Who I am
Hi, I’m Coach Dave
And I love coaching young players. Anyone who knows me, will say I’ve found a calling. It’s fun, and satisfying. And fortunately for me, the Moneyball revolution has FINALLY arrived for hitting. The best way to swing, the hall of fame swing, has finally been cracked. Yes, they were doing something different all along. It is slowly spreading around baseball, but I am an early adopter. It’s like swinging with gunpowder while everyone else has bows and arrows or even clubs. I feel fortunate to have such a technological advantage as I build my hitting academy.
So at Hit Like a Pro, I teach the high level baseball swing. Yes, there is one, best way to swing, because it is WILDLY quicker into the zone than what 99% of hitters do naturally. No, it’s not true that it’s just common sense that every hitter is different—in fact, every hitter is the same. They all have wrists, forearms, and rear hip sockets. Move them properly, and it is laughable how much more quickly you can get your swing off. Once you learn it, it becomes obvious that anyone preaching anything different, has never felt it. The advantage of being that quick is so overwhelming—pitchers seem slow, you can wait forever on the fastball and not jump at offspeed, etc—you’ll wonder why anyone talks about anything else or how you ever swung any other way. I did not invent or discover the high level swing, I learned it from my own instructor (and I wish I’d learned it earlier, as does everyone who learns it!). It is spreading around baseball, but is not widely distributed yet, so you can give yourself an immense advantage by learning it now.
The high level swing means two things: first, learning how to load properly and on time, and second, how to replace the arms with the rear hip socket, wrists and forearms as the engines of the swing. All great hitters do the same 3 things in their load. No more, no less. I will teach them to you. As for replacing the arms, almost all hitters consciously or unconsciously push with their arms. It feels powerful and using them is almost unconscious, but it is slow. OH MY GOD is using the arms slow, once you learn not to. Learning to overcome such a strong instinct and not use them at all can be difficult and frustrating, but the payoff is a dramatically, and I do mean shockingly, quicker swing. Before I learned it, I couldn’t touch 135mph reaction time off the machine. Now, I can bomb it. It can be a long journey to learn how to do it, but if you’re going to do something, you might as well do it right, and while years of work may seem daunting, every 1% you improve along the way will show up in games, so you will see immediate results if you work.
My ask of parents of younger players is that they be involved. Utilize the teaching resources I provide to learn the basics, and encourage your player to work at home. Support the journey, the payoff is worth it. For players, I ask that they be motivated to improve their swing. Some players are hitting well at their current level and don’t see the need for a change. That is fine, I will wait. Whether it’s when the pitching hits 58 in Little League, 85 in high school, 90 in college, or 95 in the pros, at some point the player has so little time that their arms swing cannot catch up to the fastball, or must commit so early they are vulnerable to offspeed. That is what it means specifically to say a player was a great little league hitter, but “fell off” in high school. Or college. Or A ball. Or the big leagues. They simply ran out of time, it’s a very specific cause. Don’t wait until that happens. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, who has learned the high level swing—including me!—wishes they had learned it sooner. And the first time I felt a no arms swing—a truly no arms swing— and I was able to start crushing pitches I previously couldn’t, it was such a satisfying feeling that I wish it on everyone. We are all limited by our genetic potential, but we won’t learn what that is without learning the swing. Reach your potential.
Here's to a great journey together,
Coach Dave
