Effortless Power Hitting - Amazon S3Power+Hitting... · Effortless Power Hitting Notes ... At the Play Big Academy the first rule of winning is "Only do ... got excess tension in

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©2012 Dr. Tom Hanson and The Play Big Academy For more, visit www.PlayBigBaseball.com

Effortless Power Hitting

Notes

Video 1: Introduction

1. At the Play Big Academy the first rule of winning is "Only do things that help you

win."

Video 2: The Effortless Power Formula

2. Effortless Power Hitting is hitting with maximum efficiency. It’s tapping into the full

amount of power you have available at the moment -- and for most players that feels

effortless!

3. Your main job in effortless power hitting is “letting go”; Effortless power is more about

freedom in your current natural and trained moves to the ball and less about adding

anything new. Think about it, when you hit great doesn’t it seem sort of easy?

4. Here’s the formula that keeps it simple:

o Performance = Potential - Interference

o The two basic forms of interference are:

Distraction: You aren’t focused 100% on the baseball

Tension: Muscles you don’t need in your swing, in fact, that fight against

your swing are unnecessarily tight.

Video 3: The Play Big Performance Pyramid

5. Your body follows your focus.

6. Great players are good at making themselves feel good and also are able to play well

even when they don’t feel confident (their focus on their simple plan overrides their

doubts).

7. When you’re focused on negative things your body senses a threat to its safety. It reacts

with an ancient, unconscious “fight or flight” response that causes your muscles to tense

(including the muscles that control your eye movements) and thus interfere with your

swing.

8. To sum it up so far: Fearful and negative emotions distract you from your focus on the

ball and cause physical tension, both of which interfere with your physical mechanics.

9. Your beliefs govern your thoughts and your performance. Information comes into

your brain and is run through your belief system.

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10. If your Inner Umpire (see Play Big book) says you are in danger – real or imagined – it

will generate “fight or flight” emotions that cause a great deal of interference with your

hitting.

11. Great hitters are able to generate confidence BEFORE they get hits. They believe they

will be successful regardless of their recent results.

12. What you believe about a situation causes you to feel emotion. Your emotions either

help or hurt your ability to focus. Your focus has a HUGE influence on your physical

actions. Of course, what you physically do affects your results!

Video 4: The Law of Specificity of Training

13. The Law of Specificity of Training says You get what you train for: If you want to hit

with effortless power, you must… Practice Hitting with Effortless Power!

14. Great hitters relate to hitting like it is difficult so they:

Keep it simple

Understand they will fail often (and so they avoid punishing themselves for not

getting a hit)

Hank Aaron told me he just tried to “put the fat part of the bat on the ball.”

Pete Rose told me: “See the ball, hit the ball, that’s all I have to say.”

Alex Rodriquez: “Hit the ball solid.”

Stan Musial “I always knew where the fat part of the bat was and I wanted to put

it on the ball.”

15. So if you want effortless power, give up the idea that you should be perfect, that you

should succeed every time.

16. Clarify what you’re up there to do… and make it simple.

Video 5: Re-defining Hitting

17. A fundamental principle of Effortless Power Hitting is “Feel Good First.”

18. Try on this mindset: “I love and appreciate where I’m at and I’m excited to get even

better.”

19. Ultimately you must find what works for YOU (e.g. joy, anger, pumped up, calm, etc)

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Video 6: Feel Good First

20. “My coaching for you now and always is to pay attention to what makes you feel good

and do those things over and over. Focus on what you’d like to have happen.”

21. The “Top 10 Exercise”

Step 1: List 10 of your most awesome at-bats. These are the 10 at-bats you’d love to

have every time you go to the plate. Chances are you felt confident walking up to

the plate, saw the ball great, felt relaxed but energized.

A big part of the benefit you get is searching your memory bank for your top

10, so take all the time you need to come up with them.

Step 2: Every day, take at least 5 minutes to re-live these at-bats. See what you saw,

hear what you heard and feel how good you felt.

22. Every time you pick up a bat, use the skills you develop in this program and my other

programs to feel good first.

Video 7

23. The “Effort Finder Exercise”

Step 1: Recall and name a specific at bat where you were totally confident and

mashed the ball. You probably experienced effortless power.

Step 2: Re-live that AB, go back and see what you saw, hear what you heard, and

feel

Step 3: Rate the effort on your swing, 0 to10.

You now have a new target for your swing! Practice swinging with that amount

of effort any time you swing.

Don’t get too fine – I like guys to have a two number target, like, a 2 or 3, a 4 or

5, or a 6 or 7.

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The Effortless Power Drills

Video 8: A Lesson Lesson

1. The effortless power drills are to be done with player-centered coaching. In coach-

centered (normal) coaching – the coach tells the player what he noticed. In Player-

centered coaching, the player tells the coach what he noticed.

