A Few Takeaways and Thoughts on Coaching Hitters

 A Few Takeaways and Thoughts on Coaching Hitters

“Hitting is simple, it’s just not easy.” -Kevin Wilson

Hitting is a complicated skill to teach and coach. That’s certainly no excuse on taking a cheap way out of failure. Failure is part of the process. When I was tasked with being a hitting coach at Sissonville High School, I had anxiety at first. Hitting is a fickle thing. At one point everything is clicking, and at the next moment nothing is. In today’s blog, I hope these takeaways and lessons I’ve learned finds you well and can help provide some help to wherever you’re at with instructing your hitters. 

Foundations

I by no means am a mechanical maniac with my hitters. I focus on external cues. This means that you give your players an objective and they will focus on finding a way to achieve that goal. An example of this would be finding a spot on the field and challenging your hitters to hit that spot on a line drive. With that said, there are some things to look for to make sure your hitters have a strong foundation. Every hitter should have their feet shoulder width apart, with some bend in their knees. Some hitters stand up tall, but their knees are still slightly bent and ready to attack. The hands are in tight on the body of the hitter, the farther away the hands, the slower the bat will be delivering the barrel to the pitch. When striding, the stride should be a slight load where the knee never goes outside of the back hip. Weight should be 70% on the backside and 30% on the front foot. The hands point the knob of the bat back to the catcher. Anything farther creates a steep swing that misses a lot of pitches. The front foot should lightly step forward, as if the hitter is stepping on a sheet of ice. The front foot at front foot strike is slightly open (at 1 o’clock for righty’s and 11 o’clock for lefty’s). The hitter will then need to take his hands to the baseball with his back hip driving the lower half. The part of the baseball the hitter will need to focus on is the middle and inside part of the ball. This ensures that the barrel will square up the ball. 

Stride Buffet

At the high school level it’s important for your hitters to understand why they do everything that they do. If they don’t have a reason, then it’s not good for them to do it. Every player needs to know why they do what they do to be able to adjust and be their own best coach. Coach Ryan Brownlee taught me a drill earlier this winter. It’s called a Stride Buffet. This means the hitter will take several different kinds of strides to find out which stride works best for the hitter. The hitter will toe tap, leg lick, and stride regularly for a few swings. I would suggest three rounds of trying each stride m out and then during the fourth round the hitter goes with what stride he is comfortable with. 

Routine, Routine, Routine

Every hitter on your team MUST find their routine. One of our better hitters on our baseball team has the same routine regardless if he went 3 for 3 or 0 for 3. His routine slows him down and allows him to be in the moment and focused on the current pitch. Show me a hitter who can’t slow the moment down and prepare for the next pitch, I’ll show you a hitter who will be inconsistent at best. Each player needs to find a focal point that remains the same regardless of where they are playing. They then need to have a release and a refocus. 

This in practice looks like this:

1. The hitter looks at the left field foul pole. 

2. He squeezes the handle of the bat and takes a deep breath through his nose and out his mouth. 

3. He then closes his eyes, takes another deep breath and visualizes himself executing his plan for the next pitch. 

These routines need to be executed when the hitter feels the game is getting too fast on him and he needs to slow down the game. 

Winning a Pitch, Win Pitches, Win the Inning, Win the Game

Baseball is the most mentally draining sport in all of athletics. Victory within the sport is won within the fifteen seconds between pitches. In other words, what you think between the ears will determine your success. A mantra we’ve used at Sissonville High when things go wrong or a mistake is made is, “So what, now what.” This means so what you made a mistake. Now what are you going to do to win the next pitch. Ken Ravizza talked about the importance of being in the present moment. His advice on winning pitches is to go one at a time. Therefore if you win the current one, then win the next one. The more pitches you win then you’ll win the inning. The more innings you win, then you’ll win the game. No pitch is greater than the current one, so live in the moment. 

Timing is Hitting

UCLA Head Baseball Coach John Savage once gave me great advice. His advice was, “In baseball and in life timing is everything.” I often think about this quote and how true it is in baseball and in life. This quote is certainly true with hitting. The image at the top of the page is one of our foundations in our Indian offense. The cones stand for our timing and the baseballs stand for our contact zones plate wide. Therefore, if we are trying to hit the ball pull-side to the middle of the field the four baseballs will be on the inside part of the plate and one to two cones will be in front of the plate. To go middle of the field, the four baseballs will be in the middle part of the plate and the cones will be placed parallel to the front foot stride of the hitter. To hit the ball to the opposite side and middle part of the field the four baseballs will be on the outside part of the plate and the cones will be parallel with the belly button of the hitter. This helps is to divide the field into thirds. The first third is middle-pull, second third is middle of the field, and last third is middle-opposite of the field. This helps us time up the pitcher’s fastball to where our hitters are on time. This timing depends on if the hitter is striding or leg kicking. If the hitter strides he has more time and can start later with his load. If the hitter leg kicks he will need to load earlier so that he can get his foot down in time. Lastly with timing, the hitter will need to have a slight pause in his swing. The timing should be as soon as the hitter gets his front foot down, you clap, and then swing. This allows the hitter to recognize pitch shape, spin, and movement. 

The Most Important Voice on Your Team? The Players

This last takeaway is the most important. As coaches we get far too much credit for success. It’s the players who make the plays. Therefore, we must empower our players to speak up, lead, and teach each other. One of our senior players was struggling early on in the season. Regardless of what we did we couldn’t get a breakthrough, until one of his teammates worked with him. Then the next game he got a hard hit single up the middle. At the end of the day, we want our players driving the bus. As coaches we set the guard rails, but they drive the bus. Empower them to lead. In conclusion, I hope these lessons that I’ve learned help you and improve your hitters.