Hunting a Pitch
Looking for one pitch in one spot early in the count, and taking the rest.
How it actually works. Every good approach starts with knowing your own swing. Which pitch, in which part of the zone, do you do damage on? That is the one you hunt. Early in the count you look for it and let most everything else go. As the count changes you adjust: more of the plate with two strikes, more patience when you are ahead. At the lower levels, where nobody knows a pitcher's mix, the default is easy. Sit fastball. Everybody throws one, and most of what they throw is one.
Why it is done, and when it is wrong. People think the best hitters just react. They do not. They sit on a pitch they know they will get at some point in the at bat, and they have the discipline to wait for it and the ability to adjust when the count says they have to. A hitter reacting to every pitch is covering too much, and he ends up late on the fastball and early on the curve. A hitter who sat fastball and got one is on time, and on time is most of hitting.
What people get wrong about it. Sitting on a pitch does not mean guessing blind. If you sit fastball and get a hanging curve early in the count, you let it go and you do not beat yourself up. The mistake is changing what you hunt after every pitch, so you are never really sitting on anything.
At Little League and travel ball. Sit fastball, always, until the level where pitchers can throw their offspeed for strikes. A young hitter who is on time for the fastball will hit, and a kid who is always looking for the curve will be late on the pitch he sees most.
Batter's Eye: look up anything in baseball