Here's how I hit 500 in high school while facing pitchers throwing up to 95 MPH who went on to play D1 baseball. But here's the interesting part... I wasn't focused on getting hits. I was focused on having quality at-bats. And I had a specific approach, training routine, and mindset that helped me do it. Here's what I did. 1. I trained myself to drive the baseball through the middle of the field. Every single day, I hit off a tee. I'd work on driving line drives to right-center, straightaway center, and left-center. 50 swings to right-center. 50 swings to straightaway center. 50 swings to left-center. My goal was to hit line drives over the center fielder's head. But I wasn't just taking swings to take swings. Before each swing, I'd visualize the pitch coming in and see myself driving the baseball through the middle of the field. I was practicing exactly what I wanted to do when I stepped into the batter's box. 2. I had a plan for what pitches I wanted to hit. One thing I noticed in high school was that most pitchers didn't consistently throw inside. So I'd get on the plate and look for fastballs away. And when I got an off-speed pitch, I was looking for one that stayed up in the zone. I wasn't trying to hit everything. I wanted to get a pitch I could drive and make hard contact. And because I'd spent so much time practicing hitting the ball through the middle of the field, I was confident in my ability to execute that approach. 3. I trained my body and mind to compete. I lifted hard three days a week. And whenever we conditioned, my goal was to finish first. Not second. NUMBER 1. I wanted to know that when things got tough, I could push myself harder than the guy competing against me. Because I believed that if I could develop that mentality in the weight room and during conditioning, it would carry over into games. Especially when things weren't going my way. And trust me, there were plenty of times when things didn't go my way. Which brings me to the most important part of my approach. 4. I focused on quality at-bats instead of hits. Here's how I looked at hitting. My goal was to have four quality at-bats every game. If I stepped into the batter's box four times and consistently hit line drives, hard ground balls, and hard fly balls, I believed the hits would take care of themselves. I figured if I could consistently hit the baseball hard, I'd give myself a great chance of getting at least two hits. But a quality at-bat wasn't always about hitting the ball hard. It was about having a plan, getting a good pitch to hit, making good decisions, and competing until the at-bat was over. And if I was 0-for-3? I wasn't giving away that fourth at-bat. I'd battle, compete, and do everything I could to find a way on base. Because 0-for-3 with a walk was better than 0-for-4. That was the mentality I wanted to carry into every game. And once I had a couple of hits, that's when I'd start looking for opportunities to drive a baseball out of the park. My approach was still to drive the baseball through the middle of the field. But now I'd become more aggressive about trying to drive one out. I'd visualize hitting the baseball over the batter's eye in center field. I wasn't chasing home runs before I'd done my job. I was trying to be a consistent hitter first. Because there's one thing I learned playing this game... You can hit a baseball right on the screws and still make an out. And you can take a terrible swing, barely get the barrel on the ball, and watch it fall in for a hit. That's baseball. You can't control every result. But you can control how you prepare, the pitches you swing at, and how you compete when things aren't going your way. So if you're a young hitter trying to become more consistent, stop measuring every at-bat by whether you got a hit. Start asking yourself: -Did I have a plan? -Did I get a good pitch to hit? -Did I make hard contact? -Did I compete? Because I didn't hit .500 by chasing hits. I focused on having quality at-bats, and the hits followed. Hope this helps, Jermaine Curtis P.S. If you enjoyed this and thought it was helpful, please share it. (It tells me you want more content like this.)

When I was at UCLA, Barry Bonds told me something that changed the way I looked at hitting forever. It was 2007. His last season in the big leagues. He lived in Beverly Hills and trained at UCLA. One day I asked him... "What's the key to consistent hitting?" I expected him to talk about mechanics. Instead, he said... "Stay away from 0-for-4." I looked at him, confused. He explained, "If you're 0-for-3, find a way to get on base." Take a walk. Wear a pitch. Get a hit. It's a lot better to finish 0-for-3 with a walk than 0-for-4. That lesson stuck with me. From that day on, I wasn't just trying to get hits. I was trying to avoid empty games. Because every time you avoid an 0-for-4... You protect your batting average. You keep your confidence. And you keep the momentum on your side. Because there's one thing i learned playing this game: Sometimes taking your game to the next level isn't about doing something spectacular. It's about avoiding the games that quietly pull you backward. Thank you for reading. - Jermaine Curtis P.S. - if you enjoyed this, and thought it was helpful, please share it. (It tells me you wnat more stories like this)