In this video, former MLB player Jermaine Curtis breaks down the swing of San Francisco Giants Legend Barry Bonds.... and also reveals drills that Barry Bonds has taught him.
A peice of advice from a old athlete that excelled in all,at the plate,always take a strike,see what the pitcher got,#2 no wasted movement when swinging,same routine every at bat,once you learn pitchers arsenal sit on the 1 you hit best,whether a FB or a curve be patient,pitcher got 7 throws to get you out,sit on it till it's the 1 you can drive best,Hitting is all about making pitcher throw a strike when down in the count,,90 percent you gonna get that pitch you want in that situation,situational hitting in your favor.Thats the key,make him throw you a strike when pitcher doesn't want to.If you have a high leg kick lose it,wasted movement makes slow reaction and bat speed,may give you more power but strikeouts you will have more than hits the higher you climb that ladder.Dont need a high kick,small step instead will have your avg rise,homers will come but a 350 avg is better than 250 wit many more strikeouts.Lastly work on a heavy bag,3 rounds 1 minute a round,in that minute throw 60 punches,impossible at first but when you do just that,30 homers 100 r.b.i 500 slugging pct.Makes your wrists strong,arms fast and strong which equals bat speed and power and no more leg kick needed.Hope you bat over 300 this year younginn .Good luck
Thank you Matthew for the positive comment and for watching! Please subscribe I have a Mookie Betts breaking down coming soon and you're not going to want to miss that.
Best bat speed I ever seen.a hall of famer and best hitter that ever lived.had pleasure of watching him as a giant many times just wish he got that ring we had than gave back to the angels.heartbreaking loss.
Jr. Was a hell of a hitter,I seen his career.Barry was a he best hitter to walk this planet before steroids.won 3 MVPs before steroids,the ball just went further with the flaxseed and I'm glad I witnessed all his Homers in the park and wet in the bay.Barry built that stadium that sits on the dock of the bay,best stadium in the majors.Griffey was a Killa to I seen his career as well.im 50 seen them all.Got 12 titles in last 30 years between San Francisco clubs.I seen them all.
Alwaz take a strike bruh.Patients at the plate is key.Get ahead in the count so the pitch you want comes.Sit on it till it comes,r.b.i machine you will become
JC ! ex -professional player here. If I had this video going into High School everyone would know my name...lol! I just want to say this is the best breakdown of Bond's swing plus most importantly the drills that come with it ! This video is gold ! Keep up the great work and thank you ! I had the most fortunate opportunity of meeting Ernie Banks , just a great person!
Gil!!!! What's goin on? Thanks for reaching out. I appreciate the positive words and everything you said in this post. I love hearing that its helpful. Also, love that you are a baseball brother. When did you play? And what teams?
Great breakdown and insight on the sweetest swing of all time. I ll be implementing these drills and mindset with my team ASAP. I’ve never heard of the Jazzy drill but dang that makes to much sense! I’ve never thought that hitting off a machine was going to translate into a ton of more hits in games because the rhythm is not their, BUT the way you articulated it was excellent and got me re thinking the mindset of using the dreaded machine.
Wow, thank you so much for this thought out response. I truly appreciate it. Yeah, I have been very fortunate to have some great mentors. The Jazzy drill is one of those drills I would go to to slow me down and relax me. Always start crushing after it. A lot of young hitters move to fast so its good for them to slow down and understand what they are doing. Anyways, let me know how it goes with your team. The machine is, in my opinion, the best thing for them. Just make sure they are driving the ball opposite field gap and or up the middle. If they are pulling off a machine, that could be bad for them because in the game the ball is going to be slower. So they will be way out front.
Excellent breakdown that I'll add one more thing. When watching Bonds videos I noticed his technique for hands getting inside the ball looks extreme vs other players... this allowed him to crowd the plate. Watch other vids in slowmo and you'll see his hips fire earlier than most teach. That allowed his hands turn inside the ball early too. By the time his hands are at his belly button he is already turning his hands in - as in right of the pitcher (for righties it would be left of the pitcher). Try it and it feels unnatural. But with that swing meant he could crowd the plate and beat ALL inside pitches. It also made outside pitches feel like they were down the middle because he was so close. It had the additional benefit of keeping his dead pull, down the line, HR balls perfectly straight for splash hits. Most hitters get a curve effect when hitting down the line because of the loopier path or approach angle from being farther away from the plate. On another note..... you noticing that his stance starts with his bat straight up is true, but watch the wiggle when he starts to move.... it sends the top of the bat towards the pitcher. Lots of elite hitters do that far more extreme than Barry. Barry is just tighter and shorter in everything he does, but it is still there. The wiggle comes from hands going back while the lower half starts forward AND from being loose and fluid with your hands and grip (the hammer/nail thing is loose/fluid). Overall great video!!!
