Hitting a Baseball - Using the Gaps

By Nate Barnett

How do you tell if a hitter is creating the correct energy and movement at bat? One simple way (there are obviously more technical ways) is to observe where most of the balls are traveling while hitting a baseball. If a hitter is directing balls into the gaps (regardless if they are ground balls or fly balls) he's on the right track. On the flip side, if a lot of balls are being sliced down the opposite field line or hooked to the pull side, some mechanical alterations are necessary. Two common causes are found here:

1. The most common root cause of hooking or slicing while hitting a baseball is improper control of the front side of the body. A good baseball swing begins with the movement of the back part of the body (specifically the back knee and hip). During this brief period of time the front side of the body (basically all joints on the front side) need to remain relatively unmoved. The purpose of this is so that the back side of the body moves towards the play. If the front side moves at the same time as the back side of the body, momentum is being taken away from the pitch. It is then more difficult for the athlete to keep his bat moving through the zone. Instead, the bat cuts across the zone and creates a lot of side spin on the baseball as well.

2. Another cause of hooked or sliced balls is how the hands enter and pass through the strike zone. The path any hitter needs to take with the hands is a direct and straight path into the hitting zone. Unfortunately, the problem of a weak front side (described in #1) tends to drag the hands away from the body. The end result is hands that progress through the zone in a sweeping fashion. This type of problem only increases the likelihood that side spin will occur while hitting a baseball.

Nate Barnett is owner of BMI Baseball designed to improve the mental game of baseball in athletes. Learn how to help your game by improving your baseball psychology

Nate Barnett is owner of BMI Baseball designed to improve the mental game of baseball in athletes. Learn how to help your game by improving the skill of mental baseball

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nate_Barnett


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Baseball Hitting Drills For the Stride

By Joe Brockhoff

In our Hitting System, we practice striding during the following batting practice sequence:

• Soft body, no stride, full take
• Load and Stride - Take
• Load - Stride - Pivot

Isolating these three activities by themselves can be performed alone at home without a pitched ball, or during batting practice, like in our Hitting Agenda and Tempo Drills. This builds the stride to the point where it is constant. Here are the rules for the best stride:

• The stride travels only 6 inches.
• The stride lands on the ball of the foot
• The stride goes directly ahead and in the same place each time.
• The stride begins on pitchers release.
• The hands stay home near the back shoulder during the stride and are not released to make the bat contact the ball until after the pivot (rotation of the hips).

Another coaching point: The stride should be initiated in the large muscle mass of the hips. In other words, it is a slight linear push of the hips toward the ball. The front foot merely follows this push, landing on the ball of the foot. When the front heel goes down, this keys the turn of the hips and the weight transfer.

When facing a pitcher with above average velocity, a baseball player must be quick in the hips and rotate accordingly... having the ability to clear his mid section and allow his hands to get out in front makes for better contact with the ball. The stride plays a vital role in developing from linear to rotation for a sinker or four seam fastball for weight through the ball.

Former Tulane Hall of Fame Baseball Coach, Joe Brockhoff, fully explains his baseball hitting drills with the Super 8 Hitting System, completely demonstrated with videos and baseball hitting tips to help you hit with more power and raise your batting average. http://www.LearnBaseballHitting.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joe_Brockhoff

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The Categories they have are: Baseball Training Equipment, Youth Baseball Training Equipment, Training Bats, Pitching & Throwing Trainers, Defensive Trainers, Batting Cages, Pitching Machines, Jugs Equipment, Game and Practice Baseballs, Protective Practice Screens and Nets, Portable Pitching Mounds, Baseball DVDs & Books, Clearance Items on Sales, BatAction Hitting Machines, Hurricane Hitting Machines, NEDCO Bataction Replacement Parts, SKLZ Hurricane Replacement Parts and Much Much More! Visit Baseball2U.com today!

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Baseball Coaching Digest - The 4 Key Elements That Help a Batter Hit a Baseball With More Power

By Nick Dixon

Every baseball player loves to hit the ball hard and far. The power required to hit the baseball deep comes from the generation of maximum bat speed. The generation of bat speed is created by the correct use of the lower body, hips and hands. Four key elements are required to make the batting swing more powerful. This article outlines and explains those key elements.Those key elements are:

1) The Batter Uses the Front Leg as Leverage to Generate Maximum Bat Speed. - What is leverage in the baseball swing? Why is leverage important? How is leverage generated? Leverage in a baseball swing is a resistance point or stationary object that stops forward movement. The front foot acts as the lever and provides leverage to the swing. For this leverage to occur the batter must allow the ball pass front foot. The front foot should be closed with the toes pointed toward the plate to supply maximum leverage to the swing. This leverage is the force against which the batter rotates the hips against. The front leg must be strait and planted to allow the hips to turn.

2) The Batter Generates Maximum Rotational "Torque of the Hips". - I use the term "Hip Torque" to describe the power the hips add to the swing. Batters must rotate the hips to achieve maximum bat speed. To get the maximum hip turn the front foot should be kept in a closed position. If the front foot is allowed to rotate or is in an open position at any point during the swing, there will be a loss of hip energy and a reduction of power in the swing.

The back foot is often lifted or turned up onto the toe. Many coaches describe the action of the back foot as a turn of the "shoe laces to the pitcher". The back foot action is not nearly as important as the front foot. The one thing that must be monitored is that the back foot does not travel forward. The back foot should stay where it was at the beginning of the swing, but the heel should lift and the foot turn to free the back side and to allow for maximum hip and torso rotation.

