私のMLBバッティングケージルーティン｜ティーワーク、スイングテクニック、そして野球のウォームアップの基礎｜A-ROD

私のMLBバッティングケージルーティン｜ティーワーク、スイングテクニック、そして野球のウォームアップの基礎｜A-ROD

Here we are in uh Coral Gables, Florida, the Cathedral, Mark Light Stadium at Alex Rodriguez Park. Now we’re in the batting cage. And batting cage is synonymous with your office. It’s all business. I’m going to show you my routine from A to Z. Why? That’s what you guys always ask me about. Alex, what’s your routine? Well, let me show you. Come on. [Music] So, the first thing I do is I I got to make sure that I’m nice and warm and ready to go. I’m going to show you tea work, high toss, front toss, what I do with the breaking balls, and then the heater machine. And the heater machine is right before the game. But let’s start with some tea work. Come on. This is something that you are all very passionate about, especially the young fellas, the young girls and the young boys that play baseball always want to make sure they have a great routine. Now, my entire career, I played almost 23 years in the major leagues, 27 2,800 games, something like that, and uh about 13,000 played appearances. There was never one of those games, 2700 games that I did not do my pregame routine. It didn’t matter. The routines are everything. And it starts with tework. And the routine has to be impeccable. What you’re looking for is you’re really looking for perfection here. You’re not going to be perfect on the field, but you want your tea work and your routine to be immaculate. You want it to be all go both mentally and physically. And let’s try to get perfection here. I first start with a high tea. Okay, I’m going to show you. So, a lot of times my routine could be 10 minutes because it’s just uh a little bit of an appetizer to get me ready and warm and ready to go. But if you’re struggling, the 10 minutes can kind of be like 25 minutes. Ideal time is probably 10 to 12 minutes. your routine should be done. So, you’re in, you’re out, but it’s crisp, is with conviction, and is with a plan. And you’re visualizing if I’m pacing Pedro Martinez or I’m facing Kurt Schilling, I’m going to make sure that I’m practicing balls that they’re going to attack me with. I already know what they have in their quiver, I want to make sure that I’m ready to attack, and my routine is going to resemble my game plan. Batting gloves are interesting. I used 162 batting gloves because I wanted to play every single game and every single inning. I remember it was the last game of the year in 2003. And uh I had played basically every game for a couple years and Buck Shaw Walter sat me like two innings of the last game and I was so bummed out cuz I wanted to play in every game, every inning, every pitch. So the goal here is you want to start hitting this ball straight down. You want to hit inside of the ball right here. See where the Rawlings is right here? That’s my target. So you want the bat to come this way. You don’t want to hit around the ball. You want to hit inside the baseball and on top. Okay? So, usually I’ll start with my left hand, do about five or seven, then five or seven with my right hand, and then five or seven with my top with both hands. And again, the routine is always the same down. Now, one of the things we talk about is I want you to focus two things on my shoulders. My shoulders should be looking at you at all times. Like if there’s a mirror there, I don’t want it going this way. I don’t want it going this way. I want this to be nice and flat. So my focus is shoulder to shoulder, but facing you. And I don’t want to dip one bit. That’s why we elevate the tea. So that works on our my posture and staying inside the baseball. The shortest point from A to B is a nice direct line. So, I haven’t done this in years, folks. So, take it easy. I wish I can still have my pinstripes on. So, now we go to the right hand and the same drill. You want to stay on top of the baseball. Zero dippage. You never want to dip. This is a a bad negative move. I don’t understand why they teach young hitters to do this today. You always want to stay on top. You want to dominate the baseball on top and down through it. Then you go to two hands. Same thing. Then once you get a good feel, now you’ve activated your body. You should have a good blood flow. Now you get this thing down. But you continue to have the same mentality. You dominated the ball on top. So now your body posture has good muscle memory. Now you just take that into some strikes. And you want to do exactly the same thing. I’m going to start the other way and inside. And you want to back this ball up right between your legs. Want to back that ball up. Now, when you’re done with your swing, you want to put this ball and you want to place it right here. Cuz when you’re done with your swing, you don’t care where it goes. You