He had the eye and reaction time to turn on any FB or be patient to hit junk and make it wet.Badman #25 is ,glad I'm bay and seen history without a ship but full of splash hits,no not talking bout the splash bros I'm talking the best hitter that ever walked this planet Cocking that bat had pitchers shivering we with the hitter in front,knowing the man on deck.Badass.
I’m a college baseball player and the crouch mechanism has been taught to me by “hinging your hips” think of it as you are about to do a back squat where you sit back but keep your shins straight by up and down. Hope that helps if y’all are struggling with the movement, best way to practice it i’ve noticed is literally get the bar and start squatting and you’ll feel it. 🤞🏼 Peace & Love 🙏🏼
Thank you Trevor! I appreciate it. Please subscribe to the channel and turn on bell notifications because I'm going to be dropping Mookie Betts swing breakdown very soon...and you don't want to miss that one.
@@JermaineCurtis55 that dude was ahead of his time with his hitting advice....you gotta watch all his teaching videos online. He was like one of the first modern baseball coaching savants. I love watching Ted and Barry talk about hitting. And of course YOU as well!!
But Christian Yelich batted .252 while playing 150+ each of the last few years. Albert Pujols was batting over.320 for almost 10 straight years before injury affected his stance at the plate. And it took Barry Bonds over a decade to perfect his swing before he lost desire for the game. Earlier in his career Bonds was so good at everything (power, stealing bases, fielding, etc), that he needed (strangely) to lose some of those gifts to parallel his average & power. This is why he was so good near the end of his career. Not steroids.
great video! helped me shake the rust after a year off! question about power hitting like bonds... size/ strength has to play a large role in powering the ball like that. What are some good workouts to make the bat a little lighter in my hands? Thanks!
Hey VicInNocal, How's it going? Thanks for watching this video. He provides some very valuable content. My content is different than his content but I still think there is value in each video. Hoping you enjoy my content. Don't forget to subscribe. Thank you again!
Juan Soto would be nice to review! Love your channel. Keep it up! Actual insight from players and not people guessing like we see on social media. Love it!
Ted Williams & Barry Bonds had almost identical swings (different batting stances). They both choked up on the bat and had that late hitch that initiated their swings. However their approach to choosing and evaluating what pitches to swing at and avoid, is unknown to me.
barry bonds once said to a former major leaguer if they ever throw you an inside pitch speed up the barrel and hit a homerun foul so they won’t throw you there again 😂
Hahaha I remember speaking with Carlos Delgado and he said, in the 1st game of the series, his approach was to pull the ball and hit a home run foul. That way, the rest of series they would throw the ball away. Genius approach. Bait them to do what you want. I used that approach a few times and I was way more comfortable in the batters box.
hey great stuff!! I am 39 and just started taking hitting lessons with former philly Steve Jeltz and his drills are very similar to this. Great stuff!! Like adding the top hand catch drill I will add that to the routine!! BTW...Bonds, Ruth, Williams....three greatest hitters ever!! Ruth wins out as greatest player ever only because the dude pitched too! Bonds was a god to us in college. We watched every at bat from like 2001-2005 and we would just laugh because he was just soooooo good.
Hahaha I woukd agree with you about Ruth. As far as Barry in college, that woukd be awesome to see. I have sene one video of him in college....and he hit a Homer. Hahaha
@@JermaineCurtis55 he was referring to being in college 2001-2005 watching barry bonds play during 2001-2005. Barry a great friend of our family ...He's like a big bro to me fr.. I use to batboy for them when they came to my town.. Chilled with barry the hole day in the dugout,club house, hotel.. Made me feel like I was part of the team!! Even had my own Jersey made with my last name on the back!!! ... The entire team was great... Especially Marvin Bernard, that dude was funny af..
Yep. Bat straight up equals less weight in the barrel. Lots of youngsters tend to let the barrel lay flat. That’s a lot of weight to take when it’s horizontal.
