Instructional Columns

The Mental Aspects of Hitting

By: Jack Cust Jr.

Mastering the mental part of hitting is just as important to learn as the mechanics of hitting. The mental approach to hitting deals with developing a plan that you can formulate to ensure your success. The essentials of the plan should be comprised of several components designed to eliminate poor at bats. Simply put, learn how to not get yourself out!

One of the most important things to learn is to understand the strike zone and don't swing at bad pitches. You can have the best mechanics in the world, but if you swing at pitchers that are not strikes, your chances for success will be greatly diminished.

The easiest way to become proficient is to practice what we call zone hitting. It's a fairly simple drill, but like every other aspect of hitting, it requires lots of practice to become good at it. The drill involves using a short soft toss and is typically executed in a batting cage. As you are doing the soft toss drill, you assume you are hitting with less than two strikes. Eliminate the corners of the plate and the highest and lowest part of the strike zone. Then create an imaginary circle or box. In what is now a smaller strike zone, concentrate on only swinging at pitchers that enter the imaginary circle or box. As the person tosses the balls, he should throw balls randomly in the zone (circle or box) and out of the zone. By taking pitches out of the zone, you will develop a keen eye and what is known as patience at the place. By repeating this drill, you will eventually learn how to take pitches. The reason why we assume less than two strikes is to develop a habit of not swinging at a pitcher's pitch (ball on the corner or up or down in the zone) until you are forced to because it is more difficult to hit those borderline pitches hard.

As you continue to practice your mechanics and zone hitting techniques, you should be developing better, consistent at bats.

You should also assess your at bats during the game. If you have a good at bat, strive to repeat it. If you have a bad at bat, ask yourself why and make the adjustment.

"Did the pitcher get me out with good pitches or did I get myself out?" If the pitcher made good pitches, tip your cap to him and bear down on your next at bat. In our last part of our series, we will cover dealing with the pitcher.

If you get yourself out, you need to review what happened. Was it a mechanical flaw? Try to have someone video your at bats so you can review and make adjustments. The best correction of mechanical flaws is to simply emphasize not tilting the pole on your swing. This is kind of a catch-all fix because so many things go wrong when you tilt the pole and conversely, so many things are right when you "keep the pole straight." If you got yourself out and it's not mechanical, then the majority of the time it's because your swinging at bad pitches and you need to keep working on your zone hitting.

You are now building a foundation for success. Your confidence should rise and your results should improve.

Summer's Over

Fall Baseball Is A Great Time To Learn!

Ball is over for the summer! Take a break. Encourage your sons to go to the beach, golf or anything but baseball. Let them recharge. But now is the time for you to plan for Fall Ball.

Fall ball is a wonderful season. Some refer to this season as a developmental season, but not for the right reasons. This is not a time to just goof off, but a time to work on specific things. If they will be moving up to a different age group with a larger field and older players, it is a great time to get acclimated. This is a great opportunity to play for another admired coach or play a different position. If he’s considered trying to switch hit, now is the time to try.

Fall is a great time to experiment. If he is a pitcher the Fall is a great time to work on a new pitch like the splitter or circle change. He should not be particularly concerned with his stats, but focus on expanding his game. If his coach is consumed with winning the Fall League to the exclusion of this kind of experimentation, you are on the wrong team.

For a high school junior or senior, Fall ball is an extremely important time to showcase his skills for pro and college scouts. This is the time that college recruiters have to actually get out and see the potential prospects without their coaching duties interfering.

For players 15 or so and up, the fall is when you get strong. From here on, only the strong survive. They must workout in a strength training program designed to increase baseball strength, not a program designed by some football coach designed to build hulking, knuckle dragging linebackers.

There are dietary supplements that are safe and will help build strength and lean muscle mass. Creatine is the most popular and effective. I would not recommend using creatine until a young man is 16, maybe 15 depending on how mature his body is. It will help them get strong. It will help them get bigger.

