What's up guys? Coach Madden, YouGoProBaseball.com and I'm here with Omir
Santos, former major league catcher teammate of mine back in the day, we
trained together at Core speed and agility and we're gonna talk a
little bit of hitting today give me a little bit of information on your
routine that you used to go through and your mindset as a major league hitter I
mean mine say I got a huge you got to have a plan to go out there because they
have a family you so plan is huge if you don't have a plan
forget about it you're gonna be an out they're gonna get you out easily they
have a primary you so you're gonna have to have a plan on them they know how
they're gonna how they're gonna pitch you so when you're on deck now on deck
every time everything start in the claw house you got it you gotta know who's
pitching I mean now with these days you know they have information information
and everything if you play in college I mean even in the minors I mean they have
information even in trial ball you see pictures here and you see it next week
and you know what he throws and what he cares you off with so you gotta have
that mindset they have a plan every time you come to the plate so you're watching
him you know what you know of him beforehand and the major leagues
obviously they're gonna tell you in a two out count he throws this many
percent fast balls and you're gonna know everything obviously it gets less and
less as you go down travel ball you still see those guys every once in a
while so the earlier you can know about those pitchers the better off you're
gonna be now take me through you're in the game
you get on deck what's your mentality or your routine when you're on deck I'm
there getting the timing and when you get here on the batter's box you cannot
think of mechanical nothing to complain you have to let the practice that you
did before hand work on the game game is no way to get mechanical or I gotta do
this no I mean it's to compete you already there to complete hopefully the
thing that you did in your practice you're gonna show up on the game so
that's why the mentalities and then have a plan if you have a plan you have to
have a plan so when you they have a plan are you looking you
know obviously the game situation could be different obviously your plan is
gonna be different based on the situation of the game take me back to
the on-deck circle what were you doing I know it changes probably changed many
times in your career but what were you doing when you're grabbing a bunch of
bats and swinging them what did you do to work on your timing for the pitcher I
was always watched the pitcher if I was on deck I was thinking what his command
is right from the beginning of the of the game the first hitter in throw I was
gonna hit I always I already have a plan when I was on deck get my timing in and
what the pitchers command is commanding and what he's a strikeout pitches Bobby
say oh that I always were ready for the fastball gotta be ready for this fast
but no way and it's now if you have a plan I'm gonna hit the breaking ball I
don't it that's a plan you gotta be if you're ready for a fastball you're gonna
be ready for anything you gotta be ready for the photo were you taking swings up
there on the on-deck circle or were you just basically watching them and working
your hands or we taking full hacks what we do sometimes I just do too few swings
but most of the time I was watching the game I was watching the picture I mean
because doing that I mean one more swing and everything with a weight I mean
really doesn't help you it doesn't help you matter of fact I mean they said am I
making issue if you do see it with a weight and on the circle your your your
switch it'll be slower that's what they said and it's true I think because they
put in practice they sure if you do it with a heavy weight if you do a swing
your own back you better end up get your arm your back
quicker to the Sun they're getting away because you tissue your brain just to
swing something heavy and you're not going a full spin as you want that's why
we were saying practice as a game game like so you're shrinking go I mean and
everything go quicker on the game that's a great point I think I saw a study that
they did not only did it so them down but it also messed the hitters
swing up so he was miss hitting more balls after swinging a heavier bat so
that's a pretty great piece of information that you said also we were
talking in another video we did about that you know the weighted bat being an
overload but more importantly in than that and this is not so much going to
the on-deck circle but for training for bat speed maybe
under load swinging a lighter bat could be beneficial to gaining some bat speed
and exit velocity for that as well now take me through your mindset as a
competitor meaning we're in a close game you got a stud MLB pitcher 60 feet six
inches away from you and you get in here what is the mindset to be a competitor
and want to win because I see some guys kids get up there and they just freeze
up they're just like and they and they they their swing is all out of whack
even if they have a great swing in practice they're all out of whack
because the pressure gets to him what was your mindset in the game I mean at
that time you're the best nobodies it's best on you I mean you got
to be the best out there it's like you got to pull your dad pitching to you if
you know if he's something one of the Hall of Fame pitching you know that we
know or we're in the big leagues but here you you got to be the best I'm
gonna get a hit I'm gonna help my team I'm gonna do everything I can get a bit
competitive but your mentality is from on-deck to here I'm gonna get ahead no
