Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / One Leg Up 8-12-24 - Aaron Judge's Personal Hitting Instructor Richard Schenck Talks Aaron's Career and Takes Us Inside the Batter's Box
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: Here's your host, Alex Garrett.
- 0:06Speaker 2: Hey everybody, it's Alex Garrett, and tonight Aaron Judge could
- 0:10Speaker 2: make some more history. He comes into the Chicago White
- 0:13Speaker 2: Sox series sitting at two ninety nine for career homers. Well,
- 0:18Speaker 2: we wait to see when he gets through home run
- 0:20Speaker 2: number three hundred and also the chase for sixty three.
- 0:23Speaker 2: I caught up with his hitting instructor, yes, his personal
- 0:27Speaker 2: hitting instructor, Richard Skank, earlier today. Well, here on the
- 0:31Speaker 2: Alex Garrett podcast Network. I'm so honored because you know,
- 0:34Speaker 2: we're watching Aaron Judge's home run trajectory once again, and
- 0:38Speaker 2: the fact that he's been hitting besides the home run chase,
- 0:41Speaker 2: you know, he's been just getting his hits. And someone
- 0:43Speaker 2: who's worked with him personally, who has been basically a
- 0:46Speaker 2: hitting instructor for him, Richard Skank, is on my line.
- 0:50Speaker 1: Richard.
- 0:50Speaker 2: First of all, I'm so honored to have you today.
- 0:54Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, glad to be here.
- 0:56Speaker 2: So we know you've worked with Aaron Judge, and I
- 0:58Speaker 2: want to start there. I mean, the guys got back
- 1:01Speaker 2: on his home run pace. I think April was a
- 1:04Speaker 2: slow start, but from where you sit, and I'm sure
- 1:07Speaker 2: he's consulted with you to make this turnaround happen. What's
- 1:10Speaker 2: the turnaround there? And judge from May till now.
- 1:15Speaker 1: Aaron has the tendency to get a little long, a
- 1:18Speaker 1: little long in his loading. He likes to hit homers,
- 1:24Speaker 1: and so he likes to load enough to get a homer,
- 1:27Speaker 1: and sometimes he overloads and it makes his bats low.
- 1:32Speaker 1: And so through the month of April we did several
- 1:34Speaker 1: different things and finally found the problem. He was, if
- 1:39Speaker 1: you will, reaching too far back with his arms, and
- 1:43Speaker 1: that cost him his quickness. And when he's quick, he's
- 1:47Speaker 1: very powerful. So that's basically what.
- 1:49Speaker 2: We found, all right. Some say the ejection on May
- 1:54Speaker 2: fourth change everything? Is that part of it? Did he
- 1:57Speaker 2: get motivated after that ejection? You think, I don't think
- 2:00Speaker 2: so interesting. Well, I know you've worked with him closely
- 2:04Speaker 2: and now he's on this home run chase again. But
- 2:07Speaker 2: I've always made the point, if he's still getting his
- 2:09Speaker 2: singles and doubles, that's a very good sign that his
- 2:12Speaker 2: bat is just moving the right way, right, I mean,
- 2:14Speaker 2: he's interesting homers, he getting the he's getting his hits
- 2:16Speaker 2: in as well.
- 2:17Speaker 1: I agree. I think you know, most people consider him
- 2:21Speaker 1: a power hitter, but Aaron wants to be the best
- 2:23Speaker 1: he can be. Uh. He wants to be a three
- 2:26Speaker 1: hundred hitter, wants to drive in runs, wants to hit homers.
- 2:32Speaker 1: He's the complete package, and he does track out too much.
- 2:35Speaker 1: But he still has a very good on base percentage.
- 2:41Speaker 1: Good ops. I think the bat I think he might
- 2:45Speaker 1: be most proud of his batting average.
- 2:49Speaker 2: It's it's pretty up there now, Richard, you said you
- 2:51Speaker 2: work with him on different things. Has that work continued
- 2:54Speaker 2: through this whole season? I mean, does he consult you often?
- 2:59Speaker 1: Since two thousand in seventeen, which was the first season
- 3:02Speaker 1: I worked with Aaron, we have met almost every ten
- 3:06Speaker 1: days to two weeks during the seasons. This season we
- 3:12Speaker 1: have well. Actually, last season I had a health issue
- 3:15Speaker 1: and he was on the disabled list a little bit,
- 3:18Speaker 1: so that it wasn't every two weeks last year and
- 3:23Speaker 1: this season. He's canceled a couple of times because he's
- 3:26Speaker 1: doing well, there's no need to get together. But for
- 3:29Speaker 1: the most part we're together often during the season.
- 3:34Speaker 2: All right, soby's canceling? I mean, something's going right, I guess,
- 3:37Speaker 2: But I know you're at Hittererman teaching tell us about
- 3:41Speaker 2: all of that as well your company hitterman teaching.
- 3:45Speaker 1: Okay, I played Division two baseball as a good catcher,
- 3:50Speaker 1: was not a great hitter. I got married, started raising
- 3:54Speaker 1: a family, and as my sons were coming up through
- 3:56Speaker 1: Little League and into high school, they were like their dad.
- 3:59Speaker 1: They were good in the field, but they weren't very
- 4:02Speaker 1: good hitters. So I started studying very Bonds and other
- 4:05Speaker 1: great hitters, trying to figure out if, in fact, they
- 4:09Speaker 1: did something different or better than everyone else. Almost everybody
- 4:14Speaker 1: in pro baseball is a good athlete, but some of
- 4:17Speaker 1: them are better than others. So I started trying to
- 4:20Speaker 1: duplicate very Bonds a swing. I was fifty years old
- 4:24Speaker 1: at the time. I didn't expect to hit like him,
- 4:26Speaker 1: but I did expect to be able to make myself
- 4:29Speaker 1: look like him in video. And my theory was that
- 4:32Speaker 1: if I could do that, I would feel something completely
- 4:35Speaker 1: different than what I did when I played. And it
- 4:39Speaker 1: took me two and a half years to figure it out,
- 4:41Speaker 1: but I started looking like him, and I most definitely
- 4:46Speaker 1: felt something completely different. So I taught it to my
- 4:50Speaker 1: son and he instantly started having success. Now he was
- 4:55Speaker 1: never a pro prospect, just a kid who loves the game,
- 4:58Speaker 1: and he started hitting home runs and filling the gaps
- 5:02Speaker 1: with doubles and triples. So I had been frequent frequenting
- 5:06Speaker 1: the baseball forums on the internet. The forums existed long
- 5:11Speaker 1: before Twitter, and I would start talking about what I
- 5:14Speaker 1: had discovered and why I what it is and how
- 5:18Speaker 1: it works. And a couple of minor leaguers came along
- 5:21Speaker 1: and trusted my judgment and they had improvements in their career.
