Taken from MLB Hitting Coordinator Mike Brumley's 8 Step Sequence:

The 1 Easy Drill for Increasing Contact

Cool story:

This past January my son was in the middle of an eight week, twice a week baseball training camp at a nearby academy that my friend runs.

This particular session was for 8-12 year olds, but there were HS and College aged hitters working out in other cages.

So when it was my son's turn to hit, do agilities, goof off, etc., I'd watch him.

But otherwise, I really enjoyed watching the older hitters and see what they're doing.

​

And so we're about 6 weeks in, and at one point I notice a high school kid walk in.

Skinny.  No hat.  Shorts on.

Probably 5"10", 150lbs.

Nothing remarkable.  Totally regular dude.

So my head is on a swivel between watching my son and this new kid take warm up swings.

Left-handed hitter...

And this dude...

RAKED.

I mean, I seriously couldn't take my eyes off of him.

And it wasn't so much that he was killing the ball...

(which he most certainly was)

...but what struck me was how CLEAN his swing looked.

It's the word that kept coming up time and time again in my mind when I tried to put my finger on what I was looking at.

Clean

So I look at the hitting coach he's working with, and this guy has a gray goatee and is sporting a beanie...

...and wore batting gloves the whole time.

I'm like, "Who is this dude?"

So anyway, after the kid was done getting loose, he switched to a short bat (about 25")

Then he proceeded to go through a sequence that I had never seen before:

Short bat, long bat

One hand, two hands

Check swings, full swings.

So I'm like, "Hmmm... what are they doing?"

At first I wanted to be pessimistic about all of the different drills.

But seeing how money this kid's swing was....

I just became so curious about it.  

I mean, I played in HS, JC, two D1's and Pro...

and hadn't encountered many of these drills they were using.

Right about then my son's session was over for the night and tells me something about him being hungry and asks if I saw him win the bear crawl race or something...

(Uhh...yeah son!  Totally saw that.  Good work!  :)

So we leave.

The next day comes, and that lesson was still on my mind.

I couldn't shake it.

So I call my buddy Brian, who runs the academy.

"Hey man, you know that left handed kid that was getting a lesson last night?  High school age, no hat.  Had shorts on"

"Yeah I know who you're talking about.  Adam."

And I'm like, "I have to ask, is that kid....good?"

He seemed confused by the question.  So I'm like, "I'm so used to watching the little guys that maybe this is just what most high school hitters look like, but last night I couldn't stop watching him.  So, is he good?"

He laughed, and he said "No, he's a good player.  He's a freshmen and he'll be an early commit next year to a D1 program.  He's good.

So after briefly talking about how crazy it is that plays can/must commit so early, we hung up.

And a minute later I was like, "I should have asked about the coach".

You see, at the time, I was putting together the Youth Baseball Summit, which was a series of interviews of some of the brightest minds in the game.

(We had Steve Springer, Alan Jaeger, Nate Trosky...awesome teachers)

And I thought about finding out more about this local hitting dude - but I already had a full slate of hitting guys booked so I was like,

"Nah, I'll just let it go."

Well, fast forward a few months.

The Summit was a success and my Bulletproof Hitter program (confidence training) was really taking off,  and I was interviewing a bunch of cool, high level baseball people and a friend of mine told me:

"You should interview Mike Brumley.  He's the hitting coordinator for the Braves.  He lives around here."

And I'm like, "Mike Brumley?  He played in the big leagues right?"

"Yeah he did.  Coached with the Mariners for a long time.  Cubs & Rangers too.  He'll be back in town next week...we should all get together."

I'm like, "Awesome!  I'm in, that'd be great."

So we meet up at my friend's business and who walks in????

Mr. Beanie Cap and Batting Gloves!

Me:  "I've seen you before...didn't know who you were.  I saw you give a kid named Adam a lesson, I was fascinated."

Mike: "Oh yeah?  Yes Adam's come a long way, we've got him at a good point right now".

Me: "I'll say!  I couldn't stop watching him.  I noticed that you kept using different sized bats, did a bunch of bare hand drills and such....what were you guys working on?"

Mike: "I've been in the game so long (over 30 years at the professional level) that I've found it hard to "explain" adjustments to a player.  You can't "explain" what a good swing should *feel* like.  But over time I've tried every hundreds of different methods and the ones I use now are the best at making a player *feel* the proper adjustment.

​

So now I'm REALLY interested.

So I ask, "This sounds fascinating.  Have you ever thought about sharing your teaching with a bigger audience?  Online is full of so much crud, people are begging for someone credible like you."

And he said, "You know, funny you ask.  I've had it on my heart to do more to help younger hitters.  

"I've probably worked with over 1,000  local players youth/HS players while on the Major League trail, and it's always the same problems I'm trying to fix.

"What most of these kids are being taught isn't great.  Most coaches don't know how to help players, they're just throwing darts at the buzzword dartboard:

"Keep your hands inside the ball!"

"Don't drop your back shoulder."

"Drive the  hips!"

"And it sucks.  These are mostly good kids who want to put in the work and want to achieve something."

"But these guys will never handle good pitching with how they're swinging now."

"And the things that I teach now, makes a hitter get better...

Simple as that."

[Note: Mike doesn't love me sharing this.  He's a awesome, humble dude and doesn't want to come off like Mr Know-It-All.  In fact I want him to include testimonials from his BIG NAME major league students....but he's not comfortable with it.  But the fact is, is he helps hitters get better and it's not fair to players to undersell that.  Sorry Mike :) ]

So I'm like, "Dude, people NEED to hear what you're teaching....

"...Or better yet, the heck with other people - *I* need to hear what you're teaching, haha"

And he's like, "I hate the idea of coming off like a guru - I'm not a guru - but I feel a responsibility to share what I've learned and what I've seen work so well."

Now I'm fired up.

I say, "Mike, let me help you do this.  Why don't you come out and work with my son's team for a couple of hours, I'll watch how you work, and we can see how to best present this so players can put this into practice at home."

So the next week, Mike came to our indoor practice....

...and it was off the charts!

The drills were so good.

​

I have a number of kids who you can pretty much count on to either:

​

1) Make consistently hard contact to one side of the field or in one pitch location,

or

​

2) Make consistently soft contact on everything else.

And within 10 mins (which is about all each kid had time for that day)...

....kids were barreling up pitches that they couldn't handle just minutes before.

They weren't perfect, but wow, did they plug a few swing holes in a hurry.

So afterward I say to Mike, "I noticed you really working with the boys' hand position....having space in there.  I haven't heard that taught much."

Mike: Yep, if you're gonna want to hit multiple locations and speeds your hands have to be free.

Me:  Well let's do this again and film it all, and we can share it with some hitters who are really eager to get better.

Mike: That sounds great, but I'm leaving for Instructional Fall League in a couple of days.  We could do it out there if you want.

Me: Absolutely!  I could watch you work with your pro guys for a couple of days, then film the sequence afterward.  It'll be perfect.

Mike:  Let's do it!

So about a week later, I'm at the ESPN Wide World of Sports complex (the Braves organization's spring/fall training base):