This is a dialog that took place over two months in the Spring 0f 2009 between a concerned parent and WebBall's head coach. It started with a simple question and answer, and grew from there into a conversation about the processing of learning. It shows how important the right attitude on the part of the parent, combined with information from the right sources, can help a child grow in his baseball skills and his love for the game.

Portions of this conversation were on Live Chat, parts of it in email exchanges. The parent signed her first and all subsequent exchanges simply as JakesMom, which itself shows she had the right perspective from the start - this was about her son, not herself. WebBall's responses came from Richard Todd.


JakesMom:

Is it alright to ask a question about situational hitting?

Coach Richard:

Sure.

JakesMom:

My son started baseball later at 11.  Private instructor tells him not to be a behind the count hitter.  Now boy is playing travel ball at 12 1/2. TB coach tells the kids to choke and poke at two strikes. 

Is this not a mental cushion at the plate? My kid is usually much more selective now he seems to swing too easily and counting on the choke and poke to get him on base.

Coach Richard:

Okay this is a tough one, so give me a few minutes (and paragraphs) to lay it out. We want a hitter to be willing to give it his all early in the count. If taught correctly this means he will generate optimum power when the count is 0-0 or 1-0, or 2-0, or even 1-1.

You could call that the swinging easily and in truth if he goes up there with the idea of looking for a specific pitch and only swinging at that, he could do well early in the count. However pitch recognition takes years to master, so in the meantime he will guess and miss.

Important for parents to understand - there is nothing wrong with swinging hard and missing a pitch early in the count. as the saying goes...

"They need to get 3 strikes by you to get you out."

In fact, I'd be more concerned about a kid who never wants to swing an miss - who always wants to make some contact on any pitch in the zone, because what happens is he will hit a weak grounder and will be out at first. Every batters needs at times to be willing to commit to a full swing and therefore accept that sometimes he will miss.

Okay so far?

JakesMom:

Perfect!  I understand what you mean by pitch recognition, different right from pitch selection? He has been told to learn how to "read" a pitch.  He does swing hard early in the count but dang when he misses it.... so disheartning.  He has great bat speed and he is strong.

Coach Richard:

Disheartening for him or you?

JakesMom:

ME!

Coach Richard:

I hope you will accept the following in the light-hearted spirit with which it is intended... "Get over it!"

He's doing the right think if he swings hard and sometimes misses. It's a learning process and guessing wrong is a stage in learning to guess right by reading the pitches. Batters are always fooled - even pros - part of the game.

JakesMom:

Yes!  I get it!  Thanks for the laugh!  One of the hardest things for me to hear from his TB coach is that baseball is a natural learning process even for naturally gifted players. I hate that my kid started late at 11 and broke his arm mid season. I appreciate your help, the website is terrific!  I study it almost everyday!

Coach Richard:

Okay, but let's get on to the choke and poke part.

JakesMom:

Yeah, very interesting....

Coach Richard:

Forget it - he shouldn't do it. The concept with two strikes is that he must be less selective - go after borderline pitches so he isn't out on a bad umpiring call. But he must therefore be able to maintain his mechanics and ability to reach that pitch. Shortening the bat takes away some of his learned swing.

What "choke and poke" really tells a power hitter is forget what you're good at, now we want you to be a weak contact hitter.

JakesMom:

See, I knew I was on the right track!  I tried to tell my husband that something did not seem right about this strategy. I noticed a coach on the opposing team telling his pitcher to - on the second strike - to pitch to my kid low and on the inside.  Because our Coach is telling the kids to choke and poke AND move up to the plate. My kid is thinking he is ready for the inside fast ball, but with a choke and poke?  Yeah, right. The pitcher ended up throwing my kid a GREAT curve ball and got him out.  Very discouraging because my kid is pretty smart and patient.

Coach Richard:

There you go. In my experience "choke and poke" is one of those bad bits of advice that is said without thinking. Thanks for challenging it. Anything else for today?