- 5:27Speaker 1: And then one of them retired from baseball became an agent,
- 5:31Speaker 1: and he's there and Judge's agent, and when Aaron needed
- 5:34Speaker 1: some help, he put us together. So that's kind of
- 5:38Speaker 1: what happened. The big thing that actually happened was what
- 5:42Speaker 1: I call launch quickness. I found out a way to
- 5:47Speaker 1: load the body and to swing the bat that makes
- 5:50Speaker 1: your decision between or the time between your decision to
- 5:53Speaker 1: swing and the actual launch of the swing, to be
- 5:56Speaker 1: very very short. And when I met Aaron, he did
- 6:01Speaker 1: not have launch quickness. Now he does. So he was
- 6:06Speaker 1: six seven eighty before I met him, but couldn't consistently
- 6:10Speaker 1: hit the ball. If he hit the ball go long waist,
- 6:13Speaker 1: but he couldn't consistently hit it well now because of
- 6:17Speaker 1: launch quickness. He can consistently hit the ball and some
- 6:21Speaker 1: of them go a long ways.
- 6:24Speaker 2: Now, Richard, a lot of players turn to you, so
- 6:26Speaker 2: I gotta ask you this. Obviously, every team has a
- 6:28Speaker 2: hitting coach, but what techniques do you bring that are
- 6:31Speaker 2: a little different than maybe what the club is doing
- 6:34Speaker 2: at the hitting coach level compared to when they turn
- 6:36Speaker 2: to you.
- 6:37Speaker 1: Okay, there's two things that I teach that no one
- 6:40Speaker 1: else other than people that follow me teach. And one
- 6:44Speaker 1: is what I call the snap of the barrel, the
- 6:46Speaker 1: supernation of the top hand and the pronation of the
- 6:49Speaker 1: bottom hand to get the barrel to go backwards toward
- 6:52Speaker 1: the catcher before it goes forward toward toward the ball.
- 6:56Speaker 1: That's number one, and number two. You have to do
- 6:59Speaker 1: that from a loaded, stretched rear leg. You cannot do
- 7:04Speaker 1: it from two weighted legs. So in the process of
- 7:07Speaker 1: putting those two things together, the snap of the barrel
- 7:10Speaker 1: rear and swinging from the rear leg, your barrel gets
- 7:15Speaker 1: into the zone quicker earlier it gets into the zone
- 7:19Speaker 1: behind you, and so therefore you're quick to the zone.
- 7:23Speaker 1: And then as your leg turns you forward, you're in
- 7:26Speaker 1: the zone a long time, So that gives the hitter
- 7:29Speaker 1: a better window of opportunity, it gives him better timing,
- 7:34Speaker 1: and it really is helpful at getting hitters to square
- 7:39Speaker 1: up the bell, square up the ball more consistently.
- 7:44Speaker 2: Well, you know, a double consistency. And some guys we
- 7:46Speaker 2: hear the term, you know, hitting over the ball or
- 7:49Speaker 2: under the ball. And at what point do you find
- 7:52Speaker 2: these guys hitting at their stride? When do they hit
- 7:55Speaker 2: their stride after a few sets with you or when
- 7:58Speaker 2: do you notice them hitting their stride? And how excite
- 8:01Speaker 2: are you when they do?
- 8:03Speaker 1: Well, it's very exciting when they finally figure out what
- 8:05Speaker 1: I'm teaching. Some of them pick it up really quickly,
- 8:08Speaker 1: some of them takes a while. Now, what was the
- 8:12Speaker 1: first part of your question, Well.
- 8:15Speaker 2: No, I mean, it just got to be exciting when
- 8:17Speaker 2: these guys, you know, and I've been a dj lmayu
- 8:19Speaker 2: also because I don't know if you work with them
- 8:21Speaker 2: or not, but he's been struggling. But when I see
- 8:23Speaker 2: him hit the other way, that's so important. I mean,
- 8:26Speaker 2: these guys when they go OPO, doesn't that mean that
- 8:29Speaker 2: they've got a good groove going pretty much?
- 8:32Speaker 1: So they really good hitters can hit the ball to
- 8:35Speaker 1: all fields. They'll pull the inside pitch and they'll hit
- 8:37Speaker 1: the opposite of the outside ball of the opposite field.
- 8:41Speaker 1: That means they have a nice path through the ball.
- 8:45Speaker 1: The best of those are quick to that path. I
- 8:51Speaker 1: don't work with DJ. I'm not real familiar with what
- 8:54Speaker 1: he tries to do. I have seen him swing the
- 8:56Speaker 1: bat a lot, He's had a lot of success in
- 8:58Speaker 1: the past. I really don't I haven't studied them enough
- 9:04Speaker 1: to know to help him well.
- 9:06Speaker 2: One thing you do, Dough, which I love, is on
- 9:08Speaker 2: your feed you post the different angles of all these
- 9:11Speaker 2: guys' swings, even the big hitters. Do you find that
- 9:14Speaker 2: so educational for even the kids coming up? And do
- 9:17Speaker 2: you get a lot of reaction to those you know,
- 9:19Speaker 2: like the Albert bells and the Barry Bonds videos and
- 9:21Speaker 2: others that you post throughout the day.
- 9:24Speaker 1: It's my opinion that all the devices that measure your
- 9:29Speaker 1: bat speed and measure your rotational acceleration and measure your
- 9:34Speaker 1: launch angle are worthless. The only thing you need to
- 9:38Speaker 1: do is turn your camera on and learn to swing
- 9:41Speaker 1: like Barry Bonds or Manny Ramirez or Albert Poolholz or
- 9:44Speaker 1: Mike Trout or someone who's known to be a great hitter.
