Hitting up the middle

I'm only speaking from my experiences here but,

I know the 2 programs I've been apart of their approach for all of our hitters was to put the ball up the middle because most of the time when hitters do that it results in a base hit.

Now I am a Pitcher, so I might be missing something else, but to me it made sense.

To me, I want a see a kid hit the ball on the barrel consistantly. Where he hits it, is not as important. However, if you see a player that is pull happy then that might be an issue or if all a player can do is hit the ball to the opposite field, a program may have an issue with that. If they are smart, than they need to look for hitters who center the ball on the barrel often. Those guys, I want on my team. Don't focus on where the ball goes, just try to hit it hard.

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bubandbran,

You are exactly right. This vital key is often over-looked by many young hitters and instructors.
Hitting the ball squarely with the half-moon impression left behind on the bottom halve of the baseball is idealistic. This not only indicates the hitter is squaring up, but also, indicates the ball is getting the necessary lift off the bat.

Hope all is well with you AB. Maybe we can spark a few useful hitting discussions during the upcoming holidays around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Peace,
Shep

Thanks Shep. Good to see you on here. Keep up the good posts. Anytime you want to talk hitting, I am all ears.

In scouting you hitters, for me, I look for a kid to have a quiet front side, not too jumpy, and if he makes consistant solid contact. Power doesn't excite me as much as a guy who can hit. Because good hitters can develop power, i.e. Mike Lowell. But it is hard for a guy with great power to become a good hitter. Normally they miss too much. Young hitters, we live in the Sports Center era and the long ball gets all the attention, but trust me, to play the game at high levels, work on perfecting solid, line drive consistant contact and good things will happen!
Hitting Downloads

There is no doubt that hitters should attempt to square up the bat on the ball on every swing.....

That is why the first movement of the bat barrel should not be to the ball....

I do believe that line drives which drop in the outfield should be hits that weren't quite squared up......

Bluedog and I disagree on situational hitting and the approach to such in practice. I'd bet that we do agree on hitting gap to gap. Most hitters, when they are in the "zone" really tear up the gaps via the line drive. I believe that this comes from the ability to "sit on the ball" for a longer period of time (10th of a second max) and then having the confidence/ability to drive the ball. Of course this also has to do with how one is being pitched. I might add that when being most efficient, these hitters are aggressive with few balls over the plate taken for a strike.

quote:

Originally posted by CoachB25:
Bluedog and I disagree on situational hitting and the approach to such in practice. I'd bet that we do agree on hitting gap to gap. Most hitters, when they are in the "zone" really tear up the gaps via the line drive. I believe that this comes from the ability to "sit on the ball" for a longer period of time (10th of a second max) and then having the confidence/ability to drive the ball. Of course this also has to do with how one is being pitched. I might add that when being most efficient, these hitters are aggressive with few balls over the plate taken for a strike.

Coach,

Do you think the reason for this is that the hitters are seeing the ball better and swinging at more strikes and their timing is on? I'm thinking that really, if a ball is pulled down the line or hit down the opposite field line, the hitter was either early or late on a strike or they hit a ball.

I think it is a combination of that and hitting pitcher mistakes. I don't agree that hitting a ball down the line is necessairly the result of a late swing. We talk about "letting the ball get deep" on an outside pitch and then driving that ball. There are numerous drills for this to enable your hitters to have confidence in doing that. I really like some of the drills Coach Cohen has from the University of Kentucky. Per the driving the ball up the middle, we play some games to make it fun but have "targets" for the hitter to drive the all at. One of those games was hitting the ball through a hole in those old ATEC Machine Protectors. Those are the ones with the rectangular hole in the center. Of course this requires some sort of front toss as well as having accuracy and speed.

quote:

Originally posted by CoachB25:
I think it is a combination of that and hitting pitcher mistakes. I don't agree that hitting a ball down the line is necessairly the result of a late swing. We talk about "letting the ball get deep" on an outside pitch and then driving that ball. There are numerous drills for this to enable your hitters to have confidence in doing that. I really like some of the drills Coach Cohen has from the University of Kentucky. Per the driving the ball up the middle, we play some games to make it fun but have "targets" for the hitter to drive the all at. One of those games was hitting the ball through a hole in those old ATEC Machine Protectors. Those are the ones with the rectangular hole in the center. Of course this requires some sort of front toss as well as having accuracy and speed.

I agree about letting the ball get deep. I guess it would depend on your relationship to the plate if you would be able to hit a strike down the line or not. If you are at contact position and draw a line through the sweetspot, you could tell if a hitter could do that or not and then place the tee there and have him try it. I really like Coach Cohen's drills too. I use cones as targets and move the tee accordingly to teach hitting to all fields and then when they get profficient at that, then we go to front toss.

quote:

My question, why is this such a desirable trait or indicator of a good hitter, or is it?

Back to the original question.

ALL OTHER THINGS BEING EQUAL. The benefit to being an up the middle hitter is simply....If you are early or late on a swing you have that much more room for error on your timing. For example, if a consistent pull hitter is a little early, then he goes foul. But if a consistent up the middle hitter is a little early he keeps it in play.

Having not been there its hard to see why the scout would get excited. Hitting up the middle is fine, but its not if the pitch was on the outside corner.

I have seen a lot of kids in cages raking ball after ball to the pull size. This is poor BP IMO

Your timing mechanism should be up the middle, you should train that way (Except special situations), but that doesnt always mean you will hit it up the middle. You still have to hit the ball where its pitched.

Triple Dad, well said.

Thanks for everyone's replies. Especially TripleDad. What you said makes a lot of sense. I just didn't understand all of the excitement about this attribute even though I've heard it for years.