2013 BASEBALL HANDBOOK

Transcription

1 2013 BASEBALL HANDBOOK BASEBALL PROGRAM By 15- Year Professional Coach Bill Sandillo & Predator USA Baseball 1

2 MEMBER FORWARD By Frank F Robinson Dear Parents, As someone who has been in baseball for over 50+ years I can tell you that I remember when my Dad first introduced the game to me. This HANDBOOK by Coach Bill Sandillo developed just for you and your ASU Prep players. If you re a seasoned coach or just a little league Dad or Mom looking to help out this season, this information will help you greatly. I had the opportunity to hire Coach Bill Sandillo, and work with him for a couple of years. He is a very seasoned, dedicated and educated professional coach who truly takes his job seriously but has a passion for the game of baseball and helping kids. His teaching philosophy and the way he conveys information to young players is second to none. When Bill was my assistant with MLB s Arizona Fall Baseball League, he was a very driven individual who cared about the development of young athletes. Because of Bill s work around the country he is respected by many players, leagues and executives still working in professional & amateur baseball today. I think once you read Bill s training info, you to, will see why we feel he can help your son develop his skills long- term in this game of baseball. Good luck with everything and remember, always continue to inspire others to be the best. Sincerely, Frank Robinson Hall of Fame Player, Coach & Executive Major League Baseball 2

3 ASU PREPARATORY ACADEMY BASEBALL PROGRAM 2013 About Coach Bill Sandillo 15- Year Professional Baseball Coach & Instructor: (Certified Level- 5 Master Coach) Founded Predator USA Baseball Playing & Training Organization back in Brought it to Arizona in Bill grew up in West Springfield, Massachusetts but has been living in Arizona for the past 17- years. He makes Chandler Arizona his home with his wife of 8- years Wendy and their two boys; Albert & Roman ages 6 & 4. He also has two dogs both labs, Bella & Mia. Coaching Career & Playing Experience: 25- years of coaching, learning & business experience at all levels of baseball including; Board of Directors for several Little leagues, Bucky Dents Baseball School in DelRay Beach Florida, American International Division II College Baseball, USA Military All- Star World Team, Orleans Firebirds; Cape Cod Baseball League, Milwakee Brewers; Spring Training, New York Mets; Single A, Minesota Twins & Boston Red Sox; Double- AA, San Francisco Giants; Triple- AAA and the 2001 World Champion Arizona Diamondbacks; Majors. Playing & Associations: Signed a pro baseball contract out of college with the Cincinati Reds. Spent the next 4- years fighting injuries until becoming a Coach, BP Pitcher, Bullpen Catcher and Baseball Executive for the rest of my career. Spent 15- years total playing and working in professional baseball. Member of MLB Alumni Association, Association of Professional Ballplayers of America and National Association of Certified Coaches. Currently working on a Bio- Mecanical Certification from Wright Balance Pro & Wrip to be a Grip Size and balance specialist. 3