Great video. One question. What if you trained or taught to hit balls down in the zone? My kid is a low ball hitter , ankles to belt. Above the belt, struggles but I tell him lay off the higher ones. If a pitcher is trying to stay lower, wouldn't it be good to train being a low ball hitter?
Yes, for sure. You know what type of hitter your kid is and what he does well. Thats great. That's what I preach. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Now, its getting good at hitting those lower pitches consistently.
Barry bonds hands were so quick and no wasted movement, throwing a high inside fastball no matter if it was 98 he could always get inside and hit it to the right portion of the field. He didn’t have any weaknesses for pitchers to counter him.
@@heathguillory4803 yep i was too young to see Barry’s whole career. I always go back to watch that homer he hit against the angels I believe in the World Series? If they had metrics at the time like ball speed off the bat and homerun distance etc etc, there’s no question in my mind that was the hardest ball I’ve ever seen hit >120 mph off the bat and at least 490 feet..
@@C____K being up 3 to 1 in game 5 with a 3 run lead a bad decision dusty never makes he made at the wrong time,we lose game 5 and end up losing the 1 thing Bonds don't have,A Ship.That hurt so much at the time I spent the nite in jail cause a angel fan lips were moving to fast,I slowed him up but payed the price at 850 Bryant the county jail in s.f.....Bonds was different,a asshole to all,no doubt I know,but the goat none the less.Thank you bro for recognizing,big ups from the Bay.
@@LancerJak the baddest man ever to hold a bat,hand speed ridiculous,turns on any mistake a pitcher makes,like m.j making a game winning shot, Barry was the man,without a ship and the Hof. But still the best I ever seen and I seen them all,no 1 did what he did b4 or after flaxseed oil 💯
You did not talk about the main thing on his swing...it's simple, he gets on top of the ball and looks to extends his hands afterwards. His whole stance revolves around getting on top of the ball. One more time, his whole stance revolves around getting on top of the ball. As an added bonus, he uses a short bat which he chokes up, he crowds the plate and wears a full arm/elbow guard that gives him a ton of confidence and security. If you have never tried one of those, they give you a sense of a super hero....it's a crazy feeling. There is the blue print of his swing. 1) a stance that is geared towards getting on top of the ball with the hands back of course. 2) the combination of a short bat, crowding the plate and the full elbow/arm guard. 3) a loading or timing that does not disrupts the whole purpose of getting on top of the ball. That's it! By the way, I loved the walking up and down pitching machine drill.
Your welcome Jermaine. Can you elaborate on this theory please? I'm curious to hear your opinion. This is the one thing I have never been able to figure out...my guess is that it has to do with the right side and left side of the brain. The question is this... Why do left handed hitters are able to naturally get on top of the ball, where as right handed naturally swing upwards. To proof this theory, put a bat on ten three years old right handed hitters and watch most of them (if not all) swing upwards. Then have the same 10 hitters swing the bat from the left side and watch most of of them swing downwards. Why? 🤔 I do not know.
Your welcome Keith! Thank you for watching. Please subscribe. Working on my next breakdown right now - Cody Bellinger. It's coming out very soon and you don't want to miss it.
idc what people say about Barry and what kinda foul asterisks they put next to his numbers he was always a great all around player and really good, top tier hitter beginning in his days as a pirate but later on his career you essentially had to walk this man or face consequences and his bat speed and swing were terrifying man he was like a machine never seen bat speed like that before or since
That pitch might be a little too high, but if it happened to you, then that's great. Keep hitting line drives. haha But, I meant looking for a pitch at the top of the strike zone to hit hard.
JC... Am I trippin'!? I hate to be that guy... On drill #3 (catch drill) you say for RHH put a glove on your RH... and LHH to put a glove on the LH... but, the example video shows a RHH with a glove on their LH? Please set me str8... I'm gonna go with the example video style... but, all-in-all... super dope drills... Love Barry and you for putting this together!
Hmm...that can't be right. It should be if you are a right handed hitter, the glove should be on your right hand. Since your right hand would be closest hand to the barrel. Vice verse for LHH. (I looked at the drill and he is a right handed hitter catching the ball with his top hand (right hand) which would be the one you would be glove on.)
@@JermaineCurtis55 Ok JC... I may be a little slow... ☺I was thinking batting gloves? But, watching again, would you say a fielders glove or training glove (for the top hand) is what was the drill uses? Especially when you mention catching from machines. 😅 Wow! Don't judge JC... 😁
Nice video! But what about plate discipline? I never saw a batter with such great discipline at the plate as Barry Bonds. If the pitch was not going to be a strike, he did not swing at it.. but if he swung at it he rarely missed. Unbelievable discipline at the plate.
