Quality At-Bats
photo credit: kthypryn So often, hitters are judged by their batting average. This can be an accurate assessment of how a hitter is doing but it doesn’t always tell the whole story. Many nights I went home from games with a couple of hits and felt lousy about my night and other times I may have went hitless and felt pretty good about my night. There are at-bats where a hitter does everything right – meaning they get a good pitch to hit, take a good swing and hit the ball hard but the defense makes the play – still a quality at-bat but a negative towards the batting average. Over time the law of averages tend to work for hitters who have the most quality at-bats. Good coaches recognize this and try to keep hitters with bad luck staying positive. What I tried to teach hitters at my Academy was the importance of having as many “quality at-bats” as possible. This gets back to realizing the things that hitters have under their control – preparation, swing mechanics and pitch selection. Players who prepare, develop a good swing and swing at good pitches have done all they can and should be content with whatever results occur. Players who do not do these three things are cheating their self a chance to reach their potential. A definition of a quality at-bat is simply putting a good swing on a good pitch, period.
Coaches should constantly stress what “quality” at-bats are and not dwell on batting average as the only measure of a players hitting success.
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