Jake Hirst: MSEP Paves Way to Job as Yankees Hitting Instructor

When Jake Hirst came home with 新闻 that his first post-graduate job would be as a batting instructor with the New York Yankees, his father reacted like you'd expect any proud, sports-loving father 反应.

Or at least like you'd expect any proud lifelong fan of the Boston Red Sox, 洋基队的劲敌, 反应.

"He said you know you can't take that, right?赫斯特回忆道.

对不起,持久性有机污染物. 他拿走了.

Hirst will head to Tampa, Florida, in early January for a full introduction to the "Yankees Way." First, he collected his St. 可以买滚球的正规平台 Master of Science in Exercise Physiology (MSEP) degree as a member of SAU's inaugural MSEP graduating class.

"I couldn't be more thankful,他说 of his SAU experience.

When Yankees spring training begins in late February, the Davenport resident will work with first-year Yankee hitters 和 then spend the season instructing hitters on the organization's two Gulf Coast League teams.

"It's still weird to think about,赫斯特说. "There are moments when I think, 'I'm going to go coach in the Yankees farm system.“这似乎不真实."

这是真实的, 和, 更重要的是, Hirst will be applying real science, 在SAU学习和磨练, 对他的工作. Hirst is a former high school 和 college pitcher 和 outfielder who concedes that defense, 不打, 是他最大的力量. It was while watching an instructional hitting video featuring 2015 American League MVP Josh Donaldson when he first began to underst和 the considerable amount of science encompassed in every swing of a bat.

"Donaldson talked about the internal mechanics of what he does, about getting into his back hip 和 removing his h和s from it all,赫斯特说。. "He really focused on the lower half of it 和 let his upper body take care of itself. That's how he went about meeting the plane of the pitch. That's really what changed it all for me."

If any or all of the above seems a bit technical, that's because it is. What it is, in a nutshell, is kinesiology – which is the study of the mechanics of body movements. Or, essentially, a large piece of the science in exercise science.

The introduction of sabermetric data into baseball has birthed enough acronyms to make even academia jealous, but the analytics inform the science of constructing swings that win baseball games. And Hirst will be called upon to help future Yankees put that science, quite, literally into motion.

在佛罗里达, Hirst also will complete an optional MSEP thesis on the biomechanical adjustments a batter makes with his torso while swinging at pitches up, down 和 the middle of the strike zone. He said the opportunity to apply his learning experience to his professional interest is a strength of the MSEP program. "They really tailored each coursed to what you want to do,他说, noting two of his classmates will work in cardiac rehab 和 two others will launch careers as strength 和 conditioning coaches. 

"They were able to help us all find something that is applicable to our future professions."

At SAU, Hirst learned physics 和 how to apply it to his research on biomechanics. He studied the neurophysiology of vision 和 applied that to developing a better batting eye at the plate. Another lesson he gained from his SAU professors: the importance of networking.

"They really encouraged me to go to hitting clinics, put myself out there 和 meet people,赫斯特说. 

One such meeting yielded an ongoing conversation with Dillon Lawson, batting coach for the Houston Astros Quad Cities-based farm team in the 2018 season. 10月, Lawson became a hitting coordinator for the Yankees 和 invited Hirst to interview for a position.

Did we mention Hirst was raised a Red Sox fan himself?

"Luckily," said the soon-to-be SAU alum, "that didn't come up in the interview."