Cohen and Hitting Instruction

[bulldogcountry1]

I need to talk about MSU baseball somehow, so here goes...

I've seen videos, articles, posts, etc about how Cohen teaches hitting. I've seen videos of him talking about judging every swing in cage session, and I've seen those lines painted on the field in the fall for some sort grading. Cohen stresses hitting line drives in the middle of the field and getting out of the box quickly, but that's about all the details I have heard concerning his strategy.

I played baseball up through JUCO, but never had the benefit of a decent hitting coach, so everything I know about hitting came from MSU baseball camps in a few quick days. I'm curious to know more about how Cohen instructs the players. Is this approach tailored to our field and they players we have had recently or is this just what he thinks is the best overall way to win, regardless? Will it change as we acquire more power hitters? Is the new ball changing how he is approaching things?

[MsStateBaseball]

I think once a player gets to this level, he can square up the ball. But the way he does it, from footwork to hips, etc, is what he works on. The biggest thing about hitting to me is knowing (or very close to knowing), identifying what pitch is likely coming. If a player is a dead pull hitter, then likely he won't be able to change that but he can get him to shoot the ball the other way on occasion. And of course, if someone is on base, where to hit it.

[RossDawg82]

It's small ball. He coaches base hits, smart running, and defense. He teaches the kids he would rather see a 2 rbi single or double than a solo shot. It's a smart approach because with our pitching staff we don't need to score a lot of runs to win games.