- 9:48Speaker 1: And when you finally figure out how to make your
- 9:51Speaker 1: swing look like theirs, you will have what I call
- 9:54Speaker 1: barrel depth. That's the barrel getting into the zone behind you.
- 9:58Speaker 1: And when you have barrel debt, yes, you're going to
- 10:01Speaker 1: have a timing advantage over every other player that plays,
- 10:05Speaker 1: and you're going to have your best success. So it's
- 10:08Speaker 1: very rewarding when I finally get someone to feel it
- 10:11Speaker 1: and they go off and have instant success, it's very satisfying.
- 10:16Speaker 2: I get the impression that some of these kids coming
- 10:19Speaker 2: up things they can hit the.
- 10:20Speaker 1: Homer and that's their main goal.
- 10:21Speaker 2: How do you sway them away from being just a
- 10:23Speaker 2: home run guy and really focusing on all parts of
- 10:26Speaker 2: the field that you will very.
- 10:28Speaker 1: Good question and something that's misunderstood with my teaching. I
- 10:32Speaker 1: never mentioned launch angle. I never mentioned the exit velocity
- 10:35Speaker 1: when I teach. What I teach is launch quickness, the
- 10:39Speaker 1: ability to get your bat up to speed quickly. Both
- 10:42Speaker 1: a Volkswagen and a Corvette will go one hundred miles
- 10:45Speaker 1: an hour, but the Corvette will get to that speed quicker.
- 10:50Speaker 1: Whether we're regardless of what your max bat speed is,
- 10:54Speaker 1: you need to get it up to speed quickly, and
- 10:57Speaker 1: so that's what I teach. Now, a guy that's six
- 11:01Speaker 1: seven to two eighty, big strong man like Aaron Judge,
- 11:04Speaker 1: when he figures this out and gets his bat up
- 11:07Speaker 1: to speed quickly and starts barrowing the ball, a lot
- 11:10Speaker 1: of them are going to leave the ballpark. However, Kerry
- 11:13Speaker 1: Carpenter of the Tigers, who's a client of mine, he's
- 11:17Speaker 1: only like six two two hundred. He's a normal size
- 11:20Speaker 1: human being. He also barrows the ball regularly, and he
- 11:25Speaker 1: hits about thirty well, he's hit twenty five to thirty
- 11:27Speaker 1: homers a year. He's not as big as Aaron. He
- 11:30Speaker 1: doesn't have as much power as Aaron. I also have
- 11:33Speaker 1: a player in the minor leagues who is five to six.
- 11:37Speaker 1: He's hitting three hundred and he's got an eight seventy
- 11:40Speaker 1: or an eight eighty. Ops. He hits a lot of doubles. Okay, Now,
- 11:44Speaker 1: from five to six to six foot to six seven,
- 11:47Speaker 1: I don't care what size you are. What you need
- 11:50Speaker 1: to do to play baseball is barrow the ball. Square
- 11:53Speaker 1: the bat and the ball. The big guys, squared balls
- 11:57Speaker 1: are going to go a lot farther than the smaller
- 11:59Speaker 1: guys squared balls. Regardless of whether you're big or small,
- 12:04Speaker 1: you need to square the ball to play, and basically
- 12:07Speaker 1: that's what launch quickness does. It helps you square bat ball,
- 12:13Speaker 1: you know.
- 12:13Speaker 2: I I find it interesting because some of these guys
- 12:18Speaker 2: turned to their teammates. And I don't know if you
- 12:20Speaker 2: ever worked with Austin Wells, but I noticed that he
- 12:22Speaker 2: was helping out the guys and the miners. When players
- 12:24Speaker 2: start helping their own teammates out hitting, does that go
- 12:29Speaker 2: a long way as well?
- 12:32Speaker 1: Well? Definitely, when I have two or three or four
- 12:35Speaker 1: guys that have been through my training on the same team,
- 12:39Speaker 1: it's very beneficial for them to be on the same
- 12:41Speaker 1: team and communicate back and forth about what they see
- 12:44Speaker 1: in each other's swings.
- 12:47Speaker 2: And obviously you can go a long way. Now we
- 12:49Speaker 2: mentioned Aaron Judge, who else that player that people might
- 12:52Speaker 2: know that you've worked with them, maybe they didn't know
- 12:54Speaker 2: you worked with Over the years.
- 12:57Speaker 1: I probably have eight to ten maybe more big league players,
- 13:01Speaker 1: and I've got maybe fifty or more minor league players,
- 13:04Speaker 1: a whole bunch of D one players who are trying
- 13:07Speaker 1: to be pros. I limit my time right now to
- 13:10Speaker 1: high school agent above. I used to teach ten and
- 13:13Speaker 1: twelve year olds, but right now I'm busy and I
- 13:16Speaker 1: prefer to donate my time to the people who have
- 13:20Speaker 1: the most urgency, and those are the older players.
- 13:25Speaker 2: And talk about your use of video, I feel like
- 13:27Speaker 2: you're not so much analytics. You're about the video. How
- 13:29Speaker 2: did you look last at bat? Versus the next step back?
- 13:32Speaker 2: Is that the way you kind of approach about it.
- 13:33Speaker 1: Also, Yes, I mean when I work with Aaron, when
- 13:37Speaker 1: I go and work out with him, we've always got
- 13:39Speaker 1: the camera on and we're always comparing his swings to
- 13:42Speaker 1: his past successful swings, and there's a certain look that
- 13:48Speaker 1: when he has the look, he also has the quickness.
- 13:52Speaker 1: And that's something that most people do not understand. They
- 13:56Speaker 1: don't believe that there's a better mechanical way to swing
- 14:00Speaker 1: the bat. They believe that your quickness, your ability to
- 14:04Speaker 1: hit the ball, comes from your fast twitch, from your
- 14:07Speaker 1: god given athleticism. And I'm not discounting that that God
- 14:12Speaker 1: giving athleticism is very important, but it's not enough. The
- 14:17Speaker 1: pitchers are so good these days that you also have
- 14:20Speaker 1: to have mechanical quickness to go with your fast twitch.
