Run as fast as possible to first base …or to second, or maybe even third □Ī batter who consistently hits the ball hard, giving them the best possible chance to get on base, is one who keeps their thoughts in The Swing Zone. Identify a hittable pitch (this is developed by following the points made in ‘Establishing Good Swing Habits…’ below) Any thoughts outside The Swing Zone will more than likely get in the way of a batter making a good swing ……when a good pitch arrives. Then we take the barrel of bat to contact point, even with our front foot and hold it there.Ī batter’s thoughts should be limited to the space between where the bat is held, and contact point …this is The Swing Zone. Illustrating Our Point - When talking to our kids about what happens with the ball before and after contact, we get in a hitting stance holding a bat. The only thing a young batter should be ‘thinking’ about is swinging to contact point. We do not want a batter to think about what the result of an at-bat might be when standing in the batter’s box. We ask them if they have any control of what happens after they hit the ball. Thinking of what the ball might do, or where it might go disrupts the batter’s focus on executing a good swing.Ī psychological burden kids place on themselves when batting is wondering if they will get on base. (At the youth level, while some pitchers throw different types of pitches, few locate consistently in the strike zone.) Regardless of what type of pitch is thrown, it has to be a strike before it is of any concern to the batter. We explain this to our players and teach them to not think about what might happen with the ball before it gets to where it can be struck by the bat - ‘The Contact Zone’. The batter does not have control of what type of pitch the pitcher will throw or where the ball will go. We want to talk to our batters about the following two points, and communicate these points often during batting drills, batting practice, and games: Younger athletes, with less playing experience, struggle with this even more. Next, we talk to our players about which aspects of hitting against live pitching they have control over and which aspects they do not.Īthletes in all sports, at all levels, battle against thoughts of things they cannot control while in the competitive arena. This alone relieves a huge mental burden. Points #1 and #2 eliminate the mystery of where the batter will swing. (see ‘Establish Good Swing Habits…’ below) We want them to only make swings to the contact area of the strike zone during practice. The pitcher is required to throw the ball through the strike zone, which is a small space (the strike zone for a kid, in their batting stance, is about the size of a 5-gallon bucket).Ĭontact is made with the ball when it is pretty much even with the front foot (contact point is described in the ‘Contact Zone’ section below). The space to which a batter must swing is not big. We want to establish these three points with our young baseball and softball hitters: We start by giving them basic info, then in the ensuing days/weeks sprinkle in additional thoughts bit by bit. The balancing act of a youth coach is giving kids enough information to help them (‘The Swing Zone’ section), while not overloading them with too much information (the rest of the article) …or loading them up with too much information at one time. There is a lot of information here for coaches. For the concept of The Swing Zone to be effective, kids need some discipline of where they are swinging and a belief their swing can strike the ball solidly a good amount of the time. In most youth baseball and softball practice settings kids are developing poor habits by swinging at pitches outside the strike zone. Second, the rest of the article addresses how kids go about swinging the bat during practice. The first section, ‘The Swing Zone’ is the point of this writing. There are two parts to the information below… …… Part 1 and Part 3 of this series are applicable to all batters right from Day 1 of workouts/practices. Keep in mind that some of the content beyond the section, ‘The Swing Zone’, may be too much to convey to player(s) early in the year. If the kid(s) you are working with do not possess these traits, you can still benefit from this article. Note: Part 2 assumes the kid(s) you are working with have a rudimentary understanding of their swing and/or demonstrated the ability to contact good pitches a high percentage of the time. This is the second of a 3-part series on helping kids with the metal side of hitting…
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