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Mechanics, Timing, and the Mental Game, are all crucial parts of hitting.
But, there's still 1 that is more important than the rest....
Swing Decisions.
If you're not swinging at good pitches and taking bad ones...
- Mechanics don't matter
- Timing is irrelevant
- Mental game won't help
Ted Williams got this right all those years ago:
"The most important thing in hitting is getting a good pitch to hit"
But, how does 1 improve this skill?
Well, that is exactly what we're going to discuss today.
1. 3 Types of hitters
We can't just have hitters doing a bunch of random drills and think that's going to solve everything.
Each hitter needs to understand who they are.
There's 3 types of hitters:
- Low Power | High Contact
- High Power | Low Contact
- High Power | High Contact
Do you think each one of these hitters should be viewing swing decisions in the same way?
Of course not.
Low Power | High Contact hitter, taking a pitch right down the middle has a low cost
vs.
High Power | Low Contact hitter has a high cost for taking that same pitch down the middle.
So the first step is understand who the hitter is, THEN, you can help them put together a plan.
2. Practice Design
Do we need to be swinging more or less in practice?
That's a tough question to answer because it's not the same for a 10u team vs. the New York Yankees.
But, I want to ask you a question and then share with you a statistic that might change how you view practice.
What percentage of time do players swing at pitches in practice?
It's a lot.
Now what is the percentage of time hitters swing at pitches in a game?
In 2024 at the MLB level it was 46%.
So if we know that we're always swinging in practice, and then swinging half of the time in the game, shouldn't we think about practice a little differently?
Think about it from a hitter's perspective.
We're emphasizing swing swing swing in practice.
And then in the game they're only swinging at half the pitches that they see...
Just something to think about.
3. Drills
I know I know this is what you came here for today.
Although these drills don't mean anything if #1 and #2 above aren't taken seriously.
Swing at everything except 1 color.
For baseball (yellow)
For softball (green)
When doing machine work or repetitive flips, this drill helps them from getting into swing mode
Flips w/ Tee
Place tee on outter half of the plate.
If the coach flips the ball, the hitter swings...
If the coach fakes, the hitter hit's the ball off the tee.
Med Ball
The last 'drill' for today, probably acts more like a symbol and reminder for everyone on the team.
Placing a med ball behind home plate provides instant feed back for hitters as to whether or not the pitch they took was over the middle of the plate or not.
Feel free to move it inside or outside depending if that's where you want your hitters working for the day.
This creates awareness.
This creates focus.
When those 2 things are happening, hitters are getting better.
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