This is a follow up to the post, “Just one hit a week.” In that post, I made the point that being an elite problem solver might be the difference when it comes to the best in the game compared to their peers. In other words, they are able to “figure it out” just a little bit more and that might be because they have the athletic ability or swing ability to do some special things in the box.
Here are the examples I gave in the post:
The question is…can that be trained or is it just some innate ability for some hitters? My answer is that it can be trained. I’m not saying that you can train a specific reaction (like Javier Baez’ hips above) or even that you should. But what I do think is that if hitters hit in a more challenging environment they would learn to become elite problem solvers. Don’t get me wrong, there is something to be said for hitting in a clean environment (i.e. front toss, same speed, same location, or even the tee). However, I think that hitters hit in a clean environment too often. When a hitter is in a messy, challenging environment they are given the ability to problem solve or better yet, learn how to problem solve.
Here are some thoughts on how to go about challenging hitters:
Don’t over-coach them
If we’re going to “train” hitters to be elite problem solvers we have to let them figure it out to some degree. It’s that athletic freedom that we celebrate but we often coach it out of players by giving them a specific way to solve a problem. Don’t get me wrong, we’re there to guide but give the hitter their space and interject only when needed.
It can be very simple
If you have a weakness, attack it! This could be something as simple as Mike Trout working on the high pitch or Cody Bellinger working on the low and away slider. Both of these pitches present some difficult challenges to hitters that wouldn’t be present in too easy of an environment.
Control some variables
We can make the environment too messy, especially at first. It’s best to gradually increase the demand and difficulty of the problem by controlling the variables. For example, if a player struggles with high fastballs you could initially just work on that in front toss, which gives them ample time and reps to problem solve. Once you feel like they can handle that, then they could take front toss middle-middle and mix in a high pitch. This would then train the recognition and proper reaction to the pitch. Then you could continue to progress from there with higher velocities with a live arm or machine or adding in a low pitch, which makes the high pitch feel even higher. The possibilities are endless.
Stretch their abilities but don’t over-reach
Asking someone to spell before learning the alphabet wouldn’t go well. It’s our job as coaches to monitor the hitter’s mental state throughout the training. Some hitters can handle more failure in practice than others but giving them problems that are too far outside of their current abilities is sure to lead to frustration.
Final thoughts
Remember, at the end of the day, each of the three swings in the videos above are great solutions to the problems that the pitcher presented. Why? Because they were successful! Don’t get too caught up in what they look like as they were an individual response or reaction to the pitch speed, location and movement based on where the hitter was at on that day or better yet, that particular pitch. There’s a great quote for parenting that says, “Don’t prepare the road for the child, prepare the child for the road.” The same can be said for hitters. Don’t make the environment easy. Gradually prepare them for more and more as they develop and as they show that they are ready for the next step. This game will continually challenge them and we need to prepare them for what lies ahead.
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