Every hitter wants to be successful at the dish. It feels great when pitchers fear facing you and you are helping your team win, but how do we accomplish this? There are many factors that go into being a great hitter such as your mentality, your approach, your mechanics, and the situation. In this article, we will focus on your pitch selection.
To me, this is one of the biggest factors that all hitters should focus on. It amazes me to see the positive results players get by simply swinging at the right pitch. You do not have to be the most talented player or have the highest bat speed, but by swinging at the right pitches you are able to drive the baseball more often.
One of my biggest problems as a hitter is that I would get myself out. This means that I would swing at pitches out of my damage zone. I was great at hitting the ball middle away, but not so much with the inside pitch. When I would swing at the middle away pitch, I would be consistent at driving the ball in the gaps. When I would swing at the inside pitch, a lot of my results would be rolling the ball over to first or second base or getting jammed.
Hitting is about consistency. How do we become more consistent at the plate? It is not just about being consistent with our swing. It is about being consistent as a whole including pitch selection.
Here are three ways to work on your consistency with your pitch selection:
Establish your damage zone
Your damage zone is the area of the pitch location that you get the best results when you swing the bat. For the majority of hitters, the middle of the plate is probably their damage zone. We also have to consider the height of the pitch as well. For me, the lower pitch was what I looked for. The high pitch gave me some trouble because I had to be quicker to the ball.
Practice
You can find your damage zone through practice and games. It will take a high level of awareness, but once you find it, you can work on that religiously for the rest of your career. You can work on this through tee work, front toss, batting practice and machine work. Simulate the pitch location as best as possible and practice letting go of anything that does not come into that zone.
Be on time
Of course hitting is much more than just pitch selection, but this coupled with being on time is the key to doing damage. You could get the right pitch, swing at it, and still get a poor result and in most cases it is due to not being on time. This is also something to practice in practice and the games and to see how many pitches you can get on time with whether you swing or not.
Pitch selection is often overlooked but will play a big role to your success. If you can continue to practice this every single time you pick up a bat, you will be in good shape when it comes to game time. Establish your damage zone, practice it religiously, and be on time to start crushing the ball on a consistent basis.
