Mental Approach To Hitting - The Pitcher Is Your Servant …establishing a positive mindset when stepping into the batter’s box
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This is the first in a 3-part series on establishing confidence in young hitters through a positive mental approach:
Part 1: The Pitcher Is Your Servant …establishing a positive mindset when stepping into the batter’s box
Part 2: The Swing Zone …mental approach for greater hitting success
Part 3: Batting Is Not Fair …a positive perspective on hitting results
What Are They Thinking?
What goes through the head of a kid when they are standing in the batter’s box? Common thoughts: “I hope I get on base”, “I don’t want to get hit by the ball”, “I hope I don’t strike out”.
Their view of the pitcher’s role in the game is also part of their thinking. Most kids perceive the pitcher as their opponent, ‘a person who is trying to get them out’. Is this perspective correct? Where does this thought originate?
When describing the most fundamental aspect of the game: pitcher delivering the ball and batter trying to hit it, most folks describe this as a Pitcher vs. Batter Competition (myself included). However, at the youth level of play (and to some extent, at higher levels) it can be argued that this is not a good description of the situation.
Let’s give this some deeper consideration. I will suggest that we do not want our young batters to have this ill-conceived notion of what it means to face a pitcher in a game.
Pressure Is On The Pitcher
We want to help our kids to be as confident as possible when going up to bat in a game. We accomplish this by giving our young hitters a dose of the facts about the game. In the pre-season when working with our own child, or when talking to our team during the first practices of the year, we educate them on the challenge the pitcher faces in a game.
The points below clarify the circumstances, establish a new perspective in our batters’ minds, and will raise their confidence when stepping in against live pitching:
The strike zone is a small space relative to all the other places the ball could go. The average kid in their batting stance, presents a strike zone that is about the size of a 5-gallon bucket. We explain this fact to our kids and illustrate it by holding a bucket up for them to see. “This is the size of the strike zone; it is not big. When pitching to you in a game and trying to hit this …the pressure is on the pitcher”.
The batter knows where they are going to swing before each pitch is thrown. The physical aspect of batting is enough of a challenge as it is; why have a batter carry an unnecessary mental burden into the batter’s box? Using the 5-gallon bucket again, remind the kids the size of the strike zone. Point out the fact that the rules say, for them to be required to swing, the ball must come through that little space. Before the pitch is thrown, they already know where they are going to swing …How cool is that?!!
The pitcher is required to throw the ball through the strike zone. This sounds overly simplistic and obvious (to us). …But is it? We are educating our kids that they have the advantage when facing live pitching in a game. Fact is, the rules of the game state that the pitcher must bring the ball to a spot where the batter can really smack it! If the pitcher misses this small space four times, the fact is they allow the batter to advance one-fourth of the way to scoring a run …the pressure is on the pitcher.
We educate our batters that they know, before each pitch is thrown, where they will be swinging the bat. We constantly remind them that the pitcher must serve the ball up to them. And we train our batters to aggressively attack every pitch located in the small space where the rules require the pitcher to throw the ball.
A major factor in achieving this final point is to present our batters with a high percentage of good balls to hit during practices …and not ask them to swing at bad pitches …and preach to them, to only swing at good (or close) pitches in practice. We accomplish this by rethinking what ‘batting practice’ means.
There are many ways to ‘pitch’ batting practice other than us coaches throwing a bunch of cruddy pitches from full distance (college and pro teams don’t; why do we?). Below are examples of other ways our kids work on hitting during practice. These are points are detailed in Batting Practice: A 12-Player Drill.
Live batting practice with the coach pitching from a short distance, off a knee (more accurate)
Live wiffle ball batting (from a short distance with the coach pitching off a knee)
Short front toss
Soft toss
Tee Work (balls on a tee are strikes/good pitches to hit 100% of the time)
[NOTE 1: Yes, some pitches on the edges of the strike zone are not easy to hit well. However, a good percentage of strikes travel through the meat of the strike zone. This is true even with pro pitchers; it is especially true with kid pitchers.
NOTE 2: It is understood that umpires of kids’ games call a fair number poor pitches, strikes. We acknowledge this in our discussions. We also point out that a fair number of good pitches are called balls; umpires make mistakes both ways. With that, we have eliminated any need to dwell on negatives. We will choose to focus on the positives covered above, which we as parents and coaches will continually drill into our batter’s heads. Beginning in pre-season, and throughout the season, we reiterate the facts above every time we work with our kids on hitting.]
The Pitcher Is Your Servant
We wrap up our educational and factual talk by pointing out, “The pitcher has to throw a strike; the pitcher has to bring the ball to you… …The Pitcher is Your Servant!!”. “Kids, our mindset is, ‘Hey Pitcher! bring that ball to me. You need to throw it right here (move your hand on a circular motion in front of you, illustrating the five-gallon bucket sized space that makes up the strike zone). And if you do not bring that ball to me, I do not have to swing. If you don’t bring that ball to me; I go to first base for Free…. so c’mon, Serve it up!’ ”.
The pitcher’s role is to throw the ball through that small space the rules require of them. The role of the pitcher is to Serve the Ball to the Batter. The pitcher-batter aspect of the game is ‘All About the Batter’.
We want to preach this to our kids over and over until they recognize its truth, embrace this reality, and hunger for each opportunity.
Note: This article is about building up our batters’ confidence, possibly at the expense of their mindset when we work with the same group of kids on their mental approach for when they are pitching. This concern is addressed in Batting Mental, Part 3 of 3: ‘Batting Is Not Fair’.
Verbalizing These Facts Solidifies Them
When giving this information our kids, because we know these facts can empower them as hitters, we present each point with conviction. We use an enthusiastic tone of voice. We delay our speech between each point to allow each beautiful reality sink in.
The key piece for engraining this positive mindset in our players, is for the kids themselves to verbalize the facts we have shared with them. Often coach-player communication is the adult lecturing the kids. The exercise of them just listening, while obediently nodding their heads, has limited effectiveness. Players need to speak the words and hear themselves saying them.
After these moments of enlightenment, we ask the kids to tell us the three facts we have just shared with them. The first day it may take some prodding to get them to speak up. Stay on them. Soon they will become comfortable speaking these facts with confidence.
Repeat this exercise the first few days of your batting work; then periodically throughout the winter training period, pre-season, and regular season.
Batter’s Mindset for Every Pitch
Successful batters stand in the batter’s box expecting to swing - YES!
They anticipate that each pitch will be right down the middle, belt high; a great pitch for them to crush. Their mindset, as the pitcher starts their delivery, is: “YES! I am going to swing”.
The expectation of a perfect pitch to hit remains heightened with the ball approaching the plate as they load up and get physically prepared to execute a swing, “YES, YES, YES…” Only at the very last moment, if they see the pitch is not going to be a good one to hit, does their thinking change to ‘no’, don’t swing.
Working with young hitters, our objective is to ingrain their habit of thought, and physical preparation for every pitch, to be: “YES! YES! YES! …..no”.
This is the mindset and approach we want them to have on every ball pitched to them, be it in batting practice, a game, or wiffle ball in the backyard…