Growing up a Braves fan in Mississippi, there was one player on the Phillies who seemed to always to hurt the Braves in clutch situations. The player’s name was Mike Schmidt.

After reading Mike Schmidt’s hitting book, The Mike Schmidt Study: Hitting Theory, Skills and Techniques, as a college baseball player, I was very suprised to find out that he actually struggled with strikeouts during his first season as a professional baseball player in the minor legaues.

His solution was to stop trying to pull the ball. His thought was to try to hit the ball through the middle of the diamond.
This essentially allowed the hitter to cover the outside corner and allow his instincts to handle the inside pitch.

This strategy absolutely works and allows the baseball player to effectively cut down on strikeouts.

Wilt Person is a baseball instructor with Six Tool Players which provides interactive access to professonal baseball instructors to assist youth league coaches, high school coaches, and parents with improving his or her player’s baseball skills by implementing effective baseball drills and baseball instruction that stress the fundamentals of baseball no matter the age or skill level of the player.  www.sixtoolplayers.com

IV. Mental Preparation Hitting
A. Have only one key! Wallace Johnson’s “Left-Center to Right-Center”, “Through the Box”, “Look fastball away and adjust in”, are a few examples. With having less than a second to decide whether to swing or not, hitting is based upon muscle memory and a player does not have time to think about his head, his hands, shoulders, etc when he is in the box.

B. Have your plan before you go into the box and make adjustments on a pitch by pitch basis.

Wilt Person is a baseball instructor with Six Tool Players which provides interactive access to professonal baseball instructors to assist youth league coaches, high school coaches, and parents with improving his or her player’s baseball skills by implementing effective baseball drills and baseball instruction that stress the fundamentals of baseball no matter the age or skill level of the player.  www.sixtoolplayers.com

III. Season
A. Very Simple, Have fun! Play “loosey goosey” as my first minor league manager, Max Venable, would proclaim before a game. You have worked hard and are physically and mentally prepared so enjoy the game.
B. In baseball, never get too high or too low. Focus on approach not results. In baseball, a hitter who gets a hit 3 out of 10 is very good, although he technically fails seven times. The season is long and the mentally tough player can sustain himself through “slumps” by not allowing his confidence to waver.
C. If your player has a solid approach, he has a great chance to be successful over time.
D. The players who are prepared mentally can separate the game into very distinct components. How many times have you seen a pitcher throw a pitch that he believes should have been called a strike and he gives up a key hit or homerun on the very next pitch or a batter who takes a pitch that he believes to be a ball and ends up striking out on the next pitch which is very hittable. If you watch a major league game closely, you are will see that the homerun was given up and the batter struck out because the player could not separate a “bad call” from the next pitch. It is critical that players regroup quickly when a call does not go their way.

E. When there is a bad call, your player must regroup. The umpire may be agitated but as there is no stop clock in baseball, have your pitcher walk around the mound or your hitter clean some dirt out of his spikes to regroup mentally. This mental adjustment is what separates the average player from the top level player.
F. If they strike out or get out their first two at-bats, some hitters will accept a 0-4 or a 0-5 for that day. However, a mentally tough hitter is greedy, has forgotten the first two at-bats, and believes that he will end the day at 3-5 with his team winning.

Wilt Person is a baseball instructor with Six Tool Players which provides interactive access to professonal baseball instructors to assist youth league coaches, high school coaches, and parents with improving his or her player’s baseball skills by implementing effective baseball drills and baseball instruction that stress the fundamentals of baseball no matter the age or skill level of the player.  www.sixtoolplayers.com

II. Pre Season/Practice

A. Make practice fun by scheduling scrimmaging and having mini-series between players because game situations are the best environment for a player to gain confidence and sharpen his mental edge. It is unrealistic for coaches to expect players to execute in game situations if practices do not incorporate actual game scenarios with a pitcher who is really trying to get you out instead of helping you work on moving the runner over. Players should always practice at 100% because the games are played at 100%.
B. Take batting practice on the field as much as possible because success in baseball is based on effective visualization. On the field, you see the diamond, the mound, the “batter’s eye”, the dugouts, the bleachers, the ball, the pitcher, the infielder’s shifting to cover on a “hit and run”. It is impossible to simulate this visually in a batting cage. You want your players to see the difference when they hook the ball down the line, slice the ball down the line for a triple, or fly out to the warning track. In the batting cage, your spray hitting speedy second baseball may think his is a power hitter but the field will tell the truth about his homerun prowess.

Wilt Person is a baseball instructor with Six Tool Players which provides interactive access to professonal baseball instructors to assist youth league coaches, high school coaches, and parents with improving his or her player’s baseball skills by implementing effective baseball drills and baseball instruction that stress the fundamentals of baseball no matter the age or skill level of the player.  www.sixtoolplayers.com

How to Prepare Mentally for a Season?
I. Off Season
A. Prepare your players physically
1. Physical Preparation has a direct correlation to Mental Preparation
2. Keep it Simple! Simple Philosophy for Baseball, Strong Core, Strong Legs, Strong Hands, and Flexibility are the foundation for any Baseball Training Program.
3. Leave Body building for the Body Builders.
B. Set Team Goals
1. The best players are team players. Stats will take care of themselves.
2. Ask each player to think about his role on the team and how he can help the team accomplish each goal to win the championship.
C. Be a Student of the Game
1. Provide your players with information to review over the off season regarding the fundamentals of the game.
2. Encourage your players to watch as many baseball games as they can over the off season and during the season.

Wilt Person is a baseball instructor with Six Tool Players which provides interactive access to professonal baseball instructors to assist youth league coaches, high school coaches, and parents with improving his or her player’s baseball skills by implementing effective baseball drills and baseball instruction that stress the fundamentals of baseball no matter the age or skill level of the player.  www.sixtoolplayers.com

Answer: As an advanced player, the best methods to increase your bat speed are as follows:

First, implement the attached training regimen that focuses on building strength in your hands, wrists, and forearms. Having strong hands, wrists, and the forearms are essential to bat speed.

Second, consistently swinging a weighted bat utilizing correct mechanics and form can help you increase your bat speed.

Third, building strength in your core muscles, addominals, hips, and legs and not carrying excess weight can also help you increase your bat speed.