Those of you that have read any of my hitting blogs know that I love aggressiveness. That I preach the idea of expecting to swing every time the pitcher gets ready to pitch. That we want our hitters to go to the plate with the attitude of expecting to change the scoreboard. All of this while also maintaining the control that allows a hitter feel like they are the ones really dictating what happens in every at bat.
The idea of being a ‘yes,yes, yes’ hitter is one that we have discussed in the past. What we want is a hitter who approaches every pitch expecting to swing until something about the pitch tells her to stop. Everything about the Yes, yes, yes approach is meant to create an aggressive hitter who wants to swing rather than a tentative hitter who worries too much about whether they should swing or not. What leads us to this discussion today is that I think some of the kids who buy into “yes” have crossed over the line of control that we still want them to feel.
“Yes, yes, yes” means ready to swing, and I mean really ready! Every ounce of your energy is loaded up and ready to go. You feel like a stick of dynamite that is ready to explode but that controls when the fuse is lit! All players have the ability to get really ready to swing on every pitch, they just need to understand it and practice it enough to be able to use it properly.
Where we are getting into trouble is that many players have such deep seated habits where they are used to guessing what pitch is coming and whether they will choose to swing that they can’t control themselves. They start swinging without the control that we want them to have and you see weak swings or checked swings or out of control swings. They have become “go, go, go” hitters who have the intention of being really aggressive but they have no control over what they are doing.
Really good hitters hit the ball after they see where it is going! They have the “yes” mindset but the control that allows them to see the ball long enough to determine what the pitch is and react to it. Really good hitters don’t guess very often, they react to what the pitch really is. Really good hitters rarely check swing because they don’t start their swing until they know they mean it.
How many really good hitters do we see? Hopefully, we’ll keep seeing more and more!