- 14:24Speaker 1: And when you have both you're going to play at
- 14:26Speaker 1: the highest level that your God given the ability will
- 14:30Speaker 1: allow you to play. When I get a new student,
- 14:33Speaker 1: I tell them, if you can get this swing down,
- 14:37Speaker 1: you will play as long as your god given ability
- 14:40Speaker 1: allows you. If it's a high school kid, that may
- 14:43Speaker 1: just be college. If it's a college kid, that may
- 14:45Speaker 1: be the minor leaguers. If it's a minor leaguer, it
- 14:48Speaker 1: might be major leaguer. The one thing they can do
- 14:51Speaker 1: to improve their ability to play longer is to get
- 14:57Speaker 1: a launch quickness swing.
- 15:02Speaker 2: You know you mentioned the different types of pitchers and pitches.
- 15:05Speaker 2: Do you have sort of a technique for every pitch,
- 15:07Speaker 2: like the curveball, the splitter of the fastball. I mean,
- 15:10Speaker 2: I'm sure you go over every pitch, and now these
- 15:12Speaker 2: hitters should approach each pitch and someone's a show like
- 15:16Speaker 2: a scouting report as well.
- 15:18Speaker 1: Yes, what comes with launch quickness is the ability to
- 15:24Speaker 1: have more time to read the pitch. If you're as
- 15:28Speaker 1: quick as you can physically be from the time you
- 15:30Speaker 1: decide to swing until you swing, that gives you more
- 15:35Speaker 1: time to read the pitch. Basically, a ninety mile an
- 15:38Speaker 1: hour fastball, you have about point four seconds from the
- 15:41Speaker 1: time it leaves the pitcher's hand until it gets to
- 15:44Speaker 1: the zone, roughly point two seconds to read the pitch
- 15:48Speaker 1: and roughly point two seconds to execute your swing. Well,
- 15:52Speaker 1: if you can get your swing time your swing quickness
- 15:55Speaker 1: under point two, well, now you have more time to
- 15:59Speaker 1: read the pitch. And that's basically what happens. And therefore
- 16:04Speaker 1: Aaron judge could just look fastball every pitch but still
- 16:08Speaker 1: be able to adjust because he has the time to adjust.
- 16:12Speaker 1: He doesn't do something different for a slider than he
- 16:14Speaker 1: does for a fastball. He doesn't do something different for
- 16:17Speaker 1: a changeup that he does for a slider. He has
- 16:20Speaker 1: an instantly quick launch that allows him to wait for
- 16:26Speaker 1: the ball to get to him. When you're waiting for
- 16:29Speaker 1: the ball to get to you, when you're waiting for
- 16:32Speaker 1: the fastball to get to you, it's not all that
- 16:35Speaker 1: hard to wait a little longer for the slider or
- 16:38Speaker 1: a little longer for the changeup. But when you're rushing
- 16:41Speaker 1: to catch up to the fastball because you're not quick, now,
- 16:46Speaker 1: the slider and the off speed pitch are real problems.
- 16:51Speaker 2: You know, I got to ask you this because that
- 16:53Speaker 2: two weeks there, Remember that two weeks in twenty twenty two,
- 16:56Speaker 2: when it wasn't looked like it was even getting singles
- 16:58Speaker 2: in the doubles because of the press of sixty two.
- 17:01Speaker 2: Did he turn to you during those few weeks where
- 17:03Speaker 2: it just looked like he was going after every pitch?
- 17:06Speaker 2: Did you feel that as well?
- 17:08Speaker 1: What I saw at the end of the season in
- 17:10Speaker 1: twenty two when the pressure was on him to break
- 17:13Speaker 1: the record. First of all, a lot of people started
- 17:17Speaker 1: stopped pitching to him, and so my opinion he might
- 17:23Speaker 1: stay different. But my opinion was he started expecting them
- 17:27Speaker 1: to walk him or to throw pitches off the plate,
- 17:30Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, the pitch would come
- 17:32Speaker 1: over the plate and he would take a swing at it,
- 17:34Speaker 1: but he wasn't really ready because he was expecting them
- 17:37Speaker 1: to walk in. So there was a period of time
- 17:39Speaker 1: there where a good hitter is yes, yes, no, I'm swinging.
- 17:44Speaker 1: I'm swinging. Now I'm not. I think there's a period
- 17:47Speaker 1: of time there where he was no, no, yes, I'm
- 17:49Speaker 1: not swinging, and I'm not swinging. Oh, I better swing.
- 17:53Speaker 1: And when he finally fixed that, home runs number sixty
- 17:58Speaker 1: one and sixty two came in right there at the
- 18:02Speaker 1: end of the season, I was on the day he
- 18:07Speaker 1: hit sixty two. It was a doubleheader. They were in Texas,
- 18:11Speaker 1: and the first game of the double header he didn't
- 18:13Speaker 1: hit it. And between games we had a text exchange
- 18:17Speaker 1: and he said, I think my direction is off. And
- 18:20Speaker 1: that has a special meaning to both of us. He
- 18:23Speaker 1: has to feel like he's going to hit every ball
- 18:25Speaker 1: opposite field. Whether he does or not is a different story,
- 18:29Speaker 1: but he needs to feel like he's going to as
- 18:32Speaker 1: he's receiving a pitch. And he texted me and he said,
- 18:34Speaker 1: I think my direction is off. And I looked at
- 18:36Speaker 1: some video and I said, I think you're right, Aaron.
- 18:39Speaker 1: And first that bad of the second game of the
- 18:41Speaker 1: double header he hit number sixty two.
- 18:43Speaker 2: Well, that is such a special story. And I was
- 18:45Speaker 2: going to ask you if you were in the ballpark
- 18:47Speaker 2: that night, and then of course he had to have
- 18:49Speaker 2: phoned you were texted you after it happened, right, I
- 18:53Speaker 2: was not.
- 18:53Speaker 1: In the ballpark. I was in New York when he
- 18:55Speaker 1: hit sixty number sixty and I hung around I forget
- 18:59Speaker 1: how many days, two or three days, hoping to see
- 19:01Speaker 1: sixty one and sixty two, but he never did it,
- 19:04Speaker 1: and I had to go on home and then I
- 19:07Speaker 1: believe he hit sixty one in Toronto and sixty two
- 19:09Speaker 1: in Texas, and I I was here in Saint Louis
- 19:11Speaker 1: when that happened. I was watching on TV.
