Former Hiroshima Carp Manager Kenjiro Nomura Identifies One Key Batting Drill the Team Needs: “It Will Raise Their Batting Average”

Former Hiroshima Carp manager Kenjiro Nomura, 60, has updated his YouTube channel, Nomuken Channel, sharing one specific batting drill he wants the young hitters on his former team to prioritize this fall.

Hiroshima has finished outside the top three for three consecutive seasons. This year, the Carp recorded a team batting average of .223 and scored 431 runs, ranking sixth in the Central League in both categories.

Improving the team's overall hitting is an urgent priority this offseason. However, Nomura believes the players should concentrate on just one thing when it comes to batting.

“When it comes to hitting, there's just one thing I'd focus on,” he said.

Manager Takahiro Arai has set a goal for this fall of building each player's physical capacity and increasing their power output. Nomura agrees that physical development is important, but he wants the players to pay particular attention to the quality of their contact.

Focus on making solid contact with hittable pitches

“Fall is the time to take a few more risks and build up your swing volume and running workload. Getting bigger and stronger is certainly important, too. But I want the players to challenge themselves to see how often they can hit the sweet spot of the bat when facing easy-to-hit pitches from batting practice pitchers,” Nomura explained.

His proposed drill is straightforward: out of 100 swings, how many times can a hitter make solid contact with a pitch in the middle of the strike zone?

Rather than focusing on difficult pitches near the edges of the strike zone, players should concentrate on balls that are easier to hit. They do not need to hit every ball over the fence. Line drives and ground balls count, as long as the ball is struck cleanly on the sweet spot.

Nomura explained that this simple exercise can help hitters develop the technique needed to avoid wasting opportunities against pitches they should be able to hit.

“That leads to the ability to avoid mishitting pitches that are right there to be hit,” he said.

Raise the number of quality contacts from 30 to 70 or 80

Hitting for distance and producing the ideal launch angle are concerns for a later stage of development, Nomura said. For now, he wants the players to improve the consistency of their contact.

For example, if a hitter currently makes solid contact on just 30 out of 100 swings, the goal should be to raise that number to 70 or 80 through training this fall.

The priority is not how far the ball travels, but how consistently the hitter connects with the sweet spot when presented with a good pitch.

“If you gain confidence in consistently making solid contact with pitches you can hit, you can learn to accept that some pitches are simply not for you. And if you increase the number of times you hit the sweet spot on pitches you can handle, your batting average will go up,” Nomura said.

For a Hiroshima lineup that struggled to produce runs this season, Nomura's advice is a reminder that improvement may begin not with a more powerful swing, but with mastering the pitches hitters should never miss.