FREE BASEBALL TIPS !!!

These tips are meant to be informative and at the same time easy to work on and incorporate into your given swing. Please visit again soon as the tips and detailed on-line lessons will be updated regularly. Hit The Ball will introduce a different baseball topic with every update. These topics will be explained (technique and reasoning) and demonstrated with photos. A much more in-depth version is NOW available on the Detailed On-Line Lesson Page.

Please keep in mind that Hit The Ball is not trying to teach a style of hitting. There is no one, absolute style of hitting. There are many quality hitters. Each hitter has his own unique set of swing mechanics. However, there are a few techniques that all quality hitters have in common. These techniques will be the major points of emphasis discussed in the tips, private lessons, and detailed on line lessons. Hit The Ball is more concerned with improving a hitter than in changing a hitter's batting style. There are several tips to follow. The tips are listed in the order in which they were updated. The most recent tips are listed before the previously published tips. Have fun !

Recently Updated !!! 1/31/98 !!!

  Are you feeling the pressure of try-outs?   This is the time of year that schools and youth league programs are conducting try-outs.  This can be a very stress-filled process.  It shouldn't be.  You have worked hard this off-season (or you should have).  You are a season bigger, faster, stronger, and experienced.  Treat try-outs just like you would a practice or game.  It is supposed to be fun.  Now, all the associated running may not seem like fun - but it will be when it is all over.  Do the absolute best you can do.   Try as hard as you can.  But don't put added pressure on yourself by worrying about your performance or the coaches' evaluation.  If your best isn't good enough, you can accept that.  But, if you don't perform at your best because you were worrying, it would be a shame to have that affect your selection or elimination.   Baseball is a game.  Go play as hard as you can during try-outs.  The coaches will select who they want to.  You can't have any influence by worrying.

How far do you try to hit the ball? This is an important question, especially for the youth-league player. If you try to generate great height and distance - you actually produce a fly ball with top-spin. Fly balls are caught for outs and the top-spin actually limits the distance your ball will travel. You should not be trying to hit the ball high and far - you should be trying to hit the ball hard through the middle of the field. This is a tough goal especially among competitive friends. You will have to be disciplined enough to try to hit the ball on a line, rather than in the air. The bat is in your hands. You have control over the flight of the ball. Yes, you can take a perfect swing and be slightly under the ball and pop it up as a result. But, this will happen frequently if the bat is upper-cutting through the contact zone. If the bat is coming relatively level through the contact zone, the ball will leave the bat on a line more often. Remember, line drives and ground balls can find holes for base hits, whereas fly balls are usually outs - this is especially so the higher up the baseball ladder you climb.

This is the time of year to practice. You have the chance for repetition during the off-season. Practice getting your bat down to, and long and level through, the contact zone. This swing plane will produce more line drives and back spin. This back spin will enable you to get maximum distance for your bat speed.

What position to you play? This is a question that I hear a lot of people ask youth league players. It certainly is a valid question - although the answers oftentimes scare me, especially when I hear the parents answer for the player. The father/mother will say something along the lines of, "Little Johnny is a shortstop." But, they mean to say that Little Johnny plays shortstop and shortstop only. That is all well and good. Usually this doesn't result in a well-rounded player, however. I encourage youth league players to play a variety of positions (a main focus of most Fall League Programs). After all, infielders must catch fly balls and outfielders must field ground balls.

Personally, I played first or third base (when I didn't pitch) throughout my youth league career. A college recruiter came to watch me play a high school game and became interested. There was one problem though. He had an All-American at first base and an All-SEC thirdbaseman. In other words, if I was to play for Steve Webber and The University of Georgia it wouldn't be at first or third base my freshman year. He asked my high school coach, Clyde Metcalf if I could play the outfield. A year later, I won an NCAA National Championship as a left fielder. I went on to be drafted and play five seasons professionally as an outfielder. If it wasn't for "the outfield experiment", I might not have had the same opportunities. Think of yourself (or child). You (they) are a one position player. The high school or college that you would like to attend and play for already has an older player established at that position. It would be nice to say to the coach, "Yes, I play shortstop, but I can also play third, second, or the outfield." The coaches thought process then becomes, "His bat is strong enough that I want him in my batting lineup. He is flexible enough defensively to play a variety of positions. There is no way for him to be left out of the lineup. He is an everyday starter." That would be a nice set of circumstances.

