Athletek Baseball

Should you pull the ball❓
Should you hit the ball the other way❓

I don’t have an answer. I know a few things:
🔻A “fair ball” spans from foul pole to foul pole…USE THE WHOLE FIELD.
🔻The “fence” is deepest to center field. Why? Because players hit the ball the farthest in the middle of the field. LIVE IN THE MIDDLE.
🔻Hitters are never perfectly on time…so aim for what you WANT to do…and ADJUST ACCORDINGLY.

When all else fails, we want our guys to try to hit the ball hard and DO DAMAGE.

Something to be said for putting your head down and just WORKING.

We’ve been watching these college dudes do it all summer 😎💪

Some good ole fashioned heavy weights and slamming iron for you guys here.

(Yes there’s more to the story, but we know you guys love this $&)

What do you see❓👀

Working with Spencer Norman on unlocking some additional outfield velocity.

Spencer (2028) is a legit high-level athlete — super strong, can really swing the bat, and runs a 6.5 60. Not a pitcher, but the arm strength has been lacking relative to everything else he brings to the table. We’ve made some serious strides with him in the past 24 months or so…but there’s more to the story.

Slowing the throw down like this helps us identify exactly where the disconnect is — is it a strength issue, an athleticism issue, or a case of having the tools but not being able to connect to them?

That’s the missing link we’re chasing.

In this clip, we’ve picked out a few things that need work — some we already knew about, and a couple we found once we slowed it all the way down.

Curious what you guys see. Drop it in the comments 👇

Reinforcing “GOOD TURNS” through a little angle BP.

Some solid dialogue with 2027 C Piero Premoli talking about the evolution of his swing over the past year or so.

A lot of work put in emphasizing the TURN over the HANDS.

Result?

More extra base hits.
More balls to the pull side with AUTHORITY.

Hitting is a science. It’s not a perfect one by any means.

But if you get in the lab and you experiment, you’ll come up with some winning formulas. 🧪

Continuing into the dog days with our SPEED & POWER phase.

Lots of foundational lifts…

Performed fast.

Performed correctly.

LFG.

Angle BP and Front Toss

Big emphasis during our second phase of programming for the summer with our hitter on GETTING CONTACT POINTS OUT FRONT.

It’s pretty well known and undeniable that “damage” is done out front.

We what hitters to understand that. And to attack the ball the right way so we can get them there.

📝Working with a plan.

Good inside look at a mid-summer bullpen for Sewanee Baseball RHP Dominic Veneri

Behind the scenes…

✅Calming things down.
✅Thinking “more is less”.
✅Getting comfortable throwing ALL pitches:
👉To both sides of the plate, up, and down
👉In any count
👉In sequencing patterns that make sense

As always, big thanks to James Huey for catching our arms 💪

Something to be said for hitters staying AGGRESSIVE and CONVICTED to what they’re trying to do with each swing.

We want guys trying to DO DAMAGE. All the time.

It’s the only way to stay ahead when the pitcher, the stuff, and the velocity variables get more difficult.

📈More progress for 2028 Andrew Sommer

Pulldown and mound velo creeping up.

End of last summer, pulldowns were around 82.
Less than 12 months later 👉 88.9.

Hard work. Trusting the process. And structure.

Lot of people like to pick apart the pulldowns into a net…

Say it’s pointless.
Doesn’t translate to the mound.
Poor indicator of progress.

And for some...this may be true.

With Andrew, we know he sometimes falls into a comfort zone and the intent suffers. So for him, we love seeing the radar on his high intent days so we can gauge where that intent is and where it needs to be.

Big things coming for this dude 💪

There’s a difference in training for MAXIMAL STRENGTH and training for SPEED and POWER.

Second phase or summer training with our HS athletes…

BOX SQUATS
🟡 60-70% of 1RM
🟡 Moving at .8m/s or more
🟡 Move it FAST!