May 25, 2009
The Natural: Cole Hiestand
At Bat: Cole Hiestand from Todd Hiestand on Vimeo.
Cole is 5 1/2 and has been hitting like this for about a year and a half. He loves baseball and he asks to play almost everyday. Since we watch the Cubs all the time, his swing is a combination of Derek Lee and Alphonso Soriano. What impresses me most is that I have not really taught him how to swing the bat. He has pretty much learned from watching MLB players.
The only thing I have taught him are my four keys to hitting (which I made up one day while we were playing) in the yard:
- Elbow up
- Bend your knees
- Watch the ball.
- Whack!
I figure if he gets these down, he’ll be all set.
05.26.09
By: Adam Lehman
One thing I learned through years of coaching my brother is sometimes “eyes on the ball doesn’t work well.”
Instead, I showed him some slowmo highlights of michael jordan shooting, randy moss catching a tough ball, or barry bonds hitting a ball.
In all of those highlights, you’ll see these athletes have “big eyes.” They have this ability to focus so dang hard that their eyes get huge.
This really helped my little brothers batting and ability to shoot consistently in basketball and catch balls (baseball/football).
i don’t know why i thought this was important enough to pass on, but whatever.
Adam