Saw this quote. Is this taught in the hitting instructors circles? If it isn't I'm thinking it should.
You have 3 OF guys covering a much larger area than 5 IF including the pitcher, covering the infield.
It would make sense since we all want our pitchers to get ground balls.
“My goal every game is to go out and hit the ball in the air four times,” Kris Bryant said. “If I do that, I’m accomplishing my goal"
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Saw this quote. Is this taught in the hitting instructors circles? If it isn't I'm thinking it should.
You have 3 OF guys covering a much larger area than 5 IF including the pitcher, covering the infield.
It would make sense since we all want our pitchers to get ground balls.
“My goal every game is to go out and hit the ball in the air four times,” Kris Bryant said. “If I do that, I’m accomplishing my goal"
So he would be happy with four pop up?
line drives are what you want. I think the stat is 70% of line drives fall for base hits.
That quote needs context. I Googled it and found the source. Interesting stuff.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05...-who-ever-lived.html
The name of the article kind of says it all. If you're in MLB and want to be the greatest who ever lived, and all your fly balls go over the fence, then go for it. Otherwise hitters should be trying to hit the ball square with the barrel of the bat. That's hard enough to do without attempting deliberately to hit off center by a millimeter or two.
some dads and I were just talking about this weekend...one dad said 70% of line drives are hits 40% of ground balls are hits and 10% of flyballs are hits.
some dads and I were just talking about this weekend...one dad said 70% of line drives are hits 40% of ground balls are hits and 10% of flyballs are hits.
Well, if you combine those numbers of line drives and fly balls, both of which are technically "in the air" that's 80%.....a pretty fair number if you ask me
Control the things you can control. It's easier to control how hard you hit the ball versus if you purposely try to hit it in the air, on the ground or a line drive. The harder you hit it the less of a factor fielders become unless you hit it at them. That is the truth regardless if you are hitting it on the ground of air.
some dads and I were just talking about this weekend...one dad said 70% of line drives are hits 40% of ground balls are hits and 10% of flyballs are hits.
I was once told that 84% of all statistics are made up on the spot…sorry, I couldn't resist.
The line drive is king. It's not a matter of trying, on a given at bat. to hit a line drive. It's a matter of developing a swing that yields a high % of line drives. Line drive rate is one of those stats that baseball nerds use to help evaluate the likely success of a hitter.
Getting the ball in the air is less likely to result in a hit for youth athletes, which is why coaches of young players tend to teach ground ball hitting mechanics.
This obviously ruins their value going forward, so the coaches are sacrificing future success for present success. And what could be more important than some wins at the 10U level in front of all these college recruiters and pro scouts?
Get the ball in the air. Pitchers at the higher levels want you to hit ground balls. It can't also be right that you should hit ground balls.
It starts at the youth levels and is taught at the HS level. Hit the ball on the ground. There is one thing the defense has to do if you hit it in the air. Catch it. There are three things the defense has to do if you hit it on the ground. Field it, make a good throw, catch it. There are numerous coaches who teach young hitters to hit the ball on the ground.
The desire to "give" your team a better opportunity to win given the level of talent your playing against ends up screwing up more kids than anyone could ever imagine. Hit the ball in the face. Drive it. Line drives, fly balls, pound it in the gaps, mash, hit it where no one can catch it. Over the freaking fence or so hard they can't get there in time. If your going to hit a ground ball make it a mistake where you just missed and you smoke it.
My approach to teaching hitters is to have the mentality to hammer. To have the mentality to mash the baseball. Hit it hard in the face. Just like with throwing. Throw the Pi ss out of the baseball. You will never throw hard without the intent to throw hard. You will never hit it hard without the intent to crush.
Sadly there are many coaches who teach gb are king. I don't like a pop up anymore than I like a weak gb. But I line a dong or a gapper much more than a gb through the infeild.
It starts at the youth levels and is taught at the HS level. Hit the ball on the ground. There is one thing the defense has to do if you hit it in the air. Catch it. There are three things the defense has to do if you hit it on the ground. Field it, make a good throw, catch it. There are numerous coaches who teach young hitters to hit the ball on the ground.
