Sunday, February 15, 2015

Top 5 Ways to Increase a Hitter’s Focus on the Baseball

Ted Williams was the last major league hitter to hit 0.400 for a season back in 1941. After he reached this feat, he cleverly quipped, "If I had known people were going to make such a big deal about it, I would have done it more often." He was arguably, the best pure hitter to ever play the game of baseball.

Williams was a master of focus. Legend has it that he could read the label of a 78 RPM record spinning on a turntable and count the stitches on the baseball as it approached the plate.
Hitter’s Focus on the Baseball
Hitter Focus on Baseball

While I don’t expect that you’ll be counting any stitches in the near future, Ted Williams’s approach at the plate shows all of us just how important it is to watch the baseball with complete focus.

Focus and concentration on the ball for the full flight of the pitch is absolutely essential for a hitter at any level.  It’s difficult enough for many players to consistently hit a ball off of a tee, much less hit a moving target with good velocity and movement.


Luckily, there are some great techniques and drills that any player can use to improve his concentration and focus on the baseball the entire distance from the pitcher’s hand to the crack of the bat.

1.    Cut-it-in-half Drill – While taking batting practice, imagine that instead of a bat, you hold a sword or some other long sharp object.  As the ball approaches, instead of focusing on hitting the baseball, imagine that you are actually cutting the baseball into precisely two equal parts with your swing.  This drill improves focus because you must concentrate more than usual in order to attempt to split the ball exactly into two equal pieces.

2.    No bat Drill – For this drill, stand at home plate in the batter’s box with a helmet but no bat.  Have a pitcher or coach throw pitches to the catcher while you closely watch the ball all the way to the hitting zone.  Immediately after every pitch, keep your head down and call out the type of pitch (fastball, change-up, curve ball, etc) and whether it is a ball or strike.  This drill takes the distraction of the swing out of the equation and focuses solely on watching the ball the entire distance to the plate.

3.    Colored balls Drill – During batting practice, take a bucket of balls and paint a dime sized colored dot on each ball with each ball having one of three different colors.  As the pitcher throws the ball, call out the color of the dot on the ball just thrown.  Again, this drill forces you to concentrate more than normal in order to recognize the color of the dot on each baseball.

4.    Object on the ground Drill – Players of all ages love to watch their hits as the ball leaves the bat.  As soon as most players hit a fly ball in batting practice, their eyes instantly move to the ball in flight to see how far they hit it. The problem is that many times, a hitter’s eyes will even look away from the pitch before contact in anticipation of a hit.
 
Hitter’s Focus on the Baseball
Hitter’s Focus on the Baseball
To counteract this in batting practice, place any small object on the ground directly in front of the hitter’s feet between home plate and the batter’s box. When the pitch is thrown, have the batter follow the ball all the way to the bat, and instead of watching the ball after contact, instruct him to look immediately down at the object. If done correctly, the batter should make extra effort to not know where the ball traveled.

A variation of this is to actually use different objects for each pitch and have a coach place a different object at the batter’s feet before every pitch without the batter knowing which one. After swinging, the batter should call out the name of the object immediately after contact to ensure that he keeps his head down.


5.    Consistency – With most skills in baseball, consistency is key. Complete focus on the baseball should be used every day for every swing in every practice or game.  If you practice without focus, you will play without focus.  Whether you are hitting from a tee, taking batting practice, taking dry swings, or taking soft-toss, you should always concentrate and focus on keeping your head down and watching the ball hit the bat.  If you train your brain and body correctly in practice, your good habits will carry-over into games and result in better contact and many more hits.
You can find helpful Baseball Skills Guide at www.baseballskillsguide.com

No comments:

Post a Comment