- 19:14Speaker 2: You know, Aaron Judge. I observed this the moment he
- 19:16Speaker 2: came up. It seemed like the flick of the wrist.
- 19:19Speaker 2: If he got that flick of the wrist right, it
- 19:21Speaker 2: was going out of the park. And that's still true today.
- 19:25Speaker 1: Yeah, he's very quick. When I first met him, he
- 19:30Speaker 1: had lengths to his swing. In other words, when he
- 19:33Speaker 1: decided to swing, he had to load a little bit
- 19:36Speaker 1: more after deciding to swing and before he could swing. Well,
- 19:41Speaker 1: now he's one hundred percent loaded before the decision to swing,
- 19:46Speaker 1: so the only thing left to do is swing. There's
- 19:48Speaker 1: no other movement needs to happen. And you're right when
- 19:51Speaker 1: he's when he's in that decision, I'm sorry, load decision
- 19:56Speaker 1: swing versus decision loads playing. He's extremely quick, all right.
- 20:04Speaker 2: He's on the verge of hitting three hundred career home runs,
- 20:07Speaker 2: and obviously a credit goes to you, but three hundred
- 20:11Speaker 2: in what he's been here since, you know, seventeen, I
- 20:13Speaker 2: believe he's at his first Ummer in sixteen. I mean
- 20:15Speaker 2: that's about eight years. Is that a fast pace to
- 20:18Speaker 2: three hundred and seven to eight years?
- 20:21Speaker 1: Well, maybe not in years, and I'm not certain about
- 20:24Speaker 1: the years, but it's definitely the fastest pace for anybody
- 20:28Speaker 1: in terms of at bats. Now, he was on the
- 20:31Speaker 1: injured list in eighteen and nineteen, and I forget he's
- 20:35Speaker 1: had some injuries and so his seasons have been cut short.
- 20:39Speaker 1: So I'm not sure if it's the fastest in the
- 20:41Speaker 1: number of years, but if he hits one tonight, it'll
- 20:45Speaker 1: be the fastest ever in terms of at bats. In fact,
- 20:50Speaker 1: it doesn't even have to happen tonight, it's probably going
- 20:52Speaker 1: to happen.
- 20:54Speaker 2: Take us through the Dolman derby in twenty seventeen, and
- 20:57Speaker 2: do you think he was wrongly criticized for after and
- 21:00Speaker 2: then because he got injured after that? Did he put
- 21:03Speaker 2: a lot of energy into that home run derby? Or
- 21:05Speaker 2: was that just happens as he got injured after.
- 21:08Speaker 1: That home run derby? If I'm not mistaken, was the
- 21:10Speaker 1: last one that the hitter was on the clock, like
- 21:15Speaker 1: you can get as many swings as you want within
- 21:17Speaker 1: two minutes or something. And then they went to another format,
- 21:20Speaker 1: but anyway, he would take a swing and then in
- 21:24Speaker 1: an effort to get ready for the next swing, he
- 21:26Speaker 1: wouldn't let the swing he just took finish smoothly. He
- 21:31Speaker 1: would kind of yank it back to get ready to
- 21:33Speaker 1: take another swing, and over and over and over he
- 21:35Speaker 1: did that. He started, he injured his leads shoulder, so
- 21:38Speaker 1: after the home run derby, he might have maybe he
- 21:43Speaker 1: should have gone on the disabled list, but he didn't
- 21:46Speaker 1: want to. So he continued to take at bats with
- 21:50Speaker 1: pain in his shoulder, and he couldn't he couldn't hold
- 21:52Speaker 1: the bat and do what he wanted to do because
- 21:55Speaker 1: of the pain. And eventually it went away. And continued
- 22:00Speaker 1: to work through it, and then he struck out a
- 22:03Speaker 1: lot in late July and early August that year, and
- 22:07Speaker 1: then we got together the last two or three days
- 22:10Speaker 1: of August. In the first couple of days of September.
- 22:12Speaker 1: I was with him for a week, I think, and
- 22:15Speaker 1: he hit fifteen homers in September and got to fifty
- 22:19Speaker 1: two and set the rookie record at that time. So
- 22:25Speaker 1: as far as whether he should do it again or now,
- 22:26Speaker 1: that's totally up to him. It's not a good thing
- 22:29Speaker 1: when you get injured doing it, so we'll see what happens.
- 22:33Speaker 2: You know, Aaron's thirty now, I believe at yeah, thirty
- 22:36Speaker 2: now he came up in his twenty five. The maturity
- 22:39Speaker 2: level in five years.
- 22:41Speaker 1: I mean, have you noticed a change.
- 22:43Speaker 2: Or is he sort of the same kind of cool,
- 22:45Speaker 2: collective guy he was at twenty five.
- 22:48Speaker 1: I don't see any change in his personality over the years.
- 22:53Speaker 1: I've learned to appreciate how even keel he is. Even
- 22:59Speaker 1: when he was struggling there in seventeen after the All
- 23:02Speaker 1: Star break, he had this confidence about him, but yeah,
- 23:06Speaker 1: I'm struggling, but I'll get it together. And then this
- 23:08Speaker 1: April when he was struggling, it was like when I
- 23:13Speaker 1: met with him, I couldn't tell if he had just
- 23:15Speaker 1: struck out five times or if he just hit five homers.
- 23:18Speaker 1: He's the same guy. He's a great player, and he's
- 23:21Speaker 1: a better person.
- 23:23Speaker 2: Were you the the night he got drafted in at
- 23:25Speaker 2: the MLB Network Studios by Jane Oh No, you met
- 23:27Speaker 2: him seventeen, so you weren't there the night he got drafted.
- 23:30Speaker 2: But did he tell any stories about being drafted by
- 23:32Speaker 2: the Yankees and what that meant to him?
- 23:36Speaker 1: Well? He hasn't told me the stories, but I've seen
- 23:38Speaker 1: him talk about his he loves being a Yankee, he
- 23:42Speaker 1: loves being in New York. So, you know, we don't
- 23:46Speaker 1: talk much about that, but it appears to me that
- 23:48Speaker 1: he's right where he wants to be and he's happy
- 23:51Speaker 1: to be there.
