The Quickest Way To Become A Better Hitter

Matt Schilling: From the Batting Cage

Since America has become such a quick fix society I thought I would make my first blog a quick tutorial on how to be a better hitter…quicker. Now this is going to sound really basic and simple and corny but there is a lot of truth in it. While teaching lessons in our batting cages my instructors and I have annoyed our players to death with 1 simple credo: SWING AT STRIKES!!!

The quickest way to be a better hitter is to swing at good pitches to hit. Just about any hitter who takes the game seriously can hit a ball that is thigh high and over the plate. After all, this is the location that we practice hitting the most. Whether it is tee work, side toss, front toss, or a pitching machine, we all want our coaches to give us good feeds IN the strike zone. So most of the time we practice hitting GOOD pitches. Yet when hitters go into game situations they very often swing at bad pitches. It is really hard to hit a bad pitch solidly.

I always laugh when a player swings at a bad pitch and pops out and then comes to me and says “coach, something’s wrong with my swing, did you see what I did wrong?” Yeah I saw what you did wrong…you just swung at a pitch that was at your neck. There ain’t nothing wrong with your swing, you just swung at a bad pitch!

Hitting a baseball is one of the most difficult things to do in sports. As hitters we make it even harder by chasing bad pitches. Most bad hitters get themselves out. Most good hitters make the pitcher throw strikes. When you can get a pitcher to throw the ball over the plate you greatly enhance your chances of hitting the ball hard.

Chasing bad pitches are what I call “confidence busters”. Take a player that goes 0-3 while chasing bad pitches in two out of his three at bats. He is convinced he is not hitting well and that therefore something must be wrong with his swing. He starts questioning his swing, his ability, and his confidence is shot. Better yet, he has a bad round of batting practice before the game against a coach who struggles to throw consistent strikes in BP. The coach is frustrated because he has to throw to 12 hitters that day and he can’t find the strike zone so he instructs the hitters to “just swing at everything”. Now you have a team of hitters who go into a game with no confidence because they hit poorly in BP, and the last thing they did before the game was “swing at everything”. Now they go into the game and chase bad pitches, and perform poorly, and they develop bad habits…and poor confidence. It is a vicious cycle.

So the moral of the story is: ALWAYS swing at strikes. Make the pitcher throw the ball over the plate. Do not help him by chasing bad pitches. When training in the cages, swing at strikes. Develop good habits, don’t reinforce the bad. Swing at strikes and watch your confidence and your batting average rise.

Matt Schilling is the Senior Director of On-Field Instruction at Baseball Factory, Schilling handles all on-field elements, including one-on-one training.

Schilling graduated from Coastal Carolina University, where he was an All-Conference and All-State player while being voted the fourth best second baseman in the country by the Smith Award Group. Schilling went on to coach at Coastal for five years, helping them reach the top 25. He is also a former Associate Scout with the Atlanta Braves.