#podcast #sports #baseball #softball #hitting #skilldevelopment
Jim and Jake are back with a brand-new episode of The Lab – Epstein Hitting Podcast! On episode 149, the guys discuss hitters producing quality at-bats, how coaches can interpret quality at-bats, and the proper way for coaches to put players in position to succeed. Plus, Jake discusses how hitters can stay sharp in the off-season, the joy of creating offensive practice plans, and how players can approach preparing for the 2024 season.
SHOW LINKS:
Apple: https://rb.gy/dtcdp
Google: https://rb.gy/koywq
Spotify: https://rb.gy/0m07m
SHOW NOTES:
1:00 – Hitters staying sharp in the off-season
2:00 – Jake’s coaching methods
7:00 – Hitting mechanics Jake looks for in hitters when recruiting
12:00 – Creating offensive practice plans
18:00 – How Jake has utilized technology at the Division One level
25:00 – Hitters producing with quality at-bats
29:00 – Different meanings of a quality at-bat
32:00 – Why runs are equal to or greater than hits
36:00 – Putting players in position to be successful
38:00 – Studying for quality at-bats
40:00 – Getting ready for the 2024 season
Renowned Hitting Instructor Jake Epstein has been coaching amateur, collegiate, and professional hitters for the past 20 years. Epstein currently serves as a Hitting Consultant for the Milwaukee Brewers and owns his own facility in College Station, TX. Based off the hitting teachings passed down to his father Mike from the legendary Ted Williams, Jake combines old school principals with new-age data to help hitters reach their highest potentials. Join Host Jim Tarabocchia and Jake every Monday at 9am ET discuss a variety of topics on the hardest thing to do in all of sports-hitting a baseball.
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Twitter/Instagram: @Jimtara, @epsteinhitting
Why the Epstein Hitting System?: The Epstein Hitting system was created by 10-year Major League player, Mike Epstein. In addition to leading the 1972 World Series champion A’s in home runs, Mike played for arguably the greatest hitter of all-time, Ted Williams…Using what he learned from his career and from Ted Williams, Mike built a system to identify and fix swing faults. Mike received the only letter of recommendation for hitting instruction Ted Williams ever gave out…After working closely with Mike to learn the craft of teaching hitting, Epstein Hitting is now led by Jake Epstein…Jake has perfected the use of video analysis to create a plan to maximize a player’s swing. In addition to slow-motion video analysis, Jake has built a library of drills that he uses to address the unique needs of individual players. For more information, log on to www.epsteinhitting.com.
Multi-Media Opportunities – Looking to start a podcast? Email us at jimbopodcast21@gmail.com to learn about more multi-media podcast opportunities.
Hi everybody welcome into another Edition a brand new episode of the lab Epstein hitting podcast episode 149 I hope everybody had a good year 2023 hope everybody had a good New Year good Christmas good Hanukkah whichever holiday you celebrate athletes let’s go hitters it’s the new year let’s go got
To get it tidied up ready to go for the new season you might be starting in a couple months few weeks who knows right because some some teams in college baseball college softball they like to start in late January division two division three team so hitters got to
Get going anyway um episode 149 let me bring in you know what I’m I was going to do the normal introduction for you but I forgot it I was going to listen back because I just forgot it and I I don’t remember the Cadence or anything
So I’m just going to introduce you now Jake Epstein as the University of South Carolina s softball hitting coach what’s up big man how you doing you know I was I’ve been waiting for for three months to do episode 149 we set a time to do it
I’ve been waiting here and you haven’t shown up now here you are you finally showed up by the grace of God so here we go what’s going on with you hey man uh Life’s good Life’s good yeah back in back in Denver for for a month uh until
We hit the ground running uh January uh 3D so you you talked about hitters getting ready and staying ready um it’s really important especially this time away I I I made the made the comments to our hitters that hey we worked really hard this fall on um creating plans and
Approaches for each and every person you know don’t take a don’t take a full month off right we we we’re gaining speed we’re getting speed and then that season comes around so everybody else out there make sure you’re doing the same thing you got to stay sharp because
When that Bell Rings you know there’s no uh spring training you know we don’t get we don’t get 20 uh scrimmages right before the season starts right we have a few inner squads and then it’s time to roll so um yeah very important stay sharp you know um when we first got this
This job and I was very excited for you for obvious reasons but when you first got the gig I I there were so many points and talking points that I wanted to bring up to you and and ask you and I did ask you uh off mic obviously we’ve T
We’ve talked and and uh met up off mic we we talked about some of these things but I’m wondering as someone who’s been doing this for 25 years is it close to 25 I don’t want to age you I’m sorry yeah pretty close new
23 um and you come from a a baseball and athletic family for those who don’t know Jake’s father of course Mike Epstein played at the major league level Ted Williams Protege etc etc we’ve talked about that in previous episodes so go back and listen in the archives but I
I’m wondering now how much your coaching approach has changed if at all when coaching hitters on the softball side at the Collegiate level in the SEC at the at the the arguably the highest level of all of softball really of all of college sports the SEC how your approach as a
