The famous quote says that the hardest thing to do in sports is to hit a round baseball with a round bat, squarely. That’s probably not true, though. What seems much harder is teaching a guy who’s incredible at hitting a round baseball with a round bat, squarely, to do it at any precise moment.

A hitting coach doesn’t get to swing a bat; instead, he has to figure out why his pupil can’t swing the bat right now. He has to be a biomechanics expert and a psychologist and a data analyst, and he has to communicate that knowledge effectively to a diverse population of students. It has to be complex enough to unlock a microscopic detail that can enhance Giancarlo Stanton’s already potent bat, and be simple enough so as not to overwhelm the rookie call-up taking his first big league cuts.

Dillon Lawson stepped into the role this year for the Yankees after spending three years as the organization’s Minor League hitting coordinator. Before that, Lawson coached in the college ranks, plus a few years in the Astros’ Minor League system. As he coaxed the Bronx Bombers through the season’s early days, he chatted with Yankees Magazine deputy editor Jon Schwartz about the very nature of the job he now holds.

Yankees Magazine: You’re stepping into a position where your first job as a big league hitting coach has you working with guys such as Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. Do you ever feel like an art restorer working on the Sistine Chapel? Like, “Oh man, I’d better not screw this up …”

Dillon Lawson: I think when you imagine the scenario, it’s very much like you said. The difference is, they make it so easy, just by the way that they act, the way that they hold themselves, the way that they go about their business. It makes it less fantasy, dreamlike, surreal. And it’s just very tangible, a job that you’re getting done.

YM: Not to suggest for a second that your job began when spring training started, but it was a shorter ramp-up, so you had less time with the guys. Has that impacted how you and your assistant hitting coaches -- Casey Dykes and Hensley “Bam-Bam” Meulens -- have built your system?

DL: Anything that’s worth building and creating, it’s going to take time, and it’s got to happen a little bit more organically than being forced down anyone’s throat. There’s a time and there’s a pace to how this stuff should work. And so it’s about being patient, learning what it is that these guys need and want from the hitting coach positions, and finding ways that we can provide that for them. And if there’s added value somewhere, we just try to add that in.

Casey and I have had history together, with me having hired him a couple years ago. So that understanding has been a huge help. Bam-Bam … if you don’t get along with Bam-Bam, it’s your fault. There’s something wrong with you.

YM: Right now, it’s easier to understand what a pitching coach does than a hitting coach. We can see so much of the pitching data on our screens, and it makes sense how a coach might teach a player a new slider. You’re not teaching these guys new swings (at least, I hope not) …

DL: All these guys got here for a reason. And especially with regard to the Yankees, we might be getting more complete players than any other Major League team. So, it’s more working on the margins, not trying to overhaul anybody. It’s about maintaining a player’s strengths, what got them here, and then making any of the adjustments that we mutually agreed upon. And it isn’t my way, it isn’t Casey or Bam-Bam’s way; it’s a conversation to be had. We’re learning what it is that they want to accomplish, and then helping them build plans to accomplish those things. And sometimes, especially with the Yankees, it’s, “Hey, I had a .900 OPS last year,” -- which is amazing -- “but I want to have a .950 or 1.000 OPS.” Well, let’s figure out where we can gain some points here, gain some points there, and make you an even more productive player than you currently are.

YM: Moving from the very big-picture hitting coordinator role to this Major League hitting coach job, is it harder not to live and die with every at-bat?

DL: I’m doing my best not to do that. It’s very easy to fall into that, but (bench coach) Carlos Mendoza, he had come from being a coordinator, so he had experienced it. And some of his advice was to not live and die by every win or loss.

It’s impossible not to look at our team and go, “Damn, we’re good.” And sometimes, we lose because you look across the field, and there’s a lot of other good teams; especially in the AL East, it’s super competitive. But the confidence that I have in the guys, our lineup, our pitching staff, the defense -- that’s probably what allows me not to live and die to an unhealthy point with every game.

YM: How much of your job is universal versus individualized? Going back to Judge and Stanton for a second, they both do such violent things to baseballs, but their swings are so different.

DL: I think the stock hitting coach answer is that everyone’s an individual, but there are probably more universal things about hitting than is typically talked about. (Yankees vice president of player development) Kevin Reese and I joke, “Nobody’s ever swung at too many strikes or made too much contact on those strikes, or hit those strikes too hard.” From a biomechanics standpoint, it usually comes from the center of the body, and then it works out toward the hands and feet. But the farther you get away from the center of the body, the more individualized it gets. So, when you see Aaron Judge’s stance, I think what typically gets noticed is where his hands are. Or when you look at Stanton, you see where his feet are, with a closed-off stance. But those are the individual pieces. There are plenty of things going on in the center of their body, the building blocks of their swings, that are very similar.

YM: That’s true. But there’s a reason that your job title is hitting coach, rather than swinging coach, right?

