In fact, despite being constantly overshadowed by Johnny Bench, he always hit for higher batting average than Bench and was also a defensive wizard.  He had a lifetime .296 batting average, the 4th highest career batting average for a catcher in the last 80 years.

He also rarely walked or struck out.  Unusual that he didn’t strike out more since he was known as a ‘bad ball’ hitter, often chasing balls way outside of the strike zone.  He used to infuriate pitchers who would expect to strike him out with a throwaway pitch, and instead give up a base hit.

He once shared the secret of his successfully unusual hitting style.

Here ’tis:

When he was a kid growing up and playing street baseball in Panama, “everything was a strike.”  You had to swing or you struck out.

As a result, he learned to hit the ball wherever it was – way up high, in the dirt, way outside, etc.  

And, all the practice of taking his cuts at the ball, no matter where it was, paid off.


Just as Manny learned to hit by constantly taking his shots, wrestlers who take their shots, and go for itin practice, tend to develop their offensive skills on their feet more quickly – meaning more takedowns and more wins.

Its why coaches (and parents in a lot of cases) need to let them use practice for practice – and not sweat giving up practice points.  The more you go for it in practice, the more quickly you will be scoring takedowns in matches.

You can discover how to ‘hit it out of the park’ on your feet this summer by training in our HS/Jr High attack system takedown master camp, or youth takedown master camp

In our system, you can attack your opponent 5 different ways using a handful of setups, drill to precision and test yourself at the end of the camp via our final exam.

go here now to check out all 7 camps we offer, including the younger youth skills camp

 for grades 1-3.

Randy