Home       The "HEC" System     

Design  The "HEC" Bat was designed for the serious batter. The principle behind the "HEC" Bat is simple and very important. Train your hands, eyes, and muscles to be very precise by using a small diameter bat to strike a small object. Because your muscles have been using this device to train, it's weight and balance must simulate the same device (bat) you use in a game. The ability to simply alter the weight of the bat allows you to set the "HEC" Bat to your own aluminum bat weight and balance. 

Principle Just like a golfer, no serious player would train with one thing and play with something different. When you train you are creating muscle memory. To illustrate the point, you trained yourself to walk by walking every day. What would happen if you didn't walk for one month? You would have difficulty walking at first and you would have to retrain your muscles. Like walking, hitting is a matter of muscle memory through training. The smaller the object, the more difficult it becomes for your muscles to direct the bat to strike the object and therefore you must train them to be more precise. Altering the device you use to train also alters your muscle memory. Your muscles will remember that 25 ounce practice bat when you come to the plate and not your 30 ounce game bat. It would take at least a couple of turns at the plate for your muscles to get accustom to your game bat if you train differently. Remember, you don't look at your bat while you swing. Your mind only senses the feel of the bat while you swing and therefore the feel must be the same as you trained. 

Hand and Eye Coordination Hand-Eye Coordination is the ability of your brain to see an incoming projectile through your eyes and tell your muscles in your arms and hands to move to a point where they need to be in order to intercept. The object may be traveling 50 miles per hour (73 ft a second) up to 100 miles per hour (147 ft a second) and moving up, down, left, or right. The hitting zone in front of a hitter is less than 2 ft. It's truly amazing that contact is made at all. The importance of good Hand Eye Coordination should be obvious. As you can see in the illustration, bad contact on a "HEC" ball with a "HEC" Bat results in good contact on a regulation baseball. A complete miss with "HEC" results in some contact with a regulation baseball. Number one and two also represent core hits, even though they are slightly off center and they will give you good results. Number three represents a perimeter hit which will usually result in a weak ground ball or fly ball. 

Concentration Hitting with a "HEC" Bat and ball requires concentration. You must focus on the ball and tune-out all distractions. The difference between a Major league and an average baseball player is great concentration and hand- eye coordination. Proper training with the "HEC" Bat will dramatically increase these skills. How much depends on how hard you train. How determined you are to succeed. 

Training 

1) Train on a regular schedule. 

2) Have a consistent format. 

3)Make it fun by playing an imaginary game, like the World Series. 

4) Don't get discouraged if you fail to make contact at first. It was not designed to be easy. All hitters, even experience ones, have difficulty at first. 

5) Be persistent and determined. Rome was not built in a day 

6) Concentrate on every pitch as if it could be the game winning hit. 

7) When you switch to hitting a baseball or softball with your game bat, don't look at the ball in general, but concentrate on the center or core of the ball. Remember you have trained your eyes and muscles to hit an object about the size of the cork center of a baseball or softball. Center or core hits result in line drives, doubles, triples, and homers. Center or core hits also result in errors, and hits that normally would be fielded. 

8) There are several different methods to train. Having someone pitch to you is the best. Because the ball has a tendency to curve, anyone capable of throwing can effectively pitch to you. Even Mom. Pitching it up to yourself is also effective, especially for slow pitch softball, and is actually more difficult.