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Message: [QUOTE="Huskee11, post: 4038996, member: 7171"] I got the book "The Science of Hitting" by Ted Williams in 1969 and read it cover to cover many times. I religiously followed the advice he provided in that book. His first and most important rule was "get a good ball to hit". He walked a lot since he was not willing to give into the pitcher and swing at pitches that were balls or borderline strikes. With two strikes, his approach obviously changed somewhat (and is described in the book) but he would still not swing at pitches out of the zone. I know that you want kids to be aggressive at the plate but you should also want them to learn the strike zone and to become disciplined hitters. Expanding the strike zone does not help at all in that regard. BTW, doesn`t a 12 year old throwing 75+ mph from 45 feet have enough of an advantage as it is? Many years ago when an umpire said at the beginning of a game that he was going to have "a big strike zone tonight", a guy I coached with challenged him on it - asking him, what does that mean? Is this a strike? How about this? This far outside? More? Less? The umpire was dumbfounded. He could not articulate what the expanded strike zone he crowed about would actually be. How can a kid learn the strike zone when the umpire can`t even say what it is? [/QUOTE]