Mental Approach To Hitting – Aggressive Hitting

Nebraska Fury Fastpitch, as an organization, strives to have one consistent hitting identity throughout all of our teams and players - to be known as very aggressive hitting teams.  

When watching teams play, I quite often hear such things as “be patient”, “don’t try to kill it”, “just make contact”, “take some pitches”, “just put in play”, “walk is a good as a hit”, etc.  I could go on and on.  And while those giving this advice are usually well meaning and some of this advice may even be technically true, the actual "words/phrases" can also have unintended effects on a hitter. 

At Nebraska Fury, we want our hitters to be ready to hit each and every pitch.  And even going one step further, we want our hitters to “expect and prepare” to hit every pitch.  We want AGGRESSIVE hitters.  We don’t want hitters who are reactive or passive or, even worse yet, looking for a walk.  We want our girls to be up there, looking for a good pitch, expecting a good pitch and hoping for a good pitch so they can aggressively drive the ball. 

Ted Williams, one of the best hitters of all time, said the most important part of hitting is finding a good pitch to hit.  Even very good hitters have trouble covering the whole strike zone and even a harder time covering pitches outside the strikes zone.  The hard part is you don't know "when" you will get that pitch.  Against good pitching, you typically don’t get many “good pitches” to hit.  It may come as the very first pitch of the at-bat and it may be the fifth pitch of the at-bat.  Heck, there may be at-bats that it never comes.  But… the hitters HAS to have an aggressive mind set and be fully prepared and ready to take advantage of that “good” pitch whenever it does comes.  They should have that same aggressive approach every pitch.  Why do I hear parents and coaches complaining about swinging at the first pitch?  What is that was the only good pitch that hitter will see in the at-bat that was really one they do something with?  Do we really want them being "patient" and taking that pitch?  Sure, there are certain times that a situation dictates a different approach... but in general, we want them prepared to hit any pitch at any time!!

Hitting (softball or baseball) is one of the most difficult things to do in sports.  Very possibly the hardest.  The pitcher already has the advantage.  So why do we want to make it even harder by putting our hitters in an even more difficult, passive approach and giving the pitcher even more of an advantage.  Pitchers want hitters to be passive. So why are we giving our hitters cues and advice that can make them that way.  It just makes no sense. 

This only touches the surfaces on this subject and what we teach our hitters and some of mental instruction we give them at Nebraska Fury.  Is your coach/organization talking/teaching your hitters about Level 1, 2 and 3 pitchers and the different approaches to them?  Are they talking about “yesing” the ball?  Are they talking about pitch anticipation?  Are they talking about pitch recognition?  About controlling middle of the plate?  About visual mechanics?  Etc. It's all part of the player development we believe so strongly in at Nebraska Fury.

Nebraska Fury is about player development first.  Developing players to be successful in the long term at a high level.  Yes, team success is also a goal and is important to us.  But we believe that is something that comes as a direct result of focusing on player and team development.  If this sounds like something you are interested in, we encourage you to take a closer look at our organization.