Hitting coach has changed from that maybe working with one-on-one um in one-on-one lessons working in groups or even evaluating hitters with the Brewers yeah I I think that if you change as uh as a coach then you’re probably doing a disservice to the reason they hired you so um you know
I’ve tried to remain who who I am as a as a person as a as a leader and and as a you know as a hitting coach so um now obviously we made adjustments so when I got there yes I evaluated every hitter as I would if they were um you know uh
In international signy or a draft pick so I put him kind of through uh my assessment process to figure out how they move to figure out um you know areas where they could improve to get a baseline on you know maybe how hard they hit the ball so that we can chart
Progress um average launch angles things like that and you know kind of formulated a plan for each and every person when we walked in and then from there we we set goals on on what we wanted to accomplish um some of those goals were internal for me and some
Shared with them of where I’d like to see them and where I’d like them to to to try to be by the end of the Fall now as we worked our way through the process of of practices and scrimmages and fall games you know it
Was great it was I got to see kind of exactly what they would do in a stressful environment which is something that’s different than when you just give lessons you know sometimes I can give lessons to players and then maybe once or twice a year I’ll be able to actually
See them play you know this is this is every day and it’s so fantastic to to get to spend that much time with these players to figure out you know what makes them tick everybody’s different you know personality wise adrenaline wise you know how do you push people how
To how to not push people that that don’t respond to that so it’s been it’s been quite enjoyable and we got about halfway through the fall and it was like okay I need to adjust some things um swing wise maybe how we train how we practice um what’s going to be most
Important moving into the season and we made that adjustment which was really cool and the players really um they they just latched onto it and then boom our last like three weeks two weeks of the Fall our offense really like ticked up and so that was really fun for me to see
That you know when everybody’s kind of working together and we have the right information the right plan how we can make progress now you know I don’t have unrealistic goals we’re playing in the most difficult conference in the country country and next year that conference becomes even better when you know number
One Oklahoma comes in and number whatever three or four Texas comes in um but we have to um at our University we have to prepare you know we have to we have to take players and and we have to make them better and that’s kind of our
Job uh and from a defensive side too our staff is amazing on the defensive side so um Player Development there’s a lot of schools out there that that recruit really well and they get really good players and they have a good environment and they they get to the College World
Series every year and we’re one that has to develop players you know we’re ones that we take them and hey you’re coming in here as a good player we need to make you great we need to get every ounce of um ability that you have and and
Determination and and and get it going to show up you know every single week so it’s a very fun Challenge and um it’s been rewarding so far too so recruiting in the SEC and playing in in arguably the best conference in all of the country
I don’t care what sport it is but when you’re recruiting in the SEC as you do helping out recruiting that whole process what are you specifically looking for in those pitters that you think would be able to succeed at the SEC level yeah it’s it’s been fun I I saw
You know hundreds of hundreds of players this fall out on the road so um you know what do I look for um you know some of the stuff I look for is how do they carry themselves what kind of what kind of swings do they take are are they are they aggressive
Are they are they apprehensive do they have size and bat speed um do they get hits at the right time um meaning is are situations too big for some players um no matter how good you are if if that’s showing up at you know 16 years old um
You know it’s still going to be there when they’re 18 19 and 20 when stressful environments come or do they embrace those moments um big or small uh big people strong people fast people can get away with more but it doesn’t mean that they’re better players um it just means
That they can they can miss a little bit more and still get away with it um and then M I look at mechanics I do the same exact thing that I do um when I when I was doing the professional baseball stuff because it the same stuff plays if
I can get players in and recruit players that I don’t have to change that’s not going to take months and months and months or a full season to change a mechanical flaw then that is great for me because that’s going to make it easier on me it’s going to make it
Easier on the player um putting them in that situation so for myself like I’ve been very successful in determining that just from my past experiences in Major League Baseball so I use that same approach that um hey I I know exactly what I need to do to this player or I
Don’t have to do anything mechanically it’s going to be you know maybe timing and Rhythm maybe it’s going to be approach and plan maybe it’s going to be um aggressiveness or you know Zone awareness or knowing the game situations things like that there’s so many factors
That go in but I will tell you when mechanics are an issue at that age it’s very concerning to me because it takes a lot longer to fix um and of course it depends on the mechanical issue you know I mean I was going to ask too what what
Mechanical issues what mechanics are you looking for in a high school player that you you feel that player fits into our program fits into the SEC or that player has way too much that they have to work on myself as a coach our coaching staff we don’t have that kind of time we’ve
