You have all heard me preaching about how any player can produce any result they desire. How a great mental approach, great physical mechanics, and control over your thoughts and emotions can generate results that other’s would deem as impossible. The farther along I have gotten with some of my clients the more I am beginning to see that my theory is correct. Some of my more committed athletes are beginning to produce unimaginable results and I have to say it is very fun to watch and at times even a little silly.
For the past couple of months this has become more and more evident while I have been working with my client Drew. Drew is not a big player, he sits right around 5’8” and about 135 pounds. Despite is smaller stature he hits the ball as hard or harder than any player I have worked with. He has developed an ability to drive the ball consistently and he routinely hits the ball farther and harder than all of his larger teammates. His teammates have begun to marvel at how a player so much smaller then they are can drive the ball with so much more power and with much less effort. We need to keep in mind that Drew has not always been able to do this. Through his smart work, attention to mechanical detail, his process oriented approach, and his development mentally he has turned himself into an unlimited athlete. He is now doing things that he could have once only hoped for.
While it has been fun and an honor watching Drew’s development what happened to another one of my clients yesterday really gave me a moment of excitement. I was working with my client Trevor. Now Trevor and I go back a couple of years and to say that Trev is one of my all time favorite clients would be an understatement. Trevor and I have spent a lot of time together as he played on a travel team that I coached about three years ago. Aside from his small stature (5 foot and about 100 lbs.) Trevor is tough as nails. He is a gamer and any coach would love to have him on their team. His physical toughness, mental approach, and his solid fundamentals make him a fun player to be around.
From a hitting standpoint Trevor has always been a slash type hitter. He is a great bunter and always gives a quality at-bat but has always played the role of a smaller player limiting himself to singles and the occasional well placed double. A few months ago we set out and started to perform a complete swing reconstruction. As the months went by his swing and his results got progressively better. As good as he was getting I really wasn’t expecting what happened yesterday. As the lesson progressed I saw that Trevor’s swing mechanics were exceptional. By the end of the lesson I was pitching him live batting practice and I literally couldn’t believe how the ball was coming off of his bat. Here he was all 5 feet 100 pounds of him driving balls better than most varsity high school players. The velocity with which the ball came off his bat was amazing, the backspin and carry he was getting matched that of some of my most advanced athletes. It’s safe to say that he was putting on a hitting clinic.
The point of this is that you shouldn’t limit yourself and what you can accomplish. I have seen proof time and time again that we are truly unlimited in what we can accomplish if we take the right steps to reach that level of performance. Proper hitting mechanics really do make that big of a difference! Your ability to control your mind also has a tremendous effect on the results you produce. Commit yourself like these players have, learn the mechanics and mental skills that they have learned and your results will be similar. Don’t assume that size equals power. Any one of you can produce these results if you really want to .
