Attention Hitters – Stop Evaluating a Pitch Out of the Hand
I’m a big fan of Justin Dedman’s blog, “Hitting Mental”, as he does a fantastic job of highlighting the cognitive side of hitting. I’d highly recommend that you visit this post on how hitters should treat each individual pitch.
Many hitters try to evaluate pitches out of the hand instead of thinking about hitting it. Of course, we don’t want to be swinging at pitches out of the strike-zone, but our brains must think “Hit! Hit! Hit!”, not “Is it good? is it good? is it good?”
“Waiting to see a pitch out of the hand is foolish. Even the best hitters in the world cannot recognize spin until 10-12 feet out of a pitcher’s hand. At this point, a 90 mph fastball will be on top of you in less than three tenths of a second. That’s the amount of time it takes for you to blink. To then take the barrel to the baseball with an aggressive swing is nearly impossible. We end up with a lot of near-misses, or in reality, near-hits. Weak contact. Foul balls. Strike two.
Ahhh, just missed. Yes. Yes, you did just miss. And that is all you are going to get in this at bat.”
Hitters need to be committed to the pitch they believe is coming. As Justin says, “This isn’t guess hitting. This is hitting.” Be ready for the next pitch and stay loose. Make a decision and get your body and your mind ready to attack that pitch where you can drive it
