Are You Grounding Out Or Popping Up Too Often?
I hope that all hitters, coaches and baseball parents realize that all the real good baseball hitters pay very close attention to how their outs are being made. The weaker hitters focus on their hits. The million dollar question the real good hitters ask themselves is… “Did the pitcher get me out or did I get myself out?”
No matter how high or how low your batting average is, you have to pay close attention to how your outs are being made. We improve by working on any baseball hitting weaknesses we have. Even if you are very efficient at baseball hitting, if most of your outs are either because you’re popping up too often or grounding out too often, you should be looking to make an adjustment. If you take your baseball hitting seriously, you must make adjustments. Here are some baseball tips on hitting that should be very helpful to you.
Grounding Out Too Often And Topping the Ball
1. You may be getting your stride foot down too late. This will not give you enough time to get the bat to the hitting zone because your bat will still be too high when the moment of truth arrives, thus topping the ball.
2. You may be trying to pull the outside pitch instead of going with the pitch to the opposite field. Your bat will have a slight drag to it and you won’t be swinging through the ball.
3. You may be hitting too much off the front foot and not keeping your weight on your back foot. This will cause you to be “top heavy” and most likely hit the top of the ball.
4. You may be opening your front shoulder and/or front hip too quickly, causing you to pull off the ball and not swing through the ball. This will not encourage good baseball hitting.
Popping Up Too Often And Hitting Under The Ball
1. Pay very close attention to what your back shoulder is doing. If it is collapsing and dropping down below the front shoulder, there is a very good chance this is the problem. Basically, you are lowering your entire swing and you almost have to swing underneath the ball, which will cause popping up too often. The same applies to your back leg. If it’s dropping down and “collapsing” too much, that can very easily lead to “upper cutting” the baseball and popping up it up too often.
2. Make sure you are not dropping your hands too low when actually swinging. This obviously will increase the chances of you hitting the bottom of the baseball. If your hands are too low, your bat will be too low and there is a very good chance you will hit the bottom of the ball.
3. Make sure the back of your bottom hand is facing the pitcher when you start your swing. Remember, it should be one palm up and one palm down only at the point of contact and not before.
4. Make sure that your front elbow is pointing downward at the very start of your swing!
Always remember that the real good hitters pay close attention to how their outs are being made while the weaker hitters are focusing on their hits!
What I mentioned about the bottom hand and the front elbow are two of the best baseball tips on hitting you will ever hear. The very beginning of the swing is a downward movement and is not level at all. Only at the point of contact should the front elbow be level and pointing toward the pitcher. If you learn only this one thing out of the hundreds of baseball tips on hitting, you will see a major improvement in your baseball hitting immediately!
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 save to your favorites now. I’m quite sure that you and other baseball people you share them with will benefit. Please feel free to use the links for your website, blog or newsletter to attract new visitors or to keep your current visitors returning. I promise…you will be raising some eyebrows!