Got all of these players that we have to work with we have to develop as you mentioned Player Development so we just can’t recruit this person we can’t sign this person maybe we can get them in the transfer portal one day when they fix things go off to another school almost
Use that as a theater type program right but again that’s that’s neither here nor there but but what are you looking for mechanically wise in a high school recruit or even a junior college recruit yeah it’s it’s a it’s it’s the same stuff if you go back and look at every
One of our um video analysis we’ve done over the past what three years Jim yes sir it’s all those key points it’s the first eight inches of the Swing it’s the sequencing of the first eight inches of of the hands and shoulders and the elbows and and the forearms it’s it’s
That if there’s a issue there then I can grade it out is is this going to be really tough or is it going to be can we get away with it you know maybe if somebody is an elite athlete with Elite Vision so I mean I I have um players on
Our team and and you know there’s we have 20 hitters and uh mechanically speaking maybe six to seven of them have really good upper body mechanics and the rest of them are not perfect okay so there’s not very many people that are perfect it means that we’ve been working on things to clean
Them up but when we have those issues we have to know what pitches we’re good at you know so players that have certain issues are better highball hitters players that have certain issues or better lowball hitters and you have to put them in an environment that they’ll
Be able to succeed with um if I had my DRS everyone would have you know that perfect uh first eight to 10 inches of the swing and then we could just make small adjustments to get to different pitches from there but that’s just not the way it is so um yes we’re always
We’re always working at it but it it has to do with the sequencing of of the body and when the elbows hands and arms kick in um it’s just it’s difficult it’s difficult to fix um when especially when players get get older um they have the ability to
Fix it like they can fix it off a te really easily because they’re Elite athletes um and then sometimes in front TOS it gets a little bit better but that is soon as the game speeds up right we’re not going to you know we don’t have enough time to get that muscle
Memory in there so then we have to we have to know what we’re good at and know what pitches we can hit and then use our brain a little bit more maybe to counteract the pitches we won’t be able to get to I know I’m I’m I feel like I’m
Interviewing you here um that’s not really what our formula has been over the previous 148 episodes of the lab Epstein hitting podcast you mentioned our um our analysis our video analysis and um when we’ve talked about players Bo bashet comes to mind Vlad Jun we’ve done everybody at this right almost I
Mean all the stars pretty much although we haven’t done K catel Marte and I did I see see us his swing and his Bat path and his hand path the other day on on Instagram and it was one of those things where I was like damn it I would love to
Do catel Marte and break down his swing he’s got a pretty swing but nevertheless go back in the archives on Apple Google Spotify our YouTube page the LA Epstein hitting podcast YouTube page for those mechanical breakdowns and previous episodes Clips as well and um follow us on social media at jimara
And Epstein hitting yes Jake is still active on social media believe it or not even though he has a very high-end position with the University of South Carolina but again I feel like I’m interviewing you here and we’ll get to our main topic in in just a moment I do
Want to ask though just off the cuff it’s got to be fun for you to fill out these reports on players and create these practice plans for these players right don’t coaches just love creating those type of things they kind of geek out on those for lack of a better term
Geek out on those type of type of type of things and those elements of coaching right practice Yeah I mean we have I do the hitting right so my practice my practice plan is is great you know I take the the time blocks that that I’m
Allowed each day and then I figure out the best way to do it and the fact that we get you know we have 20 hour weeks where we can work with with players you know essentially that’s team practice we get we can we can work with them for 20
Hours and and then we have 8 hour weeks which is um we we can’t see them as much right and so we do more individual work with them you know oneon-one um and that’s great too you know getting that individual time or what I like to do is
Once I assess everybody is you know here’s our three or four players that are kind of working on the same things um and I want to do the same drills with them and and work them whether it’s Rhythm or mechanics or something whatever it is and then I can group them
Together into you know groups of say two or three that just makes it it makes it really great and it’s it’s very um we maximize our time really well even though it is limited compared to when I played and it was just the wild west and
We did whatever the heck we wanted to back then you know we’ practice for I mean as much as much as we really wanted um and you just can’t do that anymore so you do have to kind of figure out and be organized and know what you want to do
And plan that out you know in the beginning of the week and I think we do a good job with that and then you know crash our our uh you know kind of our coordinator of of of everything right you know she puts together like practice plans team defense scrimmage live at
Bats all that kind of stuff yeah I find it amazing that they still have this hours limit and yet the nil the transfer portal it’s all just it’s the Wild Wild West right as you said right for all right you guys it’s flipped you guys used to practice and somewhat I used to