4 ASU PREPARATORY ACADEMY BASEBALL PROGRAM 2013 PREDATOR USA BASEBALL BILL SANDILLO S PROPRITARY HITTING SYSTEMS 4

5 5 BILL SANDILLO S PROPRITARY TEACHING SYSTEMS #1. Hitting: 8- Hitting Commands: (Learn Both Phases 1 & 2*) On- Deck Circle: What is it used for? After you have warmed up use your on- deck circle to find the pitchers release point (Pitchers Window), Arm Slot and notice any quirky moves he may have. You must have a good mindset and routine when stepping into the batter s box. Take one pitch at a time. Remember Every pitch is a new at- bat Stance (*Create a Strong Foundation; Relaxed & Athletic) The 1.5 stance that we want you to get in is with your front lined up with the front corner of the plate, feet parallel to the other side of the box, knees slightly bent, feet are wider then shoulder width apart. (1.5) Bat on your shoulder. Be in a nice relaxed stance. Weight at 50/50 2. Fingers (*Hand Height, Strong Grip Create a nice A- Frame set- up) What we want to do is line up our knocking knuckles for the strongest grip on the bat. Make sure to keep the bat in your finger tips and not your palms. Place the bat on the ground like a golf club, place the bat in your finger tips and lift the bat to your shoulders. Another way to check your fingers to see if they are lined up right is to point your index fingers in the air and if their lined up the same direction, your OK. Now, from the relaxed position, place the bat on your shoulders with the butt of the bat facing the other side of the batters box before starting the next command. 3. Rhythm (*Create Movement 3 Times then Waggle) Rhythm establishes a little movement right before you get ready to swing. To create rhythm you start by bringing the bat down off your shoulder to a forward swing motion over the plate and continue to swing back and forth 3- times before bring the bat back up to your shoulder where you then tap the bat off your shoulder (Tap- 45) to create a 45 degree bat angle. If the pitcher has not pitched the ball you can then waggle your bat back and forth for timing and wait for the pitch. This gets you to relax before you supply the energy to swing the bat. Do not load yet. 4. Load (*= Power; Hands & Weight back) When you decide to load two things happen. You move your hands back as well as your weight back for 100% power in your swing. This means with your weight back that 60% of your body weight is shifting to the back and 40% is still forward or on the front foot. From this athletic position we load (move hands back) by bringing our hands and weight straight back. Mind you, do not curl your bat backwards or rotate your body sideways. One key to make sure your hands are back is, if the bat is at or behind your back foot and you can see the top of the bat when you look back. Here we are in a Powerful swinging position. From the load position we then Explode our hips open to start our swing to the ball. 5. Stride (*= Balance & Timing; 0- Stride or 0-3 inches) Question: Why do we stride? Young players always ay they use stride as part of their power until they understand where your power really comes from. From the load position we then stride by picking up our front foot and putting it straight down (0-3 inches) landing with the front foot heal off the ground. The weight is now on the ball of your front foot. Notice your weight is still back (60-40) and balanced. Your hips are closed along with your front foot. You then let the ball come into your zone and make up your mind to swing or let it go. 6. Swing down (*Nice swing path to the ball) From the stride position we then Explode our hips open and swing down (first motion- follow the front elbow then butt of the bat to ball) to create a good swing path to the baseball. At contact back elbow comes in close to our body, and we like to have our hands in the Knuckles up and Knuckles down position. Notice our arms are NOT extended. (This creates a long swing) Our back heel has started to pivot as we center or balance our weight throughout the swing. 7. Pivot Weight Transfer (PWT = *Transfer your weight into the Hitting zone: Back Foot) PWT happens when we start to make our swing and start the transfer our weight to the center of the swing or contact zone. Our back heel pivots and turns as our weight moves to center and forward. So when we pivot our heel, our weight transfers to the hitting zone. (10%) Make sure to not totally pivot your heel open as this causes over rotation and you become a rotational hitter or also called squishing the bug, which is not good. Never teach squishing the bug to young hitters. Make sure to keep your weight centered throughout your swing so you can create a good power zone. 8. Finish High and Strong (*Clear your hips & shoulders at 100%; give the ball lift) After we have made contact with the ball, we power through the zone, get good extension and at the second A- Frame (Bat pointed at pitcher) roll your wrists completely over and complete the swing in an upward motion. Shoulders are now square to the field, hips are cleared and open at 100% and your weight has shifted forward as your momentum carries you up and out of the batters box.

