Be A Better Hitter Baseball Hitting Drills & Instruction – Be A Better Hitter

You do not swing down or “chop down” on the ball.  This technique was popular in the 90’s. There are coaches and “hitting instruction” web sites that still teach this method of hitting. It’s wrong – Why? Here are three simple facts about a pitched baseball: The pitching rubber is 10 inches above the ground therefore the pitcher is elevated/ above the batter so to throw to the strike zone he has to throw down. Once the ball leaves the pitchers hand gravity starts pulling the ball down along with the effects of air pressure, humidity, wind, etc. Once the ...

Bat speed is developed through strength training and repetition.  To improve our bat speed, we can use a number of hitting tools including a swingaway, an overload bat and a swing tracker.  Using a swing tracker is a great way to measure progress.   Bat speed is what separates high school players from college players, and college players from pro players.     Now more than ever, college and pro scouts are using exit speed and swing tracking metrics in showcase events.  Players with the highest bat speed get the most attention. Here are the 5 hitting tools that I ...

Simple physics description of hitting a baseball: It’s the transferred energy from a batters body to his bat. Then from the bat to the ball. The transfer of energy from bat to ball creates Batted Ball Speed (BBS) which propels the baseball forward.  So how do we get optimal BBS? Let’s face it, BBS is what everyone cares about. BBS determines how far the ball will go once contact is made. One of the biggest questions that has been debated by fans, players, parents and coaches when discussing BBS, “Is bat speed more important or bat weight (mass) when it ...

How many times have you heard: “The game of baseball is a game of failure – even the best hitters fail 70% percent of the time.” This statement is wrong and factually untrue yet most believe it because you’ve been told it over and over. That belief alone already puts you in a negative mental state before you ever get to the plate.  What you need to understand is that just because you didn’t get a hit to get on base you didn’t fail as a batter. If you hit the ball and it’s a ground out or a fly out that’s ...

Bat Path Every time I work with a new hitter, I ask “How would you describe your swing to me?” I like to get their thoughts and see if they match the actions of their swings. I can honestly say most kids say, “Swinging down to create backspin.” It’s really frustrating for me to watch hitters start off hitting ground-balls and they think they’re swinging properly because they’ve been instructed that way.  It’s also frustrating that coaches now want hard hit balls on the ground, instead of hard hit balls in the gap.  Since when is a ground out better ...

Every player at one time in their life has heard their coach tell them to “go with the pitch”. Unfortunately, the only time players usually hear that phrase is when it’s an outside pitch. What most players don’t understand (and some coaches) is that you should be doing that for every pitch. The batter must be taught to “go with the pitch” wherever the pitch is thrown. This is a quick overview and will cover the three general pitch locations and when and where to hit the ball. This is the basic foundation you must learn before you can learn ...