Bustos - Howard Carrier

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Slappers

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Sep 13, 2013
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Dumfries, VA
That was a good interview. Definitely liked the way she mentioned the amount of tee work and how she worked on her own but the thing that resonated with me was this quote "I am only a number 4 hitter if we got there, otherwise I was a lead off hitter". I don't think the big hitters realize how their role changes when they come up as the #1 batter of the inning as compared to getting up in that #4 slot.

A HR is nice but we need them on base rather than a deep pop out.
 
Jun 17, 2009
15,105
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Portland, OR
That was a good interview. Definitely liked the way she mentioned the amount of tee work and how she worked on her own but the thing that resonated with me was this quote "I am only a number 4 hitter if we got there, otherwise I was a lead off hitter". I don't think the big hitters realize how their role changes when they come up as the #1 batter of the inning as compared to getting up in that #4 slot.

A HR is nice but we need them on base rather than a deep pop out.

Spoke of spending 1.5hrs on the tee to work on every part of her swing. Spent 3.5-4hrs on tee work when working out for the Olympics.
 
Aug 1, 2008
2,314
63
ohio
Casey has a tournament this weekend. She is driving herself over to Howards for a lesson. I appreciate him talking the time to give Casey a tune-up.
I also think it is cool for her to work with the same coach that works with Bustos.

Thanks Howard

ps. Will bring some Tennessee Tea next time I come over....:)



Gerry
 
Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
She is "all things hitting" to me. She isn't the only voice in hitting but she covers the spectrum as well as anyone. She doesn't use all the fancy words but sure brings a practical approach to the table.

She sure hit some great points in a very few minutes:

"Mental preparation is everything." There are lots of kids with physical skills that are not ready to stand in the box. "You can be an ox but if you don't know how to use your brain you can't take it to the next level." They are making it part of the training.

Slump busting. It's mental more than physical. Don't push harder. Relax, find your groove.

Situational hitting. The greatest hitter ever "just moved runners" sometimes. "Just got on base" sometimes.

Tee work, tee work, tee work.

Take responsibility for training yourself (and your own kids). You can do it. She took responsibility for her own hitting and supplemented it with great coaches like Hitter. Work on creating a plan to get it done and go do it. If that means getting the three video set and using that is the blueprint, great. Don't use the crutch of throwing saw bucks at the local batting coach and pretending he is the only person in the world who knows anything about hitting, find the best one whose students hit the best and use him to supplement what you are doing at home but DO IT YOURSELF! You can pretend throwing money at a coach makes him care about your kid but no one really cares about your kid but you.

"Watch what the best are doing and learn from them." You learn from talking to the best in the game. Btw, Coach Bustos had time to talk to me and my kids at one of her clinics. We made an effort to not monopolize her time and picked an appropriate time to approach her but she practiced what she preaches and made herself available. Then we just stood and listened to her talk to the kids during breaks, my 11 year old picked up some awesome stuff that she started doing in games from the casual talk during a break.... I cringe at some of the unfair online comments about her because she was very generous with her time despite being very, very busy running a clinic.
 
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Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
Outside pitch .... stressed letting the ball get deep. Attitude of being better to foul the ball straight into the dugout than being too early.

Can I get a hell yes! At whatever age they start knowing your name as a hitter you better learn how to do this. They are going off the plate with pitches for that kid.
 
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Dec 11, 2010
4,713
113
Casey has a tournament this weekend. She is driving herself over to Howards for a lesson. I appreciate him talking the time to give Casey a tune-up.
I also think it is cool for her to work with the same coach that works with Bustos.

Thanks Howard

ps. Will bring some Tennessee Tea next time I come over....:)



Gerry

I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that and just listen!
 
Jun 17, 2009
15,105
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Portland, OR
I'd love to be a fly on the wall for that and just listen!

I think you would be even more interested in learning what Uncle Jesse taught Bustos.

Still, it is interesting to hear from Bustos what she actually did. Example .....

Bustos: "When I was 16, 17, 18, and my first year in junior college, I was swinging a 34 30-oz bat."
 
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