matter who's pitching I'm gonna get a hit that's a great point that's a great
point and when you do that at least from what I felt and I'm speaking more from
the pitching standpoint because I was a pitcher but when you when you tell
yourself that and you talk to yourself like that you start to feel better you
started to feel more confident and when you're more confident in there you're
gonna be able to swing more freely so you're gonna let more of what the stuff
that you did in practice come out in the game if you're walking up there with
some swag and some confidence now there is a fine line of being confident and
being cocky now I'm sure you've played with some guys who were more on the
cocky level versus the common aside but I think you want to ride that line as
close as you can to being you know I'm the man I'm I'm gonna get the job done
no matter what because at the end of the day if you
don't believe that you're probably not going to make it to that yes to that
next level let's talk about your routine in the batting cage like what are you
trying to do in in a normal practice session we were talking about front toss
and BP what do you go through what did you use to go through have you changed
your philosophy since then what do you got since it's being changed a lot I
mean and I think it helps a lot people now on the the hitters back in the day I
used to go to my routine tea front toss and some BP but I'm with the years now
more game like practice it helps a lot it helps out because I see it I see it I
mean if you can practice get more game-like
I mean machine on BP now just fight so straight fastball in between that and
between those fights pitches makes breaking balls I mean you're not going
to look good but on the game the harder you practice this is going to come in
the game and it's being show I mean because I've been it's being story and
I've been proof of that become seeing it I'm seeing it you know I've been working
with some people and I'm seeing it hard practice and make the game easier and
that's the way I mean I get it a lot of I mean people they're not gonna like
that practice because they want to look look good and BP I want to make I want
to hit some people oh you don't want to hit some homers I want to hit the ball
hard but I mean he's not helping you it doesn't help it doesn't help but if you
do random practice more game like it's gonna help I mean true and he's gonna
help so now let me ask you this are you doing or some of the guys you're working
with are you doing are they doing T work at all and flips front flips at all or
is that 0% or is it more we try to get 90 80% live game like or what is the
balance of yeah I said balance I mean we're not gonna get away from that the
front of T or the front of I mean that's baseball we're not gonna get away from
that but now that's less we can say is like thirty thirty percent seventy
percent of their practice is game more game-like instead I throw the front
toes on their hand we're trying closer but we're gonna try over him same thing
I mean maybe since people we see in the army angle you know our motion over the
top we don't see this we can't do that maybe 30 percent together I mean warm
and everything but after that we're gonna go over him so it's kind of a same
thing we're just trying to do a more game like let's go back go back to young
omere santos and we've got we've got some high school-age hitters that are
watching right now what would you know Mir do let's say if he wanted to
practice his swing he didn't have a beautiful facility like this maybe all
he had was his bat and a couple of balls maybe he had a friend that could come
out to work with him maybe not what are some things that you would do back in
the day to get ready for your season the best friend you know they say best
friend is your dog the best friend of the place the tea tea will tell you
anything you're doing wrong so you don't need a partner or somebody to free your
ball if you get a tea and a net or if you got a tea you don't have to have a
net you might have a fence anywhere t1 ball in the back and that's all you need
that's what you need now I guess the big point to take away from there though is
even though we're doing more live practicing nowadays you can't make
excuses to not get the work in if you got a tee and a ball and a bat get to
work in get the job done let me ask you this were you lucky to be a major league
player or did you have to work for it I have to work for it yes yes absolutely
how much let me ask you this how much work did you have to put in was it like
it was like two three days a week that you worked on this like maybe an hour
each day or how much everything every single day seven days a week every day
one hour a day no how many hours a day you think maybe like three or four hours
a day at least I remember when we were trained enough there yeah I got a show
Dionne dad that I got some when I was in high school
I got some friend that just moved here and when they seemed in this trio I
remember you when we will get out of school and I went to my house in a bike
change and come back to the field and was right there across the other my high
school and I used to wait for somebody to play catch or hay and they used to
pass a well you are the school just now said oh yeah I want to practice and they
just just to make fun of me and they right now they they you say that too
that they coaching they used to say that to their players hey I remember this
skin I used to make fun of him and he made it but I made it I used to work
hard I remember I remember they always mention me that so now working hard
obviously that's something that you can control you have full control over how
hard you work right that's one thing that scouts look for what are some other
