1st year Pro Ball: barrel tip became bigger, which got sequence out of sync. 

Started a leg kick that got his front knee to work out and forward. The barrel tip became more pronounced with the higher leg kick.

Fall League 2017: Thaiss was out of his college stance. Matty's knob started outside his shoulder line, with a bigger leg kick, barrel flip and wasn't behind the ball.

Feet closer, knob/hands higher (outside his body), Taller (out of his legs) and the gather is different 

Staying behind the ball on the right. He is on the side of the ball on the left (lost his back side)

The Goal was to stop the late barrel flip. Took him through a lot of drills before spring training

He was going to need to sync his lower half and his hand movement up with his front side staying closed. Changed the drills during spring training. 

1st month went well. Barrel started working better and sequencing up with his lower half. The move was still NOT connected at times. Made an adjustment in early May to get him to spread out (doing all his work with his front foot in the ground) while linking up the hands, so the hip can get into the hitting zone first

The adjustment made in Mobile to get a little wider to keep his foot into the ground until he made a move forward helped him stay behind the ball. He went to triple A and was having success. Then, another adjustment happened. They got him to stand a tick taller and get narrower, which also brought his hands back up over his shoulder line

103 ABs vs 265

9 2B vs 15 2B

6 HR's vs 4 HR's

OPS 1.003 vs 699

SLG 621 vs 392

OBP 382 vs 307

AVE 340 vs 253

Coming into spring training the goal was to get his base back underneath him. The drill, took the drill into the game. 

April was good, then his front side and set up got open to much. Changed his angle

Still working on getting him to close up and stay behind the ball

The beginning

1st Part of July, was getting his handsback up a tick higher. Helped with the sequence, but still having the knob pointing toward the other batting box

With his hands in a better position, we started working on getting the knee underneath him with his foot staying down. This lead to some success. Unfortunately, he didn't stay with it where he set his weight and upper half. It got him stuck. 

Struggling to find the right set up, gather and hip position

Still having trouble with with his set up and gather, which started to get him too far back in his gather. 

Went back through his work from 2018 and now. Started with the basic drills we did when we started redoing his swing path. Lower half and postured needed fixing ASAP, which lead to the reason behind all the struggles

How the Mechanisms for his swing works

There were several different parts that lead us down this road.

1. Barrel flip

2. Leg lift (how he did it)

3. Once fixed, made another adjustment (May 2018) that got him out of sync at the same time made his front knee work forward and not underneath him to keep him behind the ball

4. The effect of his front leg out- A. leg up in gather (no stops) B. Sequence with his hands and stride get out of sequence C. Front leg opens, loses power and the ability to stay behind the ball (drive the ball the other way) D. Makes his back leg/hip pull forward and work up hill    

1. Barrel flip

2. Leg lift during his gather

3. The Adjustment with the 3A hitting coach and himself had a huge effect. Something he didn't realize. With his feet narrow, it allowed him to lift his leg up in his gather to off set his weight when it transferred back. 

4. The effect of the front knee and how it made the body go forward at the wrong time.

B. How it made the path shallow (firing with no depth in the hitting zone). As he made the bad move, his body would move forward before it was supposed to. This allowed his lower half to collapse underneath him, bringing his hands forward in the process

C. Staying behind your front knee in essential to stay behind the ball and having adjustability. It also starts the process of the swing before its supposed to, which creates a longer process to get the barrel to the ball on plane 

D. Making the back hip/back side pull forward before it's suppose. 

Several key points for his success came out of his struggles and success

1. Knob position

2. Posture position

3. Lower half set up

4. How the mechanisms of his swing work

1. Knob position allows this hand load and the rest of his body to work together

2. Posture position allows him to set his weight in the right position. This also allows him to set his hands underneath his shoulders. 

3. Lower half set up. He wants to make sure he isn't too open. This will place his weight more over his toes, which isn't good for his gather back

4. How the mechanisms work. His front knee and foot must be down and underneath him while he is going back into his gather. This is a must, which allows the process and sequence to work