Baseball Hitting Coaches

Video Transcript

"BEN GRAHAM: The responsibility of the hitting coach is to have that intimate one-on-one relationship with the hitters. He's got to work with those guys day in, day out, and go over the team's game plan approach to hitting, because it's not as simple as just hopping up and swinging away. There are certain situations when you want to take the ball to right field. There are certain situations when you want to hit a pop-up. There are certain situations when you want to hit the ball on the ground. And the hitting coach has to make sure that each batter understands his role in the game of baseball. There are some players who are specifically put in in the game to bunt. Some that are specifically put in in the game to hit home runs. And he's got to work with each one of those people, knowing their strengths, knowing their weaknesses, knowing their tendencies so that he can put them in the game at the right time and the right place and the right situation. The manager is going to rely heavily on the hitting coach to know who's hot, who's not, who's having trouble, who needs some more work, and who is just swinging away and knocking the cover off the ball right now. The hitting coach also has to work when a hitter is struggling. If he is going through a slump, the hitting coach has to look at the swing, look at his stance, look at the different things that he's doing, find the holes and help that hitter work through that so that he can be an effective player again. So just like the pitching coach, the hitting coach has to have that intimate relationship with the players. They've got to develop a level of trust, and he's got to be able to pass his wisdom along to them so that they can understand the team's approach to baseball and put that approach into practice on the field."