The desire to "give" your team a better opportunity to win given the level of talent your playing against ends up screwing up more kids than anyone could ever imagine. Hit the ball in the face. Drive it. Line drives, fly balls, pound it in the gaps, mash, hit it where no one can catch it. Over the freaking fence or so hard they can't get there in time. If your going to hit a ground ball make it a mistake where you just missed and you smoke it.
My approach to teaching hitters is to have the mentality to hammer. To have the mentality to mash the baseball. Hit it hard in the face. Just like with throwing. Throw the Pi ss out of the baseball. You will never throw hard without the intent to throw hard. You will never hit it hard without the intent to crush.
Sadly there are many coaches who teach gb are king. I don't like a pop up anymore than I like a weak gb. But I line a dong or a gapper much more than a gb through the infeild.
Coach May nails it. 100% agree.
It starts at the youth levels and is taught at the HS level. Hit the ball on the ground. There is one thing the defense has to do if you hit it in the air. Catch it. There are three things the defense has to do if you hit it on the ground. Field it, make a good throw, catch it. There are numerous coaches who teach young hitters to hit the ball on the ground.
The desire to "give" your team a better opportunity to win given the level of talent your playing against ends up screwing up more kids than anyone could ever imagine. Hit the ball in the face. Drive it. Line drives, fly balls, pound it in the gaps, mash, hit it where no one can catch it. Over the freaking fence or so hard they can't get there in time. If your going to hit a ground ball make it a mistake where you just missed and you smoke it.
My approach to teaching hitters is to have the mentality to hammer. To have the mentality to mash the baseball. Hit it hard in the face. Just like with throwing. Throw the Pi ss out of the baseball. You will never throw hard without the intent to throw hard. You will never hit it hard without the intent to crush.
Sadly there are many coaches who teach gb are king. I don't like a pop up anymore than I like a weak gb. But I line a dong or a gapper much more than a gb through the infeild.
If only all HS coaches would follow this same approach.
some dads and I were just talking about this weekend...one dad said 70% of line drives are hits 40% of ground balls are hits and 10% of flyballs are hits.
http://www.hardballtimes.com/g...hitters-best-friend/
Ground balls suck. And this article says it all. You have to get down to the absoute fastest powerless hitters in the game before ground balls present even a slight and I do mean slight advantage. For all but those ten hitters the ground ball is far less potent than fly balls. well hit fly balls go over fences. well hit ground balls MIGHT find a hole. Also while where you strike the ball ablsolutely plays a major role in launch angle power hitters also uppercut from 10 to 20 dgrees while singles hitters are generally 5 - 10. Stop teaching swing down, stop teaching hit the top half, stop teaching hit the inside of the ball and start teaching crush the ball!!
This category also ties into the other post on the board about "HS Coach vs. Hitting Coach". Just finished listening to a HS coaching staff scream for 40+ games & scrimmages "hit it hard on the ground!". Never understood that mentality, and shocked I didn't turn completely grey this season listening to it for hours on end.
Even playing in a strong league in an extremely competitive area (Orange County CA) we saw way more fly balls misplayed than ground balls. Horrible routes - singles misplayed into doubles, doubles into triples, and flat out missed balls. And what coach or player wouldn't rather have a gapper than a chopper just getting by an infielder?
2018's hitting coach stresses hitting the ball hard on a line or in the air, his HS coaches actually got mad at kids for doing just that.
Not all HS coaches teach the ground ball approach. But many do. I certainly don't want to put everyone in the same basket. That is never the case anyway.
As the OP references, we often want our pitchers to get ground balls. If that's what the pitcher's coach wants, how can it also be what the hitter's coach wants? I mean, somebody's wrong.
And besides, the kids who the college recruiters and scouts notice are the kids driving the ball into the gap (or over the fence), not the kids hitting ground ball after ground ball. When I see a scouting report with something in it like "has a great ground ball approach" or a PG profile that lauds the kid's ability to hit the ball on the ground, I'll reconsider. But until then I'll continue to believe that the hitter should be looking for a pitch he can drive and then hammer it.
