Baseball is an ever-changing game. It\u2019s nowhere near what it used to be. Pitchers are throwing harder and hitting is as good as its ever been. <\/p>\n
Someone who understands this well is South Carolina\u2019s newest assistant coach, Joey Holcomb. He knows he must adapt to today\u2019s game. Otherwise, it\u2019ll leave him behind.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think when you\u2019re establishing a lineup with today\u2019s college game, and the arms becoming what they are, it\u2019s hard to score a lot of runs and walk out of the stadium with 15, 16, 17 hits,\u201d Holcomb said. \u201cThose days are over with because the level of pitching is so good.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a conference like the SEC, bad pitching is hard to come by. It gets even harder when the postseason starts. So to get the most out of his hitting, Holcomb\u2019s philosophy is simple. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important to have a lineup of physical athletic players,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to be able to stand up there and hit singles and doubles and score a bunch of runs. You\u2019re going to have to rely on being able to hit the ball out of the park and have that three-run home run that\u2019s the difference in the game, or even be able to do short game start type stuff to be able to get guys off the mound, make them field their position.\u201d<\/p>\n
[Get news from GamecockCentral via email]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Holcomb believes in putting pressure on an opposing pitcher by doing the little things that make a difference. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen you get on base, make them feel your presence that this guy might run, this guy might take advantage of this breaking ball that I\u2019m throwing in the dirt. And so it really puts pressure on that guy on the mound to be able to be at his best,\u201d Holcomb said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo to be extremely well-rounded is important to me \u2014 physical, athletic guys that we can train to help do all phases of the game. So that when one thing\u2019s not working, we have plan B, we have plan C. And so, that\u2019s something that I think South Carolina has, and I\u2019m excited to jump on board with that.\u201d<\/p>\n Holcomb will be tasked with helping an offense that had a solid season in 2023. South Carolina slashed .273\/.408\/.499 with 117 homers and 469 RBI as a team.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest with you, they were really, really good last year,\u201d Holcomb said. \u201cI won\u2019t know what I\u2019ll be able to bring to the table until I actually get in there and get to work with those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n [Subscribe to GamecockCentral\u2019s YouTube page]<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Holcomb\u2019s track record shows that he could be the right fit for this group. In his years of coaching hitters, his teams have batted .311 with 7.4 runs and 10.9 hits per game. <\/p>\n Beyond just Holcomb\u2019s hitting philosophy, establishing those player-coach relationships is important for success. <\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re going to try to be on the field and help a player improve, the first thing you\u2019re going to do is you\u2019re going to point out your weaknesses,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you don\u2019t have a relationship with that player, and that player doesn\u2019t know in their heart that he wants what\u2019s best for me, then sometimes it just comes across as criticism. And then those players can immediately go into his shell and they don\u2019t want to listen.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t have that relationship, they\u2019re not going to be open to hearing your thoughts and ideas and understanding that you\u2019re not criticizing them. You\u2019re trying to point out weaknesses to help them become a more well rounded player.\u201d<\/p>\n The post Joey Holcomb shares what his offensive approach will look like at South Carolina<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Baseball is an ever-changing game. It\u2019s nowhere near what it used to be. Pitchers are…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Discuss South Carolina baseball on The Insiders Forum!<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\n