One Swing

The old advice that you should play like you practice and practice like you play should be taken to heart when hitting. If you watch a young player take a practice swing, swing during batting practice and swing during a game, odds are that not too many will have the same swing in each circumstance. Furthermore, it seems that for those who lack one swing, their best swing is their practice swing (their swing without a ball being pitched).

In an effort to overcome this problem with several different players, we have taken batting practice a little differently. Instead of swinging at pitch after pitch, we began having them take a practice swing in between each pitched ball and telling them to focus on their practice swing each time they swing at a ball. The results thus far have been promising.