Scott Thorman is a former MLB and Team Canada 1st baseman. He was the Atlanta Braves first round pick in 2000. Thorman’s dream of playing big league baseball came true on June 18, 2006. His first major league hit came two days later against the Toronto Blue Jays, the team that lit a fire within him when he was growing up outside of Toronto in the early 90s.
Thorman offers his best advice for the next generation of Canadian MLB hopefuls.
Young hitters always want to hit the ball as far as they can. They want to watch it soar through the sky, they want the lazy homerun trot, and they want to be able to brag about it to all of their friends and teammates.
As much fun as all that seems to be, Thorman learned early that you won’t always be able to hit a baseball all the way to space. It’s just not in the cards. But what you can do is hit it hard.
“The best hitting advice I was ever given, was hit the ball hard, not far. When I stopped trying to hit the ball 500 feet with each swing it allowed me to scale my swing down and concentrate on hitting the ball hard instead of far. Right away I began seeing better results.”
Next time you step to the plate, instead of trying to knock the ball out of the park, try knocking the guts out of the ball. You’ll notice a difference.
Source: http://www.scottthorman.com