Better Men, Better Ballplayers

4. Tom Eller - Baltimore Orioles Hitting Coach - "What the BEST do!"

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Another great interview PACKED with information.  Coach Tom Eller, hitting coach with the Baltimore Orioles, discusses how he has grown from a college coach to working with professional hitters in the Baltimore Oriole organization.

Coach Eller's main talking points:

  • How he and the Orioles are getting better during the quarantine
  • The differences of when he worked and build great college hitters to how he is building great professional hitters
  • What hitters spend too much time on, and what they should spend more time on
  • What he would look for in the best recruits
  • Traits he has seen in all of the best players
  • SO MUCH in our conversation!!! 

    •  

    How are you getting better during this quarantine?

    • Weekly themed zoom meetings
  • Book club, Navy Seals, special guests
  • Calls with certain hitters and specialists

    • How are you helping players during this quarantine?

    • Hitters meeting
  • Go over player plans
  • Based on last years stats and assessments based on what I knew about them
  • Swing decision and swing characteristic and mobility 

    • You were a great recruiter at Hartford, what were the things you looked for in your recruits?

    • Single tool that stood out
  • Ball player who can do a little bit of everything
  • Want to move on and have a growth mindset
  • Willing to learn and get better
  • NO EGO!

    • What mental skills, qualities in a person, have you seen in the best professional players?

    • Growth mindset - wants to learn
  • Why things are happening, and be sure to ask why it is happening
  • Deliberate practice - why are we doing what we are doing?
  • Reflective and self awareness
  • Don’t know everything. Humble and know when they need to get better

    • How much programming of individuals do you do on your team? 

    • Swing decision 
  • Swing characteristic
  • Movements
  • Train fast - rack used to move body fast and stop body fast
    • Kinetic Chain 
  • Check swing - promotes decel
  • Different bats to train fast
  • Mobility test and work on deficiency
  • Tight mover assist to open the up
  • Lose mover assist to brake and stop movement
  • Buckets of deficiencies - bat speed, bad movers, bad direction, etc. Be creative in your groups and work

    •  

    How has your hitting system changed throughout the years?

    • Clean up problems (not rotating)
  • Clean up path and fine tuning
    • Too steep
  • Scap too early
  • Head moves forward too much
  • DIRECTION
    • PVC
  • Skip stone
  • Dissociation from hands and hips
  • Not everyone can do the same moves
    • I have to teach every guy differently
  • Individualized plans
  • What do hitters do well
  • What do hitters suck at

    • What do you think kids should spend more/less time doing as hitters? 

     

    More

    Less

    Write it down on what went well and what did not.

    -what you hit well

    -write down your results

    -challenge yourself and making it more game like

    -Swing less! 

    -worrying about feeling good during BP!

     

    What do you think coaches should spend more/less time doing with their hitters? 

    More

    Less

    -failing more! Game like

    Blocked versus random practice

    -worrying about feeling good in BP

    What people don’t know is how well you guys stole bases at Harford. How were you guys so successful on the bases?

    • Hitting and running works together. When you worry about baserunning you force bad pitches, and when you hit really well you lose focus on the run game
  • Leads! Knowing where you are and how many steps it takes to get into the lead
  • Who is good at running - label runners and go off the pitchers time. Didn’t worry about catchers because most are the same.
  • Pick up pitchers tells, counts (3-0)

    •  

    What is the best way for people to contact you?

    • Twitter - @CoachTomEller
    ...more
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    Better Men, Better BallplayersBy Trey Cobb
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