Controlling the Count or Mastering the Zone

Champions Field
One of the biggest problems that young hitters face is coming to the plate with an idea of what they are doing at bat. This ends up being one of the biggest problems that young hitters can have when it comes to a variety of other things which go right into hitting in general. To simply if you swing at bad pitches you are going to have a tough time hitting. 
Nice Open Air Dugout

 I have seen it a lot this summer for the Legion team. Some hitters seem to have a clear idea of what they are doing at the plate mentally while other struggle to obtain what it means to be at bat. I have seen hitters get frustrated after taking a strike call, I have seen hitters look defeated after a called strike two. In young hitters I think it would be too much to ask them to have a clear plan of attack but I think that keeping it simple works for them.

My simple approach is that any hitter in order to be able to drive the ball and have a chance to success they need to control the plate. That starts with the simple act of knowing the strike zone. If hitters are swinging at bad pitches and not looking for something to drive or that they can handle they leave the pitcher little else to do but to keep heading to the same spot over and over. If hitters begin to take close pitches and get ahead in the count it takes the game out of the pitchers hand and allows the hitter to sit dead red on a fastball and have a much better chance of getting something that they can drive.

Ted Williams Strike Zone Chart
I love the picture on the left when thinking about this subject. Ted Williams as great a hitter as he was know that hitting starts with the strike zone. In the diagram on the left he outlines what he thought he would hit if every pitch was pitched in that exact spot every single pitch. In the bottom right of the picture is all grey pitches. Williams estimated that he would hit the lowest on those pitches. Williams had a clear understanding what pitches he could handle and which pitches he would have a tough time handling.

Controlling the zone is such a small thing for any hitter but in order for real success at the plate hitters need to be able to master this before moving on to more complex issues with their own swings.

What do you think? Is controlling the strike zone the first thing that hitters need to master before becoming great hitters? Is there another area that might need to be looked at first?

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