Okay, so today I wanna share this thing I’ve been trying out, kind of a deep dive into this old-school baseball guy named Gary Perez. Heard some clips about his hitting philosophy floating around, and honestly, it sounded kinda backwards compared to all the fancy stuff coaches yell now. Figured I’d mess around with it myself, see if there was any truth meat.
Starting Point: What Even Is This Gary Perez Thing?
First thing was figuring out what his deal actually was. No point swinging like a maniac without knowing why. From what I gathered, he was all about being super simple. None of this “rotate the hips faster” or “lift the ball” complexity folks preach today. His big idea? Just see the ball, hit the ball hard. Sounds stupid obvious, right? But he talked a lot about minimizing extra movement, quieting your body down. Almost like being lazy, but in a focused way. Focus on the ball, react to where it is, swing smoothly to hit it solidly – forget trying to muscle it out.
The Actual Messing Around Phase
Alright, onto the field with a bucket of balls and a tee. Started stupid simple:
- No Stride, Zero: Literally planted my feet square to the tee, knees slightly bent. Felt weirdly still. Like a statue holding a bat.
- Just Hands: Forget the big leg kick, forget loading up the hips big time. Focused only on moving my hands directly from that quiet stance to hitting the ball off the tee. Smooth, not violent.
- Feel First: Wasn’t thinking mechanics, AT ALL. Just focused on watching the ball on the tee and trying to smack it solidly back through the middle. That sound of the barrel cracking it.
Felt… awkward. Like I wasn’t doing enough. Almost underwhelming. Where was the big windup? Where was the power? But I kept going. Hit maybe 50 balls off the tee like that. Swung maybe at 50% effort level. Just focusing on that clean hand-eye thing Perez preached.
Then moved to some soft toss.
- Still Stiller: Kept that dead-still lower body feeling. Minimal load if any.
- Focus on Eyes: Actually tried to see the stitches on the ball as it came from the tosser’s hand. Not just “see ball hit ball,” but really lock eyes onto the little details as long as possible.
- Smooth Swing: Swung with the idea of being smooth and balanced, not fast. Letting the swing happen because I saw the ball coming, not forcing it. Aim for solid contact back up the middle.
The Weird Stuff That Happened
Here’s where it got kinda interesting, man:
- Effortless Power? Swinging slower and smoother, but the balls were jumping off the bat just as hard, sometimes harder, than when I muscled up with my normal style. Like the energy was transferring cleaner because I wasn’t tense.
- Consistency Spike: Hit FAR fewer foul balls or weak dribblers. Striking the ball cleaner, more solidly, more often. Like night and day in terms of pure contact quality.
- Less Fatigue: My hands, wrists, and forearms weren’t hurting! Shoulder felt loose. Usually after a good hitting session, stuff aches from all that tension. Not this time.
- Seeing Better? Really felt like I was picking up the ball sooner off the toss. Felt like I had more time to decide to swing. Crazy.
Leaving the Cage & Thoughts
Walked out scratching my head. Went in skeptical – Gary Perez sounded too simple. But just stripping everything back to quiet body, eyes focused on the ball, and a smooth reactionary swing… dang, it produced surprisingly solid results. Clean contact, good pop, zero wasted energy.
Still not 100% sold it’s perfect for game speed against live pitching, gotta test that next. But the core idea? Stop complicating it. Too much thinking and forcing just gums up the works. Simplify. See the ball. Hit the ball. Smoothly. That’s what I got from trying Gary Perez’s vibe today.
