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

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