Batting School

It can truly be said that Harvey Krupnick loves to hit and really enjoys talking about hitting. In fact other coaches joke when they see Harvey Krupnick and say "there goes a clinic on wheels" because Harv's always talking about hitting. During Harv's growing up days in Athol, Mass. he was always going down to the neighborhood ball field and worked out with his best friend Mike Hughes and often another youngster John Kuchinskas who could really throw a good batting practice. In the summer of 1974 Harv who teaches Physical Education in Holliston, MA. and played baseball practically every night in the Boston Park League and Stan Musial League was looking for something to do during the warm summer days and thought about how as a kid, what did he do during summer days? Why ,he went to the ball field ,and so now as a physical education teacher and a former professional baseball player in the Detroit Tiger Organization why not go to the field and coach kids on how to hit. Now that would be fun!!!! The thing is though at that time 1974 there were no batting schools. Nobody paid for batting instruction, and there were no training programs. Coaches taught by giving tips, like "keep your eye on the ball," "step into it," don't step in the bucket," "your swinging late," your sweeping the bat," 'keep your hands away from your body," "hold your hands higher," "keep your back elbow up," and the best one"swing hard in case you hit it." Tips are tips there not a training program.

When Harvey Krupnick started his batting school in the summer of 1974 it was probably (not a researched fact) the first batting school in the country. At that time you could get golf lessons, tennis lessons, swimming lessons, music lessons, driving lessons, but you never heard of getting batting lessons. Harvey Krupnick started perhaps the first step by step batting program, drills done in sequence, with a beginning , middle and ending to the sequence. This thought out step by step process helps adjust a hitters MIND, MUSCLE, MEMORY patterns into a more precise hitting action in a shorter period of time. This was done by placing batters in learning positions, using batting tee drills, then ball toss drills, swing drills and batting practice. All done in sequence, PLUS unique WRIST TRAINING DRILLS, something that had rarely been looked at before and put into drill training. Kids learn by feeling and the whole H.K. Batting School training program is based upon hitters being able to feel what your trying to teach them. By doing this hitters are able to learn faster, make adjustment faster and take ownership of their new hitting techniques. The WRIST DRILLS certainly excellerate the process of learning BAT SPEED and POWER. A short quick top arm punching (or pushing) through action with the wrists isolating the swing level action. The wrists transitions the barrel of the bat from the back side to the front side with JUST a FLICK OF THE WRISTS. Learning this makes hitting much easier, because you can wait on the ball longer, "and the longer you can wait, the less you'll be fooled and the less your fooled the more you hit." (This was a coaching remark Ted Williams often made to me.) These kinds of techniques and skills are a big part of learning how to hit with WOOD BATS. The H. K. Batting Program is a wood and metal bat skill training program. See Video Link for further information on batting program.