Learn to play a variety of positions. Baseball is just like life. The more you are able to do, the more valuable you become to the team.

Where is your 'mental approach' aimed when it comes to your baseball swing ? This is a confusing question to ask. I want to know simply, "Where are you trying to hit the ball?" The correct answer would be - "I am trying to hit the ball where it is pitched." My next question is this, "Do you know where the pitcher is going to locate the pitch before the pitch is thrown?" No, you do not. Therefore, you (as the batter) must have a mental approach prior to the pitch being thrown. All too often, this mental approach is directed deep, to the pull-side of the baseball field. This is commonly the approach of an aggressive hitter. If you actually get the pitch you are looking for, you have a chance to be successful. There is a problem with this over-aggressiveness, however. The hitter is very successeptable to located pitches away. A hitter has to give up something in order to take better advantage of something else. Today, I challange you to refocus your 'Mental Approach'.

Focus on hitting the baseball hard, through the middle of the field. This does not mean that when you get a pitch inside that you are to "guide" the ball through the middle. It simply means that you are gearing up to hit the pitch up the middle. If you are looking for a fastball thrown down the middle of the plate, you can adjust and react to anything any different the pitcher throws. If you reconize location away, let the pitch come to you and drive the ball up the middle or the other way. If you reconize a pitch located inside, simply make contact a little sooner (get the bat head out), and drive the baseball up the middle or to the pull-side of the field. If you reconize an off-speed pitch, you must wait back and let the pitch come to you. When it does, take the bat to and through the ball and drive the ball, where it was pitched.

Be careful not to get too aggressive. When you reconize pitch type and location, drive the ball accordingly. Good luck !

Taking Batting Practice with Regards to Velocity: The most important aspect of batting practice should be your consistent results. You need not concern yourself with how far you can hit one ball. You should concern yourself with how often can you hit a line drive from gap to gap. A common mistake that I see young players make is the desire to take batting practice off of the most velocity they can handle. All too often I see players come into the batting cages and crank the machine up as high as it will go. It is as if they have to prove to their friends, parents, or teammates that they can "handle the hard stuff". A player would benefit a lot more if they would adjust the speed to the point where they thought it was actually too slow. Now you are thinking that does not sound right at all. But hear me out. If you think the pitch is being thrown too slow, ask yourself a question. Is the ball being thrown too slow or am I swinging too early? Think about that for a moment...Do you accuse a pitcher of throwing his change-up or curve ball too slow? Do you challenge a pitcher to "put a little something on that change-up"? If you did, you would sound ridiculous. The pitcher is trying to get you out by keeping you off balance. He keeps you guessing as to his velocity. Now think about how you approach practice. If all you condition yourself to hit are fastballs, do you stand a good chance of being successful against off-speed pitches? If you were pitching to yourself, what would you throw in order to get you out? If you will practice hitting baseballs pitched too slow as well as practicing against velocity, you will give yourself a better chance of being successful in game situations. Think about what goes on when you hit a pitch thrown "too slow". You get ready to hit (see pre-pitch movement, below), then your eyes and brain tell your hands to fire and start the actual swing. If you are hitting only fastballs, you do not get accustomed to identifying the pitch and its location. By taking batting practice against all speeds, including those you believe are too slow, you will increase your success rate against all types of pitches that you will encounter in an actual game.

Pre-Pitch Movement : This baseball term refers to a movement BACK (away from the pitcher) prior to taking a stride and swinging. This movement may be with the front knee, hands, or with the hitter's entire center of gravity. Why is this an important component of the overall swing ? It helps to store and achieve power. A common comparison is to a boxing punch. Would you have more power with a quick jab by only moving your hand forward, or by raring BACK and throwing a haymaker ? Another comparison may be made to the golf swing. Could you imagine how short the tee shots would be if a golfer only moved the club FORWARD from address ? The result wouldn't even compare to the distance generated when a golfer takes a backswing.

