Self-Awareness: The Key to a Hitter’s Approach (Part 2)
Self-Awareness is crucial for building an approach at the plate
Knowing thyself is crucial to building a successful approach.
Understanding your swing is crucial to developing an approach at the plate. This is a continuation from Part 1 in which I covered understanding how a hitter’s swing works—closing their “gaps,” bat path, and the negative move. Once a hitter understands their swing and how they move it’s time to build the actual approach that gives them the best chance to do damage, while limiting swings and misses.
IN-GAME ADJUSTMENTS: More often than not, getting “internal” with thoughts—focusing on swing mechanical adjustments in-game—is detrimental to success. However, there are physical in-game adjustments that can be made to help a hitter adjust to how they are being pitched. Kike Hernandez was an a fantastic example of this during the 2021 postseason. Because he creates more force and does more damage to the pull side of the field, he needed to find a way to pull more strikes out over the plate. How did he do it? Simple. He moved an inch or two closer to the plate. He’s one of those guys that likely has a point of contact that is very similar on the inside and outside half (circular path, see part 1). He feels as though he hast to “go out and get balls out front.” Moving closer to the plate allowed to him to “go get” more pitches in the zone. The results were amazing. Up until this post-season Kike struggled with breaking balls. But the minor adjustment of moving closer to the plate allowed him to mash breaking balls, hitting .700 on breaking balls during the 2021 post-season. Three of his five post-season home runs came off of breaking balls. The swing didn’t need to be adjusted, he just needed to get a little bit closer to the plate. After the playoffs we might see a bunch of younger hitters trying to get closer to the plate all of a sudden. That’s not necessarily what they need to do either. Some hitters need to create more space for the barrel to work, so backing off could actually be helpful.
CHANGE THE CUE: Internal cues—thinking about a physical adjustment on game day is likely going to sabotage a hitter’s success. Internal adjustments require thought and thought slows down a hitter’s ability to react. Old school coaches have known this for a hundred years. Here is an example: for a hitter that has early torso rotation (pulling off), if a hitter tells himself to “keep my front shoulder in,” they’ll likely be more worried about creating a perfectly sequenced swing than making a good decision and getting their swing off on a pitch. An external cue, on the other hand, focuses on the result of the task—allowing the hitter to complete the task with little thought on how to physically do so. For the hitter that continues to pull off, “see the inside half of the ball,” might just work. Using external cues that fit a hitter’s swing is crucial for in game success. It can be that game-day quick fix that is needed. Here is an example. Most hitting coaches say “see it deep,” which for many hitters with a more oval path (most hitters) could work. But a guy with a circular path may need to say “go out and get it.” Some need to say “hit a homerun to centerfield” on every pitch while others, “hit it where it is pitched.” A hitter that struggles to hit riding fast balls up in the zone and continues to foul them off straight back, could try to “miss” or “swing above the ball.” Similarly if one swings over breaking balls, try “miss” or “swing under the ball.”
PITCHES, ZONES, AND VELOCITY: What pitches do you hit well? What zones do you hit well? What sequences do you struggle with? Manny Ramirez was once asked by his teammate how he could better handle high velocity fast falls on the inner half. Manny responded by telling him that the best thing he could do for himself was to just not swing at it. If opponents didn’t knew that he couldn’t hit that pitch, they’d be less likely to throw in there. Sequencing plays a major roll as well. Some of our hitters are most effective on the inner half after they’ve already seen a pitch in there. However, after breaking ball some guys really struggle on the inner half. Similarly some hitters struggle to hit the slider away after a two-seamer in on their hands. Much has been written about tunneling and sequencing the past few years. A lot of this has to do with recognition and swing plane when it comes to attacking pictures and pictures attacking hitters, but the overall key is having self-awareness as a hitter to make adjustments. We use Hitting Approach in our program to help our hitters and pitchers identify and understand where they are most effective and least effective. Here are two example twitter threads that describe hitting in 0-0 counts and two strike counts:
ADJUSTABILITY: Hitters who have adjustability in their swing are better off than those that don’t. That is no secret. Again, swing path is going to determine much of a hitter’s ability to adjust mid-pitch. Hitters with more circular paths aren’t n the zone long so the key for them is to pick up a pitch early out of the hand and accelerate the bat. Their time to contact is generally shorter, thus allowing them to wait longer to start their commitment. A hitter that is more oval in shape can get on plane with the pitch and if they are out front, keep the bat the zone longer. Comparing the two, the circular path hitter is going to struggle with the changeup that tunnels well, while the oval guy should, in theory, be able to stay on it longer and have more success. For hitters that are in between and lack adjustability in their swing, having an approach that allows them to sit on speeds, zones, or spots, is going to allow them to be more successful. Full commitment to their plan is key. The last thing a hitter with little adjustability in his swing can do is sit on a fastball on the inner half, but allow a thought of a changeup or breaking ball to sneak into their brain at the last moment. They likely won’t be able to hit either pitch. For those that do have adjustability, a great approach example could be looking for a fastball on the outer half (eliminating the inside corner) and reacting to the shape of a hanging breaking ball.
A hitter who knows themself is dangerous. As coaches, we need to do our best to ask our hitters as many questions as possible. Question asking is the only way we can find out what a hitter believes about themselves, what language and cues they use to help themselves describe their swing and their approach, and whether or not they understand how their swing impacts their approach on game day. Not understanding exactly how your body moves, how your swing works, which pitches you struggle with or have success with, will prevent a hitter from being at their best. On the contrary, a hitter that steps into the box understanding what is capabilities and what his weaknesses are has a better chance to hit the ball hard more consistently. These two short blogs on self-awareness in the box are just the tip of the iceberg. No two hitters are the same in how they move or think. Helping hitters discover who they are is the biggest unlock for success.