want to keep your your head and your eyes right on that ball right there. This way. Let the crowd noise tell you where that ball’s going. You want to keep that your eyes right here. You want to go shoulder to shoulder like this. The pine tuck is a little slippery. So once you swing the bat, don’t worry about where the ball goes. The fans will tell you where the ball goes. You want to keep your eye right here. So like that. So, one of the things that’s vital is breathing. So, think about when you have a birthday party, they bring out the cake and you blow out the candles. This is exactly the mentality when you swing the bat. And at the point of contact, you should feel and think about blowing out your candle. Why? When you breathe at the point of contact, your accuracy and the distance goes about 30% further and more accurate. What happens if you hold your breath? The minute you hold your breath, your bat changes planes. When your bat changes planes, you miss the ball. You pop it up. So, it’s very important to breathe at the point of contact. Let me show you. See how nice that is? Special sound. So, if you’re having a hard time making contact and hitting the ball with distance, breathing is how you unlock that. But breathing at the point of contact, it also relaxes your whole body. More bat speed, more accurate, more distance. Don’t forget to breathe. You see me here with two bats. This question I got asked all the time. So, the white bat is for batting practice. The white bat is 34 in 34 oz. So, it’s a little heavier. I learned this in my early days in the 90s when I played for the Mariners from Edgar Martinez because a little heavier the guy in batting practice is not throwing as hard. He’s a little bit closer. And if you can dominate a 34 ouncez bat, you’re definitely going to dominate your 34 32 in bat. So 34 34 little heavier a little bit more meaty here on the head. And this 3432 lighter. And once I use this bat, after using this bat, it feels like I have a little toothpick in my hand. So, it works. I’m done with the short bat. Now, we start with the batting practice bat. Same mentality. Breathing at the point of contact. You know you’re hitting the ball solid with the sound of the baseball. You hear it. Hear this. Now that we’re all ready and activated because we hit the ball the other way, now we want to talk about pulling the ball. And you can pull the ball the right way or the incorrect way. I’ll show you the incorrect way first. So you see this ball, I want you to focus right here. See this major league logo? That’s the right way to hit the ball. You see this Rawlings signs right here? That’s the incorrect way. So, let me show you. You don’t want to go around the ball and hit Rawlings. See, this becomes low and slow. You want to stay inside the baseball and hit that logo. That’s your target. So, anytime I put the ball down, I put it where I had a target. Whether it’s golf or basketball or football, you always want to do things with purpose, with conviction, and you always want to have a target to shoot for. So, that’s my target. Even though I’m pulling the ball, I’m still going up the middle. No further than shortstop. My target is shortstop to the middle. I should never practice and hit a ball at third base. So, and then your last ones, you always want to end back to right field because that’s the money ball. You make your money to right center field as a as a right-handed hitter. All great hitters can hit the ball to right field at will because that’s where you make the money. That’s where you drive in runs. That’s how you hit grand slams. Two run, three-run doubles is thinking right center field. Boom. Now we’re done with tea. Now we’re going to go do some soft toss. Means you want these arms to stay very close to you, connected. I had to do it over and over again. And that’s that.

What’s up guys, Alex Rodriguez here 👋
Excited for this very special two-part episode. There was so much to cover, we had to break it up. In this episode, I’m taking you inside the batting cage to show you exactly how I prepared before every single MLB game of my career.

I’ll walk you through my tee work drills, share the swing techniques that helped me stay consistent at the plate, and break down the warm-up fundamentals I relied on throughout my career. These routines are simple but powerful, and they’re the foundation of everything I did as a hitter.

⚾ In this episode, I’ll cover my batting cage routine:

High-Tee Warm-Ups

Low-Tee Warm-Ups

Swing techniques and drills

How to choose the right bat weights for BP and games

Whether you’re just starting out or chasing the next level, these drills and fundamentals can make a big difference in your game. Thanks for watching, and don’t forget to like, comment, and subscribe to catch part 2!

Thanks!