Teaching how and what to hit

The Hitting Zone

This is from a handout I use at my camps addressing the very issue you talk about above. Hope it is not too long winded

The Hitting Zone​

There are several factors that affect all of us and our ability to be productive hitters. It has been said many times, two things that all great hitters do that alike are, (1) the hips lead the hands and (2)the hands are on the plane of the pitch, with palm up and palm down at point of contact .

There are many other factors that also affect the results of an at bat as much as those mentioned above. These are a few of the things that need to be considered.

In order to be a productive hitter and a productive team, we must be able to understand our role as a hitter and the type hitter that we are. Everyone is not a homerun hitter. And homerun hitters don’t always hit homeruns, or lead the team in batting average. Homeruns are not the only reason a team wins the game.

A stand up double that drives in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning is just as important as the first run scored in the second inning that went over the fence, or the sacrifice bunt that tied the ball game to put the team into the position in the 5 the inning to come back and win the ball game in the seventh.

With all that said, it simply means that with every at bat your role as a hitter is constantly changing as the game dictates and the coach directs. Your position in the batting line-up, changes at each at bat depending on the inning and the game situation. A game ultimately is won because of all of the things that happen collectively, and as a team. Not by anyone individual player. The guy who laid down the bunt may be the number 4 or 5 hitter in the line up. The guy who hit the homerun maybe the number 7 or 8 guy in the line up. The end result is a win by the team, and for the team. Your role as a player and your ability to fulfill that role determines the outcome not only for you but for the team.

Ability establishes what you can do, and gets you on the team.
Ambition determines how much you do, and gets you into the line-up
Attitude guarantees how well you will do, and how much you contribute to the team, and keeps you in the line-up.

The “Will to Win” is important but isn’t worth a nickel unless you also have the “Will to Prepare”. Our life is what our thoughts make it. Belief creates the actual fact. Whether you think you can or think you can’t…..you’re right. Positive thinking gets positive result. Prepare yourself for those results. When going to the plate for your at bat, know that you will get positive results because you have prepared yourself with proper practice of your mechanics and techniques, and knowledge of the game. Thinking positive, and knowing what to expect in that situation, will get you the results you deserve, and the team expects.

Part of that preparation is knowing your hitting zone, and understanding how it can expand or shrink with each pitch depending on the situation and the count. Too many times, too many batters are called out on the third strike. Should we blame the umpires for bad calls? Or, as batters, should we blame ourselves for not having a 'good eye' - not reading the pitch well, or not knowing the limits of the strike zone?

Neither.

The real problem may be that we are thinking about the strike zone! What's the problem? Well, a strike is a negative - it's a call against you. The strike zone itself is a negative. Worrying about that zone makes you a tentative, passive hitter. "Should I swing, maybe not"? Too much emphasis on the strike zone has batters thinking about what they shouldn't swing at - any ball outside the zone - which can lead to way too many called third strikes.

Think of your hitting zone instead of the Strike Zone. It's an emphasis on generating positive results. It puts you back in charge of the situation. The hitting zone can be anything you want it to be.

That last point is especially important. By rule, if not always in practice, the strike zone is defined purely by the width of the plate and the stature of the hitter - knees to letters. But no two hitters stand the same way, or load up the same way, or launch the same way, or have the same "wheelhouse".

In other words, when it comes to actual swing mechanics, the strike zone has nothing to do with anything. But the hitting zone means everything. And it can change; in fact it should change, from pitch to pitch.

The process begins in practice. How far outside can you reach? How tight inside can you still get to? How high? How closer to the ground? How does your reach differ on high outside vs low outside? During this process we want to find the spot in the zone where we get our best hits, our wheelhouse, power alley, call it what you want to, it's where we are best at getting the sweet spot of the bat on the ball. Is it at the knees, the hips, the belt, or higher? Is it on the inner half or outer half? Do we get more distance (even with whiffles) when we pull the ball, hit back up the middle, or go to the opposite field. Don't go into this process with preconceived notions, just look objectively at the flight of the ball and learn from it. This is where we learn where our tightest and largest hitting zone is. Now its time to put that knowledge into the game.

On the first pitch of the at-bat, your hitting zone is as tight as possible - you are looking for your pitch. If it's there and only if it's there do you swing at it with full power, pulling the bat head aggressively at the ball?

If the call is a ball, you are still in tight-zone mode, looking for your pitch. But each time a strike is called against you, or you foul one off, or miss, then you open the zone. To repeat: you don't increase your hitting zone on every pitch, only on strikes. Deeper in the count, whether 0-2 or 3-2, you are set at your most open hitting zone - any ball you know you can reach is yours for the hitting. Remember: we aren't taking about turning you into a contact hitter. You're not shortening your stroke, or choking up on the bat - you're simply more willing to go after more pitches that you know you can hit. You continue to be focused on the positive and you're more inclined to go after any pitch you can reach. The more strikes against you, the bigger your hitting zone needs to be.

Learning your personal hitting zone is another important aspect of increasing your productivity. Having your at bat should be a positive thing, a chance for you to hit the ball, gets on base, advance runners if there are any on base, and a chance for your team to score runs and win a ball game. You can’t do that by looking, you must swing the bat. That’s why it is called hitting!

 

WndMlr makes great points, but here is kind of a condensed version.

This is simple and straight forward- unless you have two strikes you should be looking to hit "your" pitch or a down the middle mistake by the pitcher. But when you have two strikes, the pitcher has the advantage and you need be defensive and able to make contact with any pitch reasonably near the strike (make that the hitting zone).

The best two strike hitter is one that continually fouls off pitches until the pitcher makes that mistake and the ball is put in play. (Pitchers get really frustrated with these kind of hitters).

So you do need to be able to at least make some kind of contact (with two strikes or with a hit and run on) with any pitch near or in the strike zone. With less than two strikes, the hitter should be looking for "their" pitch to hit, where ever that may be.

 

BMac has it down.. . period; end of story. Cheese your baseball guy obviously is NOT on the cutting edge of baseball thinking... ask him if he has ever read MONEYBALL.

 

Thanks for the condensed version..... Ya'll know how I love to talk....lol

Happy Holidays all