This weeks hitting technique blog will not look at your technique inside the batters box, but outside of it. Connor Powers, on DeadRedHitting.com, looks at how your mental approach is integral to your performance in future at-bats in The Most Overlooked Part of Hitting. Powers acknowledges that the best hitters go through slumps but the attitude that you take after a strikeout may determine your outcome for your next at-bat, even before you step into the box.
Powers suggests that hitters, after their at-bats and regardless of their outcome, take away something good that they did inside the box. Here are Powers’ examples of what hitters can take away from at-bats, even in the direst slumps:
1. You took your best swing and just missed it(swung through or foul ball)
2. Took a close pitch for a ball
3. Took a nasty breaking ball in the dirt
4. Squared the ball up but didn’t get a hit
5. Fly ball that you JUST missed
6. The fact that you are in the game playing(Your Coach has confidence in you so why shouldn’t you have confidence in yourself? If you were real going that bad then you would be riding the pine)
The mental aspect of baseball is an important part of baseball that is very overlooked. For example, the mental game is what separates a talented major league prospect—Elijah Dukes and Lasting Milledge—from a MLB All Stars—Mike Trout and Bryce Harper. The faster hitters can learn a solid mental approach to baseball, the more exponential their growth will be on the field.
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