struck out looking on ball four

Question
I coach a 9-10 year old team in Little League.  We have a small pool of umpires that ump our regular season games and the kids get to know their strike zone pretty well and can recognize a ball and strike.  I preach to not swing at bad pitches, especially high ones or low ones.  This year when we entered an all star tournament the umps were calling low pitches for strikes on a consistent basis (I'm not complaining about the umpires).  I told the kids to go down and hit the ball but they just couldn't seem to "pull the trigger".  I'm wondering if it would be a good idea at this age to teach the kids early in the year to pretty much swing at any thing. Should a child at this age be able to put his bat on any pitch thrown, within reason, without effecting the swing mechanics they have developed?  I tell the kids a strike is any pitched ball that the umpire calls a strike.  Do you think this is a good philosophy or not?

Answer
Hi Bill

By all means, teach the players the correct strike zone.  Then have them work on hitting "pitcher's pitches"  which are low and away and up an in to the batter.  

I tell my guys to focus on a spot that they hope the ball will hit with no strikes.  Then, with one strike I tell them to make the spot bigger.  And, with two strikes, I tell them to pick a spot that they think the PITCHER wants to hit and then make that spot really big.  This will help them be aggressive and on the offensive, but will allow them to work the pitcher for a pitch to hit.

Pay close attention--at your level, many of the hits that players get will be on balls that are not necessarily in the strike zone.  They hit what they like and see best.  This is OK because as they get older, they will begin to like pitches that are in the strike zone because they will see more of them.

Best of luck.

Pete