Base Running Techniques

By Steve DiTrolio

Sixty yards. That’s it. Sixty yards stand between you leading off second base and you crossing the plate. It’s sixty yards going first to third on a base hit.

It’s a important number, 60. Why? Because baseball is effectively a two-base game. It’s how baseball coaches measure speed—two bags at a time. But sometimes, beyond straight-line track speed, it’s speed on the base paths that can make the difference in a bang-bang play. It could all happens in the blink of 60 yards.

When you think about it, running the bases should be simple. And at its core, it is just that: The ball is hit, you run as quickly as you can to the next base. If only life between the lines was so easy.

Base running has become a lost tool in the modern-day game. Perhaps it’s that most young players do not understand that team offense stops not at the plate, but continues when you reach base. It’s a skill set so easily overlooked, yet one that can so easily be improved. Often it boils down to desire that separates quality base runners from the pack. Desire that spells the balance between first and third, safe or out. Work hard enough, and your base running can change the dynamic of a game by creating havoc for the defense and opposing pitchers.

A player should take pride in his base running ability. Unlike at the plate or in the field, when he’s running the bases, he is in total control of his own success. He will decide how aggressive to be, how hard he will run, and how smart he will play each situation.

In other sports, say football or basketball, when you’re on the offensive, you’re constantly moving. Baseball’s different. It’s a slow moving game, one of patience. It’s easy to become complacent and idle. That’s where the smart base runner strikes. He will be looking to advance on every pitch. Like a fielder setting himself on every pitch to receive the baseball should it be hit in his direction, a base runner should have an up-tempo approach and should know what to do in every situation after a pitch his thrown. For example, if a ball is hit to the left side, the base runner will take a different approach versus when a ball it hit to the right side. He’s run differently with one out versus two, one strike versus two. He’s plugged into the flow of every second of the action and should run the bases with the same urgency.

As a coach, I try to emphasize several key points to my players during the season:

1)    You don’t always need to be a thief.

Stealing bases is a great way to create pressure and advance runners without a swing of the bat. The threat of the steal, however, can be just as important as the steal itself. A player with an ability to steal impacts the game without even breaking for second. A pitcher may change his delivery to prepare for the threat of a steal attempt. Pitch selection too; he may elect to throw more fastballs versus curves. He may lose focus, following the runner with his mind instead of focus squarely on the batter. The threat of a stolen base also forces infielders to move position. They often give up ground to defend the steal, thus creating bigger holes for the hitter.

2)    Be a student of the game.

A good base runner will study his surroundings: How deep are the fences? What surface is the game being played on? How much foul territory surrounds the field? A good baseball player will sit in the dugout and study a pitcher’s tendencies. As I tell my players, you should always be looking to gain an advantage, be it at the plate, in the field or on the bases. By studying a pitcher’s tendencies, you may find, for example, that he always throws an off-speed pitch in certain counts. Or perhaps he drifts towards the plate before he lifts his front foot. By studying, you’ll be armed with pivotal knowledge that will help improve your chances of advancing successfully on the base paths.

3)    Your secondary lead should not have secondary importance.

As much as the threat of a steal can create pressure and generate offense, it’s still a gamble. This gamble looms even larger for runners on teams without a ton of speed. As mentioned earlier, one of the most overlooked skills among young players is the ability to go first to third. The “two-base game” looms large, because you can generate runs without risking outs. A base runner’s secondary lead is the foundation to getting in better position to go from first to third, or to score from second base.

4)    As baseball players, we must not forget our overall objective—scoring runs.

Good base running does not—nor will it ever—command the same attention and accolades as hitting home runs. But it can create the same result: scoring runs. Although base running can often become an afterthought to observers of the game, it should never live as a postscript within your overall game. You should always hustle and look to create pressure. You should always anticipate the next play. You must understand game situations.

If you work on all of these tools, and if you treat running the bases with the importance it requires, you will develop an aspect of your overall game that will set you apart. It will make you a much better overall player, and it will help prepare you for the next level.