Keeping your upper half back
November 22, 2011
Keeping the upper half of your body back is key when attempting to hit the ball hard. It keeps your head still allowing for better eye hand coordination on contact. It also allows your hands to get out quicker in to the palm up / palm down power position. Moving your upper half forward will give the ball approximately a 5 mph increase towards the hitter and cause many balls to be topped and hit towards the ground. Don’t get me wrong, weight does transfer on to the front foot on contact but not the way most people think. The head should finish over top of the rear knee on contact. If you are in the most powerful and correct position on contact, it should be very hard to hold that position for more than a second without hurting or stressing out your rear knee or foot.
The upper half coming forward is the old way which was used more in teaching methods in the 1980′s. Since slow motion video analysis has become a big part with swing analysis in the 90′s, the upper half back has proved out to be for the better. Bat speeds are at a much higher speed and players with rotational mechanics are quickly becoming the best hitters of all time. Hitters with rotational mechanics can be seen in pictures included in this article. Notice how all of them have their upper half back on contact. Players pictured are: Barry Bonds, Kash Beauchamp, Mark McGwire, Joe Mauer, Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Cody Ross, Chris Cresenzi and Al Roach.
Now I am not saying a player can’t still hit a home run or a line drive double with their upper half coming forward, but chances are a lot less. Look at the mechanics of a player who hits a home run in to the 5th deck and then look at the mechanics of that very same player who got fooled on a pitch and hits a home run that goes out by a row or two. Chances are that when he got fooled, he was out in front and reaching for the ball or shall we say upper half forward. These results show that his bat speed was much slower in the upper half forward swing resulting in the ball not going as far. Who would want to have a slower bat? Hopefully no one. The goal is not try and hit the ball out of the park every time but rather maximize bat speed so the hitter can hit the ball harder. If a hitter mazimizes bat speed, chances are he will have a lot more base hits and be more successful at the plate.
A Day With The Pro’s
November 21, 2011
Providing a fun and positive baseball experience for kids is a mission of the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation. On Saturday November 12th, We Drop Bombs hosted the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation in the facility. The purpose of the event was to bring in youth baseball players from Camden and Philadelphia to participate in a learning experience with positive role models while teaching young ball players the game’s fundamentals in a multi-station format. Area’s covered included, fielding, pitching and hitting. On hand to help conduct the clinic were MLB relief pitchers, Andrew Bailey and Craig Breslow of the Oakland Athletics and Zach Braddock of the Milwaukee Brewers.
“Being able to come back to South Jersey to spend time teaching the kids of Philadelphia and Camden the game baseball is something I feel honored to be a part of. Growing up in this area, I understand the importance in athletics and after school programs. I think the best part of the day is the question and answer session where I can express the importance of athleticism, school work, aspirations, and hard work. I hope to team up again with Major League Baseball and The Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation to bring a clinic like this to South Jersey every year,” said Andrew Bailey.
We Drop Bombs Baseball Academy will continue to provide youth athletes with opportunities like this by hosting future events. After all, the satisfaction of training youth baseball players comes from watching them progress and succeed by achieving their goals within the sport.
Bombers Do It Again
November 1, 2011
Nothing Left to Prove
With an 18-6 record, a Bomb Central hitting order and a dynamite pitching staff, the Bombers 11U Blue may be one of the best teams around.
Believe it or not the Bombers outscored their opponents 49-14 in a very competitive Diamond Nation Tournament. It was a twenty team tournament, the largest the team has ever participated in and it was their second tournament title this fall.
Matt Christopher and Ryan Graham stole the show with their tournament MVP performances.
The lights went out early in game one vs the ASBA Warminster squad. Ryan Graham threw a remarkable 39 pitches in three innings. He collected six strikeouts and only allowing three hits. Carella polished off the last three hitters in the fourth to help the bombers cruise to a 14-1 victory. In game one Ryan Graham and Matt Christopher were both 3 for 3 while Sal Cusumano went 2 for 2. The Bombers posted 14 hits in the contest.
Game two was another blow out pushing Arsenal to the side after putting up 8 hits and 11 walks and beating their opponent 17-2. Nick Dziuba and EJ Mangione combined for the three inning mercy-ruled game. Dziuba and Mangione both put up two strikeouts a piece. G-Unit, a.k.a. Garrett Carella, put up two hits while collecting three RBI’s.
Nate Liedtka took care of business on the hill in game three while only throwing 59 pitches. Through 5 innings, Liedtka only allowed two runs while striking out four. Graham closed the game in the sixth. EJ Mangione and Dylan Kleiner led the way for the Bombers offense by each adding two hits a piece including a double for each of them.
Game four was a bit more interesting as the Kingsbridge USC Knights dressed a large group of 13 yr olds. However, their size was no threat to the Bombers. Matt Christopher and Garrett Carella both pounded doubles. Christopher and Nick Dziuba finished off with two hits a piece in the the first playoff game. Ryan Graham threw four innings while giving up four runs and striking out two. Christopher also contributed by pitching the 5th and 6th innings to help close the door and finalize the 8-6 win. There was a bit of a controversy with the final out as there was an appeal to the home plate umpire on a great play by first basemen Sean Dugan. Dugan apparently dove back to the bag on a wild throw. The base umpire originally called him safe. Coach Chris Murray ran out and argued to check with the home plate umpire which then resulted in the changed call.
The Championship game was all EJ Mangione for 5 innings. EJ shut them down while only allowing one run in 5 full innings pitched. The defense was outstanding as well keeping them in the entire game. The final ended up being 5-4 as Lehigh Valley added on a few runs in the sixth. Garrett Carella and Nick Dziuba both contributed two hits in the championship. The Bombers put up a total of 5 runs with 11 hits. Doubles came from Cooper Quigley, Dylan Kleiner, EJ Mangione and Nick Dziuba. Congratulations 11-U Blue.