JakesMom:

No Sir, thanks so much for you time.  I am going to re-read.  Hopefully my son will make contact earlier in the count, because our team just won a championship tournament and our coach is SOLD on this choke and poke thing.

Coach Richard: 

Final thought - don't confront him on it - that never works. Let him say it, I'm sure your son is not the only one to ignore it. (should say "wisely" ignore it)

JakesMom:

We have only played one other game with him, we are new to TB.  What happened is that TB coach hired a local boy who is playing for the Kansas City Royals, farm team. Name is [deleted]. [Player] was a little surprised to hear how many boys were going down on two strikes and he told Coach that they are told to do choke and poke. However, I think at the farm level they are probably taught a little more in depth about approaching a two strike situation. These kids are still pretty young.

Coach Richard:

Agreed. Never take minor league instruction as applying to lower levels.

Your objective is to get there and in truth I don't think [player name deleted] will get to the major leagues by being a choke and poke hitter either. Now that doesn't mean that it's not important to produce with two strikes, but it's better to expand the strike zone than shrink the bat reach.

Hope this has helped.

JakesMom:

Yes, thank you have a great day!

The above took place in Early March. And usually when we complete an exchange like that, we seldom hear back. But in this case we did, all of two days later...


JakesMom:

My question is related the the cross-over step?

Coach Richard:

Hi again.

JakesMom:

Hey there!  I don't know if I understand exactly what it is.  I can tell you that Jacob during pitching practice is asked among other drills to do a cross over and throw.  In the outfield he was taught to cross over, into a crow hop I guess and throw. Now, when he is just throwing for warm up he seems to likes to cross and throw but I am convinced it takes some of his momentum or power or something away.  I read on your site about cross over throws but I think I am totally confused now.

Coach Richard:

The idea of a cross-over throw is to create additional rhythm and momentum as he comes up to the pitching rubber to release the ball. This is a technique we got from Ron Wolforth. Some pitchers like to do this, some don't.

By that last comment I mean - I would not make it mandatory. Like all training - if it helps, do it, otherwise, next idea.

JakesMom:

Okay, for pitching it seems fine but for outfielding or for just throwing during warm ups, especially during long step it appears that he is doing a cross over and throw, sometimes he is on sometime not.   I told him to try the shuffle step, works good, but he is just getting used to it.  I am little confused if in during warm ups or outfielding drills whether he should shuffle or cross over.

Coach Richard:

What I look for in our warm-ups - pitchers and position players - is that they are working on dynamics and momentum, not static throwing.  So if they get that extra pop from a slight shuffle, or a crowhop or a QUICK cross-over great - the important part if that it is never a methodical or conscious step sequence - it must be natural and quick. In other words I would not over-focus on it, not make a big deal about one or the other - as long as something is happening that keeps the body loose and fluid and fully engaged.

JakesMom:

I thought he had great momentum and very natural but well meaning parents might be doing some damage. 

Last pre-game practice Coach could not get why my son was not throwing hard from first to catcher. He reminded my son that he wanted to pitch him him too but that he had to throw harder. 

My little guy is a perfectionist, he was probably over-thinking all the stuff his well-meaning parents were "coaching" him on.  Feeling like an idiot now and hoping he gets back to a natural rhythm and momentum

Coach Richard:

It would not be the first time a well-meaning parent (or coach) has bled the spirit from a player. Fortunately young brains get rewired a lot - especially in the teen years - lots of opportunity for him to get back to his true self.

JakesMom:

Thanks for your time and encouragement.  I won't take up any more of your time.

Coach Richard:

Later. Bye.

Must have anticipated something with the "later", because the next exchange came as a straight "ask the coach" question. Recognize the "JakesMom" signature it immediately became Richard's question to answer.


JakesMom:

How crucial is it for a 12 year old to learn to hit the ball opposite field.? He knows he has to wait for the outside ball to come deeper but he really likes pulling them up the middle or to left field.  TB  Coach gets on to him about hitting opposite field, to the point of getting angry.   Jacob told me it feels like he has NO power when he hits that way however, with his private hitting coach (someone he has a lot more confidence in than his TB coah), he hits with relative power opposite field.  I notice that he shortens his swing  just a little to increase bat speed  and lets it come way deeper.

