How to Improve Your Baseball Hitting Simply Thru Practice

How to Improve Your Baseball Hitting Simply Thru Practice
By: Jack Elliott

Much like everything in life, you get better at things the more times you do them. Baseball Hitting is no different. For this reason, the best baseball hitting advice anyone can give you is to practice your swing. Mickey Mantle was said to swing the bat at least 100 times a day right handed and then do the same left handed. Also, modern day players like Barry Bonds are said to swing the baseball bat 500 1000 times a day. If this strategy works for the pros, it can also work for you.

How to implement this Baseball Hitting Strategy:

1. The best strategy is to divide up the swings throughout the day. After you get up in the morning, take 25 cuts batting from the right side and then take 25 cuts batting from the left side. (It does not matter if you are not interested in switch hitting, practicing swinging from both sides will allow you to develop your muscles more fully.
2. Depending on what your schedule will permit, you can either take another 25 cuts each from the left and right side at lunch or just after school gets out.
3. Then, take 25 cuts from each side right before or after dinner.
4. Finally, take 25 cuts from each side right before bedtime.

Over time, you will see your strength grow and should develop a more natural swing. Also, as you get stronger you can increase the number of overall swings. This is an excellent Baseball Hitting Strategy to follow.

From here, you can incorporate this repetition principle into other aspects of your Baseball Hitting routine. For instance, if you do not already practice your swing by hitting off a tee, it is a good idea to acquire a basic hitting tee and a bucket of wiffle balls. The cost is minimal as these two items can be purchased for under $65, but the benefits to your Baseball Hitting can be quite large. A Hitting Tee affords you the opportunity to practice your baseball hitting of inside and outside pitches. For example, if you have difficulty hitting outside pitches, you can set your self up away from the tee so to practice hitting outside pitches. Over time, you will see your skill improve because of the repetition principle.

You want get into the habit of practicing your hitting 5-6 times a week. One caveat: as you start to increase your batting swing repetitions, you will begin to develop blisters and calluses on your hands. This may initially seem like a bad thing, however, these really are badges of honor. They show you are putting in the work on your swing. There is an old expression in baseball hitting circles which says practice until the blisters bleed. Once you develop hardened calluses on your hands, you will be able to keep increasing your repetitions.

Bottom line is do not let a lack of access to a batting cage prevent you from practicing your swing. It should not matter whether you have access to a batting cage or not. In the end, all you really need is a baseball bat and a strong desire to improve.

Baseball Hitting Drills: Using Small Baseballs to Improve Hitting Skill

Baseball Hitting Drills: Using Small Baseballs to Improve Hitting Skill
By: Nick Dixon

Hitting a baseball has often been described as the most difficult task in all of sports. It certainly is a skill that requires a great amount of practice to master. Great hitters are not born, they are made. They have a love for the game, they live to hit, and they never grow tired of hearing the reaction of the fans when they drive one off the wall in left-center for a stand-up double. Players at every level including high school baseball, college baseball and major league baseball must commit themselves to a regiment of daily batting practice if they are to maintain their swing and stay at the top of their game. What gives the great hitters the ability to perform so well under pressure and to dominate their game? What is the one common trait of all great hitters other than a great swing? The answer can be found in their eyes. The great hitters have the ability to focus. They have the ability to see the ball better, to pick it up quicker out of the pitchers hand, and to track it into the zone and off the bat.

Batting practice with Small Baseballs is a proven method of improving the ability of a batter to see and focus on the baseball. The small ball concept has been around for decades. The theory is simple, if you practice hitting a ball much smaller than a baseball, then when you actually are hitting a real baseball, it will look bigger and easier to hit. I was skeptical about this movement when it first came about in the early to mid nineties. But, firsthand experience has made me a believer. I purchased 6 dozen small baseballs last season for my players to use in batting drills and the batting cages. I must admit, I had visions of the small baseballs flying through the netting of our batting cages. That concern proved to be unmerited. During months of use and thousands and thousands of batting practice swings, I never witnessed a single small baseball pass through the net.

Players are always receptive to new ideas and concepts. My players are always eager to see what I come up with next. As the inventor of the hitting stick, BatAction Machine, Hit2win Trainer, and ZipnHit, I often use my team practices to experiment with new ideas and concepts. The players loved the small baseball on first sight. I basically gave them access to them to use in our daily batting cage workouts.They quickly developed their own routine and drills. They quickly adopted a 3-stage progression during their daily batting cage workouts. They used the small baseball in two of our 6 mini-cages. When they hit the small baseball, they would take 12 swings with a Livewire brand training bat, a small barreled bamboo bat. Then they would take 12 swings with the Sweetspot brand training bat. Then they would finish with 12 swings with their regular metal batting cage practice bat. After hitting the small baseballs, they would use regular sized baseballs in the batting cages, taking 48 swings in 4 sets. So the small balls acted as a warm-up or prep work before their regular batting cage workout with regular batting cage balls. The small baseball performed great. Soon, all of our hitters used then on a daily basis. The use of the small baseball greatly improved eye focus, batter concentration, and most of all, it improved batter confidence. There was normal wear and tear on the small balls because they were sometimes used in cage with bare cement floors. If you are looking for a new twist to add to your daily practice routine, I highly recommend small baseballs. I am sure that you will see and experience the same benefits that I did with my team.

Hitting Tips For Youth Baseball

Hitting Tips For Youth Baseball
By Coach Radcliff

The most valuable recommendation that a youth baseball coach can give a young batter while doing baseball hitting drills would be to concentrate on hitting the ball up the middle. When you concentrate on hitting up the middle, you are able to adjust to hit the ball wherever its pitched. If you go to the plate hoping to pull the ball, you’ll struggle hitting an outside pitch. Your front side will have opened up too soon and you may not be able to hit a pitch on the outside part of the plate. You have to have balance in every thing that you do in baseball, in particular in hitting and hitting drills. Your body is going to move, but you ought to keep your head still. The best way to accomplish that is to possess great balance. Youth baseball bats work just like adults bats, they need balance.

Concentration at bat is essential, and confidence helps. You must walk up to the plate saying to your self, I’m going to launch the ball. A player requires rhythm. Try to watch the pitcher’s hand and keep your eye on the ball be aggressive at the plate, but also be loose and relaxed. If you ever let your arms get too tight, you might lose the advantage of having excellent wrist action for your swing, as well as your power. Your baseball bat speed just won’t be there.

You have to have a purpose to every swing in batting practice. As part of your first round of batting practice you may concentrate on hitting every pitch into the opposite field. During the following round, try to make sure that you are swinging down on the ball. Prepare your self for possible game situations, or the practice will never be as beneficial as it could possibly be. In case you discover your self in a hitting slump, attempt to focus on defense and perhaps save the game with a great throw. Slumping hitters must bear in mind that it does not always take a great at bat to win the game.

Youth baseball players and coaches ought to seek to strengthen the mental outlook of the whole team with encouraging comments to all players. Negative comments will never bring something beneficial for the team morale. Hitting really depends on confidence.Hitting a baseball is a extremely challenging skill that occasionally gets overlooked by coaches, players, and parents.From time to time we ignore how skilled these youth baseball players are and want even more out of them.Let’s just have fun and appreciate this fantastic game of youth baseball.