That all being said. How do we teach it?
I like a lot of the response of hitting it hard.
However is that enough?
My guess is to lay off low pitches for one.
What about the slight uppercut? Swing with the plane?
Eliminate the level swing mentality?
Thoughts?
Ground balls suck. And this article says it all. You have to get down to the absoute fastest powerless hitters in the game before ground balls present even a slight and I do mean slight advantage. For all but those ten hitters the ground ball is far less potent than fly balls. well hit fly balls go over fences. well hit ground balls MIGHT find a hole. Also while where you strike the ball ablsolutely plays a major role in launch angle power hitters also uppercut from 10 to 20 dgrees while singles hitters are generally 5 - 10. Stop teaching swing down, stop teaching hit the top half, stop teaching hit the inside of the ball and start teaching crush the ball!!
2020Dad: This thread and your post piqued my curiosity of my 2015's (contact hitter low strikeouts) "spray chart" so I pulled it up -he's hitting .446 (.523 OB%) and his AB's conclude w/ 56% ground balls, 20% fly balls and 24% line drives. Though I would like to see the line drive % up(love the "ropes over ss"), the grounders through the hole or bunts put him on base for the "big boys."
My favorite extra base hit of his this year was a double to CF; CF got down on a knee to field ball..that was all he had to see to reach second.
Originally Posted by dad43:
some dads and I were just talking about this weekend...one dad said 70% of line drives are hits 40% of ground balls are hits and 10% of flyballs are hits
Here’s the hit numbers for our team this past season.
52 LD, 10 FB, 8 PU, 62 GB, and of the 62 GB hits, 40 never left the IF.
Here’s our opponent’s numbers.
129 LD, 37 FB, 12 PU, 89 GB, and of the 89 GB hits, 36 never left the IF.
A lot has to do with the hitters, the pitchers and the defense. And what isn’t taken into consideration is that there are more than 1 kind of each category. A HR is a FB just like a can-of-corn. A duck fart soft liner of the fists is a liner just like the ball that’s hit like a 30.07 shot.
In the end, it’s better to hit the ball than strike out, and in general it’s the harder its hit, the better. Also if the ball goes over the 5 players in the IF, that only leaves 3 players with a chance to catch it in the air. 
I am all for Square it up and Hit The Ball Hard....as a little experiment, maybe those of us attending a tourney this coming weekend can keep track of balls in the air vs balls on the ground. I will be be keeping mine simple....Ground Ball defined as any ball that hits in front of the infielders......Ball in the Air defined as any ball past the infielders not yet having touched the ground, to include LD, PU's and Fly balls. Then whether it resulted in a runner on base or not.
I am all for Square it up and Hit The Ball Hard....as a little experiment, maybe those of us attending a tourney this coming weekend can keep track of balls in the air vs balls on the ground. I will be be keeping mine simple....Ground Ball defined as any ball that hits in front of the infielders......Ball in the Air defined as any ball past the infielders not yet having touched the ground, to include LD, PU's and Fly balls. Then whether it resulted in a runner on base or not.
good idea
I know this is kind of a dumb question, but when does a line drive turn into a fly ball and vice versa. I understand the perfect examples for each of them, but when does one turn into the other? I couldn't find a really good definition . I'm assuming there is some grey area in between. I guess my question is how does a hitting evaluator define a player as either a line drive or fly ball hitter.
In the end, it’s better to hit the ball than strike out,
This isn't inherently true. Trading guaranteed contact for a combination of more hard contact and more strike outs can be, and normally is, a good trade, and it's part of the reason there aren't very many slap hitters in pro ball anymore, and there are a lot more strikeouts (notwithstanding that we could quibble about whether MLB has passed the point where it remains a good trade).
Originally Posted by jacjacatk:
This isn't inherently true. Trading guaranteed contact for a combination of more hard contact and more strike outs can be, and normally is, a good trade, and it's part of the reason there aren't very many slap hitters in pro ball anymore, and there are a lot more strikeouts (notwithstanding that we could quibble about whether MLB has passed the point where it remains a good trade).
