3 Skills Every Hitter Needs At the Next Level

MLB Coach of the Year & WS Champion Breaks His Silence...

The 3 Skills Every Hitter Who Wants to Play College or Pro Must Have (And How You Can Train All 3 At the Same Time)

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From the Desk of

Donnie Ecker

2021 MLB Coach of the Year, 2023 WS Champion

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It's a confusing time to be a baseball player right now.

Especially if you’re a hitter.

Online hitting coaches say one thing. Travel ball instructors say another. Your high school coach teaches something completely different.

Anyone with a phone can give hitting advice to millions of people. It doesn't matter if they've ever coached a day in their life. It doesn't matter if their advice actually works.

Controversial tips get the most views. Helpful tips get buried.

Meanwhile, parents are getting pitched on everything under the sun. $5,000 showcases. Elite travel teams. Recruiting services.

Coaches are drowning in information, trying to figure out what actually works without confusing their players even more.

So how is a young hitter supposed to know who to trust?

How do you know what's going to help you get to the next level?

That's why I’m writing this.

I've been blessed to be around some incredible teams and players throughout my career.

I want to give you clarity on what to focus on based on what I've been lucky enough to learn over the years.

I helped the San Francisco Giants go from last in the NL in runs in 2019 to second place in 2021. I was honored to receive the MLB Coach of the Year award that season. I was part of the coaching staff that led the Texas Rangers to win a championship in 2023.

I've had the privilege of working with guys like Alex Bregman, Corey Seager, Brandon Crawford, Buster Posey, and many other big leaguers.

I learned just as much from the college and high school players I coached early in my career.

And after all these years of working with hitters at every level…

And watching thousands of young players get confused by conflicting advice…

I keep coming back to the same conclusion:

There are really only 3 skills that separate the hitters who make it to the next level from the ones who don't.

If I was a young hitter right now trying to get recruited or drafted, these are the 3 skills I would focus on:

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#1: Clean & Consistent Bat Path

The ability to barrel the ball consistently is the name of the game. And you can’t hit the ball hard if your bat path is off.

You can always get stronger...

You can always tweak your swing...

But if you can't barrel the ball consistently, NONE of that matters.

I see players all the time who crush batting practice but can’t find a barrel in the game.

They roll over inside pitches. They buckle at breaking balls. They miss pitches they should crush.

If you were a coach, would you want that kind of hitter in your lineup? No.

Coaches at the next level want hitters who can drive the ball to all fields. With backspin. Consistently.

Not just hit pull-side bombs in BP.

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#2: The Ability to Self Coach

The ability to adjust pitch to pitch and at-bat to at-bat on your own is non-negotiable in baseball.

Coaches want players who can coach themselves.

Think about it. You get 3-4 at-bats a game. The coach isn't gonna walk out there between every pitch and tell you what to adjust.

You need to FEEL what went wrong and fix it yourself.

That’s the difference between the players who make it to the next level and the ones who don’t.

The guys who make it can feel when their swing is off. They know when they're getting handsy or when their timing is off.

The guys who don't make it past high school need someone to tell them what they did wrong.

Does that mean you shouldn’t ask for help or hire a hitting coach? No.

But you should understand your swing better than anyone else and be able to adjust on your own mid-game. You won’t last long at the next level if you don’t.

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#3: Moving Like an Athlete

When hitters are taught to move like an athlete, they're told to stay balanced or move more explosively.

That’s part of it, but the other important part most coaches leave out is sequencing. In other words, what order certain parts of your body move during the swing.

Just like you can’t drive a car until you start it, you can’t catch consistent barrels until your upper & lower half move in the right sequence.

When your sequencing is right, you can turn on a 95 mph fastball inside AND stay back on an 82 mph changeup away.

Some hitters get too handsy which causes rollovers and swings & misses.

Other hitters do too much with the lower half and lose their ability to adjust.

Moving like an athlete keeps your upper & lower half in sync to and through contact.

That's the kind of swing that works against top tier pitching.

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How to Train All Three Skills At Once

Travel ball. High school. College. Pro.

The fundamentals don't change. When you master these 3 skills, you make the hardest sport on earth a little easier.

That’s why I created a way to train them all at same time.

It's a training bat called the Thick Grip Bat.

It’s exactly how it sounds. It’s a wooden bat with a thick handle that prevents your upper half from taking over...

And forces your swing to be clean and explosive.

Because you can’t grip the bat tight, you can’t dominate with your upper half. You are forced to stay connected, move like an athlete, and swing with a clean path.

If you don’t? You feel it INSTANTLY. So it teaches you how to coach yourself.

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What Happens When You Swing This Training Bat?

✓ You can't get handsy and pull off the ball

✓ You can't get big and swing up on everything

✓ It forces your body to move in the right sequence

✓ Your bat path is direct with proper extension

✓ You instantly feel when your swing is off

✓ You develop the kind of power that looks easy

That's why guys like Alex Bregman use it before every game.

That's why Josh Jung has it in his cage routine.

That's why Brendan Donovan from the Cardinals swears by it.

But it's not just big leaguers...

Thousands of hitters from travel ball to Division 1 use it too.

The Only Way to Get This Training Bat For Less Than Full Price (Limited Time):

The Thick Grip Bat normally sells for $287. And honestly, it's worth every penny when you consider what most parents spend on hitting instruction that doesn't work.

But because you took the time to read this entire letter...

I'm going to give you $15 off when you use the code SKILLS at checkout.

This discount is only for people who read this letter. And I can't keep it active indefinitely.

Once we start getting too many orders, we'll have to pull this code down.

So if you want to save $15 and start training like the pros, you need to act now.

CHECK AVAILABILITY

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So if you’re serious about making it to the next level…

Start training like it.

Click here to start swinging the Thick Grip Bat today.

At the end of the day, you can either keep doing what everyone else is doing and hope it works out...

Or you can train the way the best hitters in the world train.