Somewhat have that opportunity too just to practice whenever you really want nobody’s really watching you I I guess it’s changed but you can practice for only a certain am of time but this a million athletes can they can enter the transfer portal and have all that nil
Stuff yeah make it make sense please somebody yeah I mean the fact that what was the the latest I saw was uh the Texas backup quarterback right Arch Manning made made 2.1 million or something this year is the backup and I don’t is it pery or whoever the you one
Of the best quarterbacks in the NFL makes $836,000 like there’s a problem there there is a problem there and I I do worry about and we’re not going to get into this but I do worry about the future of College athletics and what the nil what the transfer portal what that
Is all doing to College athletics the purity of College athletics I don’t think it’s going in the right direction any sport at this point um the only thing that they’ve gotten right has been expanding the college football playoff but everything else it’s been completely wrong I did not like the ruling of play
Of a free-for-all type nil where players can just be paid all this money a backup quarterback paid $2.2 million I I don’t like that ruling but again well just that’s my opinion Jim tabot the opinion not Jake Epstein I can get into that some other time maybe on
Another podcast it it’s it’s making the Haves and Have Nots disparity even bigger right unfortunately is what it is well also too I want to uh Pat myself on the back I don’t do that enough no you don’t Jim you really should it’s good for your good good for the confidence
Self-esteem I’m in my fantasy football league’s um championship week this week coming up you know who wanted my quarterback I didn’t I didn’t start him last week I started Josh Allen by the way people from Buffalo I think we have we have listeners from Buffalo um they
Say Josh Allen really weird there like Josh they say Josh Allen and every so every time I I hear his name I hear that I say that in my head like oh Josh Allen because they people from Buffalo say Josh Allen’s name really weird like a New York Midwest combo accent yeah yeah
It really is um I have him on my fantasy team too long story short Brock pie is on my fantasy team I had people tell me that he’s a um what do they call that quarterback um system quarterback yeah right before the season started and now
He’s going to be maybe the MVP or at least in the running um so I just want to let everybody know that I was right again and I hope everybody wishes me luck with my fantasy football good luck Jim although this episode’s coming out Jan Monday January 1st so I’ll find out
Monday if I win or lose so maybe I’ll update everybody on social media when we promote this episode by the way um I was going to say something else too about um uh oh the equipment yes the equipment at your SEC School the University of South Carolina how have you utilized that type
Of uh equipment that you’ve been given right I know the budget’s obviously bigger playing in the SEC um softball has gotten bigger it’s on TV now you get TV money I can’t wait to watch um when when you guys start play in February and March on ESPN and
Stream the games I did that last year it’s a lot of fun um softball games are just fun in general I’m I’m sorry they were just really fun to watch last year um and I’m looking forward to doing it again this year um so softball has grown
So is the technology the equipment how how have you utilized all of that how has that been using that type of technology to help your hitters get better yeah you know we use we use a lot of video um we we chart as much as we
Possibly can so we have um and we have a ton of machines which is great we have a lot of um hack attack machines give them a plug because they do a really nice job um we have the eack attack machine which is programmable which is great we can
Put in different um speed pitches different shape pitches and it’ll randomize different it bats if we want it to so um we’re definitely utilizing all of the the the machine work that we have uh we have hit tracks and video we have uh video out on the field we
Have you know dartfish so everything we do on the field is tracked as well from a team defense point of view especially from a base running point of view and then obviously all of the abats that we have you know in the fall and then and
Then during the season too so yeah the technolog is great um it’s expensive all of that stuff you know and all the different scouting softwares that that we’re able to utilize but um it it makes a real difference in in in our coaches being able to prepare you know our
Players players our our our student athletes you know this they can show up and and know what they need to do and we can put them in an environment to to make them better each day so um yeah you know me I I I use what works what I’ve
Found over the past you know x amount of years that that works really well and I kind of disregard the stuff that I I really think is fluff um or too much information because um there’s a there’s a lot of information out there and players get carried away with it and
Yeah have to be careful when filtering that information to the player when you’re talking about not not mechanics but more approach pitch recognition Rhythm timing sometimes you you give them too much and they freeze up right so um it’s it’s all the same you know
Most of the SEC schools we all kind of have the same stuff and then it’s up to the people to uh it’s up to the different staffs to apply that in a certain way to their players however however they deem fit so um I think we
Do a pretty good job of it obviously um in managing our players but the season around the corner and you get more and more information and sometimes you want to pass it on to the player and sometimes it’s best to just let that player go out and be an athlete so it’ll
Be a fun little journey for us well um as I’ve said before I’m very happy that your current position is working out into high-end position as you deserve one of the best hitting instructors if not the best in all of the country all of North America the United States of