3) The Batter Keeps of the Hands Close to the Body. The Batter Keeps the Hands on the Shortest Power Path to the Ball. - The power track for the hands is a path that starts above the ball and close to the body. The "power track" is a short compact swing that is directly to the ball. To generate great bat speed the batter must drive the knob and bury it at the power contact position. Keeping the hands closer to the body also keeps the hands inside the ball.

4) The Batter Achieves Maximum Extension Through the Ball. - The batter that keeps the bat on the ball plane as long as possible is able to generate the maximum amount of power possible. The track or path of the bat should be downward until it gets to the balls plane. When the bat gets on an even plane with the ball, the batter should then drive the hands forward through the ball. This power extension has the top hand in a palm down position and the bottom hand in a palm up position. This forward extension or drive through the baseball is a key element of generating power.

I hope that this article was informative and helpful to you. I appreciate you taking the time to read. Have a great day, Nick.

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Nick Dixon is the President and founder of Nedco Sports, a sports training company established in 1999. Dixon is also an active and full time high school baseball coach with over 25 years experience. Coach Dixon is better known as the inventor of the BatAction Hitting Machine, the SKLZ Derek Jeter Hurricane Hitting Machine, the SKLZ Target Trainer, the SKLZ Derek Jeter ZipnHit Pro, and the SKLZ Strikeback Trainer. Dixon is also a contributing writer for BaseballCoachingDigest, the Youth Baseball Digest, the Baseball Parent Guide, the Baseball 2Day Coaches Journal, and Blog4Coaches.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nick_Dixon

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5 Core Mechanics to a Good Baseball and Softball Swing

By Todd Thomas

In hitting there are 5 core principles that as a hitter you hope to execute on every swing. No thanks to pitchers constantly attempting to mess up a hitter's timing and balance, these core movements aren't always present in every swing. These core mechanics are dependent upon each other for a player to really execute their best swing. In order to successfully execute one's best swing, these "parts" need to work together to maximize the hitting process. These five core principles are the "blueprint" of a hitters basic mechanics. They are:

1. Weight Transfer
2. Hips lead the hands
3. Matching the swing plane to the pitch plane or "leveling"*
*(this involves the shoulder dip, tilting, & getting the bat level to the ball)
4. Ideal contact
5. Staying inside the ball

These principles of hitting are the foundation and are present in every good swing but they are not all always present in EVERY swing from the same player. A player cannot, and will not, be consistently successful if they are regularly lacking in any one of these areas in the hitting process. This is why Ted William's said that hitting a baseball is the single most difficult thing to do in any sport. Although, I tend to disagree with Ted on this thought. Hitting a baseball(or softball) may be the second most difficult thing. I believe TEACHING someone to hit a baseball/softball may be the most difficult thing to do in sports!

Do great hitters always look great or even good at the plate? The simple obvious answer is NO. If the pitcher is successful as they often are, their pitch will take one of the core elements away from the hitter. When this happens take a look at what happens to their swing. The result are often less than favorable in these cases.

Oftentimes, a player who has excellent core hitting mechanics can be struggling at the plate and even look awkward. If you regularly watch a lot of games and hitters as I do, you will clearly recognize when a hitter gets into advantageous hitting positions and when they obviously did not. In the situations when their swing looked "bad", that doesn't mean that the hitter has poor hitting mechanics. Rather, something in the process was slightly off. One(or more) of the core mechanics was out of whack for whatever reason. A lot of times it's a hitter's rhythm, timing and tempo that are off and they are "chasing" a pitch the pitcher fooled them with. Whatever the pitcher has done, it has worked in that the hitters core mechanics are thrown off. As well all know, this doesn't always mean the hitter doesn't get a hit. We've all seen the crazy off-balance swing where the hitter drops one in for a base hit. As well as, we have all seen the "perfect" swing where the hitter smokes the ball only to have it fielded for an out by the defense.

One thing to add here is two-strike situation. A hitter should be less concerned with staying perfect with their mechanics and should be simply focusing on doing whatever it takes to make contact and put the ball in play. There is typically not much a hitter can do when they have two strikes on them except let the ball travel as deep as possible and simply put the bat in the path of the ball. Any thoughts of putting the perfect swing on a pitch when a hitter has two strikes must be out the window and he/she should focus on making the adjustments necessary to put the ball in play.

What is the perfect swing anyway? It's the adjustments a hitter makes appropriate to the pitch they get. This is the reason why a lot of times no two swings look very similar. It all starts with the core mechanics and then expands from there. Every element is necessary to maximize the swing process to a consistently high level. When a player is taught improper core mechanics or if core mechanics are not firmly established, hitting problems are exacerbated greatly and hitting frustration is escalated. Learning the core mechanics and learning them correctly while continually working on them is crucial to all hitters.

Todd Thomas is a Baseball Coach and Professional Hitting Instructor for Mike Epstein Hitting. Coach Todd's personal hitting website is http://www.HitItHere.net. Coach Todd also enthusiastically endorses http://PlayMyBestBaseball.com as a place where baseball and softball hitters can master the Confidence, Composure, Focus and Consistency of their game so they can reach their full potential.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Todd_Thomas

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