Too often I see batters approach the box with no clue.

What do I mean by that? Well, basically they go up to bat with no thought as to what their job is in that particular at-bat. They have no idea what it is their team needs for them to do.

Half the time they are trying to kill the ball when they probably don’t need to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying aggressiveness and intent to smash the ball when you hit is a bad thing, but a batter is so much more valuable to their team when they understand the situation they’re in and know what needs to be done in that situation and make it a point to get that job done.

Here are some must do’s for good hitting:

Study the pitcher to gain an edge.
Anything you can pick up about the pitcher prior to going into the box can help give you an advantage. Does she always throw a first pitch strike? What pitch does she like to throw when she’s ahead of the count with 2 strikes? Does she move the ball mostly in and out or up and down? What is her “bread and butter” pitch? Does she have a tendency to throw inside vs. outside? Up in the zone vs. down in the zone? Does she tip off any of her pitches by how she delivers or prepares to deliver? Some pitchers look at the location of where they’ll throw their pitch after picking up the signal from the catcher. If you can pick up the movement of their eyes from the catcher's signal to their target, you may be able to tell whether the pitch will be thrown outside or inside. Picking up on any of these things can help give you an advantage.

Go in to the box with confidence.
Whatever you do when you go into the batter's box, don’t show fear. Go into the box with confidence that you WILL hit the ball. Even if you’re not sure you will, tell yourself you will. Keep saying it until you believe it.

Start before you get to the box. Even if you don’t feel confident, look confident. Do NOT let that pitcher see that you are worried or that you lack confidence. It will only give them more confidence when they throw and, as a batter, you don’t want to help the pitcher in any way, shape or form. Going in the batter’s box with anything less than a confident demeanor is helping the pitcher. Work on it with a mirror if you have to.

Most importantly though, you need to have the right mindset when you get into that batter’s box. It’s so important that you are thinking, “I’m going to smash this ball” rather than “I hope I don’t strike out.” One thing that separates great athletes from the others is that they’ll go into situations KNOWING they’re going to get the job done rather than HOPING they don’t mess up. They are focused on making a positive result happen rather that worrying about a negative one.

Know the situation.
To be the most effective hitter for you team, it’s essential that you know the situation before getting into the box. What does your team need right at this moment? Does your team need to move runners into scoring position? Does your team need a hit? Or does your team just need to bring a runner home even if an out is recorded in the process?

Bringing a runner home from 3rd base with 2 outs is very different from bringing them in with just 1 out. It’s important that you know these types of things as a batter. With a runner on 3rd and 2 outs, you basically are going to need a hit to score that runner (or an error). With just 1 out however, there are many ways to score: passed ball, grounder to the right side, deep fly, base hit, etc. Know all of those options and keep them open. If the pitcher throws you a perfect pitch to hit on the ground to the right side, go for it. It’s so much less pressure when you know all you have to do is hit a grounder than it is to be up there not fully understanding the situation and thinking, “I have to hit the ball well because we need to score that run.”

 

 

 

 

The 3 must do’s for good hitting:

Study the pitcher to gain an edge.
Anything you can pick up about the pitcher prior to going into the box can help give you an advantage. Does she always throw a first pitch strike? What pitch does she like to throw when she’s ahead of the count with 2 strikes? Does she move the ball mostly in and out or up and down? What is her “bread and butter” pitch? Does she have a tendency to throw inside vs. outside? Up in the zone vs. down in the zone? Does she tip off any of her pitches by how she delivers or prepares to deliver? Some pitchers look at the location of where they’ll throw their pitch after picking up the signal from the catcher. If you can pick up the movement of their eyes from the catcher's signal to their target, you may be able to tell whether the pitch will be thrown outside or inside. Picking up on any of these things can help give you an advantage.

Go into the box with confidence.
Whatever you do when you go into the batter's box, don’t show fear. Go into the box with confidence that you WILL hit the ball. Even if you’re not sure you will, tell yourself you will. Keep saying it until you believe it.

Start before you get to the box. Even if you don’t feel confident, look confident. Do NOT let that pitcher see that you are worried or that you lack confidence. It will only give them more confidence when they throw and, as a batter, you don’t want to help the pitcher in any way, shape or form. Going in the batter’s box with anything less than a confident demeanor is helping the pitcher. Work on it with a mirror if you have to.

Most importantly though, you need to have the right mindset when you get into that batter’s box. It’s so important that you are thinking, “I’m going to smash this ball” rather than “I hope I don’t strike out.” One thing that separates great athletes from the others is that they’ll go into situations KNOWING they’re going to get the job done rather than HOPING they don’t mess up. They are focused on making a positive result happen rather that worrying about a negative one.

Know the situation.
To be the most effective hitter for you team, it’s essential that you know the situation before getting into the box. What does your team need right at this moment? Does your team need to move runners into scoring position? Does your team need a hit? Or does your team just need to bring a runner home even if an out is recorded in the process?

