Preparing hitters for game speed is challenging from year-to-year. Add in the changing player with an overload of information at their fingertips, and you can very quickly end up in the weeds of “scap loading” and PVC pipe apparatus being thrown around at nauseam. (Not that scap loading or PVC drills are inherently bad.)
The disconnect I’ve seen throughout my career is the idea of training a swing versus teaching a player how to hit. Hitting requires much more than a physical swing; it requires timing, pitch recognition, mental preparedness, acceptance of situational failure, adaptation and adjusting, and a high level of split-second decision-making. In teaching players how to hit, my goal is incorporating as many of those skills outside of the physical swing, while at the same time tooling and making minor adjustments to the physical swing they had when they arrived.
Throughout the evolution of our hitting development strategy, our hitters showed the most growth when we started valuing live at-bats, competitive coach pitch, and pitching machines to be as important as tee work, front flip, and traditional batting practice.
We structure each week by identifying when and which pitchers will throw to batters. We give pitchers the option of throwing to hitters with counts and situations, by rounds mirroring a bullpen (ie. three fastballs in, three fastballs away, and so on), and even throwing to hitters in a short box setting with an L-screen platform. Three-inning games at the end of practice introduces the intensity of game situations to both hitters and pitchers. Once we have the live days mapped out, we can fill the rest of the week with coach pitch and machines.
Our coach-pitch is straightforward. We have the BP platform close enough to mirror game speed and try to get hitters out. The biggest component of the coach-pitch is the competition. Players are put in situations and focus on execution. There is always a scoreboard, with winner and loser. This could be between two teams, between multiple rounds of hitters, or between the hitters vs. the coaches.
During a five-day practice week on the field, we will typically have one day of live pitching, one day of coach pitching, and three days of machine work. We’ve utilized the three-wheel pitching machine, with the extended tall legs, from the mound. This has given the most game-like approach angle/release window from the actual distance. It also has more variation for where the balls are in the strike zone for recognition purposes. If we have data on an opponent, we even try to mirror velocity and spin rate. If our focus is more on ingraining swing patterns, we may use a smaller machine closer to the batter, where the focus is less on recognition and more on repetition and reaction.
In addition to our game speed “focus of the day” on the field, we try to implement some level of individualization in the cages. Some days we may group hitters by their ability to hit a fastball and change the velocity with each group. Some days they are grouped by swing types, so we can prescribe different drills for them in the cage or have different goals for their rounds on the field. Some days we group by roles, so we can put them in situations they will be seeing in a game.
By creating a game speed environment where competition, individualization, and failure becomes a daily part of practice, hitters will be ready for the challenge that is their next game. Good luck!