America the only reason I show up Jim and and do this is because you you know what you make me feel good you just patted me on the back right there I did I did I do miss I told you this off the air I I have to point it out for those
Watching on the YouTube page I missed the picture right over your right shoulder I don’t remember what it even was it was uh oh it was it was was it the Pete Ron or wasn’t the Pete it was or over here yeah it’s over your right
Shoulder oh yeah that was the me as a kid with Pete Rose I missed that I missed that picture really it really added to the uh nice background that you my kids like that picture too because it was like me and these like short Adidas shorts when I was about seven years old
And I was kind of chubby well those those shorts are now back in style they are bit to the gym lately I’m sure you’ve seen it with College athletics they like those shorts nice and short up their thigh I kind of wear them too they’re not bad they’re comfortable they’re comfortable let
Those quads let them Breathe Right oh and let the Cals breathe too oh yes yeah let the knees breathe right um episode 149 again I’m I’m glad you’re uh be able to do you’re I’m glad you’re able to do this today and uh I’m glad that you everything is working out
I’m looking forward I hope to see you guys on TV com Springtime um for those who emailed me Jimbo po you can still email us by the way too I’ve got another podcast cross functionality which by the way our cross functionality listeners are listening to this right now because
Not only is this coming out on Monday on the lab RSS feed and the lab YouTube page it’s on the as I call it the CF page and the CF RSS feed so we’re doing a little cross marketing type there you go with the podcast I’ll be able to see
You Jim we come down to Orlando we play at UCF so maybe you can make a drive over if you I can make that drive over to uh Orlando get through that I4 traffic that’s Dr Steve knows what I’m talking about he was one of the people
By the way who asked me when we are coming back I hit with him recently in uh in Tampa that was a lot of fun uh stance Dr Steve he told me I still got it by the way youd like to know that’s all you’d like to know you and I talked
Off air we talked about how I’m I’m into golf now I I for those who don’t know I’m left-handed baseball swinger right-handed golf swinger my golf but you should be a a left-handed golf swing no because I I don’t want to because I want people like yourself and stance Dr
Steve to tell me and fluff me up a little bit and say I still got it swinging a bat from the left side so I can’t do that but stance Dr Steve did wonder when we were coming back I got some emails from people Jimbo podcast 21@gmail.com
Hey when you guys come no questions no hitting questions you know just they just take take take take yeah no I I get a lot too uh when are you guys coming back that’s what they asked us well we’re back now at least for for this episode episode 149 and we will have
More content going forward here in 2024 so uh be on the lookout for that and thank you for all the support again Jimbo podcast 21@gmail.com we do appreciate you taking all this information in um okay let’s get into today’s topic here we’ll discuss this for about 10 to 15 minutes talking about
Quality at bats today and I think this is a really we were going to talk about this a few months ago and we’re finally getting a chance to discuss this now and being that you were in a position where you want your hitters softball level SEC level University of South Carolina the
Gamecocks as it were you want them to have those quality at bat and I was watching I thought of you actually the other day because I again I was on Instagram and I saw some hitting videos catel Marte was one and there was a video of Mike Trout and his swing when
He was in high school and you and I talked about this way back when how the swing from when a player baseball or softball when they’re in high school fundamentally mechanically the way their body moves to when they move up levels college and then as it were with guys at the professional
Level that their swing doesn’t change all that much so what does change how do they get better it’s that they learn how to have those quality of bats and I’m sure that’s something that you teach now look you look at some hitters and you say I can’t change too much it’s working
For them fundamentally the way their body moves they can only do certain things or they can maybe do more what’s the separator now what might separate us and I’m thinking that you may be thinking it’s those quality of bats and being able to teach players how to have
Such so then they can get on base and obviously score Those runs yeah I mean I I sh all fall I I charted quality at bats just to give give me an idea too when I was going back or meeting with players or or postgame notes um you know so that
Players you know we we may have had a player that went 0 for two in a game but they hit a deep sack fly to right center field that not only scored a runner from third but moved a runner up from second to Third and then boom we get a ground
Ball uh and we’re able to score that other run so that one sack fly enabled us to get get two runs and that’s the way teams win and that’s a goal and that’s one of the things that’s really great with with softball um is that this this is their
This is their time you know they’re not pressing to become Pros there’s not a big payday at the end of it um going and playing on an Olympic team you know they’re gonna if they do that that’s you know a month out of every year right and
They’re they’re not going to make a living doing that it’s more of about honor so they work together the cohesiveness of a team versus baseball where you may have four or five guys that you know especially in the SEC that are going to be in the top maybe three
Or four rounds you know those guys got extra pressure on themselves they’re trying to do things to make their stock rise so that they get paid right in a couple months so um the quality of bats is is is massive for us in in scoring
