How Can Offseason Swing Coaches And In-Season Hitting Coaches Co-Exist?
Image credit: Bobby Magallanes (Photo by Kevin D. Liles/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images)
Hitting is hard. Hitting at the professional level is really hard.
Baseball advocates often say that hitting a baseball at the elite level may be the most difficult skill set in all sports. Millions of dollars are spent by players and parents each year to build the swing that passes kinematic scrutiny, with hopes of hitting well when the game starts. Information is at an all-time high for those looking for hitting instruction. Spend an hour on X and see the raging debates on whose teaching around hitting (or pitching, for that matter) will elevate your nine-year-old to prospect status.
Some say we have a generation of young players who have great swings, but cannot hit.
To prepare for the upcoming season, hitters of all levels use the offseason to make adjustments or at times, do a complete makeover to improve their swing efficiency.
Private swing coaches are plentiful and here to stay. Some are well-respected in the industry, some are not. Ego and control sometimes get in the way of evaluating swing coaches’ value by teams. Swing coaches are quick to blame the organization’s hitting coaches for a player’s demise and vice versa. Players are put in less-than-ideal positions when trying to please both parties.
Big league hitting coaches become the easy scapegoats when production drops, which explains the high turnover rate for this position.
I decided to go in the trenches to get perspective from hitting coaches on this challenge.
The Braves’ Bobby Magallanes is a well-respected hitting coach. We crossed paths this winter at an event, and his words and wisdom resonated on many levels:
“There is not just one facet of hitting. There are a couple. One is the movements of the swing, and the other is the mental part. This can be the approach and plan against the pitcher you are facing. I do believe in the movements of the swing. We hit with movement. Some coaches believe more on the approach and plan than the swing itself. I have heard some coaches say that the approach will fix a swing. Well, that is not true for every hitter. I believe that proper swing moves will help a hitter execute their approach.”
Magallanes shares what the big-league hitter’s mindset is during pregame:
“When they are in the cage, they are working on their swing. I have never heard a hitter come out of the cage saying, ‘Man, I am going to rake in the game today. My approach in the cage today was money!’ No, they always say that their swing in the cage felt good. So, the swing is important. When a hitter is in the zone, they normally don’t need a plan or approach. They just go up there and hit. The approach and plan is mostly when the hitter is facing a tough pitcher or when the hitter is not feeling good at the plate or with their swing.”
Hitting involves other skill sets. Magallanes elaborated on the non-swing issues his hitters face:
“On the other side of it, in the game, the focus should be on the ball, plan and approach. The focus should be external. This is where game-planning comes into effect. Now, here is where we get into what separates swing coaches from hitting coaches. A good hitting coach knows his hitters. They build relationships with hitters and know how they think, what their hobbies are and how they learn. A hitting coach wears many different hats. They need to sometimes be a psychologist, a dad, a friend and above all, a good listener. Swing coaches mostly just look at the swing. A hitting coach looks inside the person to bring out the best in them, not just on their swing. This is why teaching hitting is so difficult. You have heard that the toughest thing to do in all sports is to hit a baseball. Do you know what the second toughest thing to do in all sports is? To teach it!”
Louie Ortiz of the Boston Red Sox is a hitting coach everyone enjoys being around. He has great listening skills, great insight on his players and a big-league smile and passion level that is infectious.
Ortiz shared great insight on the swing coach versus team coach dynamics:
“We, as coaches, could fight it, or we could embrace it and hopefully foster a partnership relationship in which the player and the organization wins.”
Many players see professional coaches as an extension of the front office and prefer an outside voice to listen to, who will not share information discussed with higher-ups within the organization that could potentially be used against them.
Just like any member of an industry, you will find swing coaches who have great feel, while others can’t wait for their guy to do something good to post it on social media. But, of course, when those players struggle, they often hide, while the org coach is left with a struggling player confused by whether or not he should continue to do what he had worked on all winter with his swing coach.
So, what happens when the laboratory swing that chased exit velo hits a wall early in the season?
Ortiz continued:
“When struggling, some players have enough wisdom to either admit that it was sunk cost and avoid pouring more good investment (in time and money) and just move on from the swing coach’s advice during the season, allowing the guys that see him on a daily basis to take the lead when it comes to evaluating their current situation and prescribing solutions for improving performance. Others continue to fight through the struggle, even though the way they felt during the offseason when doing feel-good flips and drills might not transfer to the pitching environment in which high velocity and better information of where they struggle and to where they hit the ball are the norm.”
Can’t we all just get along? Ortiz believes it is possible:
“At the end of the day, swing coaches have become a part of the game. They can be an obstacle or an asset. For some, their ego gets in the way, and they feel (it) is a competition of hitting knowledge and influence. For the good ones, they have the player’s best interest in mind and understand how to navigate the grind of a long and tough major league season. As a coach, you just hope that you are fortunate enough to deal with the latter.”
In a perfect world, collaboration from all parties would be the best way to ensure player development. Some teams are better at this than others. Swing coaches who attack the establishment garner more X followers, but alienate themselves with clubs. Players should feel comfortable sharing the offseason cues and feelings with their everyday hitting coaches.
Players and coaches alike need to realize the missing components (visual and emotional stressors, ball movement) of offseason hitting and look to develop a hitting model that allows their efficient swing to transfer into great bat-to-ball skills when someone is keeping score.
Put another way, the game-day hitter should aspire to have the eyes of an eagle, the heartbeat of a sloth and the swing of a Trout.