2. In these drills, the coach’s role is to ask questions of the hitter. The point is to increase

the hitter’s awareness and focus. He needs to learn to make his own adjustments.

3. Here are Do’s and Don’ts on how to facilitate the drills:

Do just ask the player questions, don’t give commands.

Do the drill as directed, don’t give technical instructions or comment on their

mechanics.

Do ask the player what he noticed. Don’t tell him what he “should” do or feel.

Let him learn from his own experience what feels best and produces the best results.

Explain the drill and ask questions about his experience, that’s it.

The drills are done using soft toss in the videos, you can use them with any hitting set up.

These drills draw heavily on the work of Tim Gallwey and his Inner Game of Tennis

and other books, and Inner Game expert Sean Brawley.

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Video 9:

The Effort Drill

Excess tension is one of the main forms of interference. This drill helps build your awareness of

unnecessary tension in your swing.

1. Warm up

2. Baseline: After a swing, ask: “What was your effort on that swing,

0 to 10?”

3. Experiment: Ask “Show me a _____ “ or “Try it now at _____”

[insert one of the below for each swing]

a. “5 or 6”

b. “8 or 9”

c. “2 or 3”

d. “9 or 10”

e. “4 or 5”

f. “1 or 2”

g. “6 or 7”

4. Preference: Ask the hitter what level he likes best.

5. Discuss what you both noticed

There is no one right answer on this one or any other drill. You need to

experiment yourself.

Don’t rush the hitter: give him a moment to prepare himself after you say

which effort level he is asked to swing at before you pitch the ball.

Note: swinging with less effort doesn’t mean you swing slower, you just use

less muscle.

I will say it’s more common for players to be in the two to four range in effort,

but I’ve had guys be at the 8, 9 or 10 level.

Do this drill each day for a week – including experimenting with all levels of

effort – and you’ll have a really good idea where your swing needs to be to hit

your best. And you’ll also have an increased ability to recognize when you’ve

got excess tension in your swing.

Then, whenever you’re about to hit, in practice or in a game, take some dry

swings until you can feel yourself at your targeted level of effort. This is a

great way to help yourself feel good first.

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Video 10

The Hands Drill

This drill helps you be consistently where you want to be with your hand tension.

Baseline: After a swing, ask: “What was your hand tension on that

swing, 0 to 10?”

Experiment: Ask “Show me a _____ “ or “Try it now at _____”


a. “5 or 6”

b. “8 or 9”

c. “2 or 3”

d. “9 or 10”

e. “4 or 5”

f. “1 or 2”

g. “6 or 7”

Preference: Ask the hitter what level he likes best.

Discuss what you both noticed.

Coach: Instead of saying “relax your hands,” you now can ask, “0 to 10 how

tense were your hands?” “What would you like them to be?”

Video 11

The Body Tension Drill 1. Baseline: After a swing, ask: “What was your tension level in

your body on that swing, 0 to 10?”

2. Experiment: Ask “Show me a _____ “ or “Try it now at _____”


h. “5 or 6”

i. “8 or 9”

j. “2 or 3”

k. “9 or 10”

l. “4 or 5”

m. “1 or 2”

n. “6 or 7”

3. Preference: Ask the hitter what level he likes best.

4. Discuss what you both noticed.

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The __________ Drill Make a drill of any quality you’d like to develop (e.g. The Fluid Drill: “0 to 10 how fluid

did that swing feel?”)

Follow the BE-P model

Baseline

Experiment

Preference

Video 12

The Stan Musial Drill

Step 1: Divide bat into 3 zones:

“1” is too close to the handle

“2” is on the sweet/fat part

“3” is too close to the end

Step 2: After each swing the batter declares which zone the ball hit: 1, 2 or 3.

Be like Stan: “I’m going to go up there, feel the fat part of my bat while in my set

up and stance, and focus on putting the fat part of the bat on the ball with effortless

power.”

Video 13

2-Seam/4-Seam Drill Step 1: Show the hitter a 4-seam pitch

Step 2: Show the hitter a 2-seam pitch

Step 3: Hitter identifies after pitch: 2-seam or 4-seam?

Advanced: “Only hit the 4-seamers!”

Video 14

Pitch- Hit Drill Step 1: As the ball is released batter says “Pitch”

Step 2: As he makes contact batter says “Hit”

Step 3: After 4-5, begin asking if he was “early, on time, or late” with “Hit”

As soon as you start to lose interest in the drill, turn your focus up another

notch for at least 5 more pitches and see what you notice.

One way to re-define hitting in a way that makes it easier for you (as

discussed in an earlier video) is that you’re up there playing “Pitch-Hit.”

