Those who stayed up for the end of the All-Star game last night got to see yet another sweet swing from Robbie Cano as he put the AL up in the top of the tenth with a home run. Even though Cano, todays version of Griffey in my opinion, has a sweet swing that seems effortless, we know he has put in thousands of hours crafting it. Today, I want to look at one particular drill Cano seems especially fond of: The Cano Drill.
What is the Cano Drill? Let me describe it to you. Grab a screen. Put it on the middle of the plate. Hit inside pitches without hitting the screen. It’s a pretty simple drill but a ton can be learned from it. Here is a video of Cano talking one of his teammates through the Cano drill:
Interpreting this would be much easier if I could understand Spanish, but unfortunately I can’t. There are still some things we can learn from it.
At :38 we see the hitter hook a ball. In baseball terms, he got around, not through it. We see Cano then stand up and show him what the feel should be. The hitter then duplicates the motion at :47. For me it looks like he is feeling keeping the back elbow in close, front elbow bent. It looks like he is trying to feel a loose turn through instead of a shoulder yank around.
At 1:05 we see Cano put his bat out where he wants the hitter to make contact. Around 1:25 he then puts two balls on the ground to give the hitter a better visual. Cano wants the hitter to feel like he is getting it out in front. When you allow your shoulders to be loose, you will be able to go and get that pitch with your barrel. The feeling will be a sort of looseness in your elbows and hands.
From 2:03 to 2:08 we see Cano demonstrating something that is pure gold. The first demo is what the hitter is currently doing. Please watch it for yourself. Then following that, we see what Cano thinks the hitter should be doing. Cues suck, I get it. But, that demo is the essence of what it means to “cut yourself off” and hook a ball versus what it means to “stay through it” and get flush contact which produces true ball flight, in other words flight without that hook at the end. He continues that demonstration in a slightly different way through 2:27.
Around 3:12 the hitter finally has a better rep and Cano approves. He was able to transfer the feel of staying through it into an actual swing. In the last couple seconds, Cano pulls a coach over and points out something at the hitters feet. Unfortunately the video cuts out and we don’t get to see anything more.
I want to look at a couple quick game clips of Cano.
Here is a fastball up and away that Cano hits out:
And here is an off speed pitch low and in that Cano also hits out:
Now go back to the demo that Cano did in the video from 2:03 to 2:08. You get to see him put that movement into a game swing in the two home run swings above. This is a huge piece of hitting that is hard to teach/learn. You need to train yourself to be patient and loose enough to stay through these pitches. Fight the urge to think you have to do more. Just stay relaxed and get the barrel through the baseball. This is not the same as being passive in your swing. You can and should swing to do damage. However understand what you do that allows you to do damage. Don’t get outside of that.
I know this post was more wordy than I usually like to get. There were a lot of cues I threw out there and I don’t like doing that. However I think in terms of todays post, it was necessary. It was fun to watch Cano for a little while and see how he goes about his business and thinks about his swing. Hopefully you can take a little bit of that and transfer it into your own.
That’s all for today, hope you enjoyed. If you have any questions don’t be afraid to ask!