Runs and it could be as simple as what I just said a sacrif I fly I mean it one sticks out one of our players um it was late in our garded in Black Series and that was the situation um she was responsible for two runs on a sack fly
To right field but uh a deep Fly ball But Not only was it a great at bad it was it was two strikes she had two strikes on her and she was still able to be super duper productive um with her out and we don’t always get hits and we
Have to know the situations and what we’re trying to accomplish accomplish and that’s something that I talk to them I you know especially when we’re doing inner squads or we’re out there you know what are we trying to do here hey what do we you know we see the situation I’ll
Just talk them through it from the duck out you know what what’s situation here what are we trying to do with the bat here um what’s our job I don’t want to have to tell you everything if you want to put it bun down because the first
Base’s playing back do it like be you know have that kind of gamesmanship um so teaching them to to learn the game on their own is I think really important as well um but it’s it’s just everybody is different and and what I’m trying to preach some players need to be way more
Aggressive some players need to to get deeper into counts some players need to work Rhythm and timing and kind of all of that goes into you know a fall season that’s what we’re working on you know we’re not concerned really with with stats people are trying to earn earn
Positions and whatnot but you know it’s really about learning the game and Manufacturing runs and what kind of team do we have do we have a team that can sit back and hope for a walk and then hit a ball out of the park um or are we
A team that we need to kind of get get infielders moving on hit and runs to create holes um because maybe we don’t have a ton of over the fense power so you know trying to learn that and figure out what’s the best way for us to put up
You know six to eight runs a game that’s that’s the goal right that’s what we’re trying to accomplish and it and some days the wind’s blowing out and and some days it’s not and we got to figure out how to be successful on both both those different scenarios so quality of bats
That term or those terms right quality of bats it’s kind of an ambiguous type phrase ambiguous type phraseology what exactly are quality of bats what are your definition of quality of bats and what do you profess to your players about having those type of quality of bats where they can get on
Base and score runs yeah so I mean a home run is really good so that would that would be my favorite quality of that right maybe we get maybe you get four points right one one for each base you get you get four qus as as we call
Them right quality at bat points that if you hit a if you hit a home run if you hit a home run with two people on you get two RBI on top of that so you get six um if you uh move a runner over from
Third base with um less than two outs or with I’m sorry with less so so we get a runner at third with one one out or uh you know less than two outs that’s a that’s even though you may make an out and be over one you would that would be
A quality at B A Walk would be a quality at bat a maybe a seven pitch at bat that you’re really battling and super competitive that would be a quality at bat um striking out would not be a quality that would be like a negative um not advancing a runner with less than
Two outs that would be a negative um really you know a sacrifice bunt would be a qual qu at bat so um and then you know like I said before RB RB are key I don’t care how you get that run in RBIs runs scored like you can’t win a
Game score without scoring runs right so every run if you could that you can scratch across especially at our level you know and Conference play is totally crucial because once conference play hits It’s you know there’s not a lot of sweeps regardless um and you’re trying
To scratch out two wins out of three right so um you know the difference between winning a series and winning two games and then and versus winning one game it could be a run it could be an air it could be um a base running mistake
Somebody that didn’t tag up um and and so we spend a lot of time on trying to be clean um is what we call it trying to play clean from a base running standpoint from a quality of bat standpoint and from a defensive standpoint runs are equal to or greater
Than hits and that is a phrase that applies to baseball it applies to softball and it applies to an efficient offense and I can’t tell you how many games that I’ve watched in my lifetime still due to this day where a team may score five runs but they bang out 14
Hits It’s about as inefficient of an offense even if you win it’s about as inefficient offensively as you can get and it will catch up to baseball or softball down the line and it shows if you have say five runs 14 hits that you maybe didn’t have quality type
At bats maybe you came through in some opportune times but you didn’t have quality at bats and again runs are equal to or greater than hits if that’s the case and it is with runs if you have more score more runs say five runs on I don’t know four hits that’s an efficient
Inning and then it’s an efficient game and it all starts with quality of bats in my opinion yeah and and you know what like slugging matters yeah you know when you against good pitching you’re not going to get four hits in an inning it’s just it’s not going to happen maybe get
A maybe you get a a walk maybe you get a base hit you know maybe get a sack fly boom maybe a double that’s going to be a big inning you know when you get into conference play and you’re facing Aces so um yeah you’re not going to get 14
Hits a game very often right two hits in in in softball that’s two hits an inning which seems like nothing right but it’s uh it’s a difficult game the ball moves a lot that’s one of the things I found you know that kind of differentiates well there’s a few that differentiates
