Posted by: steve (smeisy@sbcglobal.net) on Thu Jun 7 22:13:07 2007

> Your son is doing what he should. 50% of hitting is mental and if he is doing it without being taught that's great. You should always go to the plate with a plan. No hitter can cover all four corners of the strike zone. Until you are 0-2 you should look for your pitch. By studying the pitcher and pitch counts you can better learn to anticipate pitches. You are in control until 0-2 and you should not let the pitcher off the hook by swinging at pitch out of the zone. Once my son started swing at pitches just because he didn't want to get down 0-1. I told him that if you do get down 0-1 etc. You really have an advantage because now you can look for off speed pitches and not have to worry about the fastball as much. This put it in a positive light and he never had that problem again. I think it is very important to teach the hitter that until 0-2 he is in charge. Get the pitch you want and then be ready to hit it. Learning to anticipate pitches is the key. We teach the mechanics of the swing but very little is taught about the mental side of hitting. I highly recommend the Mental Side of Hitting by Mike Epstein it is a bible on the mental side of hitting.

Thanks