Now why do you want to introduce more into my answer than was there? I made a general statement and you’re trying to put limits on it, ad only guessing why there aren’t many slap hitters in MLB anymore.
If this were a MLB board, your argument might be valid, but this is a HS board.
But this still IS still a (admittedly "high-end") high school baseball board.
Originally Posted by 2020dad:
It is true this is a high school board. It is also true that ground balls will find much more success in high school than mlb. However it is further true that the great high school hitter looks a lot like a mlb hitter except not quite as strong and developed. So the question is do you want your son to model himself for strictly high school success or success both there and beyond? Ground balls still suck -and I don't care what the stats would show on the youth or high school level. But incidentally if you play the good travel circuit (which is no doubt better than hs ball) ground balls are outs.
The answer depends on one’s perspective. Mine is that I want to see as many players enjoy personal success and contribute to their team as possible. My guess is, that would amount to something in excess 95% of all HS players. Your perspective seems to be directed to that 5%.
And FWIW, ground balls aren’t automatically outs in the ML, so why you think good travel ball is better than that I don’t understand. I get it. You think any player that hits a ground ball has failed. I don’t see it that way.
But this still IS still a (admittedly "high-end") high school baseball board.
Relative to line drives, ground balls suck at every level. I'm sure Stats has posted HS batted ball rates at some point in the past, but the MLB gap between line drive and ground ball slash lines (which is on the order of 1000 points of OPS) is similar to that at the HS level.
FWIW, fly balls that don't leave the park at the MLB level are nearly worthless (the fact that a bunch of them do turn into HRs is what makes them worthwhile). I don't have a ton of HS data to go on, but anecdotally fly balls at the HS level get misplayed often enough that it wouldn't surprise me if they're quite competitive with ground ball values even accounting for the lower HR rates.
I arrived at the end of my son's practice yesterday (I throw BP to a few of the kids that want extra cuts after practice), just in time to catch the coach talking about the team's approach to their upcoming CIF playoff game. The gist of his comments were--you guessed it--hit the ball on the ground and get on any way you can.
After practice was over and everybody left, I asked the top 3 hitters (who stayed): You guys realize the coach wasn't talking to you, right? All three guys knew he was speaking to the rest of the team and their job was to (hopefully) drive those guys in after they got on base (anyway, anyhow).
High School coaches are tasked with WINNING games, any way they can. If they have a team full of DUDES, their job is easy....but what most coaches get (if they're lucky) is 5 good hitters and bunch of role players. They have to find a way to make that work and in a lot of cases, that entails hitting the ball on the ground and forcing teams to 1) field the ball, 2) throw the ball accurately, and 3) catch the thrown ball. Weaker hitters that put the ball in the air are basically giving at bats away.
If we're talking about DUDES, I wholeheartedly agree with hitting the ball hard "in the air". If we're talking about your average overall HS team, I understand the "hit the ball in the ground" approach. We all know 1 in 10 players makes it to the next level. For those that don't, HS coaches have to make them as successful as possible...any way, any how.
@Stats: What the heck is a 30.07?
Originally Posted by jacjacatk:
Relative to line drives, ground balls suck at every level. I'm sure Stats has posted HS batted ball rates at some point in the past, but the MLB gap between line drive and ground ball slash lines (which is on the order of 1000 points of OPS) is similar to that at the HS level.
Where did you get that information from? I’ve never tried to come up with that number, but I am interested in seeing those numbers.
FWIW, fly balls that don't leave the park at the MLB level are nearly worthless (the fact that a bunch of them do turn into HRs is what makes them worthwhile). I don't have a ton of HS data to go on, but anecdotally fly balls at the HS level get misplayed often enough that it wouldn't surprise me if they're quite competitive with ground ball values even accounting for the lower HR rates.
I’ve never seen a breakdown of fly balls at the ML level. Are you saying a significant percentage of FBs at the ML level are HRs? If so, what’s a significant percentage?
What does the HS data you have, show? When you say “they're quite competitive with ground ball values even accounting for the lower HR rates”, what are you talking about? The number of hits per event, the number of runners reaching base safely per event, or something else like run per event? I’m asking to try to come up with a way to use the data I have to check.
