BASEBALL HITTING TIPS

There has always been a question about whether or not the stride is necessary. We’ve done enormous research on the stride, with one basic finding: The stride does not hit the ball. It only overcomes inertia and gets us into position to hit the ball.

Here are some of the many questions:

How long should it be?

What direction should it go?

Would it be best to eliminate it?

One thing is for sure: The stride, done poorly, will often do more harm than good. Here are some of those issues: Over-striding, stepping the bucket, and not getting the foot down in time.

One might think, let’s just eliminate the stride. Or let’s just put the front foot out, with only a little weight, and keep the rest of the weight back.

In all of our years of studying baseball hitting tips for research and development of the Super 8 Hitting System, we looked for answers to those questions.

I am a hitting purest, meaning that if the activity is not necessary, then we don’t do it. In other words, economy of action, doing only the absolutes with no wasted motion is the way to go. So should we eliminate the stride? Many coaches teach this in their clinics and camps using many baseball hitting drills.

My belief is that while no stride is ten times better than a bad stride, a good stride is better than no stride.  Against a good velocity pitcher, a hitter must have quick hips. He must be able to turn quickly, clearing his hips and getting his hands out in front for contact. The stride is an asset for this. It provides a continuation from linear to rotation for the fast ball and for transfer of weight through the ball.

Here is the timing factor:

Fast Ball:          Stride –Stroke

Off Speed:        Stride– Pause – Stroke

Think of the top that young people used to play with. With all of the electronic games of today, the old “top” has been sort of put away on the proverbial shelf. But the top used to be a favorite toy for youngsters. It’s a rounded object with a pin on the bottom. They would wind the string around it, toss it forward holding onto the end of the string.

When the pin of the top hit the ground, the top would change from linear direction to rotational.  It would spin, and spin until it lost its momentum and flopped over.

If the top were merely dropped straight down vertically, this would create a very loose rotation, if any, and it would almost immediately drop over on its side.

So what’s the point? Like the linear hitting action of the top gives it the force that it needs for strong rotation, so does the linear hitting action of the stride provide a good rotation of the hips toward the ball.

Most of us have heard coaches talk about “rolling the wrist” in hitting.  Have you ever wondered what happens to the bat when the wrists roll?  The answer:  The bat head rolls.

Personally, I have seen this happen over and over again during analysis of players in their front view hitting videos.  They took beautiful contacts of the ball and turned them into ground balls because they rolled the bat head too early.

Does it seem logical to roll the wrists at the point of contact when we are trying to attack the ball? Answer:  Absolutely not.  The only time the wrists should roll is when the bat is brought back to the opposite shoulder following the forward extension of the bat after contact.

We must keep the bat head in line with the stroke and not allow it to roll.  When making contact, the barrel of the bat must be kept constant before, during, and after contact.  Otherwise,  the ball will escape.

So, to learn how to hit better in baseball, here is a great rule:  It’s called “UNDER – UNDER”.

Check out your baseball hitting mechanics.  The top hand on contact, should be UNDER the bat.  Open up the hand on the bat when it is at the point of contact.  It should be under the bat with palm up.

Following contact, the bat head should travel to its forward extension, and the top hand should still be UNDER the bat.  Check it out.  Open up the hand.  It should still be under the bat with palm up.

So again, here is one of our best baseball hitting tips: Use this:  The UNDER – UNDER rule.

One final note:  Here is another way to keep the hands in check.  The knocking knuckles of the top hand always face the pitch on contact and never face down as the bat goes into extension.

These techniques are fully explained in our baseball hitting web site for the “Super 8 Hitting System”, completely demonstrated in a series of baseball hitting videos, which includes many techniques for learning how to hit better in baseball.