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Be A Better Hitter
Free Baseball Hitting Instruction
- Shrink The Box
Shrink The Box
by Buz Brundage
If you are going to be a hitter, a good hitter, one your teammates and coaches can depend on... then you need to know this: Learn how to "Shrink the Box". Ok.. you are probably saying "What the heck does that mean?" Well, this is a fundamental skill that all good hitters possess and you should too.
Shrinking the Box is having the ability to know when you are in the drivers seat against the pitcher. You may be in that position because of the pitch count (elementary my dear friend - see Hit Chart) or some other factor, like the pitcher walking a couple of players in the inning. Or, you may simply see the pitcher very well and "own him" so to speak.
Whatever the reason, once you are in a position of command over the pitcher you simply have to "Shrink the Box". The Box.. is the imaginary strike zone that the pitcher is trying to nip the edges of.
When you "shrink it" you are making a decision in your head that you want the ball right... there! Where you can pound it. Make the pitcher pay.
Be aggressive when you get it in your small little box and confident that this is "your turf... Don't go there!" That is the mindset of "Shrinking the Box".
Typically, a hitter gets into this mindset when the count is greatly in his favor.. like 2-0 or 3-1. This is why you see professional hitters take a pitch right down the middle on a 2-0 count. I know.. it makes me crazy too : )
But, the truth is he may have been looking for the pitcher's offspeed pitch.. or he may have wanted it down.. or "in" just a bit. The hitter made a small box to look for a pitch in and the pitch either didn't get there.. or he was fooled by the speed. Which brings me to the next point about "Shrinking the Box".
Hitting is Timing. There is no disputing this fact. It is as true now as it was when Ty Cobb played. So, with that in mind.. when you "shrink your box" .. pick a speed! If you have the luxury of deciding "where you want the pitch" you have the luxury of choosing a speed!
I hope this helps you to Be A Better Hitter! - Change Your Attitude - Change Your Game!
Since we're smack in the middle of the high drama, high stakes, atmosphere of October playoff baseball, I think it might be appropriate to share my experience with pressure situations and how I dealt with them. Make no mistake about it, baseball, whether you're in Little League or the big leagues, is filled with stress. It's how you handle it that seperates the mediocre player from the great player. It also seperates the player who enjoys the game from the player who is scared by the game.
For me, the turning point came when I stopped fighting the feelings I had when I got into pressure situations. The sweaty palms and elevated heart beat type symptoms. You see, for a long time I thought that the superior athlete had somehow overcome these responses or learned how to suppress them. It took me a long time to realize that these feelings NEVER go away, no matter how long you've played or how much success you've had. So instead of viewing them as something negative or something I needed to overcome, I just accepted these emotions as part of the game and used the heightened awareness that accompanied them to be a better player. I just kept it simple (see ball hit ball), stayed in the moment by not anticipating success or failure, enjoyed myself, and let the results take care of themselves. I went from being a player who dreaded the bases loaded, bottom of the ninth, game on the line situation to being a player who would give anything to have an opportunity to win the game.
This was just my experience and I'm not saying you'll have more success by adopting this attitude. I will, however, pretty much guarantee you'll have more fun playing the game. Good luck and keep learning.
Editors note: Brent Mayne was catcher in the Major Leagues for 16 years and is the author of the Catching tutorial book: The Art of Catching. To learn more about Brent please visit his webpage www.BrentMayne.com
You can purchase Brent's book by clicking here or the picture below - Mental Characteristics of MLB 1st Round Draft Choices
Mental Selection Characteristics of MLB First Round Draft Choices
by Geoff Miller
WinningMind.com
Predicting success of Major League Baseball draft prospects is a difficult task. A multitude of factors
must be considered by baseball organizations who pore over scouting reports, stat sheets, speed gun
readings and stopwatch times to find that crucial piece of information that can be used to find future
stars. Physical, mental and social factors contribute mightily to which players live up to their
potential.
The following is a review of the attentional and interpersonal characteristics of players selected in the
First Round of Major League Baseball’s First Year Player Draft.
Assessment of Draft Potentials:
Winning Mind, LLC uses TAIS (The Attentional and Interpersonal Style inventory) to directly measure
concentration, distractibility, decision-making, risk taking as well as general personality variables
like confidence, competitiveness, extroversion/introversion and communication style. TAIS has been
used with Olympic and professional athletes, Navy SEALs, the US Army Special Forces, and Fortune
500 executives. It has even been used to distinguish between multiple and single Olympic medal
winners.
Player Samples:
Data has been collected on potential draft selections from December 2000 to June 2002. Prospects
were given a paper and pencil version of TAIS and asked to complete the inventory with the purpose
of providing a mental performance evaluation. Hundreds of high school, junior college, and
collegiate players were evaluated over that time period and twenty-six were eventually selected by a
Major League team in the First Round of the 2001 or 2002 MLB First Year Player Draft (their average
age was 18.80 years). We examined the TAIS profile data on this group of First Round Picks and
compared it to a randomly selected group of thirty picks who were evaluated and selected later than
the First Round in those drafts. The average round in which these players were selected was 8.87 and
the second group’s average age was 18.96.
A Blueprint for your Scouting/Player Development Process:
We have constructed a composite profile for the typical MLB First Round Pick. This composite
becomes a benchmark that may be used to measure future baseball talent scientifically. The data has
value in three different ways:
1. Compare top physically talented prospects against the MLB First Round Pick group to confirm
their mental toughness characteristics. Red flag prospects who have physical tools, but
don’t have the mental tools to make an impact at the Major League level.
2. Compare lesser physical talent against the group to find out which players have the
potential, based on mental makeup, to develop into Major League talent.
3. Pinpoint developmental targets for all prospects. TAIS profile data acts as a roadmap that
shows how athletes can improve performance. We can tell where players will make
concentration mistakes, how they will respond to coaches and staff, what their work habits
may be like, and how they will perform under pressure.
Characteristics of MLB First Round Picks:
Overall, the typical MLB First Round pick exhibits greater mental and emotional control and makes
better transitions than the average MLB prospect. The First Rounder makes fewer concentration
mistakes, makes quicker decisions, is more physically competitive, plays by the book and by the
rules more often, and uses a combination of awareness, analysis, and action to his advantage.
Attentional Balance:
Everyone has a dominant attentional style (Awareness, Analysis, or Action) much like having a
favorite TV channel for viewing the world. That dominant style is the place we feel most comfortable
and the channel we “tune to” most often when we feel pressure. The dominant attentional style for
most elite athletes is Action, the traditional narrow focus that we associate with blocking out 50,000
screaming fans and executing physical skills. It’s also the quality used by athletes who are the first
ones in the clubhouse and the last ones to leave. People with a higher Action orientation are more
likely to take extra ground balls, show up for early hitting, engage in more rigorous conditioning,
because they have a need to roll up their sleeves and get things done.
MLB First Round Draft Picks reported that their dominant style was Action and that their least
preferred was Analysis. Great athletes don’t have a lot of time to engage in complex problem solving
and they are naturally less likely to be caught in their heads. However, the First Rounder group is
more attentionally balanced while players drafted later favor the Action channel more prominently.
Under pressure, the typical prospect is likely to overuse his ability to focus even if the situation calls