DL: I definitely take pride in being a hitting coach and having a broader view of this part of the game. And not being in such a small niche of the game, where it’s just simply the swing, or it’s simply pitch recognition. Those things are very complex, and I need to know everything about those things. But we also need to know about game planning, approach, situational hitting and the mental skills to perform on a consistent basis. As hitting coaches, Bam-Bam, Casey and I, we’ve got to be able to touch on all of that and be able to help players in all those areas.

YM: How much happens in the moment? Can you diagnose a hitch in a swing, or something like that, from the dugout during a game?

DL: My style is to constantly be processing and evaluating how the at-bat went, why it went well, why it didn’t go well. But you’re not making changes in the game. When guys maybe don’t have it that day, it’s helping them from the dugout, in between those ABs, to find some possible way to compete and have some success. That might mean that even if you still get out, it was by running the pitcher’s pitch count up another eight pitches, which -- this time of the year, after a shortened spring training -- is important. Seeing the bullpen for the second or third time in a three- or four-game series, that stuff matters. And if that’s what you’re bringing to the table that day, then so be it. Let’s be excited about it, let’s go play great defense, run the bases well, and then go try and win the game. There are definitely adjustments being made; there are surely no overhauls being made in the game. It can be boiled down to something as simple as this: Where’s the ball coming from? Where do I want the ball to be when I swing? And then where do I want to hit it? You’ve got those three points, connect those three dots. And sometimes the ball finds green grass, sometimes it finds the stands, sometimes it gets caught. But in the game, you’re trying to simplify the process.

YM: You say it’s only three things, but at what point do you teach Isiah Kiner-Falefa to hit the ball twice on one swing?

DL: We haven’t covered that one. That’s all him. It’s a hard one to defend!

YM: Your mantra -- “Hit Strikes Hard” -- is so brilliantly simple. Underneath that brief sentence, though, is such a layered philosophy. What’s the next sentence?

DL: There’s a ton of layers, and I think the advantages lie in the depths of the philosophy. If we simply look at the strikes component, that means controlling the strike zone. When I’m swinging, I’m swinging at strikes. You can break it down into several different categories. There’s plate discipline, which means balls and strikes. It also incorporates pitch tracking. It involves pitch recognition, but then we’re talking about gaze behavior. We’re talking about different visual strategies, pattern recognition, to be better at pitch recognition. There’s massive detail that goes into that.

If you’re talking about hitting the ball hard, there’s obviously different components there, as well, where we could be looking at bat path. We could be looking at bat speed. If we’re looking at bat speed, do they need to simply add more physical strength? Or do they need to make a certain mechanics change? And then there’s a variety of different ways to increase bat speed, which then increases exit velocity. And sometimes, even that doesn’t solve the entire problem, and maybe you’ve got to then look at the bat path. So, this is where the video and technologies are really helpful. It’s an all-encompassing thing.

It was created to be simple. Especially given the fact that we were responsible for over 100 (Minor League) hitters in an organization that spans from the Dominican Republic all the way up to Scranton, Pennsylvania. And we were trying to find ways to connect them all around being the best hitters that they can possibly be. That idea is incredibly simple, especially if you’re a 10-year vet in the big leagues. And that’s why you’ve got to have the depth. But if you are a 17-year-old who is brand new to our organization, it is incredibly easy to remember and basically take hold of, and it gives purpose to all the things that are going on inside the cages, on the field, before the games, and then how we’re going to talk and evaluate you.

YM: So how do you get here? What happens as you’re developing -- whether as a coach, but also as a player -- that lets you see the game this way, such that you’re the Yankees’ hitting coach and you don’t turn 37 until May 23?

DL: I’m extremely blessed that people have allowed me to end up here as the hitting coach for the Yankees. I’m 36, I think? That might be old for a player; it’s very young for a coach, especially one who’s got almost 15 years of coaching experience. It just tells you everything you need to know about how I was as a player. But I knew that I wanted to coach. The players show you what they’re great at. And then they show you where they might need some help. And if you’ve got something to help them, then you offer that up. If you don’t, you work like crazy to find the answers.

I’m someone who has constantly coached people who are better players than I ever was. That’s been one of the most consistent themes regarding my coaching career. I always feel like the person who has hired me has gone out on a limb. So, you’re just trying to show them that it was worth it. You’re trying to prove them right and make them proud.

YM: It wasn’t so long ago that we would see guys such as Barry Bonds or Mark McGwire or even Rod Carew as hitting coaches. You don’t have superstars like that coaching anymore. Obviously, today’s biggest stars retire very rich, but as this generation becomes more attuned to the technologies you all use, could that ever cycle back?

DL: That’s my job! My job is to replace myself with someone like that. Personally, I will fight like mad to stay relevant and stay current and on top of things. But in 10 years, there should be the pick of the litter. And hopefully it’s a bunch of former Yankees players that are the pick of the litter for professional baseball. That’s part of what we’re trying to create here.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.