things that scouts look for in regards to hitting I mean be I disagree on the
plate if they see you that you're getting hit
swinging anything they don't they're gonna say yeah but I mean when as soon
he's get in a bigger level or more college level d1 they know how to pitch
and you're not gonna hit anymore you gotta have a go spinner in and I go
pitch because if you are walking or getting cheap bases that's not gonna I
see those kids I mean somebody's kid oh I went three for three yeah triple tree
like this that's not gonna work when you get keep scaling that that level it's
not gonna work get a good pitch to hit and hit it hard
and worry any any way if it's in and out they're gonna they're gonna see it
they're gonna see it they don't they're not gonna see it a fees for example you
got a kid that went three for three you got a kid again when off of four with
four line shots and in a in a game do you know you pit or whatever you know
why all the scouts go oh I didn't get drafted or whatever yeah but you guys
see that swing they they look all that so don't worry about the results you
have to worry about you know your your planning and then your swing the result
I gonna come and they know that that's why sometimes you know these parents are
he and everything they're getting caught up on that oh well you're not getting
heads or whatever they don't I get it everybody want to get a base hit but
it's not that was so they know that I remember I was watching a big leaguer
one time getting I was in the playoffs and the reporter was asking him you know
what what's going on you're not hitting so well this postseason when can we
expect you to break out of the slump and then she put the mic to him and he was
looking at her like are you crazy he's like I've been smoking the ball
around and he was happy yeah and he hadn't had a hit yet but he was feeling
good hitting line drives and just getting out but that's a great mindset
to have like even though you're getting out he was his batting average for the
playoffs was zero and he was happy and he looked at the reporter like she was
out of her mind like you're watching the same game that I'm playing it because
I'm smoking the ball so that's a great mindset to have for sure with these
young guys and coaches who are watching if you could leave them with one big tip
that they can use to help them with their hitting or even just mentally what
would be the most important thing that they can focus on to really take their
game to the next level as a hitter practice I mean try to make practice
tougher hitting it um telling you it's not gonna look pretty but watch there is
on the game make I mean game like practice when you're hitting and he's no
way a lot of different I'm telling you it's gonna make a lot of difference
there you go challenge yourself put in the hard work
take it from a former major league hitter catcher who was great player
listen to the tips that he's got for you because if you implement this stuff
you're gonna have a lot of success man he didn't get there for any reason like
you said hard work is a part of the equation a big part of the equation
so if you're only putting in a day or two or three couple minutes a day that's
really not going to help you get to that next level so put it in the hard work
that's something that you can control so get out there make sure you do it don't
forget to check out Amer stuff I'll leave all his links down below if you
guys are ever in the Central Florida area come check them out
we're here at triple crown Sports Academy you can check it out at triple
counts triple crown sports academy.com also check out omere Santos baseball
Kam's calm thank you for watching guys hop down in the comments below leave us
any questions you got we'd be happy to help answer them hey guys I want to ask
for your help with something Triple Crown Sports Academy Ameer Santos
his wife coach Andrew a few other organizations they got together and they
were collecting some used baseball equipment and recently they took all
that equipment down to the Dominican Republic and handed it out to players
who really needed it he was telling me there was over 200 kids there some of
those guys were down there fielding with bare hands
fielding balls using broken bats and equipment so it was really a great
experience for them to go down there and just see the benefit that these kids got
from getting some of this equipment and he said it was a real positive
experience and they plan to do it again and that's what I'm reaching out to you
for is to see if you guys have any used baseball equipment now I'm gonna be
going through my house in my garage and seeing some of the stuff that I got I
know I've got a bunch there and I want to bring that as well and if you guys
are interested in helping with their cause their initiative and you have some
old stuff laying around I'm gonna leave a low you could ship your stuff right to
that address I'll make sure the right people get it these guys are planning to
go back to the Dominican Republic Columbia possibly some places here in
the United States you know they're playing just because of the success of
it the first time is to keep doing this and you know omere is one of the most
generous people that I've come across in the game of baseball and just in life in
general and I just think it's a really great thing that he's doing and I want
to support it and you know having this community you guys here on YouTube I
just wanted to reach out and see if anyone would like to do that as well so
thank you always for the support here on YouTube with me and if you do have some
equipment we would be very grateful and thankful to you if you send it in thank
you so much guys I'll talk to you soon