But this still IS still a (admittedly "high-end") high school baseball board.
Relative to line drives, ground balls suck at every level. I'm sure Stats has posted HS batted ball rates at some point in the past, but the MLB gap between line drive and ground ball slash lines (which is on the order of 1000 points of OPS) is similar to that at the HS level.
FWIW, fly balls that don't leave the park at the MLB level are nearly worthless (the fact that a bunch of them do turn into HRs is what makes them worthwhile). I don't have a ton of HS data to go on, but anecdotally fly balls at the HS level get misplayed often enough that it wouldn't surprise me if they're quite competitive with ground ball values even accounting for the lower HR rates.
You think any player that hits a ground ball has failed. I don’t see it that way.
Players who make (non-productive) outs have failed. Probability of making an out is lower if you hit line drives, is higher if you hit ground balls, and is highest of all if you hit a fly ball. In no case, is the probability of making a non-productive out 100%. So no... somebody who hits a ground ball past the diving shortstop has not failed.
I arrived at the end of my son's practice yesterday (I throw BP to a few of the kids that want extra cuts after practice), just in time to catch the coach talking about the team's approach to their upcoming CIF playoff game. The gist of his comments were--you guessed it--hit the ball on the ground and get on any way you can.
After practice was over and everybody left, I asked the top 3 hitters (who stayed): You guys realize the coach wasn't talking to you, right? All three guys knew he was speaking to the rest of the team and their job was to (hopefully) drive those guys in after they got on base (anyway, anyhow).
High School coaches are tasked with WINNING games, any way they can. If they have a team full of DUDES, their job is easy....but what most coaches get (if they're lucky) is 5 good hitters and bunch of role players. They have to find a way to make that work and in a lot of cases, that entails hitting the ball on the ground and forcing teams to 1) field the ball, 2) throw the ball accurately, and 3) catch the thrown ball. Weaker hitters that put the ball in the air are basically giving at bats away.
If we're talking about DUDES, I wholeheartedly agree with hitting the ball hard "in the air". If we're talking about your average overall HS team, I understand the "hit the ball in the ground" approach. We all know 1 in 10 players makes it to the next level. For those that don't, HS coaches have to make them as successful as possible...any way, any how.
@Stats: What the heck is a 30.07?
You think any player that hits a ground ball has failed. I don’t see it that way.
Players who make (non-productive) outs have failed. Probability of making an out is lower if you hit line drives, is higher if you hit ground balls, and is highest of all if you hit a fly ball. In no case, is the probability of making a non-productive out 100%. So no... somebody who hits a ground ball past the diving shortstop has not failed.
Originally Posted by jacjacatk:
Relative to line drives, ground balls suck at every level. I'm sure Stats has posted HS batted ball rates at some point in the past, but the MLB gap between line drive and ground ball slash lines (which is on the order of 1000 points of OPS) is similar to that at the HS level.
Where did you get that information from? I’ve never tried to come up with that number, but I am interested in seeing those numbers.
FWIW, fly balls that don't leave the park at the MLB level are nearly worthless (the fact that a bunch of them do turn into HRs is what makes them worthwhile). I don't have a ton of HS data to go on, but anecdotally fly balls at the HS level get misplayed often enough that it wouldn't surprise me if they're quite competitive with ground ball values even accounting for the lower HR rates.
I’ve never seen a breakdown of fly balls at the ML level. Are you saying a significant percentage of FBs at the ML level are HRs? If so, what’s a significant percentage?
What does the HS data you have, show? When you say “they're quite competitive with ground ball values even accounting for the lower HR rates”, what are you talking about? The number of hits per event, the number of runners reaching base safely per event, or something else like run per event? I’m asking to try to come up with a way to use the data I have to check.
Almost everything you could want to know about MLB splits is available online easily.
http://www.baseball-reference....B&year=2014#traj
9% of FB last season were HR. 51% of fly balls that ended up being hits were HR. The slash line on flyballs was 154/150/442. The slash line on GB was 247/247/268. So GB become hits about 60% more often than FB, but the extra bases on FB (largely from the HR) result in an OPS that's actually higher than the GB OPS.
