Hitting Tips And Drills That Made Me A Star

            The hardest thing for me when I first started was hitting. It is probably looked at as the most important thing you can do as a baseball player, and it is probably the hardest thing to do. I’m going to give you some tips to help you get ahead in this very important aspect of the game.

            In my opinion, the most important aspect of hitting is the mental side. This is what I really struggled with at first. If you are new to the game, you may walk up to the batter’s box and see this pitcher that look 20 years older than you and is throwing as fast as you’ve ever seen before. When situations like these occur, you have to lock in. What I mean by this is get in a comfortable batting stance with your weight back and just feel all the potential energy that is running through you. You have to picture the ball coming towards and you hitting it before it actually does. This gives you the confidence and swagger that is required to be a consistent hitter. You have to believe in your ability to hit the ball, and understand that the pitcher is under the stress, not you.

            Another important part of hitting is the mechanics. The first thing you should check is when you grip the bat, you want to make sure that the knuckles that you knock with on each hand line up with each other. It feels very unnatural at first, but once you get some swings in like that, it starts to feel natural. Once you have that down, you need to make sure that in your batting stance your back elbow parallel to the ground. This also feels unnatural, but it takes a lot of unnecessary movement out of your swing, and it helps generate bat speed and power. Once you have those two pre-swing mechanics down, we move on to the actual swing. Before the bat even moves, you need to throw your back hip across the plate so that when you swing your body is almost squared to the field. You also need to lead with your hands when you swing. These things will let the bat come through the plate at a much higher speed. Also, when the bat is making contact with the ball, you want to be looking right at your bat, or in other words, keeping your head on the ball. When you don’t do this your coach’s will all yell, “Keep your head in there!” trust me. Doing this allows you to concentrate on the ball, which allows you to get a much better depth perception of where you need to place your bat in order  to make contact with the ball.

            With these tips in mind, you should see your hitting ability rise a little. However, you need to be practicing your hitting as much as you can, so I’m going to give you some things you can do that to keep improving on your already above average hitting ability. I did this the absolute old-fashioned way, and I now bat fourth (batting fourth is called hitting “clean up”. It is reserved for the best hitter so they can hit in all the people that are on base.) in the line-up for my high school baseball team. I would go around my house and literally every five steps stop and take an air swing, working on every little fundamental of my swing. I know it sounds silly, but it really helps you with muscle memory, and you get to understand your swing and how it feels a lot better, while improving the essentials in your swing. Another thing I did was gather up some small pebbles around my house and put them in a bucket. I also found a good sized stick and went into my backyard. I would throw a pebble about five feet into the air and hit it with the stick on its way down. Again, really weird, but this made a monumental difference. This REALLY works your hand-eye coordination, and it also helps you get a feel for what it’s like to see the bat hit the ball. Along with these tips you can always go to the batting cages if you have some available, or have someone pitch to you. As long as you do SOMETHING to try and improve your hitting game, you will succeed.

            That’s all the tips I have on how to improve your hitting ability. It worked for me, so it can work for you. You just have to walk up to the plate KNOWING you're about to hit this pitcher like he’s never been hit before. Thank you for reading this, it is very much appreciated, and be sure to check out my other posts for ways to improve your overall baseball game.

-Brandon