Hitting Tips

Batter's depth in the Batting Box
To set your feet at the proper depth each time, place your right toe on the back corner of the plate, then your left toe behind your right heel. Finally, step back with your right foot to establish a proper distance and depth (for left-handed batters, do the opposite). How far back you stand in the box is a matter of personal preference. Standing deeper allows more time for pitchers who pitch fast, but it may be tougher to hit a breaking ball type of pitch that sinks out in front.

Frame of Mind
When you are ready to step into the batter's box, be confident! You should feel balanced and relaxed. As you step into the batters box, do it with a sense of determination and focus. Set yourself by digging in with your back foot to gain good footing and balance. Demonstrate to the pitcher that you are ready to play.

Batting Stance
The type of stance you use is up to you. Many successful batters have very different stances. However, a balanced stance with your feet square to the plate provides you the best position to properly uncork a good swing. Allow enough room to take a good 6-8 inch step toward the pitcher as you begin swing.

Position from Plate
The first thing to do when stepping into the batter's box is to find the proper place to place your feet. Make sure you are not too close to or too far from the plate. Touch your bat across the plate to find if you can cover an outside pitch. Your bat should touch the same place each time you step into the box.
Gripping the Bat
The grip on the bat should be comfortable in the hand, ideally the middle knuckles on each hand would line up. This helps in executing the proper swing. The grip should be fairly loose up until you 'load' particularly with your top hand. Don't choke the bat with such a tight grip that it tenses up all the muscles in your arms and shoulders.

Tension is your worst enemy when it comes to a fluid swing. Tension throughout the body is often the direct result of gripping the bat incorrectly. A player with a relaxed grip on the bat will be able to react faster and wait longer on a pitch than a player with a death grip on the bat. You want to be relaxed in the box; this starts when you pick up the bat.

Many players will hold the bat back in their hands. Doing this causes a couples of problems.

A decrease in flexibility & A tendency to tighten your grip.

When you hold the bat in the palm of your hands and tighten your grip, your entire body can tighten up. The end result is a negative effect on your swing.

The proper way to hold the bat is out on the fingers. Pick the bat up like an ax. Once you get the bat in your hands, keep it in your fingers. Your middle knuckles will naturally line up when you pick up the bat this way. Some players leave their knuckles in this alignment and some will close their knuckles slightly. Make sure you don't close the knuckles too far; you could lose the ability to use your wrists during your swing. Closing your knuckles also may increase the likelihood that bat will end up in the palm of your hands and not in your fingers.

                  

"Stay Loose"

Once you are in your stance, make sure you don't tighten up your grip. If this is difficult, you may want to do something to help yourself to keep your grip loose. For instance, you can lay the bat back slightly but keep it out in your fingers. To do this, you have to have a loose grip on the bat. You can also move your fingers on and off the bat.

Whatever mechanism you use to keep your hands relaxed, make sure it is comfortable and does not disrupt your concentration on the pitcher. If you're worried about throwing the bat or loosing your grip, don't. Once you start your swing, your hands will naturally tighten up on the bat and you will be in control.

The bat actually rests across the middle of the fingers, not in the palm of the hand.

Hold the bat like you would hold a live bird in your hands. Don't worry, the hands will automatically tighten around the bat as you swing

Finishing the Swing

Back Side Commitment
This is often called "squishing the bug", but the term implies that you must keep some weight on the ball of your back foot. This violates the tenants of hitting coaches who teach that you should hit with your weight on the front foot. Regardless of the batter's front/back foot weight distribution at contact, the point is that prior to the swing the rear foot should point toward the plate, and through the course of the swing twist and finish pointing toward the pitcher.

The knee should also be bent to near 90 degrees. This twisting action gets the hips into the swing. The hips are key to increasing bat speed and generating power from the legs. Unfortunately, a player with good reflexes, quick hands and good hand/eye coordination can survive through AAA without good back side commitment. However, the increase in pitching velocity at the majors level makes it difficult to catch up to the pitch without "squishing the bug."

Front Side Closure
While the back side is twisting, the front side should not. It should stay near the "closed" position. Closed means that the front foot is pointed more toward the plate, than to left field. Once the front foot opens, hips and shoulders tend to follow. It's great if the hitter wants to pull every pitch, but as the player progresses up the ladder of competition, the pitchers will catch on and pitch to the hitter's weakness, the outside pitch.

Keeping your Head on the Ball
We can call this "Mike to Ike" without offending any hitting gurus. Like the front foot, the head does not twist as the back foot, hips and trunk. Mike refers to the front shoulder, or where your chin should be before the swing. Ike refers to the rear shoulder, the position of the chin at the finish of the swing.

Body Stays Centered
With the twisting and weight transfer, the body must stay centered. The body should not fly forward with the bat head and end up over the front foot.

Balance and Extension of the arms
The arms should be at (or at least near) full extension at contact; but not before then. Quite often, a hitter will extend their arms early. This is called casting. If the arms are extended too early, and the pitch is on the inside half of the plate, the batter must lean back on their heels to keep from hitting the ball on the bat handle. The result is a loss of balance backwards, which results in the batter catching his balance with a small step back, usually with the front foot

At the completion of a swing, the weight on the front foot should be centered on the ball of the foot, in a very wide stance, leaving the batter in a good balanced position. Also upon extension, and through contact with the ball, the bat head should be flying toward the pitcher, and not immediately whipping around the batter.

In order to stay balanced, extend properly, and swing through the ball, the elbows need to stay bent and close to the body. Keeping the hands "inside" the ball, the bat should be gripped with fingertips, not the palm, and the middle knuckles should be nearly aligned, which in turn keeps the wrists aligned and acting together to snap the bat at the ball.