The above pictures demonstrate my pre-pitch movement. This movement is exactly what is seems. Movement as a hitter, prior to the pitch being thrown. The batter is getting ready to hit. Notice the weight transfer to the back side and the small movement BACK of the hands. The first picture is an intial stance. The second picture was taken after the intial stance and just prior to the stride foot moving towards the pitcher. Remember, this is a movement BACK. To come forward with your body when your stride foot moves would defeat the purpose of getting back. Every hitting coach will use the phrase "stay back", but few are able to communicate to a hitter just how to stay back. This will be discussed in further lessons. Pictured below is a hitter that "came forward" with his stride foot, and did not stay back.

Notice how much weight is forward of center. Not a strong position to start the swing from.

This is commonly referred to as a "trigger", "start", "coil", or "load" by other hitting instructors. Again, there is not a right or wrong term to describe this action. Hit The Ball would strongly urge you to analyze your swing and determine if it includes a correct pre-pitch movement. If you have a movement back (away from the pitcher), keep up the good work ! If you start your swing with a forward movement out of your initial stance, your power is considerably less than your maximum potential. In addition, you will have much more success against off-speed pitches.

There is a great baseball drill to learn and emphasize the importance of pre-pitch movement. It is called the Throw back and Throw through Drill. This drill can be done from a batting tee, side-toss, or soft-toss. A hitter that has no movement back should be started with this drill off the batting tee. The drill is set-up and executed like this: The batter assumes his normal, comfortable, and relaxed stance. He then points the barrel end of the baseball bat towards the ball resting on the tee (almost touching it). It is very important that the batter's hands and arms are loose and relaxed. From this position the batter "throws" his hands and bat away from the ball and back over his shoulder (away from the pitcher). This movement is very similar to the beginning movement in a golf swing. In one continuous motion, the batter brings his hands and bat forward THROUGH the ball after reaching a point over the back shoulder.

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The hitter should see and feel a tremendous advantage to swinging the bat in this fashion. Once the batter can duplicate this movement with rhythm and balance from the batting tee, it is time to move on to a side or soft-toss drill. With these drills, there is an element of timing involved as well. The hitter should realize that this movement would be impossible during game conditions. You need to remember that this is a drill that over-emphasizes the movement back (away from the pitcher). Now the hitter has to discover his own way of getting back. Every hitting coach tells you to stay back. But first you have to get back in order to stay back. This method of getting back depends on the individual. Some hitters (Frank Thomas and Juan Gonzalas) have a big leg-kick and raring back of the body. Some hitters have a smaller (Cal Ripken, Chipper Jones) pre-pitch movement. A batter needs to do something back to get started. This movement may be with the hands, legs, body lean, or combination. Notice that the hitters mentioned above are all quality hitters. Everybody has their own way of getting back, but this movement back (in some form), is something that all good hitters have. Find this correct movement given your own style and incorporate it into your swing. Keep swinging and hit The BALL!

If you like the free tip there is a much more in-depth lesson available at the Detailed On-Line Lesson Page. There are many pictures and examples of hitting drills to improve a player's pre-pitch movement. Please come back again soon. Tell a friend about Hit The Ball as well ! Now that you know and understand pre-pitch movement, you will need to learn the concept of stride separation. This will be the topic of conversation for the tips and lessons to be updated soon.

We here at Hit The Ball have written a page that you may use as a check list to analyze and critique yourself. The first part of the page lists different components of the swing. The second part of the list is a series of hitting drills that are specific to correcting certain mechanical flaws. Some of these drills are more advanced. Remember every hitter is different and what works for some, may not work with others. The staff at Hit The Ball is professionally trained to analyze and improve swings based on careful observation and video anaylization.

Key Benefits of Pre-Pitch Movement

Gets your swing started with rhythm and balance.

Increased power production.

The ability to hit off-speed pitches harder and more consistently.

 

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