Game Speed Practice

Colin Moran of the Pirates talks about how unlikely hitting coach Jeff Albert helped Moran practice swinging:

Albert joined the Astros as minor league hitting coordinator in 2013, and the Astros acquired Moran from the Miami Marlins in 2014. Moran made his big-league debut in 2016, and he hit .130 in nine games. Moran and Albert live near each other in Florida and agreed to work together in the offseason. Starting in November, they got together four to five times each week at public ballfields in the area, practicing next to rec softball teams or parents playing with their kids.

At practice, Albert aimed to expose Moran’s flaws rather than hide them. For example, Albert set up side-toss drills that would work only if Moran’s mechanics were correct, or he would throw from a short distance to replicate the feel of facing a low-90s pitch. By practicing at game speed, Moran said, he stopped overthinking his swing.

“I used to have different swings I would take in practice and work on stuff that wasn’t really correlating to the game,” he said. “I would do any type of practice just to help find the answer.”

We will see if it works this season as Moran is at the top of the Pirates depth chart at third base.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2GpZ2YV