Having a hard time hitting the 'Slow' pitches?

This is the time of year I get lots of questions about how can my players hit slower pitching, or how come my team isn't hitting in the game when they hit well in practice? Sound familiar? If so then the problem is more specific than just their hitting. Hitting involves 2 parts; one is the physical swing and the other as important but often overlooked part is judgment.

Hitting involves the act of deciding what pitch to swing at, or to not swing at (that's the judgment part) and then the actual swing (that's the physical swing part). Most of the time we have our players practicing the physical part by hitting off of batting T's, doing breakdown swing drills to work on the top hand, or the bottom hand or both hands. We have them hit off of pitching machines or front toss. All of these are good ways to practice hitting - but only the physical swing part. The reason that players can hit well in practice and not in games involves the judgment part of hitting - deciding what pitch to use their swing on.

Think about it for a minute - hitting off of a pitching machine, a batting T or front or side toss involves little to no judgment. In almost every case the batter knows the pitch is going to be good enough to hit so there is no hesitation-of-judgment involved. Right?

But, in a game, it's ALL judgment. Is it going to be a strike or a ball? Yikes, when do I figure it out? I can't tell so I'm just swinging and hoping I'm right? Wow, everyone's yelling at me and I'm just hoping this pitcher doesn't hit me... These are all pretty common thoughts our hitters have when they're standing in the batter's box. Most of which they never have in practice.

So, how to bridge this gap? It's not as easy to solve as a newsletter article, but we can get started on the right track here. The next time you have practice start mixing your pitching and hitting practice together. Now wait a minute, before you think I'm asking your pitchers to throw meatballs to your own hitters just hear me out.

1. Instead of having your pitchers practicing off to the side or in the bullpen isolated from reality, have their pitching area become one of your hitting stations.
2. Pair your players up and allow each partner to get 10 pitches (not strikes) in groups of 5. So after 5 pitches partner 1 steps out and partner 2 steps in for her 5 pitches.
3. Half way between the pitcher and the catcher you're going to place a cone. It won't be in the way for the pitcher who is going to do her usual workout for that day as if the hitter's weren't even there (trust me, it will be a great help for her as well).
4. The hitters DO NOT have bats but will stand in the box in their batting stance with a helmet on as if they did have a bat.
5. The pitcher pitches and the batter must simply say BALL or STRIKE by the time the pitch gets to the half-way cone. The catcher then holds the ball wherever she caught it so the batter can then see where the pitch ended. The catcher will say either Ball or Strike to help the batter compare her half-way judgment to reality.
6. It's a GREAT way to help your hitters start to learn Pitch Selection!
7. To build on this a little once your batters have really mastered Ball and Strike start to make their focus more specific. So for instance, at one pitching station at half-way they say Up, Middle or Down. At another pitching station they say In, Middle or Out.

These all help your players start to learn how to improve their Pitch Selection skills which are vital to using their Physical Swing! For some great ideas on how to improve your players swings, check out our Hitting eDrills!.