With Little League practices underway and Opening Day coming up soon, ballplayers are starting to get their swings dialed in for the 2024 season.
While a solid mechanical foundation (correct set up, head discipline, bat path, balance, timing, etc) is absolutely essential to having a successful season at the plate, we should also be using the pre-season to develop an aggressive approach at the plate. ("Approach" is just the fancy word baseball coaches use for "strategy.")
The #1 reason why many kids struggle to adapt an aggressive approach at the plate is FEAR.
- Fear of swinging and missing.
- Fear of swinging at a bad pitch.
- Fear of getting yelled at by a coach or parent.
Let's break those down one at a time.
FEAR OF SWINGING AND MISSING: No player enjoys the feeling of swinging and missing. But in baseball swinging and missing is a regular occurrence in every game, at every level and we as parents and coaches need to communicate to our kids/players that swings and misses are to be expected and they are not embarrassing or a sign of failure.
If Lebron airballs a free throw, basketball fans are going to laugh. If Tiger misses a 2 inch putt, golf fans are going to expect to see it on the next blooper reel. But when Mike Trout swings and misses, nobody laughs. When Mookie Betts swings and misses, nobody expects to see it on ESPN's next clip of "lowlights." It's totally normal for a baseball player to miss and that's a really important point that should be regularly reinforced with young hitters.
Not only should a ballplayer not be embarrassed by or worried about swinging and missing, but good coaches will embrace swinging and missing as a way to increase aggression! Once the fear of missing is gone, players will feel confident and empowered to create more bat speed in an attempt to hit the ball harder and further.
As I often ask kids in lessons when I notice that they're not swinging the bat aggressively enough: "Could we develop a hitting strategy where we NEVER missed and NEVER struck out? Of course we could! We would just bunt at every pitch! No misses, no strikeouts! But does that make us a good hitter?" And immediately they respond, "NO WAY!" For good hitters, swinging and missing is actually an intentional part of our strategy and not something to be avoided. This doesn't mean I want hitters to try to miss, rather I want them to be willing to miss!
FEAR OF SWINGING AT A BAD PITCH: One of the big challenges for Little Leaguers hitters is deciding whether or not to swing at a pitch. They worry constantly about the strike zone and whether or not they're making a good decision to swing. This fear of being "wrong" and swinging at a bad pitch causes them to wait waaaaay too long to start their swing, in which case they will always be late...making contact with little bat speed or missing. By waiting until the last possible second to confirm that the pitch is a good one, they end up starting their swing too late making it impossible to hit the ball hard. By waiting they will be correct in their judgement of the pitch location and in theory they "swung at a good pitch," they will never hit hard because they didn't give themselves enough time to get the bat going through the hitting zone to make contact when the bat is going its fastest.
Conversely, if they are NOT worried about being "wrong" sometimes, they will make a decision to swing with enough time to get the bat moving forward and fast, giving them a much better chance at making hard contact.
To put it another way, they have 2 options when deciding whether or not to swing, and 1 is clearly better than the other:
1) They wait until the ball is over the plate to start their swing meaning they will always be right about the whether the pitch was good or not, but will never hit it hard because they won't have time to create maximum bat speed or...
2) They make the decision to swing a little earlier, without perfect information about the pitch location, but with enough information to be right some of the time, while now giving themselves the chance to get to contact on time.
Option 1 absolutely doesn't work, and will only prove more and more challenging as pitchers throw harder and harder. Option 2 absolutely does work, but requires players (and coaches/parents) to understand that they will sometimes swing at bad pitches and that's not only OK, but part of the ideal hitting strategy.
FEAR OF GETTING YELLED AT BY A COACH OR PARENT: Sadly, regardless of how well a player understands the above hitting concepts, if they feel like they will get yelled at by an adult if they make "mistakes" (and I hope we all agree now that swinging and missing / swinging at bad pitches sometimes are not only NOT mistakes, but actually necessary evils to become a successful hitter), they simply will shut down and stop swinging all together. And then they'll quit baseball. And honestly, I wouldn't blame them one bit! What kid wants to get constantly yelled at while participating in an activity that's supposed to be fun?
Encouraging our kids to be aggressive and confident, rather than getting on them to the point that they're terrified to "mess up" is not only good baseball strategy, it will also make the game more enjoyable for them and teach them important life lessons such as risk/reward, overcoming challenges, and sticking to a gameplan that will serve them long after their playing days are over.
PLAY HARD, HAVE FUN!