MEET THE COACH

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Hi, my name is Coach Jason McDermott and I am the founder of Heavy Hitters U High Level Swing Instruction. I do not have a professional baseball resume, and I actually never played Baseball past High School. My journey as a hitting coach started when I wanted to learn how to use my lower body more efficiently with my own swing while playing Softball. While searching for knowledge I found Epstein Hitting on YouTube. I was immediately amazed by what movements they were identifying in every MLB swing and the drills they were using to help their hitters. Soon after I went to train with Epstein Hitting Master Instructor Anthony Brites and was immediately hooked. A few months later I became an Epstein Hitting Instructor and started interning under Coach Brites. Most of the information shared with me was completely foreign to me before Epstein Hitting. Through countless hours of studying video, I was able to see how all great hitters were able to separate themselves from other players. Once I started to understand the movements of elite hitters I wanted to be able to apply the same movements into my own swing. This inspired me to share this information with local hitters to help them play this amazing game as long as they can. I started doing one on one lesson in local parks until I found a home at The HIT Factory.  I am a student of the game and continue to study daily in order to find ways to help my hitters the best I can.

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As an Epstein Hitting instructor I was trained by Jake Epstein. The Epstein Teaching System was first created by Mike Epstein who was a 10-year Major League player and 1972 World Series champion (led the A’s that year in HRs). Mike, having played for arguably the greatest hitter of all-time, Ted Williams (1969 Washington Senators), re-kindled his relationship back in the 1980’s. Mike would spend weeks at a time saying he was going to see “Ted.” Every year for the next 10, Mike would go to Florida and talk hitting with the best mind in the game. When Mike finally put all those notes into a legible and learned form, Ted Williams handed him a Letter of Recommendation for hitting instruction…a great feat indeed! Mike started Epstein Hitting and is credited with creating the term rotational hitting. Today Epstein Hitting is run by Mike's son Jake Epstein. Jake has been teaching both amateur and professional baseball and softball players since 2003. Currently Jake is a hitting consultant for Milwaukee Brewers, played professional baseball for the ‘then’ Anaheim Angels, and collegiate baseball at Cal State Fullerton and the University of Missouri. I work Epstein Hitting camps that are held in the Tri-State area with Jake Epstein and Coach Brites.

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In April of 2019 I became an OnBaseU Level 1 Hitting Instructor. As a person who has a few physical limitations of my own I was searching how to help some of my hitters who were struggling due to what I thought were movement issues. OnBaseU was the exact thing I was looking to gain a better understanding of how the body works in relationship to the swing pattern. I was trained by the awesome team of Dr. Greg Rose, Don Slaught and Anthony Vittese. Through physical screening I have the tools necessary to quickly screen players for any physical limitations they may have and a deep knowledge of how those limitations can affect their performance as well as simple guidelines to help get them back on track. Every player at Heavy Hitters is given a physical screening assessment. 

 

Lastly, I would like to thank those who have been a positive influence in my journey as a hitting coach. Thanks to Jake and Mike Epstein, Master Instructor Anthony Brites, the OnBaseU team, and Coach Mike Quiroz. I would also like to thank the many people I follow and admire in the hitting industry such as Matt Lisle, Richard Schenck, Rob Benjamin, Casey Smith, Craig Wallenbrock, Doug Latta, and many many more all opened my mind to different things within the swing. All of these men have played a huge role in making me the coach I am today. They have worked with hundreds of MLB and MiLB hitters as well as thousands of youth, high school and college hitters. Thank you to all those people out there that have shared their love of teaching the game with me. I, in turn look forward to sharing my love of teaching the game with you. 

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