Developing as a hitter? Take a lesson from The Masters

Cal Ripken Jr. focused on situational hitting during his 21-year MLB career. (Getty Images)

The start of April brings with it two things that are more related than you think.

One, a new baseball season begins across New England. And two, the best sporting event on the planet is held in Augusta, Ga., with The Masters.

Why do I link them together? I’ll explain.

One lesson we’ve all learned is that we can learn a TON from the individuals who are the absolute best at their craft. That phenomenon is on display each year at The Masters.

Many golfers center their yearly preparation around The Masters in efforts to get their respective games to the highest level when April comes around. The same can be said about baseball players and the beginning of April. We spend months indoors trying to prepare to be at our best when games start in April.

But maybe we can prepare better.

There is a lot that the greatest swingers of golf clubs in the world are doing much better than the developing hitters in New England baseball. To prepare for the Masters, the top golfers in the world commit to swing development, situational golf/game play (e.g. short game, putting, etc.), mental preparation, and competitive play as a lead-up to the tournament.

Players must commit to all aspects of their game to be fully prepared to perform at their best.  Without one of these areas, they’ll inevitably be exposed in golf’s greatest test over the course of Masters week.

From my eyes, the offseason development of hitters in New England is heavily tilted with a 90 percent focus on swing development, combined with very little situational development, mental preparation and game-like pressures.

Ask yourself as a hitter the following questions about this past offseason:

• Did you practice your two-strike approach?  Practice choking up? Widening out?

• Did you increase velocity to challenge your speed to the ball?

• Did you work on hitting the ball off both a lefty pitcher and righty pitcher?

• Did you visualize getting up in a game? With fans in the stand?  And the pressure on?

• Did you always have a count in mind when you took batting practice?

• Did you fail in your training and keep positive body language despite the struggle?

• Did you practice a hit-and-run or a bunt situation enough to execute when it matters?

• Did you compete with yourself or teammates and deal with the consequences if you lost?

To say it in golf terms, baseball hitters in New England are “hitting the driver” at the driving range over and over during the winter months. Any golfer knows that this is a losing formula for posting low scores in competition.

Instead, the top golfers focus on the many shots, highs, lows, twists and turns that it takes to inevitably get the ball in the hole consistently. Many of us will struggle as hitters this April because we focused on our respective swings and forgot that the swing is just one piece of the puzzle.

“Consistency” is often cited as the greatest skill of a Masters winner. When we look at baseball, the most consistent player in its history is the “Iron Man”, Cal Ripken Jr.

Ripken went to 19 straight All-Star games over 21 years. Those that remember his career remember that he had what seemed like 100 different batting stances over the course of his career.

The lesson: It’s not the actual swing that creates consistent performances, but the approach to hitting and preparation for any situation that creates consistent results.

We need to adjust the way we prepare as hitters during our New England winter to move beyond practicing just how to hit the driver and make sure we know how to navigate the course when we get there.

Brendan Akashian, a four-year player at Holy Cross who played three seasons of pro ball, founded Lowell, Mass., based Boomer Baseball in 2020.