The Power of Clarity: How Simplifying the Plan Helped a Hitter Take Off

This past year, I worked with a high school hitter who was stuck in the middle of a recruiting and draft process. With that came pressure, expectations, and many outside voices. Everyone wanted to help him, and their intentions were good, but all the information pulled him in different directions. His performance dipped because he was trying to be everything at once.

What stood out to me was how overwhelmed he was. He did not need more cues or more mechanics. He needed clarity. So we stripped everything back and built a simple plan that matched who he was as a hitter, not what everyone else thought he should be. We leaned into his strengths, cleaned up his thinking, and created a plan he could actually repeat.

Once he had clarity, we began to see a shift. His at-bats looked different. He competed with confidence. The noise no longer seemed as loud. It reminded me of a major truth in player development: information only matters if the player can understand it, trust it, and apply it. The best insight in the world is not helpful if it does not stick.

That experience reinforced something for me as a coach: clarity builds confidence, and confidence drives performance. Sometimes, the best thing you can do for a player won't come in the form of what you can add, but rather, what you can remove. The help they may need may come in the form of removing the clutter so they can see the game clearly!