Okay to complicate matters tb coach throws in the cage with tennis balls.  Private hitting coach throws real balls to Jacob.

Hope I am making sense.  I just spent a good two hours trying to understand the hitting section on your website.  My husband and I had long discussions.  I am getting it little by little

I forgot to mention that Jacob swings right handed.  Also, his TB coach always throws to the kids with tennis balls because he says regular balls will mess up his net and the sides of the building.

Private coach short tosses to Jacob with real baseballs.

Don't know if this has anything to do with Jacob's timing and/or his reluctance to hit opposite field.

Coach Richard:

First, let me thank you for continuing to ask great questions.

I think we could build a whole new section around your questions - at the least you've identified some big holes in our current information.

Let me deal with some of the minor issues first...

• Tennis balls vs baseballs
• Short toss vs longer pitch
• From in front vs side
• In a cage vs on the field
• Etc, etc.

Any time the circumstances of hitting stray from in-game hitting, there should be a reason, or an approach, or a structure, so that the player-student understands what he's doing and why that's different from game situations.

That's in an ideal world. In reality most coaches have to take short cuts for practical reasons - space, time, and yes protecting the equipment. Often the less-reality aspects are simply pragmatic, they don't improve the hitting experience, but they aren't meant to detract from it - it just is what it is.

For instance, I hate using pitching machines because the flight distance is similar to a real pitch but that's an illusion because the dimpled balls don't behave like real ones. So, my opinion, better to side toss or short toss from in front so it's clear this is NOT game hitting this is hip-leg mechanics or arms and bat speed or whatever is being isolated and worked on - it's training. Period.

So nothing wrong with tennis balls or Jugs Lite-Flie balls or whiffle balls or anything that isn't a baseball - especially when your training purposes is clear.

However, the one thing none of these other tosses and ball-types will help with is timing. As you've discovered...

The real challenge in oppo hitting is pitch recognition and timing

Where is the ball coming and  when should I make contact.

The correct way to hit an inside pitch is to make contact farther out front and to pull it. The correct way to hit an outside pitch is to let it come deeper and hit it to the opposite field.

With no one on base and nothing else happening that's the proper approach, and  that can be trained with any type of ball from any direction or distance.

You mention shortening the swing and waiting for it to come deeper. The shortening the swing by increasing bat speed is also important for the inside pitch that you have to hit more out front. In other words - working towards quicker-later swings is always good - as long as contact is made at the correct point with optimum bat speed.

That's another of those time and experience challenges - patience and practice.

Now, there may be times when oppo hitting for a RHB is required when the pitch is not on the outside half - i.e. when there's a runner on 1st or 2nd and the batter's job is to get him to 3rd. In that case it's important to hit behind the runner - to send the ball to right field. You don't want to hit to the 3B-SS-LF side which forces the runner(s) to hold. That is a much harder type of opposite field hitting.

But you can't master that - or be expected to by any coach - until you get the fundamental skills of pulling-the-inside-pitch and oppo-hitting-the-outside-pitch down.

Sometimes the exchanges between Coach Richard and JakesMom were short questions that came up during her 'studying' of the website...

JakesMom:

Is 'laxity' the term you use on this site the same or related to what I hear during pitching practice as 'the power T'?

Coach Richard: 

Nope. Laxity is a medical condition from the looseness in the rotator cuff area - causing "dislocation" during pitches.

JakesMom:

Oh geez I was way off, better get some coffee before I start studying...

Coach Richard: 

Okay.

JakesMom:

Bye for now.

This seems a good time for you to take a break, too.

We will pick up the dialog on a new page that not only has more about both hitting and pitching, but will take you to a great point in the journey of Jake and his Mom. When you're ready for the conclusion, click here.