6 Core, Hand Speed, Proper T- Work & Training Worksheet (Perfect Practice make perfect - Bad practice makes permanent) 1. Regular T- Work: (50% - Swing Path & Contact Drill) A). Swing Path Drill or Warm- up: Get into your regular 1.5 stance and start from a relaxed stance position. Tap 45, load then swing (50%). So the commands you re thinking about is; TAP- LOAD- STRIDE - (Hold) SWING. Concentrate on hitting the ball straight ahead, low and up the middle. See the ball going up the middle through the pitchers legs. B). Once you have warmed up your swing you can add motion to your static T- work training. The variation to static work is adding your Rhythm into the swing while visualizing a pitch. By doing this you can start to create your hand - eye and make better contact off the Tee. 2. T- Work Or Soft- Toss w/ Motion Drills: (Hand- eye & Timing Drill) Motion or Rhythm Soft Toss: Coach or another player move to the side of the hitter about 5 ft away. Start by presenting the baseball to the hitter, at this point the hitter starts his Rhythm (Movement). As soon as the hitter Tap- 45 s, you (Coach or Player) start your motion downward to toss the ball. The hitter should be loaded up and waiting to hit the ball as it enters his soft toss zone. As the ball enters the zone the hitter gets his front foot down and swings. 3. Movement T- Work: (Inward Rotation Drill) Inward Rotation Drill: Get into your regular stance then rotate you re body outward until you re body is parallel with the pitcher. Have your Tee partner give the hitter the Go command then.. a. Lift your back heel on your back foot and rotate your body inward and simulate a stride. b. While rotating inward, take the bat off your shoulders (Tap- 45) and position it in the load & Trigger or 60/40 position. c. Once in this position, swing and hit the ball off the tee. Rotate out and Repeat drill. 4. Live Pitching or short toss (Short Distance): Super 90 Drill: (Quick Cage or Live) a. Instructor sits in a chair about 10 feet away from the hitter behind an L- screen. b. Hitter gets in the Load/ Explode position. (Load- stride- hold position) c. Instructor pitches the ball and the hitter swings using quick hips and hands to hit the ball. d. If throw hard enough from a short distance this drill will simulate a mile an hour fastball. (Hence Super 90) 5. Flamingo Drill (One- Leg stride/ Weight shift OR BACKSIDE drill) Take your stance then shift 100% of your weight to your back leg. Hold leg up for 3- seconds. Drop your front leg as you stride to hit the ball of tee. Make sure to not over stride and when your front foot hits the ground, swing. Keep your weight back until you hit the ball. Make sure ALL players are getting in 200 swings per day (Minimum) utilizing three or more exercises listed on this sheet. Our training progression is; 1. T- Work to Motion T- work or Soft toss to Live Hitting. Spend everyday on the tee it s your best tool for perfecting your swing. It creates a good swing path to the ball or what I call your swing DNA. REMEMBER; If you don t swing daily you will lose the ability to have a perfect swing. 6

7 BILL SANDILLO S Pro Box Pitching System At this level of baseball and at every level up from here, the teams that have the most success are the teams with the best pitching. You still have to hit the ball to score runs and you still have to catch the ball to get the other team out, but if you don't have good pitching, it's difficult to have success. So, one of the first things we're try to do is find out who can pitch and start working with them. Give EVERY PLAYER on the team a chance to pitch. You never know what you will find 7

