Hitting Drills And Tips That Will Have You Hitting Like A Star

            One of the hardest things to do in baseball is to judge a pitch that is coming at you. Whether it’s going to be a strike, whether it’s going to break, things like that. Here I’ll explain ways to help you learn to judge them in the air and how to practice that.

            Pitchers that have nasty curveballs that are tough to detect can be very annoying. The key to beating these guys is to really concentrate on the ball coming out of the pitcher’s hand. A fastball will come out of a pitcher’s hand very naturally and have spin that your eye is used to seeing. On the other hand, with a breaking pitch you’ll see the pitcher’s hand snap in an unnatural way, and the ball will have a heavy, unnatural spin. This is where keeping your head on the ball really comes into play. You have to track the pitch all the way to your bat if you want to hit it. Also, a lot of times pitcher’s will tip off their off speed pitches, whether it’s a different arm slot, a different leg kick, or anything, just be sure to watch him when he warms up and see if he has any tip offs.

            A drill that I use to sharpen up my eye to incoming pitches is the tennis ball drill. I have about 50 tennis balls that I use and each one has 6 dots of the same color on it. I use four different colors for the drill. I have someone pitch the tennis balls to me and all I do is watch the balls come through the strike zone and I try and read the color on the tennis ball. This really works you watching the ball as it comes in and it helps your concentration when you’re trying to hit breaking pitches because your eye is already trained to watch the ball all the way through the zone.

            Another thing that has really helped me is using a pitching machine that can throw curveballs. This may not be available to many people, but for those that do have that option, it is incredibly helpful towards the training of your eye to see the spin on a curveball, watch it break, and then watch the bat hit the ball.

            That's all the tips I have on this topic. Remember, a trained hitter’s eye can get you very far at the plate. Thank you for reading, it is very much appreciated, and be sure to check out my other posts for ways to improve your overall baseball game.

-Brandon