Hitting Recommendations

This month, I've got some hitting recommendations for you that you can take advantage now and into the off season.

Watching some of the best baseball players in the world compete in the most tense games of the year, the playoffs, is a great recommendation. But for even a better one, try "watching" the game on the computer.

I'll give you the links and the times in a minute, but you should check out what ESPN has for you to learn about hitting from their graphical analysis of each hitter's tendencies. If you turn on the "show hitter's spray chart" and the "show hit zone" you can see what pitches each hitter hits best and where they struggle, as well as to whether they hit the ball to the outfield or infield, and to which field they hit the most.

From this hopefully we'll also learn that we have areas that we like to hit in and hit to more than others. This will either force us to take minimal pitches where we can't do what we wnt to do at the plate or we'll learn what we need to practice more of to reduce the holes in our swing.

Here's the schedule of the playoff games followed by a link on where to find the ESPN GameDay broadcasts.

All times are Eastern Time Zone times

Thursday, October 9, 2008 LA Dodgers at Philadelphia 8:22 PM FOX

Friday, October 10, 2008 LA Dodgers at Philadelphia 4:35 PM FOX Boston at Tampa Bay 8:37 PM

Saturday, October 11, 2008 Boston at Tampa Bay 8:07 PM

Sunday, October 12, 2008 Philadelphia at LA Dodgers 8:22 PM FOX

Monday, October 13, 2008 Tampa Bay at Boston 4:37 PM Philadelphia at LA Dodgers 8:22 PM FOX

Tuesday, October 14, 2008 Tampa Bay at Boston 8:07 PM

Wednesday, October 15, 2008 Philadelphia at LA Dodgers 8:22 PM FOX

Thursday, October 16, 2008 Tampa Bay at Boston 8:07 PM

Friday, October 17, 2008 LA Dodgers at Philadelphia 8:22 PM FOX

Saturday, October 18, 2008 Boston at Tampa Bay 4:37 PM LA Dodgers at Philadelphia 8:22 PM FOX

Sunday, October 19, 2008 Boston at Tampa Bay 8:07 PM

In addition to catching all the action on TV, try my hitting recommendation by catching the game http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/ then click on the gamecast. Then click Show Hit Zone and the Show Spray Chart

Other Clinics

Now I want to extend the same opportunity to anyone within a 4 hour drive of Ventura, CA (or anyone willing to have either more kids or pick up the tab for me going some place else) to help your hitters get better and work with your coaches to help them continue teaching what we went over with their hitters. Normally this is reserved for larger groups but just ignore that number when you check out what you get with my clinics.

Again go here and tell me about your group that I can help -- https://www.theinternethittingcoach.com/hitting-clinic.html

I'm starting to travel as my family starts spreading out. I now have ties to Sacramento and Irvine, CA, Austin, TX, Queens, NY, Washington, D.C. (the Virginia side in Fairfax) so have batting tee will travel.

I'm doing it to find lots of students to help as well as film how I teach. So please use this hitting recommendation to help your hitters.

For more information give me a call on my cool hitting phone line 1-800-HITTING (really, it goes to me, give me a call on my dime) or visit the website https://www.theinternethittingcoach.com/hitting-clinic.html

Strength Training for Baseball and Softball

There are a lot of strength and conditioning coaches around, but very few that know the specific muscle groups that help in hitting.

Check out what I've found for you. It's called the Major League Strength Coaches Performance Clinic.

Check out this staff. Do you think you could learn a thing or two from these guys?

Dana Cavalea -- Dana currently serves as the Director of Strength and Conditioning for the New York Yankees. He is the Founder of Major League Strength, a consulting company created with the vision of enhancing knowledge and training methods of coaches and players in the baseball community.

Frank Velasquez -- Frank is the Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He is a certified Athletic Trainer, as well as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist.

Dan Huff -- Coach Huff has spent the last 7 years developing strength & conditioning programs for Collegiate ballplayers. He is also the owner of a Baseball Strength website

Frank Dolan -- Strength and conditioning specialist Frank is a former professional baseball player from the Italian Baseball League, as well as a top college player at SUNY Brockport.

Brian Becker -- Brian is the Director of Sports Physical Therapy at Excel Rehabilitation & Sports Therapy. Brian has specialized in the care and injury prevention of the baseball athlete over the past 12 years. He also has worked with several Major League Players.

George Loft -- George serves as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for the Long Island Ducks Professional Baseball Team, as well as the Head Strength and Conditioning Coach for Dowling College. He oversees training programs for the entire College, and is a former Minor League Player. George is a graduate of NC State with a degree in Exercise Science.

Eric Cressey -- Eric is the president and founder of Cressey Performance, a Boston-based strength and conditioning facility specializing in performance enhancement and injury prevention in baseball players.

The link to this clinic is a little long so I have a tiny one for you to get there - http://tinyurl.com/3g2yvg

Being Helpful

In return I have a way that you my faithful reader could be helpful to me. I've now added buttons on many of my theInternetHittingCoach.com pages that will let you recommend these pages to the various linking services like MySpace, Facebook, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, and more, so that more people can gain on the information you have found. Please click on those and help me get the word out that there's a coach who wants to help them hit better. Thanks.

Thanks for reading and talk to you next time.

Coach Andy

6801 Dove St. Ventura, CA 93003

805-642-5827