Now that games have started and I can talk to players during my lessons about their most recent game performance, I'm starting to hear a lot of the same comments from players.

Me: How was your hitting last game?
Them: Great, I didn't strike out!

Or...

Me: How was your pitching last game?
Them: Terrible, I gave up a ton of runs.

Let's tackle these one at a time.

For young hitters, they too often frame success at the plate as not striking out.  For first year Minor players facing kid pitch for the first time, this is a totally acceptable answer.  Many players in this stage of their development are just starting to get comfortable facing a real pitcher and/or are still trying to figure out which pitches to swing at, and at the beginning of the season, making contact off a kid pitcher is a great goal.

But for other players with more experience in Minors, Intermediate, and Majors, the goal of "not striking out" is preventing them from reaching their full hitting potential.

If a player's thought process in the batter's box is "don't miss, don't strike out," it's impossible for them to create the type of bat speed necessary to drive the ball into the outfield.  Hitters who go up to the plate with a defensive mindset will suffer from indecision in pitch selection and a lack of bat speed.  They lack bat speed not because they can't swing the bat fast but because they won't swing the bat fast as a result of being afraid of striking out. We need to encourage our hitters to take big risks with their bat speed. 

What I mean by this is that when bat speed increases the risk of swinging and missing goes up, but the chances of hitting it hard also goes up.  This is a risk/reward situation that ALL hitters must get comfortable with.

A cautious swing will not generate much bat speed and while that type of attitude increases the chances of making contact, it decreases the chances of hitting the ball into the outfield to 0%.

So parents and coaches: encourage your players to create as much bat speed as possible, while not letting their swing fall apart mechanically.   (Creating more bat speed does not mean "take a bigger swing" or "take a bigger step" or "move your head more." It is simply an attitude! Take the same swing, but with just more "OOMPH" behind it.)

A great drill to practice this concept is to have your ballplayer take 5 dry swings (meaning swing without a ball in the equation) where their ONLY goal is to make the bat make the loudest "Whooosh" sound possible.

For young pitchers, I'm going to keep this really simple: Your only job is to throw as many strikes as possible!

I don't say this to encourage pitchers to think selfishly, but the way that they help their team get outs when they are on the mound is by throwing the ball in the strike zone as often as possible.  When they do that, 1 of 3 things will happen - and all 3 are good for their team!

1) The batter doesn't swing and the umpire calls it a Strike.

2) The batter swings and misses.

3) The batter hits it now and now 9 guys on the field can try to get him out.

We all know that in Little League the defense doesn't always make the play, but that doesn't mean that Pitcher didn't do his job.

The only way we can't get the batter out is if we throw balls and walk him.
So, to the young pitchers out there: do not worry about how many hits you give up, do not worry about how many runs you give up, do not get frustrated when your defense makes errors!  Just stay positive and keep pumping strikes - that's all you can do!

If you throw lots of strikes, you are doing a GREAT job of helping your team - even if those strikes result in the other team getting hits and scoring runs.

Of course, as pitchers get more experienced and reach Majors or Junior League, then it's a good idea to start working on hitting locations in the strike zone to make the hitter's lives in the batter's box more difficult (I would focus on keeping the ball down before worrying about throwing to corners).  But even once pitchers start throwing to spots and mixing their speeds, their goal on the mound remains unchanged: throw strikes, challenge the hitters, and use your defense to get outs.

Play Hard, Have Fun!