This is a good practice in general. The brain doesn't hear "don't." If I say, "don't think of an elephant" the first thing you do is think of an elephant. A hitter should say, "lay off the changeup" rather than "don't swing at the changeup."
Bill Hillhouse talking about softball hitting
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This is a good practice in general. The brain doesn't hear "don't." If I say, "don't think of an elephant" the first thing you do is think of an elephant. A hitter should say, "lay off the changeup" rather than "don't swing at the changeup."
FiveFrameSwing
Banned
Not quite.
Telling someone to "don't swing at a riseball" or to "lay off the riseball", will net you the same result.
The point you are missing is that one is more effective than the other. Just as walking from NYC to LA will net you the same net result as flying, the latter is a much more effective.
FiveFrameSwing
Banned
The point you are missing is that neither is effective.
Your analogy misses the mark ... as many analogies do.
FiveFrameSwing
Banned
Not sure why this is confusing folks, but let’s go ahead and explain the obvious.
Telling someone to “don’t swing at a riseball” is virtually equivalent to telling someone to “lay off the riseball”. The receiver of that instruction will respond in virtually the same way. In both sets of instruction the hitter has been told what “not to do” ... to not go after a riseball. That is not how an athlete, in a reactionary type situation, should be instructed.
A hitter will hear the instruction to "lay off the riseball" … the last word, ”riseball”, will stick with the hitter, and as they see the pitch coming in as a riseball, a check mark will register … “hmm, a riseball, yep, just what the coach instructed me to be looking for” … and they will swing at the riseball … which was what the instruction had them thinking of ... a riseball.
That’s terrible instruction.
Such instruction assumes that a batter has time in the box to perform a translation. What is the coach expecting of the batter's thought process when they instruct a batter in this way? Batter: "Umm, let me first determine if this pitch is a riseball, if it is, then I should lay off of it, and if it isn't then I should evaluate the pitch as to whether or not I can get long through it, and then ... opps, the ball is already in the catcher's mitt. Maybe next time, ... but first, let's see what words of wisdom my coach has for me now."
Instead, you should instruct what a hitter “should do”.
If you have information that the pitcher is struggling to throw strikes high in the zone, then rather than telling a hitter to “lay off” or “don’t swing” at pitches high in the zone, you instead instruct them where they should be looking for strikes, or pitches to swing at … as in “zone low”.
Telling someone to “don’t swing at a riseball” is virtually equivalent to telling someone to “lay off the riseball”. The receiver of that instruction will respond in virtually the same way. In both sets of instruction the hitter has been told what “not to do” ... to not go after a riseball. That is not how an athlete, in a reactionary type situation, should be instructed.
A hitter will hear the instruction to "lay off the riseball" … the last word, ”riseball”, will stick with the hitter, and as they see the pitch coming in as a riseball, a check mark will register … “hmm, a riseball, yep, just what the coach instructed me to be looking for” … and they will swing at the riseball … which was what the instruction had them thinking of ... a riseball.
That’s terrible instruction.
Such instruction assumes that a batter has time in the box to perform a translation. What is the coach expecting of the batter's thought process when they instruct a batter in this way? Batter: "Umm, let me first determine if this pitch is a riseball, if it is, then I should lay off of it, and if it isn't then I should evaluate the pitch as to whether or not I can get long through it, and then ... opps, the ball is already in the catcher's mitt. Maybe next time, ... but first, let's see what words of wisdom my coach has for me now."
Instead, you should instruct what a hitter “should do”.
If you have information that the pitcher is struggling to throw strikes high in the zone, then rather than telling a hitter to “lay off” or “don’t swing” at pitches high in the zone, you instead instruct them where they should be looking for strikes, or pitches to swing at … as in “zone low”.
FFS - Personally I have no issue with asking a hitter to "zone low" or pick a specific area to focus their attention. For example, in many of our 16u tournaments this summer, it was very common for pitchers to focus on the outside part of the zone. This is where we had our hitters focus their attention early in counts. Since we also focused heavily on outside pitches during batting practice, we were often successful against this philosophy. However, in your opinion, how do you adjust this instruction when the hitter has two strikes? To me, the two strike process must be thought of differently.
JJsqueeze
Dad, Husband....legend
That is a lot of explanation to get back to your original position of the best approach to a riseball is "swing at lower pitches". Which is still equivalent, strategy wise (not cue wise), to "lay off the riseball".
What do you tell your hitters when they get fooled and swing or when they take belly button strikes because they weren't low enough? You know how to actually hit a riseball?
FiveFrameSwing
Banned
As I tried to explain, one approach is much more effective than the other.
Zoning, like many parts of the game, is something that should be practiced.
JJsqueeze
Dad, Husband....legend
congratulations...you just dodged your 5000th question on DFP. You should get a special blue softball or something.
FiveFrameSwing
Banned
JJs, I take a lot of what you have to say as tongue-and-cheek ... including your questions. To consider "lay off the riseball" as the same instruction as "zone low", is simply foolish ... as are many of your posts. But I digress ... let's talk hitting.
