Have a plan!

To play the game one pitch at a time, it's important to have a plan on each pitch. If you know what you are up there to do, the chances of "giving away" the at bat decrease and the chances of having a quality at bat increase.

When determining you plan for an at bat, always remember that HITTING IS DIFFICULT. When you realize something is difficult the best thing you can do is SIMPLIFY IT. In hitting, that means the primary focus of your plan is to hit the ball. Listen to these great hitters talk about what they were trying to do at the plate:

• Pete Rose (4,256 hits): "See the ball, hit the ball. That's it. If you get more complicated than that you're making it more difficult than it needs to be."


• Stan Musial (.331 over 22 seasons): "My idea of hitting was get the fat part of the bat on the ball and hitting the ball where it was pitched."


• Billy Williams (Hall of Famer): "I just watched it come in, took a good swing at it, and tried to hit it with the fat of the bat."

THE TASK OF HITTING IS TO PUT THE FAT PART OF THE BAT ON THE BALL

It was smart of these hitters to simplify hitting, but it was brilliant of them to keep it simple for as long as they did. Get into the habit of asking yourself before each at bat: what am I going to do at the plate? You plan may be as simple as "hit the ball" or "hit it up the middle" or "stay back."

Whatever your plan , the main point is to know what you are trying to do at the plate and COMMIT to that play. Hitters often go the plate not knowing what they are trying to do, or trying to do something they are not cable of doing (such as pulling the ball out of the park). In other words, they either have no idea or a bad idea.

From:Heads up Baseball