- 23:54Speaker 2: Got to ask you this. Obviously, the pressure in New York,
- 23:57Speaker 2: I mean, the fan base goes crazy. They say send
- 24:00Speaker 2: him down. Obviously you don't listen to that, but you know,
- 24:03Speaker 2: it is kind of wild to me, even that they
- 24:05Speaker 2: boo their captain. I never understand that.
- 24:07Speaker 1: Richard. Well, it is a tough place to play, and
- 24:14Speaker 1: a lot of people who were good before they got there,
- 24:18Speaker 1: when they got to New York they didn't do as well.
- 24:20Speaker 1: It is a tough fan base to play in front of,
- 24:23Speaker 1: very demanding I think Aaron handles it really well.
- 24:29Speaker 2: About the postseason because looks like the Anks are on
- 24:31Speaker 2: the way. We hope what changes could he make in
- 24:35Speaker 2: the postseason because obviously that's been a bit of a
- 24:37Speaker 2: tough thing sometimes for him. So what do you say,
- 24:39Speaker 2: what will you be working into the postseason?
- 24:41Speaker 1: Would you say, well, if we work, we'll we'll just
- 24:46Speaker 1: do the same grills, and do the same things we
- 24:48Speaker 1: always do. Of course, in the postseason, you're facing the
- 24:52Speaker 1: best pitchers almost every game. Most teams have, you know,
- 24:58Speaker 1: an ace, and then their number two is pretty good,
- 25:00Speaker 1: their number three is pretty good. They're some of the
- 25:02Speaker 1: best pitching in the league. And I just you know,
- 25:07Speaker 1: you got to get a pitch to hit, and those
- 25:10Speaker 1: good pitchers don't give good pitches to hit very often.
- 25:13Speaker 1: So it's just a matter of being ready when when
- 25:16Speaker 1: you get your pitch to hit, you can hit it.
- 25:19Speaker 2: We're trying to ask about patients at the plate because
- 25:21Speaker 2: I feel like one Soto has kind of brought a
- 25:24Speaker 2: culture change where they're walking more, even Aaron's walking more.
- 25:28Speaker 2: Having Soto in front of Judge has sort of changed
- 25:31Speaker 2: the way Aaron. Is it changing the way he's approaching it?
- 25:34Speaker 2: Is it a better thing for him that Soto is
- 25:36Speaker 2: in front of him? What isn't that three four combination?
- 25:38Speaker 2: There four two three combination.
- 25:41Speaker 1: I don't think it changes Aaron's approach, but I do
- 25:44Speaker 1: think having other hitters in the lineup makes it slightly
- 25:48Speaker 1: easier because the pitcher has to defend or has to
- 25:52Speaker 1: be you know, it has to be good against every
- 25:54Speaker 1: single hitter in the lineup that's tough has always walked
- 26:00Speaker 1: quite a bit. I don't is he walking more this year? Well,
- 26:03Speaker 1: he's getting intentionally walked. I know that, so maybe he is.
- 26:06Speaker 1: But even without the intentional walks, he still walks a lot.
- 26:12Speaker 1: Being patient at the plate basically you're trying to wait
- 26:17Speaker 1: for a pitch you can do damage with, and sometimes
- 26:23Speaker 1: you end up not getting that pitch and you swinging
- 26:27Speaker 1: the pitch you shouldn't have or didn't want to, but
- 26:29Speaker 1: you had to because you had two strikes, and sometimes
- 26:31Speaker 1: you end up walking. So patience is important, and launch
- 26:36Speaker 1: quickness helps you have patience.
- 26:41Speaker 2: Tell us how that relates to patient of the plate
- 26:43Speaker 2: with the launch quickness. I'm curious now.
- 26:46Speaker 1: Okay, so back to what I said a minute ago.
- 26:50Speaker 1: When you have roughly point two to read the pitch
- 26:52Speaker 1: and point to to swing, if you're quick, you have
- 26:57Speaker 1: more time to read the pitch and therefore where you
- 27:00Speaker 1: can be. Therefore, you're gonna read pitches better, You're gonna
- 27:04Speaker 1: see the spin earlier, you're going to predict the movement better,
- 27:08Speaker 1: and therefore you can make better decisions. Well, patience is
- 27:12Speaker 1: a matter of making better decisions. Having the time to
- 27:16Speaker 1: make better decisions your patient, and the better decisions you
- 27:21Speaker 1: make on which pitches to let go by and which
- 27:24Speaker 1: pitches to swing at, the more barrels you're going to hit.
- 27:28Speaker 1: So you're just waiting for the pitcher to throw you
- 27:32Speaker 1: the pitchure that you know that you like, and you
- 27:35Speaker 1: have the ability to do that more so than the
- 27:38Speaker 1: people who don't have launch quickness.
- 27:41Speaker 2: Richer, I gonna ask you this because obviously I play
- 27:43Speaker 2: ball and I actually stand on one leg and hit,
- 27:46Speaker 2: and then balance is such a big part for me
- 27:48Speaker 2: when I get that bat on the ball. How for
- 27:51Speaker 2: people with two legs? I mean that balance is so crucial,
- 27:54Speaker 2: isn't it that the plate.
- 27:57Speaker 1: I'm not big on the word balance. I'm more bigger
- 28:00Speaker 1: on the word control. Balance. Anybody can just stand there
- 28:06Speaker 1: in balance, but can they generate any force from just
- 28:11Speaker 1: standing there in balance? What you have to do is
- 28:14Speaker 1: you have to coil and load up your body. You
- 28:16Speaker 1: have to wind yourself up, so to speak, and you
- 28:19Speaker 1: have to do that while you're moving forward. So a
- 28:23Speaker 1: better word than balance is control. Control is balancing. You're moving,
- 28:31Speaker 1: you're coiling and you're moving forward, and you're controlling that
- 28:35Speaker 1: such that each wol to move forward, there's a counter
- 28:38Speaker 1: move backwards that balances you, that keeps you in a
- 28:42Speaker 1: balancing feeling. And when you can control that balancing movement,
- 28:48Speaker 1: you stay on your back leg. When you can't control
- 28:51Speaker 1: that balancing movement, you fall to your front legs. And
- 28:54Speaker 1: when you have to put your foot down before you
- 28:56Speaker 1: can swing, you will never ever reach your potential. It
- 29:01Speaker 1: takes too much time. The pitchers are too good.
