Teach Grounders, or teach for power?

Certain situations of course call for ground balls.

But I generally agree with you. I tell my pitchers to throw ground balls. So why would I want my hitters to hit ground balls?

I have heard about coaches who teach hitting groundballs. I think that to teach that to a potential hitter is detrimental to the hitter and only employed by a coach that is more interested in winning than developing his player. The arguement has always been that there is more opportunity for the defense to make a mistake, therefore more opportunity for a hitter to reach base.

But that argument is dependent on failure to execute by the defense. A power approach develops a positive approach for a hitter, and one that may earn him a spot on a team after HS. Assuming we are not takling about a 6.2-6.4 runner that can bunt his way on.

Power is the name of every game, you can't rely on your opponents weakness.

Who needs instruction to hit ground balls?

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Since more hits are registered hitting into the air, why do coaches persist in teaching to hit grounders?

Quincy ... I believe you may have been misled or are probably including "line drives" as fly balls (most likely). But, they don't occur near as often as flies or ground balls.


A few years ago I saw some hitting stats based upon a two year study of all batted balls (in NCAA).
The results, generally speaking as I can't put my hands on this, were as follows;

FLY BALLS (account for approx. 41% of batted balls):
- Only 2% resulted in Home runs beyond the fence.
- BAvg on fly balls was less than .200 (about .186).
Conclusion; don't swing for the fences and if you hit the ball in the air, it will most likely be caught.

GROUND BALLS (account for approx. 44% of batted balls):
- BAvg on ground balls was slightly over .200 (about .210 I think).
Conclusion; statistically you are better served hitting a ground ball than a fly ball. There is the additional possibility of a fielding error (thrower and receiver) or a throwing error granting you a free base! The reason a Coach (particularly at the Youth level), would prefer ground balls to flies.

LINE DRIVES (accounted for less than 15% of all batted balls, I believe).
- An astounding 80% resulted in base hits!
Conclusion; Strive to hit line drives (preferably in the gaps!).

BAvg findings in MLB probably differs with Wood vs. the NCAA metal bats where more ground balls could "find the holes" quicker. But, would bet the instance of flies, grounders and line drives would be similar.

I include line drives, home runs, singles, doubles, triples, bloopers, dinkers, flares and any other ball hit into the air.

Any non-grounder.

The outfielders have the largest area to cover with the fewest players.

Your statistical analysis is deceptive because line drives are also 'balls hit into the air'.

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Your statistical analysis is deceptive because line drives are also 'balls hit into the air'.

Certainly could be! Seems any statistical data can be interperted to prove varied points. Not my findings though, but those of the NCAA.

IMO; The poignant point, if there is one, is that when you strike a round ball with a round bat there are three possible results; a line drive (the hitter's desired result), a fly ball or a ground ball. Line drives find holes ALL OVER the field. "Fly" balls are most often run down (this is true at any level) resulting in an out. Ground balls provide for a greater chance of getting on base than does the fly. There are more infielders thus less ground to cover, but outfielders have longer, in time, to get to the baseball.

Came down to your city over the Christmas break (USF) hoping for warmth. Didn't get as lucky this trip!

It snowed this morning here in Ocala! LOL!

Global Warming

or is it Climate Change this week?

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It snowed this morning here in Ocala! LOL!

Raised in Fort Myers, daughter, grandchildren and parents still there ............... it's not supposed to be that cold there! Snow flurries in Ocala, now that's blasphemy.....

Not advocating just given you a reason. If I hit a ball in the air what are the chances of making an error on it? If I hit the ball on the ground the chances of making an error are significantly greater. This is why many coaches believe, right or wrong, on teaching there kids to pound the ball into the ground. I believe that all players are different. There are those that have home run power and need to be taught MENTALLY and PHYSICALLY how PROPERLY lift a ball. Those that do not have that power need to be taught how to hit hard ground balls and line drives.

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I believe that all players are different.

