Baseball Hitting Tips: Six One Liners You Really Should Know
If you are a player, a coach, or a baseball parent who wants to help your son, sometimes you can say a lot with only a few words. Short and right on point is so much better than bombarding a baseball hitter with 35 baseball tips on hitting that he must do properly for a perfect baseball swing. That’s absurd. The following concise list of baseball hitting tips will prove that less can indeed be more.
1. “Everything goes toward the pitcher.” Your body should be going toward the pitcher and not toward third base if you are a right-handed hitter or toward first base if you are a left-handed hitter. It’s a very common baseball hitting problem because it is extremely unnatural to go toward someone who is throwing a baseball in your direction. But, the truly great hitters all do it.
2. “Outstanding hitters have slow feet and fast hands.” The faster you move your feet around the better the chances are that you will get “sloppy.” A steady, balanced foundation is as important to good baseball hitting as it is to building a house. Even if everything above the foundation is perfect, whether it be baseball hitting or building a house, if the foundation is not perfect it will lead to many problems. And “fast hands” are of the utmost importance when baseball hitting is concerned. It’s very frustrating, especially for power pitchers, when a hitter literally just flicks the bat out with very quick hands and hits the ball hard for a hit.
3. “Short and quick is so much better than long and strong.” I cannot overemphasize how being “short to the ball” is a very critical factor and one of the more important baseball hitting tips. Being “short” is an absolute necessity and you will be able to catch up to anyone’s fastball. I would rather pitch against a baseball hitter with a long and very powerful swing than someone who is “short to the ball” any day!
4. “Stride and then you swing.” They are two separate movements yet quite often weaker hitters will do them at the same time. Watch and you will see this very common baseball hitting problem often. They should happen in rapid succession but they are separate movements that should be done as smoothly as possible.
5. “Tension is a hitter’s worst enemy.” An expression that’s been around for decades and still holds true and always will. Hitting a baseball effectively is not an easy thing to do. If you tighten up your muscles it is pretty much impossible to be a good baseball hitter. That’s one of the reasons some very good hitters will use a little waggle with their bodies or their bats while waiting for the pitch. It’s almost impossible to tighten up your muscles when you are moving them. Relaxing and “letting the air out” is one of the more important baseball hitting tips.
6. “To hit the ball harder, you don’t necessarily have to swing harder.” Don’t place too much emphasis on how hard you swing the bat. It’s a very common baseball hitting problem, especially with younger players.They swing too hard and miss the baseball by a foot. Focus heavily on getting the sweet part of the bat on the ball as often as you can. Trust me, just get the bat there and watch what happens. Let the bat do 90% of the work for you. Bat manufacturers spend millions of dollars on research to have the ball jump off the bat when hit on the “sweet spot.” Nobody will ever notice how hard you did or did not swing at the pitch.
What they will notice is your “seed” going up the gap! Baseball parents, players and youth coaches, I post a new FREE baseball article on hitting, pitching or fielding every Monday at LarryBaseball.com that you can add to your favorites now. You and other baseball people you share them with will benefit by reading them.ย Please feel free to use the links for your website, blog or newsletter to attract more visitors or to keep your current visitors returning. I promise you will be raising a few eyebrows!
