The Swing Zone …a mental approach for greater hitting success
/
This is the second of a 3-part series on helping kids with the metal side of hitting…
The Pitcher Is Your Servant
The Swing Zone
Batting Is Not Fair
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. If the kid(s) you are working with do not possess these traits, you can still benefit from this article. 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.
……Part 1 and Part 3 of this series are applicable to all batters right from Day 1 of workouts/practices.
There are two parts to the information below…
The first section, ‘The Swing Zone’ is the point of this writing. Second, the rest of the article addresses how kids go about swinging the bat during practice.
In most youth baseball and softball practice settings kids are developing poor habits by swinging at pitches outside the strike zone. 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.
There is a lot of information here for coaches. 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. We start by giving them basic info, then in the ensuing days/weeks sprinkle in additional thoughts bit by bit.
The Swing Zone
We want to establish these three points with our young baseball and softball hitters:
The space to which a batter must swing is not big. 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).
Contact 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).
We want them to only make swings to the contact area of the strike zone during practice. (see ‘Establish Good Swing Habits…’ below)
Focus on What You Can Control
Points #1 and #2 eliminate the mystery of where the batter will swing. This alone relieves a huge mental burden. Next, we talk to our players about which aspects of hitting against live pitching they have control over and which aspects they do not.
Athletes in all sports, at all levels, battle against thoughts of things they cannot control while in the competitive arena. Younger athletes, with less playing experience, struggle with this even more. We want to talk to our batters about the following two points, and communicate these points often during batting drills, batting practice, and games:
The batter does not have control of what type of pitch the pitcher will throw or where the ball will go. 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’. (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. Thinking of what the ball might do, or where it might go disrupts the batter’s focus on executing a good swing.
A psychological burden kids place on themselves when batting is wondering if they will get on base. We ask them if they have any control of what happens after they hit the ball. The answer of course, is No. 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.
The only thing a young batter should be ‘thinking’ about is swinging to contact point. [Note: The verbal instruction we give our kids, for timing purposes, when they are working against live pitches, is “Let the ball get to your feet” (this ties in with Part 1 of this series: The Pitcher is Your Servant. A batter makes the pitcher bring the ball to them; the batter makes the pitcher serve them the ball). A large percentage of the time when kids swing and miss Good Pitches to Hit, is because they swing too early …to a large extent this is because of the anxiety and worry associated with thinking about results.]
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. Then we take the barrel of bat to contact point, even with our front foot and hold it there.
This is where we want to hold the bat when talking to our kids.
A batter’s thoughts should be limited to the space between where the bat is held, and contact point …this is The Swing Zone. 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.
Mental Approach to Batting:
Identify a hittable pitch (this is developed by following the points made in ‘Establishing Good Swing Habits…’ below)
Execute a good swing
Run as fast as possible to first base …or to second, or maybe even third 😊
A 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.
Crazy, Wild Swings in Practice
It is a constant at most every park, parents and coaches throwing not such good pitches to kids for batting practice. The result is kids swinging wildly at balls that are unhittable or outside the strike zone. How might these experiences, these habits being formed, impact kids’ ability to develop a good swing? …and negatively impact their approach to hitting in a game?
We want to eliminate the practice of kids swinging at bad pitches. The process begins with understanding where the bat contacts the ball (when a pitch is a strike) - The Contact Zone. Then we establish an environment where our players develop the habit of only making swings through The Contact Zone during their workouts/practices.
The Contact Zone
The contact zone is the space within the strike zone where a batter contacts a pitch.
As a rule of thumb, and for the sake of simplicity, we teach kids that the ball is contacted when it is even with the front foot. When referencing contact with the ball, on its path from the pitcher to the catcher, we talk about the ball in relationship to the batter in their stance. This is ‘Phase 1’ of teaching contact point… this is all that most novice youth hitters need early in the process of teaching the swing …and in the early years of their play.
===> From here, please skip to the next section, ‘Establish Good Swing Habits…’ If interested, come back and go through the rest of this section after finishing the article.
The info below is extra and more advanced…. It is not needed (initially) for the purposes of this writing. Those of you who have coached a number of years and/or have played above the Youth Level (12u), might enjoy jumping into this info right away …but be sure to save teaching it until your kid(s) are ready 😊
========================================================================================================
The point of contact in relationship to home plate (Phase 2 of teaching contact point) is the relationship of the ball across the width of the plate:
Inside third
Middle third
Outside third
Pitches in the middle part of the plate are contacted when the ball is even with the front foot, give or take an inch or so. When the ball is crossing the inside part of the plate it is contacted approximately 4”-6” before it reaches the front foot. A pitch crossing the outside part of the plate is contacted approximately 4-6” after the ball passes the front foot (the point of contact on outside pitches can vary a bit more, player to player).