- 29:05Speaker 2: Are there any kids that run through your you know,
- 29:07Speaker 2: training that you have to really work on saying all right, well,
- 29:10Speaker 2: your hand eye coordination is not there yet, but we'll
- 29:12Speaker 2: get there or are there? Sometimes where it's really you know,
- 29:16Speaker 2: maybe I'd say that baseball's not meant for them, but
- 29:18Speaker 2: you have to be honest and say, you know what,
- 29:20Speaker 2: the coordination may not be there. Talk about the hand
- 29:22Speaker 2: eye coordination for hitters and for hitters you work.
- 29:25Speaker 1: With, Okay, Well, everybody has their their genetic limit. I
- 29:32Speaker 1: guess the more athletic people are probably going to play
- 29:36Speaker 1: longer than the least athletic people. As long as you
- 29:40Speaker 1: have mechanics that allow you to have quickness in terms
- 29:45Speaker 1: of the hand eye coordination, that's huge. I talk about
- 29:50Speaker 1: it all the time, you don't. A good hitter doesn't
- 29:54Speaker 1: actually push the barrel to the ball. He doesn't pick
- 29:59Speaker 1: a spot to push the barrel and meet the ball
- 30:03Speaker 1: at What he does is is he snaps the barrel
- 30:07Speaker 1: rearward into an arc. You create an arc with your barrel,
- 30:12Speaker 1: and you create that arc at the right moment, in
- 30:15Speaker 1: the right direction, so that the thrown ball comes into
- 30:19Speaker 1: the arc. You don't take the arc to the ball.
- 30:23Speaker 1: And so therefore, as you turn to look at the
- 30:26Speaker 1: pitch to receive a pitch, you're thinking about You probably
- 30:30Speaker 1: don't think about it in a game, but as you're
- 30:31Speaker 1: learning this, you're thinking about creating an arc that the
- 30:35Speaker 1: ball runs into, and you're allowing your hand eye coordination
- 30:40Speaker 1: to work unencumbered. You're not manually overwriting your hand eye
- 30:45Speaker 1: coordination by pushing the bat at the ball. You're just
- 30:48Speaker 1: creating an arc and letting it work automatically.
- 30:54Speaker 2: I'm sure you're gonna you know you probably hate analytics.
- 30:57Speaker 2: Does that bother you the analytics world where they're what.
- 31:01Speaker 1: Well, it bothers me because they ruin players. I've had
- 31:08Speaker 1: a major league hitting coach tell me that teaching hitting
- 31:11Speaker 1: is easier now than ever, because of analytics. And I'm
- 31:15Speaker 1: going to tell you the guys are hitting moron because
- 31:19Speaker 1: your minor leagues are full of athletic kids, athletic players
- 31:24Speaker 1: who have a good launch angle, they have good rotational acceleration,
- 31:29Speaker 1: and they have good exit of velocity, good batch speed,
- 31:32Speaker 1: but they can't hit big league pitching. So how important
- 31:36Speaker 1: are those analytics when you have hitters who have the
- 31:40Speaker 1: analytics and hit, and you have hitters who have the
- 31:43Speaker 1: same numbers that can't hit. The key factor is launch quickness,
- 31:50Speaker 1: and I'm the only one that teaches that, me and
- 31:52Speaker 1: my followers, and I'm the only one that can measure that.
- 31:56Speaker 1: And when baseball finally sells out and tries to figure
- 32:00Speaker 1: out what launch quickness is, the offensive part of the
- 32:03Speaker 1: game will increase and it will catch up to the
- 32:05Speaker 1: advances that pitching his mate.
- 32:10Speaker 2: I notice you mentioned that you work with women as well.
- 32:13Speaker 2: Anybody from the Oklahoma softball team that just keeps dominating
- 32:16Speaker 2: every way, you know, college Hofball World Series, they're doing
- 32:20Speaker 2: something right.
- 32:22Speaker 1: I don't work with any Oklahoma player, but when I
- 32:25Speaker 1: watched the women's college World Series, it appears to me
- 32:29Speaker 1: that they're doing what I teach I'm not taking credit
- 32:32Speaker 1: for it. I haven't worked with any of them, but
- 32:34Speaker 1: someone there knows what they're doing. And the girls have
- 32:38Speaker 1: launch quickness and they also have good pitching, and the
- 32:42Speaker 1: combination of those two is a hard thing to beat.
- 32:47Speaker 2: Absolutely, And you know, I follow their Durney pretty much,
- 32:50Speaker 2: and I work with softball teams at Queen's College and
- 32:53Speaker 2: they were great the actually when the ECC a few
- 32:56Speaker 2: years ago, so they you know, it's all about doing
- 32:58Speaker 2: something right at the rich I got to ask you this.
- 33:01Speaker 2: So when you get a new person coming in, a
- 33:03Speaker 2: new client, a new hitter, allre you at the point
- 33:06Speaker 2: where you now say, well, I can't promise you'll be
- 33:08Speaker 2: Aaron Judge, but I'm gonna make you a damn good hitter.
- 33:10Speaker 2: Are you at that point yet?
- 33:11Speaker 1: Yes. If they do what I teach him to do
- 33:15Speaker 1: and they get to where it's automatic, they don't have
- 33:17Speaker 1: to think about it anymore. There is a learning curve.
- 33:20Speaker 1: There's time when they're thinking so much you're kind of
- 33:22Speaker 1: paralyzed a little bit. But eventually, with a lot of reps,
- 33:25Speaker 1: you get over that and you can get into a
- 33:27Speaker 1: game and just let the swing fly. They're going to
- 33:31Speaker 1: be the best they've ever been. Now, everybody takes a
- 33:35Speaker 1: different amount of time to get there. I have a
- 33:38Speaker 1: player named Jose Vargas that isn't in the Mexican League
- 33:41Speaker 1: right now. He came to a weekend clinic of mind.
