Coaches of youth hitters who are struggling in their plate appearances typically focus on the mechanics of the batter's swing, which many times can be the problem. But if the swing is solid, then the challenge is in the player's mental approach in determining when to swing. If the athlete's swing looks good, stance is correct, and stride is compact, then the coach should ask the following questions:
- Is he constantly making contact but hitting the ball weakly?
- Does it seem like the batter's at bats are over quickly or he is hitting tough pitches with less than two strikes?
- Is he rarely reaching first base via base on balls?
Then the answer is probably that the batter is swinging at pitches close to or in the strike zone, but outside their hitting zone. The best hitters at all levels approach their at bats looking for something in their hitting zone, not simply their strike zone. With fewer than two strikes, the hitting zone takes precedents over the strike zone.
This three part article to understanding how to become a selective hitter. We will briefly walk through the definitions of the strike zone and hitting zone, discuss situations where the batter should adjust the hitting zone based on ball/strike counts and base runner locations, and then put it all together with some practice techniques that have successfully worked for players and teams in the past.
Definition of the strike zone 
According to major league baseball the strike zone is defined as: "The Strike Zone is that area over home plate with the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the knee cap. The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter's stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball." [1]
In checking Little League, local high school, and tournament baseball and softball rule books, the strike zone is defined as the space over any part of home plate that is between the batter's armpit and the top of the batter's knees when the natural batting stance is assumed.
A strike is called if any part of the ball passes through any part of the strike zone. A good umpire establishes his personal strike zone before the first batter of the game comes to bat at the plate and it should remain constant throughout the whole game for both teams. The best umpires tell the coaches what his strike zone is and how it is shifted or expanded from the "normal" strike zone during the pre-game huddle at home plate. If the umpire does not volunteer this information, do not be afraid to ask for confirmation of the strike zone.
Strikeout to at bat ratio
A key hitting metric is the number of times a batter strikes out to the total number of official at bats (official at bats do not include base on balls, hit by pitch, or sacrifices). The reason this metric is important to hitters is because it measures the number of times the batter makes contact with the ball and puts it in play. Every time a batter comes to the plate, his objective is to hit the middle of the ball, hard. That is what this ratio measures: the number of times the batter puts the ball in play with the opportunity of getting a hit.
The biggest strikeout to at bat ratio influencer is selective hitting. If a batter swings at any pitch that is near the strike zone, he may be swinging at balls and fouling off tough pitches early in the count. With two strikes, the batter must protect the plate and will find himself under pressure to swing at pitches outside his hitting zone. This situation gives the pitcher the ability to throw pitches that are hard to hit squarely. After two or three at bats with a called strike out or a weak ground out, a batter's confidence begins to suffer and can undermine his batting for the season.
All batters want to be a tough out. The toughest outs in the major leagues strike out about six percent of the time. A high quality youth contact hitter will strike out less than ten percent of the time. The opportunity for improvement on most teams is helping the average youth batter become a high quality contact hitter. The good news is that a batter can progress from being average to a high quality hitter by only swinging at pitches in his hitting zone.
Definition of the hitting zone 
A batter's hitting zone is a matter of personal preference but it can be loosely defined as the area around the batter's "sweet spot." Ask a batter where he wants the coach to pitch the ball and he will instinctively tell him where his sweet spot is located. That location is then the center point of the hitting zone. The hitting zone will change depending on the ball and strike count and the situation but will always center around the sweet spot. See Figure 2 (red "x" is the sweet spot and the white baseballs define the hitting zone). Training the batter to know how to determine his hitting zone for pitch count and situation and then having him apply it uniformly will give the batter the best chance of becoming a successful hitter.
For most youth batters, the sweet spot is when the pitch is waist high about 12 to 15 inches away from where they are standing. If the batter stands in the middle of the batter's box then the sweet spot is on the inner half of the plate (the area encompassing the edge of the plate closest to the batter to the middle of the plate). If the batter likes to stand very close to the plate then the sweet spot is on the outer half of the plate (the area encompassing the middle of the plate to the farthest side of the plate away from the batter).
In Part 2, the concept of adjusting the hitting zone based on the pitch count, fielder location, and the batter situation will be discussed.
[1] Time out for trivia: The MLB strike zone definition was amended to the above ruling in 1996. The previous definition, which was established in 1988, had the lower level of the strike zone as the line at the top of the knees.
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