Note: The second year of the player pitch level is about the time kids are ready for this information. It varies from kid to kid. If a player Is consistently making solid contact with pitched balls, we can introduce them to this next phase of information earlier. When working with younger kids (~7-9), this info is best introduced to the individual who is ready, not to the whole team. (see diagrams)
If this info is needed early on (you see kids getting jammed on inside pitches and or swinging too soon and missing outside pitches), we can reference this variation in contact point, but in simpler terms. Instead of referencing distance (4”-6”), as mentioned below, we just say, “a bit” before or “a bit” past, the front foot.
[Note 2: When working with more experienced batters who have a solid grasp of The Contact Zone, we can present them with the concept of ‘Contact Point is Stationary’. Looking at the diagrams and pictures, we see that the ball is pretty much contacted at the same spot, depending on its location across home plate.
The batter is swinging at a stationary point in space, in relationship to their stance. When a player develops discipline in swinging the bat (not changing their good swing to swing wildly at poor pitches) and can grasp the concept of ‘Contact Point is Stationary’, we relieve a lot of the complexity and pressure of hitting a moving pitch.]
[Note 3: Phase 3 of teaching contact point is the height of the pitch. High pitches are closer to the batter’s hands, so are contacted sooner (same as an Inside pitch is closer to a batter’s hands). Low pitches are further from the batter’s hands, so are contacted later (same as an outside pitch is further from a batter’s hands).
This third phase of teaching contact point is better left for the teen years. …fact is, many kids playing at the high school level and above have not been taught that contact point changes with the height of a pitch.
The important thing to keep in mind, we want to be careful about how much, and how soon, we feed information to our kids. It is better to give them a bit less information (and allow experience and instinct to fill the gaps) than to give them too much information …risking ‘paralysis by analysis’.
Establish Good Swing Habits
When addressing the mental approach to the swing itself, to be most effective, we first eliminate the circumstance of players swinging wildly at pitches all over the place during practice. How can we expect players who ‘swing at everything’ to suddenly change that bad habit in a game? Consider a kid who has never made their bed… then asking them one morning to turn around and do it now? Is the lack of a habit and knowledge going to suddenly disappear and be replaced by the discipline and skill to make their bed correctly?
We illustrate to our hitters where the strike zone is (5-galong bucket), demonstrate where the ball is contacted (‘Contact Zone’), and instruct them to only swing to the contact zone in practice, even if it means they will swing and miss some pitches while practicing……
We explain that we coaches/parents, when throwing to them, will throw a fair number of poor pitches***. When our players see poor pitches out of the strike zone, we do not want them trying to hit those pitches. We still do want them to swing. We educate that when a batter makes good swings through The Contact Zone, they will miss those bad pitches. This is a good thing!! ……for two reasons:
Practicing a good swing every time (rather than letting bad pitches go by and doing nothing) leads to improving swing skills more quickly. It also establishes the habit of making consistently good swings for the rest of their playing days. (watch the video ‘…MLB ESPN’ in the final section of this article)
They learn what unhittable pitches look like. The more they [make a good swing through The Contact Zone and] miss poor pitches in practice, the better they get at recognizing which pitches they cannot hit and not swing at in a game.
When a player makes a swing trying to hit poor pitch, they are teaching their muscles incorrect swing actions. (In order to reach a poorly located pitch, a batter is forced to use poor swing mechanics.) They are also perpetuating a bad habit that will invariably carry over to games.
Making good swings, resulting in missing poor pitches, is a perspective and philosophy that you likely have not heard. It does not have to be adopted; it can be modified. However, give it some time to digest, and process it a bit in your thoughts.
Mechanics for Delivering the Ball in Kids’ Batting Practice
Pitching a Baseball: watch the first video, 2:55-3:25. The second video, 0:45-1:05. shows pitching to kids using wiffle balls. The technique is the same. It gives another angle to watch the throwing action. Also shows the set-up for wiffle ball batting.
Pitching a Softball: watch the second video, 1:20-2:05.