- 33:44Speaker 1: He figured it out in that weekend and I've never
- 33:46Speaker 1: seen him since, and he's done really well. On the
- 33:50Speaker 1: other hand, I've got players that take more time. So
- 33:55Speaker 1: it really comes down to their commitment, their belief, their
- 33:58Speaker 1: willingness to to do the work.
- 34:02Speaker 2: Well, we're in the air of like helicopter parenting now, Richard,
- 34:05Speaker 2: where you know parents want all the involvement at these
- 34:08Speaker 2: games and everything, and at the level you're working at
- 34:10Speaker 2: with these kids, are parents you know involved or do
- 34:14Speaker 2: you tell them you know what, I've got it handled.
- 34:16Speaker 2: You know, how's that dynamic?
- 34:18Speaker 1: Okay? If I'm working with a high school kid, it's
- 34:21Speaker 1: more than likely that his dad has searched the internet
- 34:25Speaker 1: and found me, and his dad has brought him to me.
- 34:28Speaker 1: So I usually have a really good relationship with dad
- 34:31Speaker 1: and player. The problem is, most of the time is
- 34:35Speaker 1: the coach who doesn't understand what the kid is being
- 34:38Speaker 1: taught and oftentimes disagrees with what he's taught even though
- 34:44Speaker 1: he doesn't understand it. If I was a high school
- 34:47Speaker 1: coach and I had twelve, fifteen players, twenty players, however
- 34:51Speaker 1: many have got there's no way in hell that I
- 34:55Speaker 1: have enough time to work with each of those players
- 34:58Speaker 1: individually to get them up to So if I was
- 35:01Speaker 1: a high school coach and all of my players were
- 35:04Speaker 1: taking lessons independently from different instructors around the area, I
- 35:09Speaker 1: would be thrilled, and I would just try to figure
- 35:12Speaker 1: out what they're trying to do and then do my
- 35:16Speaker 1: best to help them do what they're trying to do.
- 35:20Speaker 1: But what my players find, the people that come to
- 35:22Speaker 1: me find is their coach tries to change them rather
- 35:25Speaker 1: than help them.
- 35:29Speaker 2: Well, Richard, I am sure they're on great hands. How
- 35:32Speaker 2: can people reach out to you?
- 35:33Speaker 1: Though?
- 35:33Speaker 2: I know you're on an X and then social media,
- 35:36Speaker 2: So give us your handles that people can reach out
- 35:38Speaker 2: if they have a kid right now interested in, you know,
- 35:40Speaker 2: playing the game of baseball.
- 35:43Speaker 1: I am teacher Maan nineteen eighty six on X. I'm
- 35:46Speaker 1: teacher man nineteen eighty six on Instagram, a teacher man
- 35:49Speaker 1: hitting on TikTok. I'm not hard to find. They can
- 35:55Speaker 1: do Google my name and my phone number will probably
- 35:58Speaker 1: come up. Well.
- 36:00Speaker 2: On that note, when you're up at the stadium again,
- 36:02Speaker 2: please let me know. I'd love to meet you in person.
- 36:04Speaker 2: That would be great.
- 36:05Speaker 1: Okay, I'm scheduled to be there. I'm scheduled to be
- 36:09Speaker 1: in Detroit this weekend and then usually about two weeks
- 36:12Speaker 1: later I'll be in New York. So I'll look you up.
- 36:15Speaker 2: Well, definitely be in touch. All right, one last thing.
- 36:17Speaker 2: I don't know if you're a big prediction guy, but
- 36:19Speaker 2: Kenny hit sixty three. I have to end the interview
- 36:21Speaker 2: with that question.
- 36:23Speaker 1: Well, I would say definitely yes, But it comes down
- 36:26Speaker 1: to will the intentionally walking too much?
- 36:30Speaker 2: We saw that a lot in the Toronto series and
- 36:32Speaker 2: they got you know, they were heavily booed because they
- 36:35Speaker 2: intentionally walked in almost every abat. It felt like, right, yep,
- 36:41Speaker 2: I have some nerves.
- 36:41Speaker 1: You don't tell them.
- 36:42Speaker 2: The basebooks see what happened. So uh, Richard Skank, thank
- 36:46Speaker 2: you so much, and we're going to tag you on Twitter,
- 36:48Speaker 2: social Instagram and all that stuff, and please come back
- 36:52Speaker 2: as this.
- 36:53Speaker 1: Home run chase continues.
- 36:54Speaker 2: I think we're going to get there again.
- 36:55Speaker 1: A Hi, very good. I enjoyed the conversation. Let's see
- 36:58Speaker 1: if we can get a triple crown for it.
- 37:00Speaker 2: Would love that, all right, Richard, thanks so much for
- 37:03Speaker 2: joining Alex Garrett Podcast Network. Thank you a very special
- 37:08Speaker 2: thanks to Richard for joining me on this podcast. And
- 37:12Speaker 2: by the way, speaking of hitters, Oswaldo Cabrera doing his
- 37:16Speaker 2: baseball camp next week a week from today in New
- 37:20Speaker 2: Rochelle and the Alex Garrett Podcast Network still has that
- 37:23Speaker 2: sponsorship opportunity again. I'm only really asking for one to
- 37:27Speaker 2: fifty because I could cover one vifty and any overhead
- 37:30Speaker 2: from that we'll go towards justin Time Baseball. Who's throwing
- 37:34Speaker 2: this clinic? It also features Jose Travino, who, as Brian
- 37:38Speaker 2: Cashman told us, is on the mend in beginning his
- 37:40Speaker 2: rehab assignments in Somerset, New Jersey with the Patriots. So
- 37:46Speaker 2: Oswaldo and Trevino next week we have the chance to
- 37:49Speaker 2: sponsor a kid to play in that camp. Would love
- 37:52Speaker 2: you to be part of it as a listener. If
- 37:54Speaker 2: you do donate to my vemo Alex Dash Garrett Dash
- 37:58Speaker 2: twenty one, please feel free to just in the comments
- 38:02Speaker 2: type just in Time Baseball so I know where the
- 38:06Speaker 2: donation is coming from and for what. Thanks again for
- 38:09Speaker 2: your support always of the Alex Garrett podcast Network