The LD slash line was 657/650/992, so about 1100 points (or 319%) better than the OPS on ground balls.
I suspect (and vaguely recall based on data you've posted previously) that the HS OPS on ground balls is more likely to be in the 650ish range. say something like 320/320/330. Flyballs are also likely to generate a better slash line given the state of HS OF play, though we'd probably want to look at some actual data to see if FB values are better than GB values at that level (I said it wouldn't surprise me if they were).
I'd be happy to place a bet on LD values being better than either, and an approach along the lines suggested by Coach May being more productive than one preaching hitting GB (though I've no idea how you'd really scientifically test what approach hitters were using).
I arrived at the end of my son's practice yesterday (I throw BP to a few of the kids that want extra cuts after practice), just in time to catch the coach talking about the team's approach to their upcoming CIF playoff game. The gist of his comments were--you guessed it--hit the ball on the ground and get on any way you can.
After practice was over and everybody left, I asked the top 3 hitters (who stayed): You guys realize the coach wasn't talking to you, right? All three guys knew he was speaking to the rest of the team and their job was to (hopefully) drive those guys in after they got on base (anyway, anyhow).
High School coaches are tasked with WINNING games, any way they can. If they have a team full of DUDES, their job is easy....but what most coaches get (if they're lucky) is 5 good hitters and bunch of role players. They have to find a way to make that work and in a lot of cases, that entails hitting the ball on the ground and forcing teams to 1) field the ball, 2) throw the ball accurately, and 3) catch the thrown ball. Weaker hitters that put the ball in the air are basically giving at bats away.
If we're talking about DUDES, I wholeheartedly agree with hitting the ball hard "in the air". If we're talking about your average overall HS team, I understand the "hit the ball in the ground" approach. We all know 1 in 10 players makes it to the next level. For those that don't, HS coaches have to make them as successful as possible...any way, any how.
@Stats: What the heck is a 30.07?
...you forgot part 2 and part 3 (throwing it accurately and catching the ball). I also agree that the lower end guys don't have much of a chance at getting on base, but trying in vein to get an inferior hitter to "turn and burn" is only going to frustrate you for the roughly 100 days and 25 games that you have him. The kid isn't going to play past HS, so why not use whatever he's got to your (and his) advantage.
Our worst hitter this year (.161 AVG) had a total of 5 hits...all ground ball singles (plus 3 ROEs). Decent outfielder with good speed, but ZERO power and pretty bad mechanics. Trying to get that kid to drive the ball would be an exercise in futility.
But this still IS still a (admittedly "high-end") high school baseball board.
Relative to line drives, ground balls suck at every level. I'm sure Stats has posted HS batted ball rates at some point in the past, but the MLB gap between line drive and ground ball slash lines (which is on the order of 1000 points of OPS) is similar to that at the HS level.
FWIW, fly balls that don't leave the park at the MLB level are nearly worthless (the fact that a bunch of them do turn into HRs is what makes them worthwhile). I don't have a ton of HS data to go on, but anecdotally fly balls at the HS level get misplayed often enough that it wouldn't surprise me if they're quite competitive with ground ball values even accounting for the lower HR rates.
You have obviously been scouting my kid's HS team. Bottom line - any ball in play is an adventure.
I arrived at the end of my son's practice yesterday (I throw BP to a few of the kids that want extra cuts after practice), just in time to catch the coach talking about the team's approach to their upcoming CIF playoff game. The gist of his comments were--you guessed it--hit the ball on the ground and get on any way you can.
After practice was over and everybody left, I asked the top 3 hitters (who stayed): You guys realize the coach wasn't talking to you, right? All three guys knew he was speaking to the rest of the team and their job was to (hopefully) drive those guys in after they got on base (anyway, anyhow).
High School coaches are tasked with WINNING games, any way they can. If they have a team full of DUDES, their job is easy....but what most coaches get (if they're lucky) is 5 good hitters and bunch of role players. They have to find a way to make that work and in a lot of cases, that entails hitting the ball on the ground and forcing teams to 1) field the ball, 2) throw the ball accurately, and 3) catch the thrown ball. Weaker hitters that put the ball in the air are basically giving at bats away.
