Long Baseball Hitting Zones And Quality Ceasing Maximizes Success
The perception of contact and how to follow through is one of the most analyzed concepts in baseball. Between when, where, and how you should perform these steps, many coaches around the country have developed their own approaches to accomplishing the same task. As a result, there are still many unanswered questions and inexperienced coaches are looking for an explanation with more substance. By the end of this article you are going to feel much more confident on the approach you should take moving forward.
The key to hitting a baseball successfully is not to focus on contact itself. I know it sounds strange not to focus on the one thing that you are trying to do, but I promise it will make more sense by then end of the article. So where shall we begin? Well if you read my other articles on the mechanics of the swing then you know I believe everything begins with the load, specifically pitch recognition. If we misidentify the pitch early on in our swing, we drastically lower our chances of achieving a base hit. So once again, break the plate down in three separate zones, L for left, C for center, and R for right. As players' progress, I like to break down the height of the pitch into three zones as well, but for now we will just focus on the three.
As for the actual contact points, I want you to visualize yourself as a right-handed hitter for this next section. Pitches located in the R section of the plate should be contacted off our back thigh. Pitches located in the C section of the plate should be contacted off our belt buckle. Pitches located in the R section of the plate should be contacted ahead of our front leg.
In reality, these points of contact will seem "deep" in a players stance at first, but with more practice it will become more realistic. Besides, I would always, always, always, rather have my player think too deep to keep him in the mindset to let the ball travel. Players already have enough trouble staying off of their front foot when they swing, I don't want to fuel the fire by designing contact points to far in front of their body that it promotes this type of action. Identifying contact points will do two things for us. First, we have a constant reminder of where we want to hit the baseball, ie. we eliminate the question of where and only have to answer the question of when to swing. Two, if we contact the ball out of zone we can gauge how much longer we have to let the ball travel before we swing.
With that in mind, I tell my players to swing to their contact point, and not swing to hit the baseball. In theory, contact points will never change, which means players can have a consistent-repeatable approach if they are constantly trying to hit the same points. Once players understand that theory, I like to take it one step further and introduce them to the contact zone. The contact zone is not just one baseball, but four baseballs, five baseballs, and so on. In reality, players will very rarely make perfect contact with the baseball. Most of the time they are making up for timing mistakes and working as hard as they can to extend through the zone to achieve a base hit. In fact, most major league players only make perfect contact around 30 times in around 600 at bats on average. Now, that is second hand information, but I still think it makes a great point!
"Contact zones" are an enlargement of contact point areas. Instead of just contacting one baseball, I have my players picture at least 4 baseballs through any given zone. Put one baseball before "contact", two after, and now we have a something to work with. As players progress with this concept, we can add a 5th baseball, 6th baseball and so on. The key to this concept is staying long through the zone. As I mentioned earlier, hitting is not about perfect timing or great contact, it is about making up for timing mistakes and managing the zone. If players are able to take the barrel of the bat through 4 ball contact zone they are sure to pick up more base hits and raise their average. I want you to think of these zones like an aircraft carrier pointed to each field. Players land the barrel through contact before taking off for the finish.
In the paragraph above, I want you to take note that there is one baseball placed before contact. This is by design. If players drive straight to contact, there is a good chance they will chop a lot of balls into the ground, and have a lot of topspin off the bat. We want backspin! Therefore, we want to get on plane with the ball before we contact it. This way, when we drive through the baseball it comes of the bat more flush and creates more backspin and more carry. Besides, this is what coaches talk about when they discus taking a "level" swing and hitting line drives.
Unfortunately, what prevents most young players from staying through the zone and getting the most out of their ability is a poor finish or follow through. If you have a player struggling at the plate, one of the issues he is probably having is finishing his swing with the barrel below his shoulder and around his body. This action creates two complications.
First, the player is working around his body in a sweeping motion. Consequently, his barrel will enter the zone quickly, and exit the zone quickly. Unless he has impeccable timing, which very few do, you will see him get caught between rolling over pitches, and getting jammed without sustainable progress. Two, he looses the ability to stay inside the baseball. A low finish results in pulling our hands away from the field of play and to the dugout behind the player. Even if a player wanted to have his hands ahead of the baseball on contact, it would become very difficult. As a result, he will see a significant drop not only in his average, but also his power.
The finish should be a natural progression after contact. If a player wants to hit the baseball to right field, finish high above our shoulders continuing the hands and body to right. The same goes for center, and left field. The key is to stay on plane and as much through the zone of contact as possible. We will naturally rotate around our body when we swing, but we must focus on finishing forward through the baseball on our swing if we want to maximize our success.
Take a deep breath, collect your thoughts, and refocus because I am about to bring contact and the finish together with a concept I call "Post Contact Weight Transition". Jus a quick prelude, I reserve teaching this concept to only players who I feel are skilled enough and have the understanding to accomplish it. Typically, up until the contact portion of the swing players are working primarily in the rotational style of hitting. There is some linear movement, but the full transfer hasn't occurred yet.
Just after we contact the baseball, a player should actively try to explode of their back foot/leg to the field they want to drive the baseball. Players should feel like they are aggressively walking through contact. As a result, I actually have players walk through their contact points after they hit during batting training sessions. I believe in "Post Contact Weight Transition" because it allows players to get more weight into the ball. More weight means more force, and more force means more power. When players first do this drill one of two things usually happens, first they contact the ball and don't move, or two they being jumping into contact. However as time goes on and with a little bit of instruction, the idea of fluid weight transition through contact becomes more second nature and they really being to see results.
During game time, walking through contact becomes more of an idea than a reality. However, it's the concept that is important. Stay long through the zone, and transfer your weight through the zone to maximize your power and your average. Begin using these concepts in your batting training sessions today and you will be amazed at how quickly your players confidence, average, and power gets taken to the next level!
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