The "Go"

[Spartans21]

Looking for some clarification on the "go" of the swing......I have been reading and digesting a lot from here and bbd. Still a little foggy on what the exact "go" point is in the swing. The overlap/load into the unload is causing me to have a tough time defining the "go" point.......where is go!

 

[YOCOACH]

IMO, the "go" point is when your hitter recognizes the pitch as either a strike or a ball. Again, IMO, your batter should initiate the swing on every pitch until they recognize it as an undisputed "ball" call by the PU. This can be challenging at times, but they must be ready to hit any pitch thrown until they figure out the plate umpire's strike zone and the pithcer's/coach's tendencies/pattern's or sit on a pitch until it's thrown.

 

[bleacherdad]

IMO, the "go" point is when your hitter recognizes the pitch as either a strike or a ball. Again, IMO, your batter should initiate the swing on every pitch until they recognize it as an undisputed "ball" call by the PU. This can be challenging at times, but they must be ready to hit any pitch thrown until they figure out the plate umpire's strike zone and the pithcer's/coach's tendencies/pattern's or sit on a pitch until it's thrown.

Not necessarily. It depends on the skill level and the pitch count.
You wouldn't swing at a pitchers pitch the "kissed" the corner of the plate. Unless of course there were 2 strikes.
Teach your hitters to know their hitting zone and look for pitches thrown their. Let all other go. Even the strikes.
Bustos says in her dvd, strike zones are for umpires, hitting zones are for hitters.
The reason this makes so much sense, is swinging at bad strikes with less than 2 outs causes a lot of outs and takes away hits.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Not necessarily. It depends on the skill level and the pitch count.
You wouldn't swing at a pitchers pitch the "kissed" the corner of the plate. Unless of course there were 2 strikes.
Teach your hitters to know their hitting zone and look for pitches thrown their. Let all other go. Even the strikes.
Bustos says in her dvd, strike zones are for umpires, hitting zones are for hitters.
The reason this makes so much sense, is swinging at bad strikes with less than 2 outs causes a lot of outs and takes away hits.

To add to this ...... one particular pitching mentality that I will use is to pitch to locations where the hitter is more likely to make weak contact. The mentality isn't to strike the batter out, but to help the batter put the ball in play.

Many pitchers aren't strike-out beasts ..... and hence their strategy should be better aligned with that of the batter .... actually wanting the batter to put the ball in play ... but weakly enough for the team to field the out.

 

[Doug Romrell]

Again, IMO, your batter should initiate the swing on every pitch...

I agree with this. It's been my experience that batters around here don't look aggressive enough. That is, they don't look as though they are thinking "I'm hitting this pitch if it's a good pitch," but rather look more like statues. I love Cabrera's check swing. He's got barrel motion of every pitch.

 

[bleacherdad]

To add to this ...... one particular pitching mentality that I will use is to pitch to locations where the hitter is more likely to make weak contact. The mentality isn't to strike the batter out, but to help the batter put the ball in play.

Many pitchers aren't strike-out beasts ..... and hence their strategy should be better aligned with that of the batter .... actually wanting the batter to put the ball in play ... but weakly enough for the team to field the out.

This is a lot more common at the college level than I ever thought. There are a lot more pitchers with late break causing exactly what you've written.