The Importance of a Pre-Pitch Plan

The Importance of a Pre-Pitch Plan

"Confidence isn't optimism or pessimism, and it's not a character attribute. It's the expectation of a positive outcome." - Rosabeth Moss Kanter

There are many times as coaches we will be watching our student-athletes batting and they will swing at a pitch where they have no chance of having success. After that swing we wonder what in the world they were seeing while batting. There are two approaches as coaches that we can do in this situation. We can get mad and have bad body language that sets up our student-athletes for failure, or we can pull them over during the game and ask them what their plan was at that moment in the game. Often times they'll answer by saying that they didn't have a plan.

Without a pre-pitch plan at the plate, on the mound, or while playing defense then failure is sure to follow. Our bodies don't allow us to do what we are trained to do when we don't have a plan. In other words, when an unexpected event happens, our bodies react by protecting us. For example, let's go back to the first paragraph. The hitter in that situation didn't have a plan. He was just up their to protect himself. The pitch comes to him and he swings because he has an object that could potentially injure him coming near to him. With a pre-pitch plan, the brain tells the body what to look for and the hitter has a better opportunity to focus and have success.

A pre-pitch plan may seem easy to teach, but it must be practiced daily and in every repetition that your student-athletes take at practice. To make a routine effortless and easy to do, then repetitions like this must happen in the practice setting.

Although a player will have a pre-pitch plan, they must learn what kind of plan works best. There are two types of plans that a player can use. The first type of plan is a rational plan. In other words, a feasible plan that makes sense and is also well thought out. The other type of plan is an irrational plan. This plan is based off of emotions and will only cause failure.

To make sure that the player doesn't use irrational plans, the student-athletes must come up with their green-light approach and their red-light approach. The green-light approach means that the player doesn't have to think. He just has to take a deep breath and trust his plan. A red-light approach means that the player recognizes that he is angry or upset, so he must take a few extra deep breaths to relax and do his red-light approach. This red-light approach must be possible on any baseball field. An example of a red-light approach is a player taking two deep breaths, picking up some dirt that's near the batter's box, holding that dirt tight and then letting the dirt go. This allows the hitter to let the bad thoughts go, so he can get back into the batter's box and compete at his best.

When a student-athlete has a pre-pitch plan, the student-athlete visualizes himself having success in the situation he is in, and then trusting himself to compete. The pre-pitch plan frees up the student-athlete so that he can compete at his best and most importantly have fun. As Baseball Hall of Famer Willie Stargell said, "It's supposed to be fun, the man says 'Play Ball' not 'Work Ball' you know." Therefore the game should be fun at the end of the day. A pre-pitch plan approach also works in daily life as well. Before a big speech or interview, have a plan. Visualize yourself giving that speech well or interviewing well for the job you want. Simply put, knowing what you want eliminates distractions and allows you to do your best.