Bandits Baseball Cairns: June 2011

Hitting Tips

DIRECTNESS OF THE SWING

I think that the "directness of the swing" is one of the most important aspects of hitting the ball effectively. The front elbow should be pointed downward at the very beginning of the swing and not toward the pitcher. Not being direct to the ball is a very common problem for many weak hitters! If the front elbow is pointing
toward the pitcher at the very START of your swing, it will create a slight loop which will cause you to be a fraction of a second late to the ball.
If it takes a fast ball about a half second to get to the plate, you cannot afford to lose a valuable fraction of a second. A fraction of a second is an eternity when attempting to hit a baseball effectively. This fraction of a second can very well be the difference between hitting a seed or swinging late and possibly missing the ball entirely. If you learn only this one thing about hitting, you will be a substantially better hitter. Please keep the front elbow pointing downward at the very beginning of your swing!

BAT SPEED IS CRITICAL

Let's keep this very basic. Very simply, the faster the head of the bat is going
when it hits the ball, the harder a hitter will hit the baseball. There are hundreds
of baseball tips on hitting but don't the hitters with the quickest bat speed hit the baseball the hardest? You can talk about many things that are required to be a successful hitter and right near the top of your list should be bat speed. It's very enjoyable to watch a very big, strong hitter clobber the baseball. It's also very enjoyable watching a smaller hitter who is not exceptionally strong clobber the baseball. The only way for the smaller player to be competitive with the bigger
and stronger hitters is with his very quick bat speed.

There are several things you can do to improve your bat speed:

Practice your swing every day. Some professionals will take as many as
500 swings a day in the off season. That's probably one of the reasons
they are now professional hitters. I'm not saying it's feasible to take that many swings every day but practice your swing as often as possible. Remember to take your practice swings exactly like you are swinging the bat in a game. You're cheating yourself if you do otherwise. If you are willing to spend the time practicing your swing, you deserve the benefit from the time you are putting in. What can possibly be better to improve your strength and quickness as a baseball hitter than practicing the swing itself?
Avoid gripping the bat too tightly, which is a common problem especially with younger players. They often have the mindset that "I'm going to grip this bat real tight and really clobber this ball." Nothing could be further from the truth.
It will actually slow down the speed of your bat. It's identical to a pitcher who holds the ball tighter to slow down a pitch and a baseball hitter gripping the bat tightly will slow down his bat speed also.
Make sure you swing directly to the ball. The very beginning of the swing is NOT level at all. It is a DOWNWARD movement and only levels out at the point of contact! You absolutely must be "quick to the ball." Short and quick to the ball is far better than long and strong.

GET TO KNOW THE OPPOSING PITCHER QUICKLY

If you don't know anything about an opposing pitcher, watch him closely and you may possibly get to know a lot about him very quickly. Beating the pitcher is plain and simply, a battle. Good pitchers will stay awake at night trying to figure out how to get good hitters out. Just like the pitcher is looking for your strengths and weaknesses as a hitter, you too better be looking for his strengths and weaknesses!

Some Very Important Things You Should Be Looking For

Look for where his release point is. Quite often pitchers have different release points for different pitches. You may know what pitch he's throwing before he actually releases the ball.

Is the pitcher always throwing a first pitch fast ball all the time?

Does he lean back more toward second base to get more speed on the fast ball?

Does he slow down his windup at the last second when throwing a change up?

On the other hand, does he speed up his windup too much when throwing a change up because he is trying too hard to disguise it?

Does he always throw the curve ball with 2 strikes?

Is the first pitch to each batter too "fat" and an easy pitch to hit?

Does he throw a breaking ball after he shakes off his catcher's signal?
(This tells you the catcher is never signaling for the breaking ball as his first signal)

Does the pitcher raise his front shoulder higher when throwing the fastball?

Is he always pitching low and away and not using both sides of the plate?

Does he drop his arm slot down a little to get more lateral movement on his breaking ball?

While on the bench, sit next to a very good hitter and talk about the opposing pitcher throughout the game. Remember, the pitcher is thinking of anything and everything he can do to get you out. As a baseball hitter, you should be thinking of anything and everything you can do to have a successful at bat.
You will be very pleased with yourself if you have observed that the pitcher has started five straight hitters off with a first pitch fast ball. Then you get up, see a
first pitch fast ball and hit a seed into one of the gaps!