One of the biggest things I hear with young hitters is that they do very well in batting
practice but then when it comes game time, they’re struggling a little bit and this
is common.
I hear this a lot and I think it happens for a few reasons.
One, the player could be not practicing at game speed enough, meaning could be working
on the tee too much or doing front toss a little too much or if he’s getting thrown
batting practice.
He could be too slow.
He could be under game speed.
So majority of the player swings are happening at slower than game speed.
So when he gets in there and sees a good fastball and some good off-speed pitches, he’s going
to be all out of whack.
OK?
If this is the case, then you could do a few things.
First, speed it up.
If you got a coach that’s throwing BP to the player, have him speed it up a little
bit.
Get it a little bit flatter, more aligned, with a little bit more gas.
Secondly, high tee drill is great because a lot of times on the slower pitches, they’re
coming in on a little bit of an arc and the player gets used to coming down here and getting
through, a little bit loopy.
Not that getting into a good swing plane is bad.
You definitely want to get on a good swing plane but if you got pitches coming in like
this all the time, you might get a little bit too deep and get used to being too deep
there.
So working on the high tee, the high tee drill getting from here, front elbow to the pitch
and getting through it to work on those pitches that are sped up, because usually when you
get in there, with a guy who is not ready for a good fast ball, they’re getting beat
above their hands.
So high tee drill is good.
Obviously working on hitting higher velocity.
Maybe getting in the machine and speed it up a little bit so you can speed your hands
up.
Now I don’t like the machine a whole bunch.
I would rather you have a coach or a parent throw faster to the player.
But if you can’t make that happen, you got to go for the second best thing, right?
I think more importantly than anything that I just talked about, 95 percent of the guys
that are having this problem are having it because it’s a mental issue over a training
issue.
I would say you got a handful of guys.
That’s the reason they’re not practicing it enough.
But most of the reason – and it could be both.
But most of the reason is because it’s a different mindset in practice versus in the
game.
When you’re in the cage and there are no fans around, there are no parents around and
you’re feeling relaxed and comfortable and you’re just in there grooving balls and
having a good time, you’re playing a lot more freely.
But when you get into the game and you got all these eyeballs looking at you and everyone
is counting on you or at least it feels like everyone is counting on you to get that hit,
you can freeze up and a lot of guys – I can see it when they get into the batter’s
box is that they tense up.
It’s almost like they start to – start shaking.
I’ve been there.
Your heart rate gets going a little bit fast.
You feel like – you can almost feel the eyeballs on you, feel everyone watching you
and you just become a totally different player, right?
So what you need to do as a player to get over this is to – first of all, you can’t
not care because if you say, “Oh, I’m just not going to care when I get up there,”
then you’re not going to be playing for the right reason.
Caring is good when you get up there.
But you want to be able to control your emotions and slow the game down.
All right?
So when you get in there, take a deep breath all the way into your belly.
Blow it out and get ready to hit.
When you get in there, you should quiet your mind down.
Shouldn’t be having a whole bunch of stuff going through your mind.
Just think about see the ball, hit the ball and you can talk yourself into having a good
mindset.
Before you get up there, calm yourself down and then tell yourself.
Hey, I’ve been swinging really well in practice.
I’m going to get up here.
I’m going to do the same thing.
I’m about to crush this ball.
When you talk to yourself that way, you give yourself more confidence and then when you
get in there, calm down, deep breath, see the ball, hit the ball and let your body do
what it has been doing in the cage the whole time.
OK?
So I hope this helps.
Work on both.
Ninety-five percent of you guys need to work on this.
But a handful of you guys probably get some benefit out of the high tee and working a
little bit faster on the pitches.
Do both of them and neither one are going to hurt, but definitely work on your mindset.
Get in there.
Make sure you can calm yourself down.
Slow the game down.
Play hard.
Play aggressive.
But emotionally slow the game down.
Get in there and feel confident when you’re hitting.
All right guys?
I hope this helps.
I will talk to you soon.
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