Baseball and softball but the you know pitcher to pitch the the variance between up and down in baseball is usually about you know a high fast ball drop about two degrees one or two degrees and maybe a sinker or a slider will drop I don’t know about 8 degrees
Seven maybe seven so you’re only looking at a difference of like six degrees right pitch plane well in softball you know we have a pitcher that actually goes vertical on a high pitch she’s at plus one which is crazy um and then other pitchers will go down nine degrees
So now of a sudden and she’s close to that so now you have a 10 degree difference in Pitch planes yeah that’s really really hard to cover okay so you have to be a little bit smarter and you have to have better plans and you have to know which pitches more hitable and
Then obviously you have to have worked on hitting those different pitches um because hitting something that’s moving down at 9 degrees and hitting something that is at zero degrees up those are two completely different planes and two completely different postures and it really starts kind of at
The coconut you know what did Yogi say 50% of the game is 90% mental or something like that you know I don’t remember I’m trying to think um 90 of the game is half mental or I don’t remember what he said but you really have to be smart to to be successful in
The Box doesn’t mean you have to be sat smart you know you don’t have to have a 1500 on your SAT but you have to know the game and what pitchers are trying to do to you because that takes players to the next level in fact we have a player
On our team who’s been around the program for a while and she picked like 80% of pitches that our pitching our head coach calls the pitches she’s the pitchy coach she knew every pitch that was coming she’s like I’ve been here four years I know exactly what this
Coach tries to do to different hitters and she just rattled them off and it was awesome but that’s a player that pays attention and doesn’t just go up to the plate and swing all the time they’re invested in the game in their teammates and when you can have players like that
It makes everybody a little bit better well proper studying too that leads to quality of bats yeah for sure very very you have to put players in a position to be successful about yeah you you just have to um and and matchups are one thing but Comfort
Is another thing and and giving them the information that you know like hey you don’t hit the pitch down very well you know what I want you to do is really try to get under that pitch well if I put that player in that situation like say
It’s a pinch hitter and she’s a flat swinger and the Pitcher throwing down throwing drops I’m not I’m not giving her I’m not giving her a chance to be successful um and that’s where players you know that adjustability factor um when I’m working with players it’s like okay I
Want you to be able to swing up 10 degrees and I want you to be able to swing down five degrees and if you can do both of those things at any time then I know that you can get to all different pitches and the problem is everybody is
Kind of grooves one swing at the the high school level right because they don’t throw very hard and they Groove one swing and they could be successful with that one swing and then all of a sudden when everybody now is throwing 10 miles an hour harder that one swing
Doesn’t work with different shapes so I love my players to be that’s why I love pepper right maybe we should start a pepper League or a pepper game I’m in I already such a great game to learn how to control the bat and I think that’s I think somebody posted on social media
The day it was really good it was something like Barrel adjustment you know like what is a barrel adjustment is if you have to make a barrel adjustment is that a good thing or a bad thing and I thought that was a really good question can you argue adjust it’s an
Adjustable type swing somebody yeah I mean I would say I I I think if you can make adjustments midswing you have to and that’s a barrel adjustment and that’s why some players with really good hands can make those adjustments so how can players study what’s the proper
Study plan for them that will help produce quality of bats I think revisiting your bats I think going through um what did I do this weekend you know or this week and how am I at bats and how did this pitcher throw me um and and what did I
Do you know I’m gonna I’m going to get a chance to maybe face that pitcher again um how did she get me out did I let her get me out or did she just make good pitches um so I think you know looking back uh reflection as a coach you know I
Will reflect pretty much every night after a game on what we what we did well and areas we could approve upon right by looking at video and how did the pitcher attack us um were we aggressive enough or were we overly aggressive in getting you know chasing pitches early in the
Count did we have the wrong approach um on a pitcher that was really pounding Us in or pounding us up or you know wherever it is so um self-reflection and humility is is really what makes players and coaches grow together is you know what can I do better next time even if I
Was successful um you know what can I learn from that experience that I just all right well we wrap up episode 149 um episode 150 we’ll be talking about opening up too early episode still to be determined but again in 2024 we will be pumping out new content for the lab
Epstein hitting podcast uh page YouTube and of course the audio side Apple Google Spotify wherever you get your podcast if you haven’t done so already please subscribe and continue the emails I’ll collect them and when we do our next episode if you ask hitting questions or you have hitting points
That are salian and smart I will’ll bring them up to uh my friend and co-host the um hitting coach softball hitting coach at the University South Carolina Jake Epstein all right um before we get going wrap up episode 149 do you have anything that you’d like to