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Video 15

Tapping: A Fast, Easy Way to Reduce Interference

Tapping combines two elements to reduce emotional interference:

1. Focusing on the negative emotion, feeling, or pain

2. Tapping

Tap while focusing your energy on a specific emotion or event and the tapping

helps “clear out” the negative emotions caused by that event still stuck in your

body.

Tapping Points (see video for specifics) 1. Eye brow

2. Side of eye

3. Below eye

4. Below nose

5. Below lower lip

6. Below collar bone

7. Under Arm

8. Top of head

Video 16

Erase Bad AB with Tapping

Tapping is a powerful tool, not a magic wand. You may need to go through it half a dozen times

to get significant relief from your negative emotion.

But the few minutes it takes is invaluable for reducing the emotional interference a bad at-bat or

a bad game can cause.

Slumps start with one at bat that you carry with you into the next. Then you have another bad

AB and you carry those two bad at-bats with you into the next one. Don’t let bad at-bats

snowball into a slump – come back here and clear out the bad ones.

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Video 17

Stealth Tapping: How to Tap During Games and Practice 5. Rub the Spots

6. Hold and Breathe: Press on a spot (under the collar bone is great

for fear and stress) and take a long, slow, deep breath.

7. Imagine: Don’t do anything with your hands – simply imagine

you are tapping through the spots What we imagine seems real to

our minds.

Use Stealth Tapping

1. On the bench – especially after you make an out

2. On the field

3. In the Hole, on Deck

4. Even at the plate

Remember, hitting is hard. You can’t control what the pitcher does and you can’t

even control where the ball goes when you hit it.

You can only control yourself, and my coaching is to do whatever you can to

reduce the tension and distractions that make hitting harder for you.

Video 18

3 More Great Ways to Reduce Interference

The next three short videos give you more ways to reduce the interference that keeps you from

effortless power.

Like any other physical exercise, the more you do these exercises the better as their benefits

accrue over time.

The 4 Thumps:

The Calming Smoothie:

The Separator:

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Effortless Power Hitting Scoreboard

Drills 1. The Top 10 Exercise: Re-live your 10 best AB’s

2. Effort Finder: Re-experience your best Abs…Effort level? ____________

Use the “BE-P” model and 0 to 10 rating scale for #3 - #6:

a. Find the Baseline

b. Experiment with different levels

c. Choose your Preference

3. The Effort Drill: How much effort is in your best swing? ____________

4. The Hands Drill: Tension level? ____________

5. The Body Tension Drill: Tension level? ____________

6. The _____________ Drill (insert quality would you like to develop) ____________

What I Noticed on these Drills:

7. The Stan Musial Drill: Divide bad head into 3

8. The 2 Seam/4 Seam Drill: “2-seamer or 4?”

9. Pitch-Hit Drill: “pitch” on release, “hit” on contact

Tapping Focus on the feeling you don’t want, then tap and breathe until it’s gone!

1. Eye Brow

2. Side of Eye

3. Below Eye

4. Below Nose

5. Below Lip

6. Below Collar Bone

7. Under Arm

8. Top of Head

3 Great Interference Reducers 1. The 4 Thumps

2. The Calming Smoothie

3. The Separator For more baseball success coaching, visit www.PlayBigBaseball.com

©2012 Dr. Tom Hanson and The Play Big Academy

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K.I.S.S. Me! Keep Inside a Simple System

1. “Here’s what I do that makes me a consistently dangerous hitter…” (list

all elements of your hitting system, e.g. nutrition, sleep, drills, approach,

etc.)

2. What’s Your Simple Plan? What are you Committed to Doing at the

Plate?

“I’m going up there to ________________________________________________.”

Examples:

a. “…. put the fat part of the bat on the ball with effortless power.”

b. “… square it up.”

c. “… drive it right back up the middle.”

d. “… see it and hit it.”

e. “… play ‘pitch-hit’”

f. “… feel the fat part of my bat and put it on the ball.”

g. “…see the seams and swing with a 2-3 effort.”

h. “… keep my hands at a 3-4 tension level.”

i. “…pretend I’m Albert Pujols.”

3. My Challenge to You: Strive for “Outcome Independence” – where you evaluate your

game based on how well you committed to and executed your simple plan. How

“Outcome Independent” are you?

4. Rate Yourself 0 to 10:

Commitment to Plan: ___________

Execution of Plan: _____________

5. Discussion question: Can you have a great game at the plate without getting any hits?

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Effortless Power Hitting - Amazon S3Power+Hitting... · Effortless Power Hitting Notes ... At the Play Big Academy the first rule of winning is "Only do ... got excess tension in