(The technique shown can be used for delivering a baseball underhand for batting Ppactice (Front Toss). The underhand toss technique provides more accuracy on a consistent basis. …consider the fact that MLB players often use an underhand toss in games; part of the reason is greater accuracy.
Regardless of experience, every batting practice pitcher throws their share of poor pitches. The third video shows a dad pitching to his son during his league’s annual Home Run Derby. The ball is difficult to see. Instead, watch where the batter swings.
The first two pitches are good (and are hit well). The third one is too far inside; then they just get worse. But the Dad is trying; and I am confident this is a dad who has thrown batting practice more than a few times in the past. Pitching strikes consistently is not an easy thing to do.
***With some practice we can develop good pitching skills. While we are practicing, and improving, we are playing with our kids, so its Win-Win.
More Strikes for Our Kids During Practice
The section above suggests that we need to give our kids better pitches to hit in practice. Below are examples of how this is accomplished. Step one is establishing in our minds what the objective is in Batting Practice. I will suggest that we want our kids to make as many good swings as possible. There are other ways that hitters work on their swings than against live pitching. The fact is, for players learning how to swing the bat well (most kids), live batting practice is a small part of their swing practice; maybe only 10%-20%.
Other approaches to batting practice (swing practice), which provide players a higher percentage of good pitches to hit:
Tee Work (100% strikes/great pitches to hit 😊)
Soft Toss
Short Front Toss
Wiffle Ball Batting Practice (pitches delivered from 15’-18’)
Short Distance Live Pitching (same as pro players before games)
All of these techniques are covered in the Batting Practice link in the previous paragraph.
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…
========================
Short Front Toss Video - MLB ESPN
(This video features Billy Ripken, Jim Thome and Sean Casey)
Look at how they have the protective screen set up in the video. If there is a screen at your park (most don’t have one available) my recommendation is to turn the screen around and toss from the ‘tall side’ from only 10-12 feet away. If you can toss level and firm underhand, you will likely find your accuracy is better. ===> if your park doesn’t have a screen, use a garbage can (see below), or something similar in size
Set the screen/protective barrier so it’s edge is 12” outside of home plate. This puts the arm, when delivering pitches, pretty much in front of home plate. Also, by having the screen (or garbage can) a bit off to the side of home plate, it allows more balls hit to the center of the field to get through. Kids like to see where the ball goes, and it provides more balls for kids in the field, working on their defensive skills, to make plays on.
SHORT FRONT TOSS
Watch 4:15-4:40 This is a common approach to Batting Practice at the highest levels (the exception is right before games). The reason is, from a shorter distance, pitches are more accurate. Batters need accurate pitches to get good work on their swings.
Note: at 4:18-4:19 the batter pops up the pitch up/fouls it off. The comment is made “that was up and away”. This is a major league All-Star who doesn’t hit this pitch very well. It is a pitch that we might view as not being bad. It illustrates the point made in the ‘Crazy Wild Swings In Practice’ section of this article, these guys constantly practice swinging to the good spots within The Contact Zone. When a pitch is not in The Contact Zone …they don’t always hit the ball well.
Watch 8:00-8:35 …the ball is being crushed. Yes, this is a former MLB All-Star, but notice that the pitches are good ones to hit.
Note: at 8:29-8:32 …he doesn’t hit the ball well. Listen to their comments “…Nasty…” (meaning a tough pitch location to hit the ball well). But to you and I that pitch looked like it was pretty darn good (relative to what our kids get from us throwing full distance in the park 😉). Again, the point is that he has trained his swing to good spots in The Contact Zone. Then the next pitch, at 8:35, which is a good pitch, gets hit well.
Garbage Can as a Screen
If we don’t have a screen, we can use a garbage can instead (I use garbage cans all the time when working at a local park; most parks do not have screens), or similar size barrier.
Notice in the video that the BP Pitcher is sitting down (or you can get on a knee… …getting lower to the ground is important at our level of play because the kids are short and need the ball to come to them at a realistic angle). When we are sitting or kneeling behind a garbage can our head is still a bit above the point where we are protected.
After we deliver the ball, we duck our head down. We aren’t able to watch the swing, or the ball being hit, but more importantly we are delivering better and more accurate pitches for the kids to hit.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Check and make sure the top of the can is firmly secured to the body of the can. We do not want it to easily fall off if we bump it by mistake, or if a batter hits the ball hard against the top part. Always prepare in advance to provide a Safe environment for adults too.
