Mike Piazza talks about the ‘Science of Hitting
Mike Piazza’s question and answer session at this year’s coaching convention in Treviso, Italy turned out to be quite an event. The packed house full of intrigued participants sat, watched and listened as the ex MLB star and future Hall of Famer spoke in detail about Ted Williams, the ‘Science of Hitting’ as well as his own personal experiences and philosophies.
“We all over teach and over analyze hitting. Everyone has their own opinion,” explained Piazza, “but in actuality, just as Ted Williams explained in his book (The Science of Hitting), the number one rule is to get a good ball to hit. Gaining an understanding of the strike zone and what you can and can’t hit is the key. Simply spoken, you can’t hit what you can’t see.” Piazza went onto speak in depth about his personal experiences growing up through the sport where he applied this very same idea of seeing the ball and learning the strike zone. He spoke about how he use to go into the bullpen and just look at pitches in his stance. “The more pitches I saw and understood, the better off I was.” The second topic that Piazza touch on out of Ted Williams book was ‘proper thinking.’ “A ball player has to know what he swung at and why he swung at it. A plan in needed every time that hitter plants his two feet in the box,” said Piazza quoting Ted Williams. “It’s a part of the game that is not taught enough. Understanding what’s going on and why a pitcher is pitching a certain way is an important part in the evolution of a batter.” Piazza then moved onto Ted Williams’s third rule of thumb, ‘be quick with the bat.’ Piazza explained that that a quick bat is a swing that is without tension, letting the ball travel deep in the zone before attacking it with a short compact stroke. “Its important not to go out to the pitch, but to let the pitch come to you and attack it. Doing this allows you get a longer look at the pitch and better identify it.”
Piazza went onto speak about how everyone has there own style of hitting, but “if you look at all great hitters in the history of the game, at the moment of contact they are all the same. The thing that each and every single one has in common is their back elbow being tucked in close to their body at the moment of contact, resulting in a short compact swing.” The right handed slugger also touch on two strike hitting. “Contact is the key. If one does the math, out of a 100 AB’s the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is only 5 hits. So in order to succeed the hitter needs to put the bat on the ball and put the ball in play with 2 strikes. Great hitters aren’t scared when their down in the count, in fact they take it as a challenge.”
Piazza concluded the meeting with this final thought: "Remember, the vital part of the swing is the contact. The rest of your action should be smooth and fast."
