Can You Control the Strike Zone?

There is probably no more significant factor in a young batter’s success than his or her ability to understand the strike zone. Swinging at bad pitches is a sure path to the bottom of the batting order, so let’s start by looking at what the strike zone is, at least according to the rules. The strike zone is a three-dimensional space bounded on each vertical side by the edges of the plate (including the black trim) making it 17 inches wide, side-to-side. The top of the strike zone is the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants; and the bottom is a line through the hollow beneath the knee cap. The strike zone is often illustrated as a two dimensional (see left) plane parallel to the front of the plate and perpendicular to the playing surface. If any part of a pitched ball intersects any portion of this plane, the ball is in the strike zone and should be ruled as a strike (unless hit).

Technically, the strike zone has depth as well; the rules define a volume of 3-dimensional space – a right pentagonal prism (see image right). If any part of the ball intersects any part of this space, it is considered in the zone, and should be ruled a strike.

In reality, the strike zone can vary widely from one youth umpire to the next, so all you can do is teach good habits and hope your players can adjust Ted Williams, widely regarded as the best overall hitter of all time and the last man to hit .400 (actually .406 in 1941), defined the strike zone in his famous book with John Underwood, The Science of Hitting. One of the best teaching tools ever developed, Williams displayed the strike zone as a series of baseballs, seven wide by 11 high, and estimated what he would hit with the ball in each part of the strike zone. Needless to say, if some balls in the strike zone could only rarely be hit successfully (.230 for a low outside pitch), then consistently hitting a ball outside the strike zone is nearly impossible.

The key thought here is to learn to wait for a good pitch. You get three cuts at the ball and you will improve your hitting dramatically if you can stop chasing balls that simply can’t be turned into line drive base hits. Obviously, there is some variation in each batter and some hitters may prefer balls up and inside (that was Ted Williams’ favorite) or slightly outside, in addition to the fastballs right down the middle that we all want to see. Find your best part of the strike zone and discipline yourself to recognize and jump on those pitches you like and lay off anything else, even if it might be a strike. That holds true until you have two strikes – with two strikes you have to swing at anything close to the strike zone, you have to “go with the pitch”, and you have to try to put the ball in play.

Parents and Coaches – A Practice Tip: When you are working with your player on a batting tee, position the tee so that the player hits balls in all parts of the strike zone (at least each of the corners of the plate), so the batter can learn where the boundaries of the strike zone are. Work on teaching the player to drive the ball in the proper direction, for instance, a right-hander hitting outside pitches to the gap between 1st and 2nd, and to concentrate on hitting line drives off the sweet spot of the bat.