Without a doubt the most difficult aspect of the "mental side" of hitting for Little Leagues is, quite simply, deciding when to swing.
Playing the pitch-selection chess match against the pitcher doesn't really become a big part of hitting until high school; nor does situational hitting (advancing a runner on 2nd with nobody out to 3rd by hitting a groundball to the right side, for example).
But something that all young hitters need to know, and something that most young hitters really struggle with figuring out when to swing at a pitch. I'm going to divide "when to swing" into 2 categories.
- What pitches to swing at.
- When to start the swing.
Let's start with #1. The question almost all Little Leaguers ask themselves while the pitch is in the air and they're trying to decide whether or not to swing is, "Is this a Strike/is this a Ball?" This is the WORST question they could possibly ask themselves. Here's why.
Right now in your head, describe the Strike Zone. Wrong. Try again. Wrong again.
Whatever you just said to yourself is what you think the Strike Zone is. But guess what? Your opinion of the Strike Zone doesn't matter. And neither does your son's. The umpire's opinion of the strike zone is the only opinion that matters. So the correct answer to "what's the strike zone?" is "whatever the umpire says it is!"
If the pitcher throws the ball thigh-high right down the middle and the umpire says, "Ball!" then it was a Ball. If the pitcher bounces the ball through the other batter's box and the umpire says, "Strike!" then it was a Strike.
This isn't to insult Little League umpires in the least; they have a really hard job and absolutely do the best they can. This is just the reality of all umpires. (I just watched an MLB manager get ejected last night arguing...you guessed it...the strike zone). The batter's opinion of the Strike Zone does not matter one bit.
So, when your son is asking himself, "Is this a Strike, is this a Ball?" what he's really doing is trying to guess what the umpire's opinion of the pitch is. Now he's forced to try to 1) watch the pitch 2) try read the umpire's mind 3) and then start his swing...all in the span of about half a second. (If you're interested in that number you can check out his interesting link: http://www.efastball.com/baseball/pitching/grips/reaction-time-for-baseball-hitters/
How hard is it to correctly and consistently read the umpire's mind BEFORE your son even starts thinking about the timing or mechanics of his swing? VERY hard.
Here's the much easier question for your son to ask himself while the pitch is in the air: "Can I hit this pitch?" If the answer is "Yes," then SWING! If the answer is "No," then don't swing.
It's that simple.
Now you're probably saying to yourself right now, "Ok, sure, Dan, but my kid is probably going to be wrong using that strategy and swing at some bad pitches." Yes, you're absolutely right - he will still swing at some bad pitches (which will happen all the way until he retires after a 20 year Big League career). But at least now he's making a confident decision when he swings that is going to work out for him way more often than if he makes his decision based on what he thinks the umpire thinks about a pitch. And a confident swing will, in the long run, produce more balls put in play, more balls hit hard, and more hits.
I refer to this strategy as "The Hitting Zone" vs. the "The Strike Zone." When young hitters think in terms of The Hitting Zone, they swing more often, more confidently, and more aggressively because they aren't guessing or second guessing their decision in a split second. When they think in terms of the Strike Zone they make tentative decisions leading to cautious swings (if they swing at all), which is a recipe for a lot of frustrating at-bats.
Do not worry if every once in awhile they swing at an unhittable pitch using this strategy - mistakes will happen and we need to absolutely encourage them to keep swinging at every pitch they think they have a reasonable chance of hitting reasonably hard. After they have adopted this very aggressive and very confident hitting strategy, we can always reign them in a little bit as they get older if need be.
Last time I checked, if they hit a double off a ball throw at their shoulders, they umpire isn't going to say the double didn't count and make them start the at-bat over because they got a hit on a ball that he wasn't going to call a strike.
Watch this 3 minute video of one of my favorite players of all time (and newly inducted Hall of Famer) for some incredibly aggressive hitting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUErJ5zcwYo
#2 When do I start my swing?
Because so many young hitters are so worried about being right or wrong about the strike zone, rather just focusing on taking aggressive swings at any reasonably hittable pitch, many swings get started so late that they have almost no chance of hitting it fair, and even less chance of hitting hard.
Let me explain.
Let's say a hitter waits until the pitch is 1 foot from home plate before starting his swing (this is VERY common) When he does this he will 1) be absolutely certain about whether or not it's a good decision to swing because the ball has basically traveled the entire 46 feet and he has essentially perfect information about its location but also 2) he'll have little chance of hitting that pitch fair (or hard) because by waiting that long to guarantee he made a perfect decision in his pitch selection, he simply hasn't given himself enough time to create any bat speed and to hit the ball in the correct part of the hitting zone to make hard contact. Basically, he is sacrificing any chance of hitting the ball hard in order to never swing at a bad pitch - this is strategy that will never result in hard hits.
This description makes it obvious that we can not wait until we have perfect information about the pitch to start the swing; if we do, we'll always be late and always hit it weakly because when contact with the ball is made way back by the catcher's glove, the bat just has not had enough time to create maximum bat speed; the bat is still speeding up at that point of the swing.
What we want to do is to teach our hitters is to start their swing as soon as they're "pretty sure" the pitch is hittable. This means they might be only 50% or 60% or 70% sure about the quality of the pitch when they make their decision to swing, but when they start a confident swing as soon as their brain says, "yup, I think this pitch could be good" they will have given themselves enough time to create maximum bat speed and hit the ball out in front of home plate (the impact point where we can hit it the hardest).
This is a big challenge for many young hitters because they don't want to be wrong and swing at a bad pitch; they are unwilling to take a risk.
(By the way, the fear of swinging at "bad" pitches is a 100% learned fear based on adult's reactions to them swinging and missing at those pitches. Don't believe me? Come watch me throw soft toss to my tee ball team at our next practice this weekend; every single kid will swing at 100% of the balls I throw to them. So, since that fear of being wrong is a learned behavior, we can help them "un-learn" it by encouraging them to adopt this new pitch selection strategy).
The only way to hit a baseball hard is to take a risk. By starting the swing earlier, your son is taking a bigger risk that it might end up being a bad pitch, but at the same time he's also giving himself the best chance to hit it hard. That risk/reward trade-off is what we must teach young hitters to embrace in order for them to be successful.
Great hitters take risks. They swing. They swing often. They swing aggressively. They swing confidently. And they swing without FEAR. The fear of "being wrong" or the fear of "swinging at a bad pitch" doesn't even enter their minds. Great hitters know they won't make perfect decisions, know they won't take perfect swings, and know they'll be often be wrong; and they don't care. They just keep swinging hard and every pitch they think they have a chance of hitting hard.
If your son looks tentative at the plate, doesn't swing at hittable pitches, is constantly making late contact, and isn't willing to take risks during his at-bats then please read him this blog and try thesetwo strategies the next time he gets to hit in the cage, in practice, or in a game.
You'll be amazed how rewiring and simplifying his thought process while the ball is the air will almost immediately turn him into a much more aggressive hitter who make hard contact far more often than he used to.
Good luck!