Coach, my question to a Coach of amateur players would be; why teach anything other than the goal of hitting a line drive? If 10 line drives net you 8 hits (as the NCAA study reflected) and your hitting .800, would you really want to teach anything else? In that arena, the ball leaves the yard when the hitter "slightly misses" his objective target.

Now in the Pro's, after you've learned to properly center a baseball, learning to loft the ball into a short right-field porch (ala Texiera, or Ortiz upon departing Minnesota) can be a very rewarding and lucrative endeavor.

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In that arena, the ball leaves the yard when the hitter "slightly misses" his objective target.

Wrong....

Prime9,

Amen. That should never happen in Ocala.

Richie Ashburn (HOF) always publicly said his homeruns were mistakes. I have heard many, many MLB players say what you said about "slightly misses".

I guess the reverse argument some want to make is if you are intentionally trying to hit a pitch for a HR and end up with a line dive double in the gap, that means the liner was a mistake.( Not even close to what YOU are saying or mean.)

Then again, they were MLB players so what do they know? They need to head to the slow pitch softball leagues to get it right....LOL.

Richie Ashburn hit 29 home runs in 15 seasons.

Not quite the example of a power hitter.

Alot of hs coaches teach hit the ball on the ground. Why? They are trying to win. And when you hit alot of ground balls your chances increase greatly at the hs level of play. Fly balls that dont leave the year are almost always outs. It takes one play to get a hitter out on a fly ball. Catch the ball. On a ground ball it has to be hit where someone can field it. It has to be fielded cleanly. Then the throw has to be accurate , in time , be caught. So many hs coaches teach hit the ball on the ground.

It makes sense if your goal is to simply give your hs team a better chance to win , I guess. Of course teaching hitters to hit properly and teaching them to hit line drives and bombs might result in more fly ball outs. I teach kids how to hit , period. The goal is a line drive somewhere , mashed or a bomb hit where no one can catch it. We will take a hard ground ball in a hole. Other than that I dont care to see a ground ball hit and would never teach a hitter to simply hit a ground ball.

We have won and won alot by teaching our hitters to hit , period. And our goal is a line drive seed or a bomb.

My point is it is taught at the hs level and that is why it is taught.

Teach players to hit the ball hard. Develop a good swing that will allow then to keep their hands back to let the ball get deep and then explode on it. A hard hit ball on the ground, on the line or in the air is difficult to catch. I tell my guys all the time I don't care where you hit it as long as you hit it hard. More times that not a hard hit ball will end up good for the hitter. It may be a hit or an error but the result is something good for the offense.

Quincy,

I know that probably as well as any on this board; met him many times when I was a kid. He also said he could've hit alot more HRs but that wasn't his game that got him to the MLB. But you are correct, Ashburn wasn't a prototypical power guy by any stretch.

Don't think Prime9's point was about power itself but rather the end result. I know for a fact that I've hit alot of line drives harder than any HR I ever hit yet some mi****s (less than solid) went out of the park. Yeah I was tickled pink about the HR but knew I had missed hitting the ball perfectly.

I wish those line drives had been dingers; everybody might be posting videos of me.LOL. Funny thing is I never had a shoulda,woulda,coulda moment over a line drive basehit.

I can control what pitch I swing at and how good of a swing I put on it. That's about it; just trying to hit the ball pure and hard somewhere. I would hazard a guess that 99.99% of good MLB, college and HS hitters would say something similar.

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Originally posted by Prime9:

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I believe that all players are different.

Coach, my question to a Coach of amateur players would be; why teach anything other than the goal of hitting a line drive?

I do teach all of my players to hit line drives. I reread my post and I am not sure how me saying that I believe that all players are different equals I do not teach my players to hit line drives.

Coach, my bad. That wasn't the connection I was trying to make. Just simply agreeing with you that players are different (i.e., styles; slap, pull etc). But, that withstanding, Seems a good objective would be to teach all learning amateur hitters that the objective is to "center the baseball" to achieve optimum results?

I asked that of you specifically because you seem so well versed on all aspects of coaching that I've seen you post on.