See Me Live - over the Web - in a Hitting Seminar

I've been sharing with some of you for over a year now. If you're new - welcome. But very few of you have ever seen me or had the chance to hear me speak or take lessons from me.

Many of you have taken advantage of the free hitting lessons via e-mail but you've never seen this swing demonstrated or taken advantage of asking me questions.

Well, that will all change next Saturday, July 17th at 2 p.m. Pacific Time (That's 5 p.m. Eastern or follow this link to get your time). You have a very special opportunity to work with me personally right over the Internet!

Imagine that, you can now save the cost of an airplane trip and food and lodging to learn the softball hitting tips I teach at my private lessons on this very special offer.

Not to mention, see what I look like!

If you'd come to me for a 1/2 hour lesson you'd spend $30 (and it would be well worth it, I might add :), but instead with this hitting seminar via the web you get 1 hour of my time, and there isn't going to be any charge!

Since this is an experimental offering, a "webinar" if you will, I give it to you for FREE. I can only promise that this "seminar via the web" is going to be at that "price" this one time. So I'd sign up now, before I figure out how to do this seminar over the web thing and start charging for it.

So here's what you need to do - follow this link to the sign up page where you will find the instructions and I will follow up with an e-mail so you have all the instructions to log in and I'll be talking to you live via the web and commenting more on the 7 secrets to a successful fastpitch softball swing (you're welcome to visit if you're a baseball player, parent or coach as well, but this will be more on the other type of swing rather than the rotational type that Major League baseball players use).

Hope to see many of you there! Here's the link again to sign up.

Picking your Pitch

But did you know there's another way to "pick pitches"? It's the technique of finding out ("picking") what pitch is coming next from the pitcher.

I have one of our nation's leading players, Bill Hillhouse, TeamUSA Men's national team player who's agreed to tell us about this valuable skill.

"When you know what's coming, that's 1/2 of the battle. I like to demonstrate this when I throw BP to teams... I will throw down the middle for several then mix in a change up. The hitter will look silly. Then I'll go back to down the middle and then SAY TO THE HITTER, here comes a change up. When they hit the ball hard... I then say... "See, by knowing what's coming, that's 1/2 the battle." Then, we begin learning ways to read pitchers. It can be something obvious like dropping out of the glove early. Or something hidden like how the glove is wrapped on the ball, etc. 1st and 3rd base coaches should also always be looking to pick the pitcher and relay the pitches to the hitter. Often times, the pitcher will have his/her glove wide open facing the coaches as they grip the ball... this can easily be relayed to the batter in coded messages (such as calling out numbers or last names for various pitches). Some may call this unsportsmanlike, others call it strategy. All I know is, teams that REALLY want to win will take full advantage of ANYTHING the other team gives them. Including reading pitchers. And if you don't like having your pitcher being read so easily, then they need to learn how to hide the ball and conceal it better. A harsh reality.

Here are some ways people can pick pitchers; seeing the ball come out of the glove early, seeing the pitcher get the grip too soon, seeing the grip as the pitcher puts arms (both hands in glove)over their head in wind up, seeing how forearm muscles flex or DON'T flex depending on grip of ball, different motions for different pitches, glove will sit differently on wrist for different pitches, etc. If some of those are unbelieveable or there are some doubters, I'm sure Ron Osborn [another national team pitcher] can confirm what I'm talking about. And, anyone else who has played the level of FP I'm talking about. It's VERY possible to train the hitters what to look for to see the pitch early.

Sorry for the long winded response."

Bill Hillhouse

If you want to know more about Bill Hillhouse and his fastpitch website, go here.

Others talk about hitting

Tell me what else you want to know

Again, welcome to the new subscribers.

I want to help as many kids (adults) as I can. If you could help me by passing this newsletter on to your teammates or anyone you know that could use the help we're offering here, please forward this to them. Thanks in advance. Or if you'd like to post any of my information on your website, just e-mail me for permission and I'll be glad to get it to you in a format that will fit your site.

Talk to you next time.