Picky/Not Picky~pitch selection

[radness]

educating hitters on situation intelligence.

Would be a good reason to get comfortable swinging at the entire zone!
___________

 

[julray]

Would be a good reason to get comfortable swinging at the entire zone!
___________

It's good to practice getting comfortable with the entire zone.. coach might call hit and run, down two strikes, lousy umpire strike zone etc.. but that doesn't mean you should go to the plate and swing at everything that's remotely close. Hitters should be comfortable handling all kinds of pitches. But they should establish their own zone in a game depending on the situation. Do the best you can to not let the pitcher dictate the game. Plan to swing at hitters pitches, not pitchers pitches... adjust accordingly depending on the situation.

I understood your question to mean should the hitter be picky or swing freely in a game?

 

[radness]

I understood your question to mean should the hitter be picky or swing freely in a game?

Should could want need
.... Whatever the conversation brings

 

[canyonjoe]

One thing that's important to look at is contact percentage. If you swing and miss a lot having 2 strikes is a bad thing. If you have a really high contact percentage you can be more selective. Also there are certain really good hitters who can put almost any pitch into play. It's those hitters who need to really sit on zones early in the count.

If you are someone who will hack at crap you'll get that all day long.

 

[625ender]

Not picky but she got more picky with age.

Exactly the same way. I've always been a free swinger,but once I finally saw balls with spooky movement I changed my mind. Im picky as balls get tallied on the board and less picky with every strike. First pitch has never interested me

Funny story I got a chance to grab lunch with a group of guys and kirby puckett was there. Were talking baseball and of course his lack if height. I told him that I admired his free swing mentality and he thanked me.

He said he grew up in a housing project and he was always the shortest guy around. The neighborhood played stick ball and because they never had a catcher they taped a huge rectangular strike zone on a wall. It was a foot over his shoulders and 3ft wide. He swore that's what taught him to hit. Maybe be BS though

 

[julray]

Should could want need
.... Whatever the conversation brings

Sometimes context is needed

"
Picky/Not Picky~pitch selection
"

One can only assume you mean game situations.. not practice. Otherwise it don't make a whole lot of sense. Regardless.. plate discipline needs to be practiced as well.

 

[radness]

Sometimes context is needed

"
Picky/Not Picky~pitch selection
"

One can only assume you mean game situations.. not practice. Otherwise it don't make a whole lot of sense. Regardless.. plate discipline needs to be practiced as well.

As for leaving context simple,
It is because I recognize the diversity of people interpreting words in different ways. This brings discussions from different perspectives and perhaps more open discussion instead of
pin pointing out what to discuss.
The context forms itself through each poster

 

[marriard]

In general - see a pitch you like, hit it.... The better the pitcher is, the more DD is honed in on getting on top of a first pitch strike she can whack hard. As a pitcher she wants to live around 70% FPS so she assumes other pitchers do as well.

However; situationally there is a difference in DD's approach. Basically it comes down to 'Don't help the pitcher out by being a moron':

1) Never swing at a first pitch from a 'bad' pitcher. When we occasionally face below-average pitchers for the level of play (which got less and less over time); you KNOW you are going to get more than one pitch to hit. Make her throw lots of pitches - she is going to make more than one mistake and the more she throws, the more juicy that mistake is going to be. We want her tired AND not good.
2) Be willing to go deeper into the count and be more selective if the pitcher has been walking girls or getting deep into the count on most batters. At some point she will try to guide one in there mid-plate and be ready to jump on it.

She has some other rules of approach as well. But these are the top situations she sees the most.

 

[mmeece]

Selectively aggressive is my motto. A few guidelines I used have passed on to my players:
-NEVER miss swinging at your pitch. That means you have to know what that pitch is and be loaded and ready EVERY pitch.
-Approach the 1st pitch and any count with 0 or 1 strike as if you're ahead. If you can't hit an outside pitch (or changeup or inside, whatever) then don't swing at it until you have 2 strikes and need to.
-Unless given the take sign, don't just decide not to swing. I don't care if you block off 95% of the strike zone, but if I didn't tell you to take then be ready for that 1, perfect pitch for you and hammer it.

On a side note, some of our best innings have been when time was short and we needed baserunners and just told our girls to find the first close pitch and hit it. So maybe less picky is the way to go?

 

[julray]

Selectively aggressive is my motto. A few guidelines I used have passed on to my players:
-NEVER miss swinging at your pitch. That means you have to know what that pitch is and be loaded and ready EVERY pitch.
-Approach the 1st pitch and any count with 0 or 1 strike as if you're ahead. If you can't hit an outside pitch (or changeup or inside, whatever) then don't swing at it until you have 2 strikes and need to.
-Unless given the take sign, don't just decide not to swing. I don't care if you block off 95% of the strike zone, but if I didn't tell you to take then be ready for that 1, perfect pitch for you and hammer it.

On a side note, some of our best innings have been when time was short and we needed baserunners and just told our girls to find the first close pitch and hit it. So maybe less picky is the way to go?

That's like because in other scenarios they are not doing one the first things you mentioned

".... be loaded and ready EVERY pitch"