Grab A Bat: Techniques For Improved Hitting

Hitting is an important baseball skill. A hitting DVD and hitting drills can help. So can some basic pointers.A ball the size of a fist comes ripping across the strike zone at 90 miles an hour. Wave your hand in front of your face as fast as you can. What did you see? Try visualizing the ball curving away or suddenly breaking away. Professional Baseball players start their swing as the pitcher releases the ball. A ball tearing through the air at 90 miles an hour takes .5 seconds to travel the distance from the mound to the plate. It takes about .4 seconds to get the bat across through the hitting zone. The batter has a tenth of a second to evaluate the pitch and swing. The cognitive process has no time to function like it does when people are talking to each other. A hitter responds, eyes, breath, brain and body so in sync that the brain is quiet and instinct takes over. Instinct is not aa natural born thing. It is how the body responds automatically after it has been trained. There are different components that go into hitting well. Several of the elements; bat selection, positioning at the plate, stance and grip, all happen before the ball is thrown and the swing begins.

Choosing a bat is one of the first important elements of being a solid hitter. Often a bat is selected that is too long or too heavy because of the misconception the bigger means more power. The size of a bat should be determined by what the batter can best control. The best way to determine this is to lift a bat up from the side and hold it parallel to the field. Can that be held for half a minute? If the end drops or the bat shakes, try less heavy, smaller bat. The next vital skill to develop is position at the plate. If the batter comes to near to the plate the pitcher will be dusting them with inside pitches. If they step back too far they will be swinging and missing the outside zone.

Perhaps the most important part of a batting stance is stability and equilibrium. Lacking correct balance it is impossible to shift weight and power into the swing. A batter should be able to withstand a push to the chest without losing balance. The balls of the feet should take the weight and feet should be slightly pigeon toed. The best position for the feet are parallel to a pitcher. An open or closed stance helps the pitcher select the difficult placement. If the palyer at the plate has an open stance, the pitcher will throw to the outside for a higher percentage of strikes.

How the bat is held changes how well the ball can be hit. There are several different ways to hold the wood. The standard grip places the knuckles so they are in a row. This allows for the greatest speed. The velocity of the swing is what counts for hitting. The faster the wood collides with the speeding ball, the further the ball goes. Heavier thicker bats don’t mean longer hits. The quickness the standard grip allows should make it the only grip used. In the major leagues, some batters use a modified grip or choke grip which translates to more of an uppercut. Some players like seeing more height on the ball, but flying out gets a statistical bump up.

These four elements occur before the batter even raises the bat and can make the difference between a success and failure at the plate. The basics are the first step to developing good instincts. Without time to think, a batter has to develop good form.

Connor R. Sullivan ordered copies of a hitting DVD to help some of the junior the kids on his baseball team. He ordered DVDs focusing on hitting drills to help with some problem that they have had lately.