![]() ![]() I never had to think about it, or work at it. If felt very natural to stop in that circumstance. Therefore, I could begin a swing at a pitch I saw very well, and would naturally stop if the swing wasn't going to be able to reach the ball. The swing would not cover that large of an area. As a result, my swing basically would not extend to reach a ball out of the strike zone. Those are the pitches to hit.Īll my life, in batting practice, I swung only at strikes. I like Al Oliver's advice: if you see the ball, hit it. Some slightly more advanced conversation: I didn't realize that when I played, but I can look back and see it clearly. I don't know how it would work for others, but it helped me be mentally sharp. It created extra focus during each at bat, because I had to stay ahead in the count! It was a mental edge. I had to be ready to hit from the very first pitch of each at bat. This had the effect of sharpening my mental state. The rest of my playing seasons, I concentrated on staying ahead in counts (most of the time). For some reason, I had never thought of this before. She began to encourage me to stay ahead in batting counts. When I was about 11, my Mom became frustrated with my letting good pitches go by. If the unfairness of a bad call bothers you, don't let the count go to two strikes. If he called it a strike, you should've hit it. Stand in the back of the box, to get a longer look at the pitch. They will stand in their stances like brittle statues - unless they are instructed. Kids typically haven't thought of such a thing. They need to be encouraged to develop a loose pre-swing waggle. It is a very, very big deal in hitting.Īlso, kids don't watch much baseball anymore. Everyone from Jack Nicklaus, to The Inner Game of Tennis, to Bob Rotella, talks about visualization. It forces a player to visualize a pitch coming into his sweet spot. This is the equivalent of Pennick's famous "Take dead aim," b/c it takes a player's mind off of thinking and onto his task. Speaking of Harvey Pennick: Look for a pitch in your sweet spot.Īlternate instruction: Look for your pitch. The child reasons that they must tense up, and give hard effort, in order to hit the ball hard. I dislike the instruction: "Hit the ball hard", b/c kids do not understand the physics of bat-head speed, which are somewhat related to the physics of cracking a whip. Tense kids also need to be taught to hold the bat lightly, as if they were holding a bird. This is my attempt at Harvey Pennick-type perfect verbiage. ![]() Swing loosey-goosey, but hit it with authority.Įrnie Banks is giving a perfect demonstration at top. If your child goes to a birthday party, they may not swing at the Pinata! Buy them a Pinata to hit at home, and hang it knee high! :-) Teach your child to swing level at the top of a typical umpire's strike zone - then teach them to never, ever, under penalty of death, swing at anything above that. If you are swinging level, you cannot get your hands high enough to swing at a fantastically high pitch. Here's the cure for swinging at high pitches: swing level when swinging at the top of the strike zone. Many hitters never reached their potential b/c they never stopped swinging at high pitches. You'll never, ever be a hitter if you swing at high pitches. When you step in, make sure your bat can touch the outside edge of the plate. He argues he has successfully taught it to numerous young children. I think that is an unnecessarily complicated instruction for a young child. He prefers: "keep your hands above the ball". Southern Brother and I fight it out over this instruction near the bottom of this post. It prevents chopping at pitches which are too high it prevents a loopy swing. This is more of a mental suggestion for swings in the upper part of the strike zone. The angle of the bat should be square to the hip, and the bat head square to the ball. Contact with the baseball should be made right at your front hip. ![]() Think of hitting a pitch with a hammer in your bottom hand: you would not make contact with the hammer beside your belly button, but rather with the hammer beside your front hip. Here are some of the best instructions I received: I was fortunate to receive good instruction as a young player. ![]() In Tucson? Late 1960s? Banks' swing was effortless, perfectly balanced, and generated power. ![]()
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