Um it’s like I hate to like give you like a swan song because that’s not what I’m trying to do here that’s not my intention but like anything you want to say is there anything you want to any final words now well any final words yeah and not our last episode I’m just
You know The Season’s coming up like enjoy it watch your college softball watch your college baseball um you know for those kids that’s how you get better like you get better by watching where you want to play and where you want to go so um I would say get excited for
That ESPN I know the SEC stuff like all our conference games will be on um probably come March when that starts uh but our season starts in February and you know early February February 8th is the first game so it’s right around the corner and and go to those games if you
Can you know if you have a college town near you I don’t care where you are if you’re in Davis California go to a UC Davis game um you know if you’re in if you’re in New Jersey go to a ruter game like it’s really fun and you’ll learn a
Lot and and see kind of how that environment works and if it’s something that you want to do um and if it is then work at it like you’re not going to get better not not getting better you know what I mean you got to throw all the
Time you got to hit all the time you got to take ground balls find a wall throw a ball against the wall I’ll tell you what one of the I can’t say her name but one of the first players I saw recruiting this fall I saw her take a throw she’s a
Short stop I saw her take a throw the first game I went to went to a game beginning of the game the catcher threw a wall to second base she short hop picked it she did something flashy with her glove she flipped it up she had
A big smile on her face as she threw the ball to the third baseman to start the game and I said I want to continue to watch that that’s what I want to see she moved the right way and you know how you move the right way by throwing a ball up
Against the wall constantly and learning how to pick it pick it pick it with a backand pick it with a forehand I mean you can do so much learning how to move the right way and if that’s how you want to get noticed like if you do want to get
Noticed you got to move that way so watch the best players move like like the best players copy this best players and you’ll start catching RI also I have have read your biography I was just curious on the um on the South Carolina softball page and you there’s no mention
Of the lab Epstein hitting podcast on there I didn’t write it I didn’t write what you mean you didn’t write it what do they what do they what is it just AI know sports information they dig deep well I might have to email that Sports
In I I I’ll pull him right up and I’m sure he’s great at what he does I might have to email him and hey if you don’t mind well there’s some good info we don’t want to give away all the secrets though well no we’re not no we don’t
Want to give away all the secrets we’ve only done 149 episodes It’s on video and audio we want to keep it now we just want all that content’s out there now we want to try to keep it from everybody that’s it that’s right now we’re gonna lock it up baby opposite marketing
Strategy all right um good stuff well oh by the way I want to say this too and and really quick I want to I just if you want to comment on this I thought about this the other day I was going back through in my head of the year that went
By right 2023 it was a very short year but it was a very long year and I mean that both ways positively and I thought well why is it long well this happened here this happened here this happened here and I just thought of points throughout the year that happened that
Really stuck out to me there was a lot too and it got me thinking man it’s been a long year but it’s been a good year so my point is if as an athlete and this is go I think this goes for everybody but talking here athletes and softball
Players baseball players and and The Season’s very long baseball softball it’s six months Collegiate level it’s sometime it’s nine months right I mean September to you know June whatever it’s a long long year long long season and I think that if if it goes by very quickly it means you haven’t accomplished
Anything but if it goes by quickly and you can look back at certain points and you feel like man it’s been kind of a long year or this happened this happened this happened it means you made progress and I think athletes going forward in 2024 baseball softball players should
Remember that you do you and sometimes you need to step back back and take a breath and and kind of look from afar because it is everything rolls into the next week you play here then you got a midweek and then you got a series and
Then you got this and then you got another one and then it’s season’s over then you go recruiting and this and that sometimes you got to self like I said you got to reflect on you know what happened I love Diaries right you can reflect on you know what happened last
Week right this was a good week right this is what we accomplished but if you don’t you just roll through it then all of a sudden maybe you get to the end of the year and your team is not hot or you’re not swinging the bat as well and
It’s like hey a month ago remember how good you felt you have to be able to go back to how you felt and what you were working on and maybe what you were eating right what was your pregame meal that week that put you in that really comfortable place because there’s always
Es and flows in the season um and you really have to take a step and look at the positive and be able to grow from that yeah so I think everybody should uh take heed Our advice if you’re an athlete base or if you’re parent of an
Athlete yeah and try maybe profess that to your parents or to your kids if you’re parents of an athlete going forward all right good stuff today episode 49 thank you everybody for listening and watching again email us Jimbo podcast 21@gmail.com Take Care thank you everybody for listening
Watching and we will talk to you soon
