Coach Kevin Bass teaches hitting as a teacher, not as a list of drills. This is the method behind every Coach Bass program, in his own words.
Learn. Adjust. Compete.
The parent and athlete learn the action that is supposed to happen during the swing. I want them to be able to Learn, Adjust and Compete!
- Learn: the athlete and the parent learn the actions that are supposed to happen during the swing: what the action is, what it accomplishes and what to look for. Never a universal mold, and never just something is wrong, do this drill.
- Adjust: the athlete learns to recognize when an action is not happening effectively and how to adjust it. Drills are tools for that, and new video is the evidence of whether the adjustment works.
- Compete: development does not end at batting practice. It does not matter what you do in BP if you cannot do it in the game.
Then the loop starts again: learn the action, train it, adjust it, take it into competition, look at the new evidence, and learn and adjust again.
Understand the why
I am a teacher. I want you to understand the WHY.
No memorizing instructions, copying movements or accepting a diagnosis because a system said so. Coach Bass's teaching follows the same frame: what the action is, why Coach Bass teaches it and what it allows the hitter to do, what the athlete and parent can look for, what the hitter is trying to do in training, and what to look for in the next swing, the next BP session or the next game.
The goal is a hitter who knows what he is trying to do, understands why he is doing it, can recognize when he is not doing it, and knows how to work on it.
Develop the hitter, don't replace the swing
Coach Bass does not force every hitter into one prescribed swing. He starts with what the hitter naturally does, observes how that hitter moves and swings, identifies what could work better and modifies what is necessary to make the swing work better for that hitter. What already works is preserved, and nothing is changed merely because it looks different from another hitter.
That starts before the swing. The hands begin in a comfortable, relaxed position, and different hitters can begin with their hands in different places. What matters is that the hitter starts from a position that is comfortable and relaxed, not that he matches a predetermined model.
The ball tells you what you are doing
A very important piece of the hitting puzzle is that the ball will tell you exactly what you are doing.
Ball flight, direction, the contact result and the miss itself are evidence about what happened during the swing.
Hit every day
To be good, you have to hit every day. You are looking to be consistent.
Daily work is for consistency. It does not mean every day holds the same work: what the hitter works on can change with the evidence. And consistency has a definition:
The hitter can duplicate it in multiple at-bats.
One good swing or one good at-bat is not proof that development is complete. Progress is judged by consistency over time. And a parent saying the hitter is doing well does not tell Coach Bass how the hitter is actually doing; watching the hitter does.
Video drives the adjustments
We will adjust the drills based on the videos that they upload.
New swing video is the evidence. It answers what the hitter is doing now, what is working, what still needs to be better, and whether the thing being trained improved. Drills never change merely because a video arrived, and when they do change, the hitter and the parent are told why.
Honest coaching
I am not a feel-good coach. I will be honest with you. You can get better each and every day. We are striving for perfection.
That means recognizing what the hitter is doing well without empty praise, naming what can be better, never manufacturing criticism the evidence does not support, and never softening a correction just to make it feel better. Honest and demanding, never harsh.
BP is not the test. The game is.
They throw to their kid's strengths. Pitchers are throwing at your child's weakness. It does not matter what you do in BP if you cannot do it in the game.
Batting practice should not exist just to make the hitter look or feel successful. Opposing pitchers attack weaknesses, so training has to prepare the hitter for what gives him trouble in the game, and game performance is the test of whether a correction is working.
Teach the player and the parent
I am going to teach the players how to adjust and train and teach the parent to know just as much as I know. It is about learning how to hit.
The measure of success is not dependence on a coach or a system. It is a hitter who increasingly understands his own swing, knows how to train, can make adjustments and can compete with those adjustments in games.