8 Our Pitching Box & Zone Philosophy (ON or OFF in 3- pitches) We want the hitter on or off the bases in 3- pitches. Get ahead and command your fastball to set- up other pitches. This program is based on a few simple things; One: Make the Batter swing the bat; Two: Throw First Pitch Strikes, Three: Know your Zones and Pitch to your strengths; Four: Throw fewer pitches per batter; Five: Be around the plate, if you get behind the hitter Challenge the hitter. Make him beat you. Don t walk anyone. Remember, we always want to throw to a Box target not a glove target. Make sure the catcher gives you a low (or Stealth ) glove and throw over the glove to the box. 1. We want to make the batter swing the bat - The best hitters in the world only get a hit 3 out of 10 times at bat. That means they make an out 7 out of every 10 times they bat! So, as a pitcher, the odds are with you if you throw it over the plate and make the batter swing the bat. Now, throwing it over the plate doesn't mean belt high, straight as a string. We'll talk about changing speeds, different pitches, and all that other stuff but we want the batter to swing the bat. The one thing I want to stress to our pitchers is that they don't have to win the game all by themselves. We have eight other guys out there playing defense whose job it is to help the pitcher. 2. We want to throw first pitch strikes 80% of the time - It puts the batter on the defensive. You lose games by walking people - if the lead off batter in an inning walks he will score over 50 % of the time. With two strikes on the hitter try to get him to expand his strike zone and chase a bad pitch. The batter is on the defensive when the count is 0-2 or 1-2. He will often expand his strike zone and swing at pitches that are not strikes. He will, in effect, get himself out for you! Make a quality pitch that is around the Box in a good zone. 3. Pitch to our strengths - If you're a fastball pitcher, when the count is 3-2, I want you throwing your best fastball. If you're a breaking ball pitcher, I want you throwing your best breaking ball when the game is on the line. If you get beat, I want you to get beat with your best pitch. Play the mental game with the hitter. Don t always throw the perfect pitch based on the situation. Switch it up sometimes. (Example: 3-0 we always throw a fastball down the middle) 4. Work early in the count (we'd like to average 3 1/2 pitches a batter). I don't want a lot of 3-2 counts. The fewer pitches you throw to each batter, it stands to reason, the more batters you can pitch to in a game. I like to play a game when I pitch that I get no more then 3- pitches per batter. Try it. It will make you sharp and force you to make quality pitches. 5. If you fall behind the Hitter, Challenge them: We call that Challenge Time - throw the ball in the Box (strike zone) and let your defense bail you out. We don't want to walk people! Remember; never throw Dead Red unless you know the hitter won t catch up to it. Pitching & Training Goals As a pitcher you should work on at least one of these every time you throw a baseball. Play a game within the game. Work on your weak pitches, delivery, location etc. Take one pitch at a time. Our "Pitching & Training Goals": 1. Sound delivery/mechanics - you cannot throw strikes consistently if you do not have sound mechanics. You also risk arm injury if you throw with bad mechanics 2. Location - To be a successful pitcher you have to be able to locate the ball. Inside/outside, up and down etc. Use the entire 9- zones and be good at all of them. Copyright 2013 PREDATOR USA & BILL SANDILLO. All rights reserved. 8

9 3. Change Speeds - You don't have to throw every pitch the same speed, but don t slow down your delivery! You put a little more on, you take a little off. (Grip/Spin) It keeps the batter off stride. There is an old adage about hitting that says: Hitting is all about timing & balance. Pitching is all about disrupting the hitters timing & balance. You disrupt a hitters timing & balance by changing speeds, arm slots and cadence. 4. Field Your Position - You can win yourself a lot of ball games if you can field your position and stop balls from going up the middle. Qualities of a Good Pitcher: 1. The ability to pitch with control. - I don't care how fast you throw, you must throw strikes. Walks will almost always come back to haunt you! On our team, the players that pitch will be the players that can throw to the Box & Zones (strikes) consistently. Make the other team "earn" their way on base. Throw the ball into the zones and let your teammates help you on defense. 2. The ability to pitch with confidence and poise - You need to know that you're going to get them out every time you take the mound. (Even if you don t) I don't want you standing out there hoping you'll get them out waiting for the coach to take you out. This is a team game but it s controlled by a lot of individual elements (you). 3. The ability to throw hard when you need to - At any level, (especially the higher ones) throwing hard is not nearly as important as control, location and throwing strikes! But it s nice to have a good fastball like Randy Johnson, when you need it. Three Components to Any Pitch: 1. Location: (most important) Your fastball may not be 100 MPH, but if it's on the corner at the knee, it's hard for any batter to hit it. 2. Movement: (second most important) It doesn't matter how hard you throw it, if your pitch is as straight as a string, good hitter will hit it. Most hitters get up more then once per game. They will time you second time around. It's the late movement on pitches that makes hitters miss. 3. Velocity: (least important, but nice to have!) OK, I'll admit it's nice to be able to throw hard enough to throw the ball by hitters, but velocity is the least important of the three components to any pitch. If our mechanics are good and as we get bigger and stronger our velocity will increase. Proper Care of Young Arms: Make sure that you are adequately warmed up (10-15 minutes) before you throw hard. Make sure that you throw at different distances first with the proper mechanics to decrease the chance of injury to your arm. Make sure you have on a sweat shirt on cold and/or rainy days to keep your arm warm. Ice it down after practice or games. Copyright 2013 PREDATOR USA & BILL SANDILLO. All rights reserved. 9