What Belongs Only to Baseball

Our hitting training program for baseball and softball covers the foundation both sports share. This page is about what belongs only to baseball: matching the bat to a descending pitch, reading numbers that mean different things at different ages, and turning cage work into at-bats that hold up in travel ball.

Attack Angle Matched to Pitch Plane

Attack angle is the up or down direction the bat is moving at contact. A pitch coming down at seven degrees is met best by a bat traveling up through the zone at a similar angle the other way, which gives your hitter the longest window where bat and ball can meet.

Most young hitters arrive with one of two problems. They have been told to swing down on the ball, which sends an already descending pitch into the ground, or they have overcorrected into an uppercut and hit the bottom of everything. Neither is a strength problem. Both are plane problems.

We put a Blast Motion sensor on the bat knob and read it directly: attack angle, bat speed, time to impact, on plane efficiency, peak hand speed, rotation. When a hitter moves from a negative attack angle into a positive one and holds his bat speed, ground balls turn into line drives.

What the HitTrax Numbers Actually Mean

Numbers only help when you know which ones matter at your son's age, so progress here is a chart rather than an opinion. Here is how we use HitTrax to track every swing.

For a 12-year-old

Off a tee, most 12-year-olds sit in the 50 to 60 MPH exit velocity range, and past 65 is real strength for that age. At 12 the top number is the least useful thing on the screen. We watch how many of twenty swings were hit hard, how tight the launch angle spread is, and whether the spray chart shows a hitter using the whole field. Chasing a personal best at 12 usually builds a swing he has to undo at 15.

What we watch session to session

Exit velocity, launch angle spread, and spray chart direction sit on the same screen as his Blast Motion numbers, so a change in bat path shows up right next to the result it produced. That is the difference between coaching a swing and guessing at one.

For a high school junior

Junior year is when college coaches start asking. Game exit velocity in the mid 80s puts a hitter in the discussion at most levels, and 90 and up gets attention fast. The number that travels is the average of his hardest eight swings, not one screenshot. A junior who touched 95 once and averages 78 is a different player from one who sits at 84, and the second one gets recruited.

Seeing the Pitch Is Half of Hitting It

A hitter who cannot recognize a slider out of the hand does not have a swing problem. We use Win Reality VR pitch recognition so your athlete gets decision reps against sequencing and velocity he would not face live for years, then carries a real two-strike approach into the cage.

How Sessions Run

Sessions are one hour and coach led, by owner and head coach Alonso Ruz Vera and Coach Raul Rodriguez. Athletes start at 8 and train through high school and travel ball. Bring a bat, glove, and cleats. We supply the rest, and parents are welcome to watch.

How often he should come

One session a week moves a hitter. Two is what most travel ball players do in the off season, in the weeks before tryouts. Whichever he comes in on, the work stays one correction at a time, because that is the only way to know which change did the work.

We train at one facility, on Robertson Drive in Manassas. Families drive in from Gainesville, Haymarket, Centreville, and Ashburn. Start with baseball and softball training in Manassas, or see what training looks like for Gainesville families.

When you are ready, book a free evaluation and we will respond within 24 hours. You can also call or text 813-509-6955.