Coach, trying to ask a question. Some coaches advocate “snapping the wrists” i.e. the top hand goes back to flatten the bat and get it on path. Hitter man, Castro bros. Are example who teach this. Others say that as the body rotates around and back side comes through the bat flattens and gets on path. Any thoughts on this. Hard for me to tell watching swings in slo mo. Hope you see this.
Hey Nephtali, I would say 10 extreme high tee and for the catch drill, I would say a minimum of 7. I do it until the body is moving the right way. Or, the way you want. Sometimes, it could take 10 times...sometimes 5 times. Its a way to train what you are working on before they start actually working on it in practice with a bat.
Go watch teacherman! He learned Bond’s swing to a tee. Then taught his kids the swing. Now teaches Aaron Judge and other MLB great hitters. He is awesome!
Glad you like Teacher man and more importantly, glad he's helped you. However, I actually learned Barry Bonds swing from Barry Bonds himself, so there's no need to learn from someone else. On another note, thanks for watching my video and commenting. You're appreciated.
@@JermaineCurtis55 keep up the good work. Teacherman knows nothing about Barry Bonds swing and Bonds would laugh at him. The Audacity of these RU-vid Gurus to say things like Bonds was a great hitter but he doesn’t understand what he was actually doing. Can you imagine! People get so caught up in video and positions and put no thought to how those positions were achieved. Listen to what the man said and not someone watching a video of him inventing stuff. Makes me cringe! Continued success
Did Barry ever mention another tip when he goes to the plate? I heard him talking about how he thinks about catching the ball with the bat. Explaining how no matter how hard a pitcher is throwing, he would be able to catch the ball if he had a glove on. Well, same mindset only with a bat in his hand. Just wondering if that was mentioned. Great insight and keep it up.
Yeah, he talked about that. That's basically the idea of the catch drill. He dropped Lots of value bombs when I was with him. Maybe a part 2 will be coming soon.
He has a whole art of pitch selection, what to swing at and what to avoid. He could hit pretty much anything, except low away outside sliders that appeared to start as fastballs when they were delivered. Jesse Orosco used that pitch successfully against Barry. When Barry was on nobody could stop him, not even Pedro Martinez.
@@JermaineCurtis55 - He was the most dominant, talented & intelligent hitter I’ve ever seen. It was almost like he could do whatever he wanted at the plate, was amazing. Great video!
Is it true Barry's elbow guard would not let him fully extend his right arm which helped him be shorter to the ball and allowed him to use his body more for power?
Interesting that you asked this question...I, actually, asked him about it and he said "naw...what made me shorter was using his top hand." And then we started hitting off the pitching machine with our top hand. My swing became very short doing that drill. I also started wearing an elbow guard similar to his elbow guard. and it didnt do much for me....Just made me feel more comfortable being closer to the plate. That allowed me to pull more balls and hit for more power. Thanks for the comment Michael. Whose swing should I break down next?
First, you need Bonds' enormous talent. Eyesight, bat speed, coordination, ability to concentrate, naturally strong. Then enhance your strength and speed with steroids. Don't get me wrong. Bonds was a great hitter without steroids. But with them, he was beyond great. I've followed MLB for 50 years. Have seen many great hitters with quick bats. Aaron, Clemente, Edgar Martinez, Molitor, Madlock. Among others. But Bonds' swing was by far the quickest.
you had me until the steroid allegation. He wasn't found guilty, never tested positive and he broke records. It is wrong to put that on him, when wasn't found guilty in the court of law.
Hey Rick, thanks for watching. I made this video before Christian Yelich shared the swing down drill. However, I may make a video on that because he did have me do it quite a few times.
I hate to have the bat straight up because cannot swing well because it it too steep. At some point you have to flatten out your swing. Maybe the great ones can but I would not teach it to young hitters.
People love to discount Bonds’ skill as a hitter and the amount of practice that went into becoming the hitter he was with the steroid use. Bonds was without a doubt one of the greatest hitters of all time. It’s just a shame he brought it on himself
Golf is not good comparison for "crouching down". Golfers have to bend over because the ball is on the ground. You can actually it a high pitch very well standing vertically with a fast spin.
