it. The host is a former professional pitcher by the name Jonah Bayliss from the aitchingacademy.com. Matt Kata was very knowledgable about hitting and he himself has organized a method of teaching hitting that includes three check boxes.
Check Boxes 1. Be on Time 2. Storing Energy Properly 3. Hold Energy Until Contact In this interview I could really agree with Matt's perspectives that there are areas of hitting that you want hitters to be consciously aware of and areas that you don't want to be clouding a hitters mind while at bat or going through their mind during instruction. He calls them "teaches versus non-teaches." A "teach" is a directly instructed concept that will lead to the execution of the "non-teach." So for example, you would instruct a hitter about the action of being on time to hit the ball leading the result of staying closed as the batter hits the baseball. This as opposed to teaching the hitter to stay closed directly, then losing their the timing in the process and further complicating the process of hitting while staying closed. The "teach" is being on time and the "non-teach" is staying closed. Additionally Matt spoke about the difficulties that hitters face when it comes to thinking too much and having too many thoughts in their head about mechanics. In the interview Matt referenced a book written by Jason Selk called 10 Minute Toughness. Kata emphasized that within the concepts of this book an athlete struggles with juggling more than 3 thoughts in their head at one time. So his hitting system is based upon only 3 check boxes of hitting. This is something that I can strongly speak to as a hitter and coach. My players need to react not think, and part of this issue becomes me filling them with too much not needed information. Keeping it to 2-3 teaching points and focusing on them will keep them moving forward. Within the system that Matt Kata has created I have personally created 3 drills for these check boxes below. Any coach that is trying to address these skills should teach them using feel points and drills that emphasizes one of the components at a time. Check Boxes 1. Be on Time LINK 2. Storing Energy Properly LINK 3. Hold Energy Until Contact LINK Coach Brassfield
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