I Tried The Barry Bonds / Christian Yelich Drill for One Week...here's how it changed my swing

from the outset of the off season my goal was to essentially overhaul my swing while I was quick enough to hit sliders I couldn't quite catch up to fastballs early in the off season I prioritize speed specifically rotational acceleration I was able to quickly bring up my numbers from topping out around six to comfortably sitting in the 10 to 12 range this period even saw me hit 90 mile per hour bat speed but you know what they say good bad speed with a bad bat path isn't good bat speed so I focus on improving that spending the next three months working on bat path playing and connection that leads us to today my acceleration numbers have dipped again and my time to contact is back sitting at 0.17 again which is where we started the off season nowhere near competitive levels so I set out to improve those I thought maybe if I try the bond yellage drill for one week I could see some improvements we had to start by getting Baseline numbers off my pitching machine oh if you don't know how this drill works you start by hitting the ball directly off the plate and slowly working out from there ending with low backspin line drives at the back of the cage well I couldn't quite do that I was all over the place distance wise until the very end where I did smoke three low backspin line drives at the back of the cage each one's slightly higher than the previous one day two was more of the same while I kept the ball low I couldn't quite get it lower than 15 to 20 feet in front of the plate foreign as I moved into machine work I saw immediate Improvement my time to contact lowered from 0.17 to 0.16 and my bat speed and rotational acceleration slightly increased that night the storm appeared out of nowhere tossing and turning I couldn't get back to sleep and then the ghost of Barry Bond's past came to visit me hit the ball off the plate no directly off the plate I woke up on day three determined to pound the ball straight off the plate I ditched a connection tool and despite the rain got to work smacking ball after ball in and around the play area as I moved on I did struggle with distance control but I could immediately feel a better connection with the ground keeping a stable base oh that was to end the day I did set multiple different targets at the back of the cage and I was hitting them time and time again one low one at the Crosshair and one slightly above I felt very good about my distance control at the back of the cage as you can tell by my warm-up swings I was absolutely feeling it heading into day four warming up with the connection tool hitting was automatic dead center right center and left Center all back to back to back easy as can be I took a few more for good measure without the tool and I almost smacked the first ball straight off the plate I was able to keep the ball consistently low and this was the first day hitting multiple 11 and 12 rotational accelerations staying consistent in that range [Applause] 12.6 was an ugly swing I definitely got under it but it was a PR nonetheless I ended the drill with a lot of backspin line drives all over the field thank you [Applause] my machine was all over the place that day too high too low way too inconsistent to get many swings off the machine day five was another huge jump forward unfortunately the pitches were a little too high to hit as low as my targets were but I stayed very connected to the ground and my hands high to drive the ball well rotational acceleration numbers were way higher faster to start than normal [Applause] it's hard to do it with these high pitches [Applause] [Applause] almost three thirteen three thirteen point three an absolute huge jump as I've never broke into 13s before as I got to the middle of the cage I was fairly consistent distance wise I was swinging very hard all day and averaged 10.6 rotational acceleration for the day keep in mind my Max to start the week was 10.2 oh nice I had immediate success moving to the machine popping a 10.6 on my second swing a couple more solid swings followed by a ground ball I needed a quick feel to get right and hit absolute freaking tank [Applause] oh [Applause] hitting another 10 here looking beefy with it [Applause] I rolled over a few and set my sights on Right Center when I let it get deep I was able to drive it to right field and when I got out in front a little bit I pulled it I've improved my swing path during this drill to give me that ability that adjustability to either hit the ball to right or left depending on where I am with my timing as opposed to previously I really had to focus on where I was trying to hit the ball because I was very handsy very you know I I didn't get on plane that well day six was the day I absolutely blew it open swinging as hard as possible and feeling as quick as can be I was absolutely smoking the ball 12 after 12 13 after 13. and right there 13.9 that is a big time PR I was absolutely convinced I was breaking into the 14s today I wasn't quite under control with my swing there were times where I would just miss hitting the ball but I had to absolutely take advantage of the speed and quickness I had that day try to push you know my limits as far as I possibly can while I have that speed unlocked I ended up averaging 12 rotational acceleration for the drill which is crazy to think because I opened up the week averaging 7.6 that's almost a five point jump in one week I started out machine work with another PR 11.1 I was absolutely smoking the ball but then my machine got wild with the fastball so I had to switch on over to sliders [Applause] with the limited controlled movement improved bat path and quickness hitting these sliders was a piece of cake yes sir [Applause] foreign so let's compare the Baseline numbers to the final test day numbers my time to contact decrease from 0.17 to 0.16 however if we look at it even deeper I only had 1.17 on the final test day whereas the Baseline tests half more than half of my swings were in the 0.17 to 0.18 range my rotational acceleration increased 1.7 points on both average and Max and even better it's been about two weeks since I filmed this video I've actually gotten up to 14.7 I've hit 14 multiple times now um average over 12 one of the days my bad speed increased from 72 to 74.6 but that final day I was hitting a lot of Sliders about half my pitches I faced were sliders so that's probably the reason why I increased my bat speed um I get I get faster bat speeds getting out in front of the sliders now my plane in connection didn't go anywhere during this Trail there were a few days where it did pop up a little bit but by the end of the week they were at the exact same numbers I think it was about 40 and 50. um that was one thing I was really hoping would increase actually since that video I just had a day today I had 55 plain and 60 connection really good off the machine I've been doing the drill for the past three weeks pretty much so I've seen big increases over a longer period of time too now unfortunately my attack angle decreased from I started out at seven dropped down to two zero and then jump back up to five by the end of it but I jump back up to five but a lot of those were sliders so you know I'm gonna have a higher attack angle on the sliders my fastball attack angle was closer to zero that day unfortunately I'm okay with it being in the you know five to eight range you know something like that even a little bit higher however once I get really low and especially a lot of negatives I'm gonna start seeing a lot more ground balls and a lot more flared balls less squared up pitches

Channel: Andrew Bats

Views: 47,695

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Id: lWP-w8O3AAg

Length: 11min 12sec (672 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 09 2023