If we're talking about DUDES, I wholeheartedly agree with hitting the ball hard "in the air". If we're talking about your average overall HS team, I understand the "hit the ball in the ground" approach. We all know 1 in 10 players makes it to the next level. For those that don't, HS coaches have to make them as successful as possible...any way, any how.
@Stats: What the heck is a 30.07?
...you forgot part 2 and part 3 (throwing it accurately and catching the ball). I also agree that the lower end guys don't have much of a chance at getting on base, but trying in vein to get an inferior hitter to "turn and burn" is only going to frustrate you for the roughly 100 days and 25 games that you have him. The kid isn't going to play past HS, so why not use whatever he's got to your (and his) advantage.
Our worst hitter this year (.161 AVG) had a total of 5 hits...all ground ball singles (plus 3 ROEs). Decent outfielder with good speed, but ZERO power and pretty bad mechanics. Trying to get that kid to drive the ball would be an exercise in futility.
The rate of return on line drives is ~3 times higher than on GB. You can be really, really bad at hitting LD and still be a more productive hitter by trying to hit LD than by trying to hit GB, especially when you're going 5/31 on GB anyway.
Getting the ball in the air is less likely to result in a hit for youth athletes, which is why coaches of young players tend to teach ground ball hitting mechanics.
This obviously ruins their value going forward, so the coaches are sacrificing future success for present success. And what could be more important than some wins at the 10U level in front of all these college recruiters and pro scouts?
Get the ball in the air. Pitchers at the higher levels want you to hit ground balls. It can't also be right that you should hit ground balls.
I don't know what kind of youth baseball you have been watching. The fly balls became near automatic outs at 8u...they play on a VERY tiny field. I would guess the a shortstop playing deep is within 15 feet of both left field and center field.
My kid plays 12u, he has been taught line drives, NOT fly balls, even his home runs are line drives. The only time the team in general has been taught to hit on the ground in the infield is a very specific "hit and run" play where if the ball is caught it would be a very bad thing, it MUST hit the ground first.
Sounds like you have been watching some pretty bad youth baseball.
I arrived at the end of my son's practice yesterday (I throw BP to a few of the kids that want extra cuts after practice), just in time to catch the coach talking about the team's approach to their upcoming CIF playoff game. The gist of his comments were--you guessed it--hit the ball on the ground and get on any way you can.
After practice was over and everybody left, I asked the top 3 hitters (who stayed): You guys realize the coach wasn't talking to you, right? All three guys knew he was speaking to the rest of the team and their job was to (hopefully) drive those guys in after they got on base (anyway, anyhow).
High School coaches are tasked with WINNING games, any way they can. If they have a team full of DUDES, their job is easy....but what most coaches get (if they're lucky) is 5 good hitters and bunch of role players. They have to find a way to make that work and in a lot of cases, that entails hitting the ball on the ground and forcing teams to 1) field the ball, 2) throw the ball accurately, and 3) catch the thrown ball. Weaker hitters that put the ball in the air are basically giving at bats away.
If we're talking about DUDES, I wholeheartedly agree with hitting the ball hard "in the air". If we're talking about your average overall HS team, I understand the "hit the ball in the ground" approach. We all know 1 in 10 players makes it to the next level. For those that don't, HS coaches have to make them as successful as possible...any way, any how.
@Stats: What the heck is a 30.07?
...you forgot part 2 and part 3 (throwing it accurately and catching the ball). I also agree that the lower end guys don't have much of a chance at getting on base, but trying in vein to get an inferior hitter to "turn and burn" is only going to frustrate you for the roughly 100 days and 25 games that you have him. The kid isn't going to play past HS, so why not use whatever he's got to your (and his) advantage.
Our worst hitter this year (.161 AVG) had a total of 5 hits...all ground ball singles (plus 3 ROEs). Decent outfielder with good speed, but ZERO power and pretty bad mechanics. Trying to get that kid to drive the ball would be an exercise in futility.
