Have a Plan

                                                          (Photo credit: maxpreps.com)

Frequently hitting coaches talk about having a plan. We mention scouting reports and discuss "being committed to a pitch," but what does that mean? What does success look like when a hitter has a good plan?

Let's imagine that we have just discussed a scouting report with our team. Said pitcher is 84-86 with an above average slider and above average change up. He throws all three for strikes, including terrific off-speed command. He throws 50% off-speed pitches!

If you believe "the best way to hit the off-speed is to not miss the fastball..." you are disabling your hitters.

At the highest college levels, pitchers can flat pitch. We are talking mid-range and low-level velocity guys. In D1 this would equate to RHPs who are 86-88 (or lower) with plus off-speed command, or LHPs at 84-86 (or lower) who command multiple pitches.

When pitchers can locate sliders and change-ups down in the zone on both sides of the plate, and they have decent to good movement, it doesn't matter if your fastball command is average. Hitters cannot succeed swinging at fastballs that are balls and taking off-speed pitches for strikes. Every at bat the hitter will find himself 1-2 or 2-2.

When advanced college hitters have a plan, their execution of that plan can be seen in the body language with which they take pitches. A hitter takes a fastball for a strike with strong body language, and then he rips a single on an 0-1 slider away? Probably was sitting on the slider.

Wipe-out off-speed is thrown for strikes in the big leagues, especially from aces and shutdown relievers. In college, pitchers throw shorter breaking sliders and change-ups that they can command and simply get off of the barrel. When a college staff has only 4-6 good pitchers, that coaching staff wants to ride their horses deep into games. To pitch into the seventh and eighth innings, pitchers develop off-speed pitches that they can command, not just control, just enough to get hitters confused, caught between pitches, or to get the ball off of the barrel.

It takes toughness to beat pitchers who can really pitch. A hitter's body language is contagious. Attitudes need to be worth catching.

A hitter with a good plan, aggressive to an off-speed pitch, doesn't kick the dirt when he takes a fastball. Even when he "guessed" incorrectly, he calmly and aggressively sets his sights on another pitch, or timing or rhythm. Perhaps he is looking for a fastball, or perhaps for the off-speed again, since pitchers rarely throw two quality fastballs in a row (unless they blow smoke).

Mid-range and low-level velocity guys have to PITCH. If you want to merely eat mediocre pitchers alive and then get carved up by the good ones, sit on fastballs until you die. 

567's and the Great Debate: Should Hitters Hit Ground Balls or Fly Balls?

                                                       (Credit: midwestsportsfans.com)

There are so many mis-teaches in hitting, and coaching players to hit predominantly ground balls is one of them. This is micro-management at its worst. Teaching players to make sure they put the ball in play exhibits a lack of trust in their ability, or in our ability to understand hitting and teach it the proper way.

Let's get this straight.

College baseball statistical programs log all extra base hits as line drives. In programs like Statcrew and Dakstats, fly balls are outs. All hits are categorized in college as only line drives or ground balls. This is absolutely asinine.

MLB gets it right. Their stat programs, due in large part to a financial capacity to have REAL HUMANS track every pitch and evaluate each contact, note that HRs can be both fly balls and line drives (depending on how hard a hitter hits the ball, and at what angle.)

At Lee University, we call these angles "ball flights," and we grade and value each ball flight separately, giving our hitters great perspective on what they hit, and what we want them to hit.

We encourage our hitters to hit 5's, 6's, and 7's. We call them 567's. To hit a ball at this ball flight requires a certain approach, an aggressive swing, and contact to be made at the front of the hitting zone (unless the ball is scorched backside).

A "1" flight is a ball hit sharply into the ground, first bouncing near home plate. A "9" is the equal, but opposite angle, hit straight up into the air.

A "4" flight is a hard contact that bounces in the back infield dirt. A "5" is perfectly squared up and cuts straight through the air. A "6" has backspin and "extra-base energy" (lots of doubles and triples here). Most HR's are "7" flight, though our strongest players can crush an "8" flight and have it sail out of the yard. 567's win. They require aggressiveness in approach and swing.

Truly, the line in assessing the difference between a line drive and fly ball is blurred, and subjective. We consider a "7" flight to be a fly ball, but to be the type of fly ball that we want to hit.

