Good Luck to the Class of 2017

Turning the page to the next chapter in their careers, this class of 2017 will hopefully earn a chance to make an immediate impact on their new school's programs. New atmosphere, new campus, new program-- this is what they find themselves walking into. Along with finding new friends, new professors, and new challenges over the next four years. 

For Andrew Altamira (Brevard College), Brandon Gragilla (Wake Tech Community College), Pierce Suttles (Western Carolina), and Kyle Bynum (USC Upstate), surely what they look forward to most will be lining up on an all new baseball diamond with all new teammates and their sights set on a common goal of winning a conference championship. All amazing talents individually, at the high school level their senior year, together they compiled a cumulative batting average their senior years of .380, 75 RBI, and 31 doubles. That's enough fire power to keep any high school offense running on all cylinders!

This year, they look to compete for starting positions, and get a better understanding for their team role, and help their teams win. Good luck to the Unmatched Performance college class of 2017!

Kyle Bynum Signs with USC Upstate

The Mallard Creek High School and Unmatched Performance Athletics alumni will be joining the University of South Carolina at Upstate this fall to continue his career in baseball. A great talent and extremely hard worker, Kyle made up his mind after his sophomore year at Mallard Creek that he would begin leaving his mark on Charlotte's I-Meck High School Baseball conference.

That summer he endured an extensive practice regimen that helped him put on 15 pounds of lean muscle, improve his speed which was once above the 7 second mark in the 60-yard dash (a very common method used by college and pro scouts to measure speed), to a more speedy 6.8 seconds. Developing his ability to drive the ball to all fields made it certain that he was well prepared going into his Jr. year.

His Junior year at Mallard Creek was a season to remember, hitting for an average of .411 with 10 doubles, 3 triples, and 25 runs batted in, he was a force in the lineup-- earning himself player of the week honors on a couple of occasions. He went on to have another successful season as a Senior, showing that he could be consistent.

Congratulations Kyle on your many accomplishments but we are certain that there will be more to come at the next level! Follow Kyle this year at the USC Baseball Athletics page.

How to Hit the Curveball

Quite possibly some of the most frequent questions that I hear are about hitting off-speed pitches. With most amateur baseball players below the college ranks, that question is typically about hitting the curveball.

What is a hitter's biggest fear? Not having enough time! Think about it-- it takes a fastball a fraction of a second to make it to home plate; approximately .5 seconds. You basically only have enough time to react to the pitch. Now, with an off-speed pitch like a curveball you can add a couple tenths of a second. As much as baseball players see fastballs, there's no mystery why we have trouble hitting off speed pitches. To the common fan, fractions of a second don't seem like much of a difference because players make it look so easy, but to the player in the batter's box, it is not as easy as it looks. That fraction of a second is the difference between a ball that's hit off the wall and an easy ground ball out.

So now we know what is giving hitters so much trouble. As much as you want to believe its the movement that gives hitters trouble, it actually has more to do with the timing. Throwing off the timing, this is what pitchers call, "keeping a hitter off-balance." So what's the solution to hitting that curveball? WAIT LONGER! Let it get deeper into the strike zone and hitters have a better chance to square the ball up. The best way for me to help my hitters understand this concept is by telling them to not try to hit the ball before it breaks, but after it does. It makes them wait longer and makes their pitch selection better. This helps hitters stop swinging at that ball in the dirt and square up the curveball a lot more often.

How to Properly Lift the Baseball

This week Raphael goes in-depth about what it exactly it takes to be a consistent extra base threat. Going into what he calls "tilt", he explains the position it takes to consistently lift the baseball...and HARD.

Whats the best way to stay out of double play trouble? Hit it over fielder's heads!!! So grab your popcorn and a chair, and take notes on how to consistently drive baseballs into gaps.

Optimizing Torque

The biggest key to a fast pair of hands is being able to get your hips OUT OF THE WAY. This is what makes the hands appear to be fast when in actuality, the speed through the zone is actually initiated by how fast your hips can rotate. 

Getting the hips to rotate is as simple as getting the back foot turned faster, but is it possible to generate even MORE speed? How?

Check out this week's blog post to learn how to get your hips moving a lot faster so that you too can hear more coaches and scouts talking about how fast your hands are!!!

Educational Hitting

As we have become more and more technologically advanced as a society, we seemed to have moved further away from the small things that help us to continue our advancement. Multiply that by sport and those things that make us better become even MORE scarce-- and that is education.

One of probably the most important parts of life and understanding the world around us is being able to open a book and have the knowledge at our fingertips. For this week's blog, Raphael goes into the importance of using the tool of literature to become better players.

Enjoy this week's blog and if you have any great baseball books, feel free to send them in to us or suggest them at our Facebook page: www.Facebook.com/UnmatchedPerformance

A Balanced Swing, is a Consistent Swing.

Almost every time you watch a baseball game, you can listen to the commentators breaking down some professional swing that is just almost impeccable. They love hitting on different points but probably their favorite "go-to" is BALANCE. They absolutely love breaking out the fact that a hitter has "amazing balance."

With as many answers as they have for those swings, why can't we get just as many explanations of why that balance is so important?

In this weeks blog, I will address the importance of balance and what it can do for your swing. You'll also learn how to maintain balance and why you need it so much. Enjoy.

Dream big. Ball HARD!