I originally expected to be done with my series on training hitting in the team setting, but I realized I was missing perhaps an often undiscussed and unacknowledged key component, the mental side of hitting. Many consider it a given, but there is so much that goes into it.
For starters, it was not a misstatement when I say we need to train the mental side of hitting. The act of hitting a baseball is obviously physical, but as coaches, we need to dig into what influences the swing decisions each of our players make, and what state of arousal each player needs to make the best swing choices. When trying to help a player with the mental side of hitting, it’s crucial to run through a gamut of questions. Is the player turned off or on by competition and pressure? Does having a coach provide instruction during an at bat sharpen their focus or cause them to tense up? During practice, is it more important for a player to take “feel good” BP leaving the box making solid contact, or do they need to be challenged? What do they think when they are in the box? The questions go on and on, and it is likely that none of the answers are concrete. But if you ask each player these questions, I have no doubt that no two players have identical approaches or preferences. With so much variability in the answers we get from each hitter, and even the possibility of these answers changing on a day to day basis, understanding each individual becomes a difficult, yet essential task if we aim to help hitters achieve maximum success.
In order to train the mental side of hitting, we utilize various drills, conversations, and communication techniques to take our hitters to the next level. As for drills, we focus mostly on swing decisions and pitch recognition. To quote Jason Broussard, former affiliate hitting coach in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, “ask yourself why do bad swings occur at your level [NCAA Division II] of the game? More often than not, it is a bad swing decision that caused the bad swing.” Every player is going to have their own flaws to work through, but as I say repeatedly, we brought the players we have into our program for a reason. They came to us with a level of skill and aptitude and a proven track record that resulted in us giving them the opportunity to play baseball at one of the highest levels our game has to offer. Consequently, not everything we as a staff need to do to help them improve falls under the umbrella of mechanics and athleticism. In my experience, if we can help out players make better swing decisions, we are likely to improve in-game swings.
Swing decision and pitch recognition drills can run the spectrum of fun, variable, and extremely frustrating at times. Much like we do in our other forms of practice, we utilize various levels of control in our training environments. The most difficult and likely the most overlooked of these sorts of drills are live at bats. With extreme variability, sometimes too much for a training scenario, live at bats offer the feeling of training in a completely uncontrollable environment. If we seek to create a more controlled environment, we’ll structure training sessions create a similar stimulus with fewer question marks. Examples are described below.
As discussed in my article on colored baseballs, we utilize the different colored balls in a batting practice setting as a trigger for controlled takes or other necessary actions to encourage early pitch recognition. Many of our players find that drilling with colored baseballs helps them stick to a specific approach or plan at the plate as opposed to free swinging.
A similar approach-focused drill we do is what we refer to as “four ball.” For a little background on this drill, we consider there to be eight hittable side-by-side balls going across the plate from left to right. The plate holds six hittable pitches side by side, but we deem it essential for hitters in our conference to be able to handle at least one ball outside of the zone on either side of the plate (see the pictures below). Digging into our “four ball” drill, we then divide the plate into four ball wide zones and focus on attacking balls in that zone. The hitters will call out which “ball” the pitched baseball crossed over. Their options are 1-4 from to left to right or “in” / "out" if the pitch does not cross over the four balls. Again, we perform this drill to keep hitters focused on a specific approach, while requiring hitters to understand the necessary adjustments to fight off pitches in their non-target area.
To increase the level of difficulty on the hitters, we will begin “pitch mix” batting practice off of both batting practice pitchers and a pitching machine. We begin full rounds entirely dedicated to breaking balls or change ups, progress towards a structured pattern, and finally randomize the pitch mix to better simulate live at bats. To vary the stimulus, we will define specific pitch types as “mandatory takes” either in early rounds of batting practice as we work on pitch recognition, or if we are hunting a certain pitch for damage.
We include bullpen tracking and film analysis as part of this drill/exercise mix. For bullpen tracking, hitters are expected to work on timing their load, pitch recognition, and swing decisions. I ask hitters on each pitch to declare whether or not they were “swinging” at the pitch, as well as rate their timing. There is some subjectivity to this drill, but I believe it goes a long way in getting hitters game ready.
The next step is to study film. Whether it is of our future opponents or an MLB game on TV, I ask our hitters to try to predict every single pitch or location before it is thrown. Our target pitch prediction success rate is at least 80%. Most players struggle at first, but the exercise forces them to think more about all the variables that impact what pitch a pitcher is likely to throw in a given situation, and nearly all make drastic improvements. What they realize is the better they get at predicting pitches, the closer they get to making every count a hitter’s count, and their approach to each pitch becomes both more calculated and confident.
Moving into more of the conversational side of things, I am a proponent of the ability to articulate your approach, strengths, inefficiencies, thoughts, and swing/at bat/drill analysis as a hitter. To further engrain and improve upon this school of thought, each day at practice our hitting groups are asked to think about three questions. The questions may be associated with their drill series for that day or fall under general hitting topics. The idea is to encourage our guys to better understand what makes them successful. Articulation of these ideas is no small task for some of the guys, but I still deem the activity necessary, even in its simplest form. By being able to associate a thought process and words with a specific feeling, hitters will remain task and intent oriented in their swings, rather than simply swinging mindlessly for the sake of swinging. Check out the pictures below for examples of some our questions.
The conversations range from player to player, player to coach, or full group, all depending on the day or topic. We tend to let the hitters decide what is important to them, but occasionally, we as a staff will hop in and force a little more in-depth discussion on a topic.
A major benefit of asking the questions is creating more focus during the off time between sets in the cage or on the field. We do not expect swings, drills, and approaches to be assessed and discussed every waking second of batting practice, but I do find the daily thoughts/questions encourage a greater focus on the process and progression of hitting on a day to day basis.
The last step I take to addressing the mental side of hitting is assessing both the way players learn and their comprehension. I do this through custom made quizzes in Google Forms. I have mentioned my goals of quantifying communication in some of my first articles (article one / article two), but as a refresher, I utilize Google Forms for short multiple choice question quizzes to gauge player understanding of a specific topic. Gathering this information through Forms provides me with “thought” groups by dividing players up based on their answers. From this point, I can approach each group with a different plan that better suits their specific needs.
Not every question will have right and wrong answers; some are approach based. In these cases, the responses enable me to create plans to address the needs and learning style of specific groups. When there are cases of right and wrong answers, the wrong answers are not penalized, but provide feedback as to whether we as a staff explained an objective effectively. I believe by asking players to recall information through these quizzes, we as coaches can better assess our effectiveness in communication, as well as better gauge how players learn.
In review, the mental side of hitting is far from concrete. As with snowflakes, each hitter is unique, thinking, acting, and moving differently than all others. With varying levels of comfort and confidence in the many aspects of hitting a baseball, swing decisions, communication, and comprehension play huge roles in how we teach and approach the practice setting. Once a swing checks the necessary boxes from a mechanical perspective in a controlled setting, we often find that a failure to execute effective swing mechanics during a live at bat are due to flawed decision-making. Consequently, it is paramount to train players to make optimal decisions during live at bats. With this goal in mind, we vary our drills from high control to low control environments to help our players make better in game swing decisions. Through conversations and check-in style quizzes using Google Forms to gauge comprehension, we do our best to ensure our hitters understand what helps them feel comfortable and confident, and specifically what they need to improve.
Thanks,
Adam Moreau, MBA, CSCS
Director of Player Development and Recruiting Coordinator
Eckerd College
419-250-7243
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