Coaches and great hitters are always speaking these words of wisdom:
“You have to have an approach.”

Sounds great and perfectly reasonable! But too often, the conversation stops right there without the most important aspects: What is an approach? What are the available approaches? What are the best approaches? Does the same approach fit every circumstance? How do you practice a certain approach?

Let’s look at some of these questions and potential answers:

What is an Approach?
An approach is having a plan or an intention, and then following through with it.

What are the Available Approaches?
Here are a bunch of approaches that are commonly discussed:
1) Pull the ball
2) Hit it oppo
3) Hit it up the middle
4) Attack the first pitch
5) Get deep into counts
6) Guess
7) Hunt
8) Sit on pitches
9) Look fastball, react curveball
10) Look fastball, hit hanging CB’s
11) Look away, adjust in
12) Look up
13) Look down
14) Look middle
15) Look middle-away
16) Look middle-in
17) Look hard
18) Look slow
19) Hit liners or grounders
20) Hit liners or in the air
21) Take an A swing
22) Just put it in play

That’s 22 approaches and there are probably a whole lot more.

What are the Best Approaches?
This is where the debates can get intense. It seems like for every one of those 22 approaches, there are strong pros and strong cons. Hitting researcher Russ Hubbard out it this way: “Everything works, and everything doesn’t work.”
For every hitter or coach that swears by focusing on hitting it up the middle, there’s a whole lot of video evidence of elite hitters who pull everything. For those who pull everything, there’s a ton of ground-outs. For every hitter or coach who talks about adjusting to pitches in the strike zone mid-pitch, there are a million pitching coaches who feast on hitters who try to time pitches like that.

Ted Williams says to be a guess hitter; Tony Gwynn says to be balanced and react. Brent Rooker of the Athletics (and former SEC Triple Crown winner) says he hunts fastballs, “unless the situation screams curveball.” Nomar Garciappara swung at the first pitch almost every time. Lots of guys would rather strikeout while going for a walk or home run rather than hit a single. See it deep. Hit it out in front. Be selective. Be aggressive.

An Example: One Possible Approach
Here is one plan that is by no means the only the answer (no plan is), but is based on these precepts:
Maximizing the easiest thing to do.
Reduces having to adjust mid-swing for different pitch speeds.
Frees up the hitter to be aggressive and not tentative.
Recognizes that putting the ball in play HAS TO help the team more than striking out.

One (of Many) Plans
1) Hunt fastballs with less than two strikes. They are the straightest, most predictable pitches to track and time.
2) Choose a height or side of the plate you are either A) Best at hitting; or B) The pitcher throws to most often; or C) is easiest to time up. Fast pitches up-and/or-in are more difficult to catch up to, while low-and/or-outside pitches are easier. Slow pitches up- and/or-in are easier to time, while low-and/or-outside are harder.
3) Be prepared physically to hit a pitch where you want to hit it, like inside (pull), or outside (oppo), or low (in the air), or high (on a line). Sometimes you might want to go oppo on inside pitches or pull outside pitches!
4) Attack this pitch only. If fooled, swing through it (as opposed to slowing up the swing and just throwing your hands at it).
5) With two strikes, change the approach: No guessing, no hunting. Swing hard and late. This will result in hitting fastballs opposite field, and then if there’s an offspeed pitch, pull it down the line. This will maximize not being really late by guessing offspeed, and not being “stupid early” by guessing fastball.

How do you Practice a Certain Approach?
Don’t just swing at everything in BP. Pick an approach, and stick to it. Practice two-strike approaches. Practice less-than-two strike approaches. Have the coach mix in fastballs and curveballs (if not good at curveballs, have them throw fast and slow). Pay attention to the results when applying a certain approach on certain pitches.

Final Thoughts on Approach
It seems like it is pretty imperative to have “An Approach.” If it works, great. If it doesn’t, choose another (or see if the swing needs work.) It is rare for hitters to be consistent by just swinging at anything, or using some approach preached to them that doesn’t work. At the end of the day, hitters have to “Be Your Own Best Coach.”