Here's where coaches get hitters jacked up: when you take the improperly sorted college flyball/groundball ratio data and impart those batting averages and out percentages onto your hitters, you communicate to your hitters that hitting ground balls is beneficial to them personally, and to the team. "Ground balls good. Fly balls bad."


As you can see from the table below, the batting average (approximately the 14th most important hitting statistic) on GBs is higher than that on FBs in the big leagues since 2002, but the ISO power (SLG% - AVG: a terrific sabermetric for evaluating a hitter's juice) is SIGNIFICANTLY greater on FBs than GBs.

Type	AVG	ISO	wOBA
GB	.239	.020	.220
LD	.685	.190	.684
FB	.207	.378	.335

Our final misstep in the coaching puzzle is the type of linear hand path/lacking separation/pushing the barrel forward to ensure we make contact swing that coaches dis-empower their hitters with.

Hit the ball on the ground is a misnomer. I don't care if you run a 6.5 60. Hitting 567's will result in having an ability to drive in runners from first, create a higher slugging percentage, higher OPS, more runs created, and make a greater impact on the game.

For more statistical data on LDs, GBs, FBs, go here.

At times, we demand our hitters make in-game adjustments. Windy day? Let's focus on 456's. Hitting is all about adjustment making, as is coaching. Teaching our hitters that hitting the right type of fly balls is advantageous is an adjustment that many programs can make.

How to Properly Evaluate an At-Bat

(Credit: Cleveland Daily Banner)

After every turn at-bat a hitter grades his own performance. It seems fair to assess that much of the time this assessment is emotional. A hitter may acknowledge frustration with a grind of the teeth or an angry grunt. Success is found with a fist pump or an aggressive shout.

Upon returning to the dugout, every hitter has an opportunity to digest the at-bat. Are his thoughts on controllables? Uncontrollables? Does he know why he hit the ball hard? Does he know why he feels tense or loose?  Without an idea of how to grade an at-bat, hitters are left with nothing but emotions, inevitably clinking up toward the top of a dangerous coaster that speeds downward with no control. Crash and burn.

On Opening Weekend, a coach might return home wondering what each hitter thought about their first opportunities. Each weekend, only a hand full of the hitters likely feel as though they achieved a desired result.

But what are the best measures of a hitter's success? Remember that, at Lee University, we measure OPS, QABs, 567s and base running with our Base Running Efficiency chart. While those are process-oriented within a season, they are still result-oriented in relation to at-bats. That's not good enough.

Here are a few ways to grade your at-bats. Try them this week.

On a scale of 1 (not at all/wow that sucked) to 10 (outstanding/excellent/superlative), honestly assess each question.

1.) How well did you see the baseball?

  If you aren't seeing the ball clearly and easily, you are likely tense, not breathing properly or need to have your vision checked.

2.) How in control of myself was I?

You cannot control your performance until you are in control of yourself. - Ken Ravizza

3.) How good to hit was the pitch at which I swung?

  This question could be preceded by, "did I get a good pitch to hit?"

4.)  How hard did I hit the ball?

  When swinging, consistently hitting the ball hard is the goal. No less, no more.

5.) How high was my competitive energy during the at bat?

  Every coach in the country wants a team full of great competitors. Every teammate in the country wants to know his teammates will fight like mad to win.

Pre-At Bat Preparation

Credit: Newscom

When do your hitters begin to get ready for their at bat?

Most hitters begin preparing for their at bat in the on deck circle. For the first time, their eyes are on the pitcher, though there may not be much focus. So many hitters look in the stands for their Dad, see where their girlfriend is seated, or laugh at someone's toddler picking his nose. Where's their preparation? No wonder hitting is so hard!

While on-deck, some hitters begin to notice how hard the pitcher really is or isn't throwing, the shape of his breaking ball, or the movement of his fastball.

We tell our hitters that the at-bat is the test, and the pitcher will give us the answers, if only we will pay attention.

Here is how we approach pre-AB preparation in our program:

1.) We demand that our hitters get their helmet, batting gloves, pine tar and any other accessory they need to hit prepared when they are in the hole. When a batter steps into the box, our hitter in the hole is fully prepared to hit, and keenly watches the pitcher.

