Creating A System For Plate Discipline
Providing quality feedback for players is one of the keys to good coaching. The types of feedback that we are able to give our players has changed significantly over the past decade, and will continue to change for the next decade. In the past most coaching feedback to players came from what the coach saw either with their eye or on video.
The use of data to provide feedback on performance during games and practices needs to be put into a system for implementation. So I want to offer a small start to building a system around this idea.
As the amount of public data that is available from Trackman has grown the ability to take this information and provide quality feedback has been one of the biggest challenges that hitting coaches have faced. Often getting started is the hardest thing to do. What is most important? What is going to impact my players performance?
Being able to take the data and apply it to your coaching style, having the ability to improve players through the use of data is going to only get more important. We have seen this a lot recently on the pitching side but also a few hitting examples to point to:
One area I want to highlight when it comes to getting started and having an impact on player performance is Plate Discipline.
Being really good at plate discipline is important. Building a system to implement should be something that all coaches strive to develop. Sometimes as coaches we want to add everything to our players daily practice and attempt to make everything as good as it possibly can be. Which is a really great mindset to have! But if we are spread too thin everything takes a hit. Crushing a few areas really well should be the focus when implementing a data driven approach to plate discipline.
As John Doerr says in Measure What Matters “We must realize — and act on the realization — that if we try to focus on everything, we focus on nothing.” Putting a few important metrics into context for our hitters and stick with those pillars consistently is really powerful.
One way to begin to implement this into a team setting is through the use of Swing Plots. These plots show the pitch locations that a player has swung at for a given time period. Swing plots are easy to educate players and coaches on at almost any point of the season and with any previous background knowledge. It is (almost) universally accepted by every hitting coach that swinging at “better” pitches is going to be good while swinging at “bad” pitches would be worse. The information that is currently available at basically any level of baseball can help players swing at better pitches.
The plot below is an example of a Swing Plot from one game in 2019 from George Springer. Lets dig into the plot and see what it is telling us.
Plot Overview:
As you can see the Strike Zone is used as a reference point for hitters to judge whether the pitches would have been strikes or not. You can also see the pitch locations that Springer swung at over the course of this one game. The legend on the right shows the type of pitches that Springer swung at, and the Launch Speed for balls that where put into play is placed on top of each point. Obviously this could be customized to anything that you are looking for as a coach or player, but this would be the general idea for this post. (I’m not saying the plot as current constituted is perfect but a working framework)
Speed Of Feedback
I envision an environment where players are presented with this information the next morning (Or right after each game if possible) before they have the chance to step into the box for the next game. The dissemination of the information can be very formal and could be sent to players via email, and printed and placed on top of each of the players seats as they arrive into the locker room, or it could be sent to each player individually via some messaging app or text. A third option could be the hitting coach having a conversation with each player before he starts his routine and showing the plots from the previous game as they begin work. The biggest thing about this information is that it needs to be presented to the player as soon as possible! Waiting for the next game is going to be too long.
Why Feedback?
“The best way to help Humans improve their performance is to provide feedback. Well-designed systems tell people when they are doing well and when they are making mistakes.” — Nudge Thaler
We want to provide players quality information to players as they begin to work in their development process. Players need to know which pitches they are swinging at that are good, but also realize the poor pitch select that they will make occasionally.
When learning the strike zone for hitters it is extremely difficult to self regulate for themselves what is actually a strike and what is not. (Video also does a less than stellar job of doing this but is preferable to no feedback) If we want players not to swing at bad pitches it is imperative that we present them with the facts after each game.
One of the best examples of this comes from The MVP Machine where Dillon Lawson goes about making sure that his hitters for Missouri are well equip with this information and even gamifying the process of plate discipline during games. I’m not going to go into great detail here but essentially Lawson makes it so hitters know exactly the types of pitches that they swung at, and provides them with the appropriate feedback. (A very similar system to what I am proposing here) The quote below illustrates the perspective of the players:
“Being able to tell me exactly where the pitch is, what the pitch was, was really helpful to me”- Trey Harris -The MVP Machine
Once the process is underway it is important to keep this going on whatever schedule you have set as the coach. Consistency is going to be key.
It might be a good idea to include some form of a weekly or monthly check in as well. Possibly a report that has a little more information such as the pitch type of pitches players are swinging at or tendencies for swing locations. These reports should be funneled through the coach and the player to reach all parties that are invested.
We all have the goal (maybe not explicitly) to make sure hitters are not swinging at bad pitches. If we just hope, and talk about strike zone discipline I am skeptical that the goal will automatically be achieved. Obviously there is more that could be done when looking at building plate discipline but this is a start to that process and one that I believe to be important.
I like this quote from Atomic Habits:
“In the words of three-time Super Bowl winner Bill Walsh, “The score takes care of itself.” The same is true for other areas of life. If you want better results, then forget about setting goals. Focus on your system instead.
What do I mean by this? Are goals completely useless? Of course not. Goals are good for setting a direction, but systems are best for making progress. A handful of problems arise when you spend too much time thinking about your goals and not enough time designing your systems.”
Adding in small steps such as this will help to build a more robust systems to help develop plate discipline and impact player development.