Bringing a runner home from 3rd base with 2 outs is very different from bringing them in with just 1 out. It’s important that you know these types of things as a batter. With a runner on 3rd and 2 outs, you basically are going to need a hit to score that runner (or an error). With just 1 out however, there are many ways to score: passed ball, grounder to the right side, deep fly, base hit, etc. Know all of those options and keep them open. If the pitcher throws you a perfect pitch to hit on the ground to the right side, go for it. It’s so much less pressure when you know all you have to do is hit a grounder than it is to be up there not fully understanding the situation and thinking, “I have to hit the ball well because we need to score that run.”

 

Hitting Practice

 

Tip #1 – Practice Running
When you practice hitting, practice GETTING OUT OF BOX ON EVERY SINGLE SWING. Especially at the younger age level, often times in practice, we just have them stay in the box and swing at a set number of pitches. Maybe we have them run on the last hit. Then in the game we wonder why they “forget” to run after they hit the ball. It’s probably because in 80%-90% of the swings they take in the box during practice we don’t have them run. So they practice not running after they hit a ball more than they practice running after making contact with the ball. Which do you think will be their “habit” come game time?

Tip #2 – Take Enough Swings
How many swings do your batters get in practice? Consider the fact that pitchers pitch 100 or more pitches per day for practice. Hitters should take at least as many swings, preferably off a tee if not against live pitching.

But maybe your team doesn’t have the capability to have each player take that many cuts off a tee or live pitching during practice. Some teams only have one tee, do not have the luxury of a batting cage, and have only 1 or 2 players/coaches that are capable of pitching live to players. Here are some suggestions of different ways you can have players get all those cuts in.

Visualization
Have players get into their stance with the bat and visualize a pitcher pitching to them. They should go through their routine of starting outside the batters box then stepping in and getting ready for the pitch. Have them “see” the ball being pitched to different spots (inside high, inside low, outside high, outside low, etc) and take cuts at the different pitches they are “seeing.” They should visualize solid contact with each pitch and use the proper swing to hit the ball coming in the different locations. If they do 5 pitches at each location listed above, they will get in 20 swings with this one drill.

Soft Toss
Whether you have a net or you have to soft toss into the field, this is another way players can get some swings. If you do have to soft toss into the field because you do not have a net, set up two stations to run at once. Just be sure that the tossers do not toss the ball at the same time. This gets more swings in a shorter period of time compared to live pitching because batters should be able to hit every tossed ball, whereas in live pitching they may not be swinging if the pitch is not good.

Wiffle Balls
Have a couple of stations where the players hit wiffle balls. You can soft toss these if you want, but it’s probably better to pitch them to the batters. Distance between the pitcher and the batter should be close (10-15 ft). This is a little quicker than hitting live with regular balls because you can set up 2-3 stations vs. having just one player hit live at the plate with real balls. Plus wiffles don’t go as far so it’s easier and faster to shag all the balls.

Soft/Sponge/Nerf Balls
Use these types of balls for live hitting. Some are the same color and size as regular balls, but they don’t go as far so it’s easier and quicker to shag than live balls. Plus, if you’re having a coach pitch to the players the coach can stand closer using these soft balls and probably get more accuracy leading to less “wasted” pitches, where the batters don’t swing because the pitch isn’t good.

Hit Live in the Cage
If you do have the luxury of a batting cage, do your live hitting in the cage. That way, you don’t have to have the whole team shagging while just a few get to go through hitting stations. More players can be getting some of their 100 swings in instead of standing on the field waiting for balls to maybe come to them.

Those are just a few ideas to get you started. If you do have the capability it’s always great to allow your pitchers to pitch to your hitters. It helps make the pitchers stronger, so long as you’re not telling them to “just let the batters hit.” And it makes the batters stronger, again, that’s only if you’re having your pitchers throw their best stuff.

If you do have a machine and a cage, that’s a great way to get a number of cuts in within a shorter time frame. Even if you don’t have a cage, using a machine can cut down on time because players should be able to swing at just about every pitch. However, it’s no substitute for live hitting so don’t just rely on the machine. Live hitting is an important part of hitting practice. After all, it’s the type of situation you expect your players to perform in during the game. It’s only fair that you put them in a similar situation in practice.

One last thing, don’t rush your hitters through their 100+ swings. Why? Because that’s not game-like. In a game, they see a pitch, have about a 10 second break, then see another pitch, then have a break, and so on. They aren’t going to be taking 5 swings in the span of 10 or 20 seconds.

In at least some of your hitting drills, allow your hitters to take a good swing, get out of their stance, reset, get ready again, then take another swing. Even if they have 30 seconds between each swing, 100 swings will take less than an hour. So don’t rush. Let them have quality swings with breaks in between, just like game time.