Think Before You Change Your Swing

Matt Schilling: From the Batting Cage

From doing private lessons at Baseball Factory I have learned an immense amount about the swing, how players bodies move and react and about the adjustments that coaches try and get hitters to make. One thing that drives me crazy is that young players will do whatever a coach tells them to without thinking about it or questioning it. On one hand you expect a kid to listen to his coaches and be respectful towards them, on the other hand you want players to learn and understand their own swing so that they can make the correct adjustments on their own and not always rely on what a coach says. As there is in any sport, there are knowledgeable coaches who give good advice and there are bad coaches who give incorrect information to players. As hitters you need to understand your swing and what makes it good and what makes things go wrong. As coaches we need to explain this to players clearly when trying to get them to make a change.

I often have players come to me and they are doing something in their swing that is odd or out of place. For example, I had a player the other day who was starting with his hands really low, almost down to his waist. I asked him why he did that; his answer was, "because my coach told me too." I then asked him why, what does that do for you, his answer "I don't know?" If I had a dime for every time I've heard this I would be a very rich man. I don't necessarily have a problem with the coach having the kid move his hands down, what I have a problem with is that the coach did not explain to the kid why he wanted him to do this and the kid didn't question it, he just did it. As players we have to understand our swing, as coaches we have to help players to understand hitting and to understand there own swing. Otherwise how can we get angry at a kid for not making the right adjustments?

Players please think before you allow a coach to change your swing. Ask questions of the coach such as:

• What problem will this solve in my swing?
• Why do you want me to make this change?
• What will this adjustment do for me?
• Will this adjustment have any negative effects on my swing?

Once you have gotten these answers, try the adjustment in your practice sessions and see if it makes sense to you and if it helps you. Once you have done this then you can make a sensible choice on whether or not you are going to change your swing.

I had a player in for a lesson the other day who was hitting over .500 through 17 high school games. He had a bad week last week and was 0-9. His coaches wanted him to completely change his stance, hand position, and stride because he wasn't hitting well. When the player came to me for his next lesson he asked me what I thought. I refused to answer and made him tell me what he thought first. I was really proud of him. He said his swing felt fine, that he had chased some bad pitches and had just missed a few others and that he didn't think he should change anything because he had been killing the ball. I forced him to think about his situation and use common sense. When I asked him what his coaches said these changes would do for him he said "They never told me, they just said I needed to change because I was struggling."

The moral of the story here is THINK before you start making changes. I'm not saying that you shouldn't make adjustments, but think about them, understand them and test them before you start changing for the sake of changing. If you can learn to understand your swing and how and why it does and doesn't work you will meet your best coach...


...yourself.

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.

Having a Quality At-Bat

Matt Schilling: From the Batting Cage

In my last blog, I talked about "The Quickest Way to Become a Better Hitter", which was to make sure that you swing at strikes. This week I thought it would be good to discuss exactly what a hitter SHOULD be trying to do each time he steps in the batter's box. While teaching hitting lessons at the Baseball Factory I often like to ask players what their goal is when they step into the batter's box. The most common answer that I get is: "To get a hit." While I can understand this thought process, I am not convinced it is the best approach.

In my opinion a hitter's goal should be to have a "quality at-bat." What is a "quality at-bat?" I would define it in the following ways:

1. You swung at a good pitch to hit.
   
2. You hit the ball hard.
3. Or, you did your job that particular at-bat.

Note that the hitter has control over all three of these points. You can't control whether or not you get a hit. You can't control whether the defense makes a diving catch and robs you. You can't control the umpire when he calls you out at first when you are clearly safe. But you can control your pitch selection, centering the ball on the barrel and whether or not you do your job.

So when a hitter says to me that his goal is to "get a hit," he is not setting a goal that he has total control over AND he is also setting a goal that a great hitter will reach only 35% (.350 hitter) of the time. Trying to have a "quality at-bat" each time at the plate IS realistic and can be obtained 70 to 80% of the time. If you achieve your goal more often you are going to be a more confident hitter which makes you dangerous.

I have seen too many young hitters celebrate a bloop single on a bad pitch, and then get angry when they line out to left field. Isn't that backwards? Shouldn't you be happy to hit the ball hard and angry to hit a lazy pop up? Coaches and scouts want players who hit the ball hard, often.

In reviewing the three points I mentioned that can define a "quality at-bat" I want to make sure that you understand them clearly. We talked about Point 1 in-depth last week. You must swing at strikes. Swinging at pitches in the zone gives you a much greater chance to get a hit.

Point 2 is also pretty clear: hit the ball hard. Ultimately that is the goal of hitting...to hit the ball hard. I have gone 0-4 many times and felt like I hit the ball great. Too many young players tell me they were 0-3 and not hitting well when in reality they hit the ball hard, just right at people. If you can hit the ball hard in 3 of 4 at-bats that is a great day.

Lastly, Point 3, do your job in that particular at-bat. This is the one that hitters often have trouble grasping. This is situational hitting. If you are up with a man on second and no outs, your job is to move the runner over. If you hit a dribbler to second, you did your job and had a great at-bat. If you are up with a man on 3rd and 1 out with the infield back, just hit a routine ground out to short. You will drive in the run and have done your job. That is a great at-bat. Too many hitters try to crank the ball to the outfield and wind up hitting a pop up. Now you are out, didnt score the run and took a bad swing. When faced with situational hitting opportunities don't be greedy, just get your job done and you will have "quality at-bats" and be a productive hitter.

Clint Hurdle, Manager of the Colorado Rockies, once gave me this simple formula:

Quality at-bat + Quality at-bat + Quality at-bat = A productive hitter

Simple but it makes sense. So when you are out playing in your games or coaching your players, preach to them to have a "quality at-bat" every time up and watch your players confidence, production, and average rise.

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.

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.