2.) We won't pretend that many student-athletes can focus with intensity for three hours, so we don't ask them to. Hitters have to be able to space out and lock back in. This is natural human behavior, and it's how our minds often best learn. However, we want to give our hitters the best chance to learn what the pitcher is going to challenge them with. All of our hitters are required to be on the dugout rail nearest home plate, and we don't allow pitchers near our area - they stay at the other end of the dugout while we are on offense.

3.) Every game, our lineup card has our lineup on the left, and uses the other team's lineup to write in a second lineup for our team. This second lineup is for our "Mental ABs." Every one of our non-starting players on the right is matched up with a starting player on the left. When the starter pushes his helmet down, pulls his batting gloves on tight and lines his bat with pine tar, our "Mental AB" hitter does the same.

While the starter is on-deck and hitting, our backup hitter visualizes his approach, takes dry swings and goes through his pre-, during and post-AB routines. The mind can not truly separate real experience from that which is imagined, and these hitters are gaining preparation and confidence that gives them a better shot at success when called upon.

Last year, we had a freshman catcher take advantage of his mental reps, and when our number one guy went down with a knee injury, the freshman stepped in, had 3 QABs his first game and rolled to an .830 OPS in 100 ABs.

Objective Measurements for 2015

Hitters who are result-driven don't last long in this sport. Motivated by fear and lacking self-control, they can kill a rally quicker than you can say "6-4-3."

A hitting coach's job is to motivate and inspire confidence and self-trust within a hitter. A simple way to encourage these seemingly abstract concepts is with basic objective measurements.

At Lee, we measure...

1.) OPS (On base % + slugging %), not the batting average. OPS has value over AVG because it accounts for more attributes of a hitter: contact, patience and power.

2.) QABs (Quality At-Bats). A hitter cannot control when a hit falls in. Often his outs are productive! A hitter can have a consistently quantifiable impact on the game without his batting average...or OPS, for that matter, increasing. The QABs we measure: hard contact, 8 + pitch PA, BB, HBP, 2-strike hit (devastating!), Advancing a runner from 2nd to 3rd w/ 0 outs, any successful bunt, any RBI. 

3.) 567. We grade every ball flight. We track these in BP. 5, 6, 7 refers to the most desired flight of the ball, from a perfect line drive, to a fly ball with ENERGY and JUICE. 

4.) Base running. We have a chart with advanced base running metrics. This helps us evaluate and reinforce the most advanced base runners on our team.

2015: The Year You Become the Best

You want to become the best. The best hitter. The best coach. The best player. The best leader.

You want to win? You want to achieve greatness?

Be excellent at these things:

Don't be on time. Be early.

Be where you need to be, when you need to be there. You can't drive straight staring at the rear view mirror.

Do a little, a lot. It's the start that stops most people.

It's not what you do, but how you do it. Finish the job.

Do it. Do it right. Do it right now.

Being the best doesn't require education, an inheritance, great genetics or pure luck.

Being the best does require desire.

It does require fight, toughness and relentlessness. If you have DESIRE and RELENTLESSNESS, there is not much that will escape your grasp.

If you're tired of catch phrases, read the resilient story of Soichiro Honda here.

Make 2015 great. Become the best you can be.

The Hot Seat: Mental Game VIP Interview, Part 3

Positive Energy: Have to be a giver.

Confidence: Is a choice.

Championship Culture: Can be created, but takes a lot of energy.

Routines: If you don't have routines, you're just grabbing at random stuff and it's very much just luck and fortune.

Process: If you're outcome-oriented, it's going to be a grab bag, an assortment of luck. If you're
process-oriented, you always have something to go back to that gives you trust and self-confidence.

Controllables: Our thoughts are the most controllable things we have. If that's our focal point, the other things usually take care of themselves.

Mind-Body Connection: It has to be practiced. Awareness takes time. Most 22-year-olds
are way more aware than 18-year-olds. We have to help them understand that their thoughts and approach affect their body.

Success: Success is found in the process, not in the result.

Failure: Failure is necessary, no question about that. We're always spending all of this time trying to avoid failure, instead of trying to be relentless in the process. The thing that I've found in my career is that I've had to have failure to learn. I was learning at other times also, but the greatest leaps I've made in self-improvement, which have led me to be better across the board in my life, have stemmed from those failures.

Omaha: Omaha is obviously a pinnacle for Division One baseball. For us in Division Two, it's Cary, North Carolina. You have to have goals, but that's part of the result. You want to put that at the top of the Christmas tree, but you've got to start from the ground up.