In one word, practicing is all that is needed for developing the skill of batting in baseball. But before a hitter can practice how to hit he needs to know how to correctly practice. Hearing a few tips before going into the batting cage will make becoming a hitter a lot easier than trying to practice through troubles. Remember, that the average batting average for even the MLB batter is about .250; which means that on average a professional hitter gets one hit out of four at-bats. So, do not expect to hit eight out of ten times at the plate, that is unreasonable and unexpected from any player. But, no one likes playing ball if they are not a good hitter. Almost all of the hitters who grew up playing little league were actually trained incorrectly and so have never had good fun with the game. So, here are steps to show a hitter how it is possible to improve a poor batting average. The only way to increasing a batting average, thus increasing the fun, is to methodically approach every pitch at the plate; which means learning the techniques for swinging properly and having good tactics for manipulating the pitcher into throwing a good pitch to hit. To learn how to improve a batting average directly affects the fun a player has because the primary goal in baseball is to get onto a bag, to accomplish that goal all that is needed is proper emotion, proper swing form, and fearlessness against the harshness of the game of baseball.
Holding a proper attitude is the most fundamental characteristic of a good batter. As humans, our most primitive reaction to being mad is wanting to hit something. Something broke inside so the reaction is to break something physically to express that feeling; there are many videos online to see of professional baseball players smashing objects with a baseball bat in frustration. If a hitter expresses that kind of sulky attitude when at the plate, he has a greater chance to perform more poorly. A hitter could be angry or he could be happy, that does not negatively affect performance; but to be upset in a sulky manner will hold any hitter back from achieving a successful plate appearance. Essentially, the hitter just needs to be optimistic. Having a sad attitude will also hold back a hitter because, again, human instinct when sad is to sit down alone and give up. A hitter crying internally or externally over getting hit by a pitch, or fans mocking him, is the most common way emotions ruin a hitter’s game. The key is to embrace all of the emotional circumstances and feed off of them positively whether it build up a feeling of happiness, anger, hurt or any other emotion, the batter just needs to direct the emotion to help his performance. Do not direct it into forfeit, complacency, or being argumentative. That may seem obvious, but even pros lose their temper all the time and it costs them many times. Before leaving home, he should get the appropriate mindset and come to the ballpark with a beneficial attitude, (as stated, whether it be happy, angry, or just ready to play no matter what physical hurt that is being suffered from.) The hitter should try to transfer his positive mindset to teammates, to get them in the same mindset so the team is working together and not fighting and bickering; keep emotions in check, it will help at the plate. As the game develops circumstances will bring new emotions up but the hitter needs to make sure to use the energy from those emotions to give more power and motivation to himself. So, if a hitter is called out on strike three then he should use that experience for next time to have more awareness at the plate, instead of the common thing today which is snapping the bat over his knee in frustration; that is an example of positive use of emotion. Once the feet are put into the hitters box, it is game time, so he needs to be ready mentally.
But physically be ready too! Proper swing form is probably the least known technique of batting among amateur ball-players; for this reason, a hitter can become a stand out at the ballpark just by learning the simple technique behind how to swing the bat like a professional does. Swinging a baseball bat is actually more like swinging a machete than an axe because the power is in the wrists and not the arms. Imagine trying to use a hammer on a nail and how silly it would be to use an entire arm to gather the impulse of force needed to drive the nail; it is in the wrists. First, grip the bat at the very base of the handle with the nondominant hand; at the bottom of the handle because it allows more power to be generated due to a law in physics called torque. With the dominant hand, then firmly yet comfortably grip the handle about half-an-inch above the the nondominant hand; slightly above the nondominant hand because it allows for more fluidity of motion in the swing. Align the knuckles of both hands with each other; aligning the knuckles is really to align the wrists, so that they are in-line with each other and can then swing more effectively. Once the bat is gripped stand in a comfortable, “ready-stance” and raise the barrel of the bat above the right shoulder, (assuming the hitter is right-handed, if left handed then raise the bat over the left shoulder.) Economy of motion is the key here while retaining power (tension) in the arms; so, just hold the bat at an angle that requires the least amount of motion to initiate the swing while retaining a powerful grip. An easy way to figure out how to hold the bat is by slowly swinging the bat on a level plane, while using the other techniques described, and then slowly reverse the swing until the bat is back in ready-position. Do this while consciously thinking of trying to make the swing as efficient as possible. If this step is too hard to figure out in reality, just remember this: hold the bat with power in your arms, and swing the bat with an economy of motion. Now the hitter is ready to initiate a swing. Assuming the pitch will be a strike, swing the bat so that the barrel lags behind the hands; so that the end of the bat is pointed toward the ball, consequently aim the hands toward the ball; then at the best moment, which is known instinctually, but the best moment to react should be so that the ball is one to two feet from the plate. At that moment, flick the wrists and jolt the body forward, releasing all power at once, and try to hit the ball with the barrel of the bat; remember that the body should follow the bat, the swing should be ahead of the body. Emphasis on flicking the wrists, most of the power in the swing comes from the wrists, the body is jolted forward just to sustain that power after making contact with the ball. An easy test which may give insight is to find a stick outside and swing it using the shoulders, then try swinging it with the elbow, then try swinging it with a combination of elbow and wrist. The stick will tell you which is better because whichever method breaks more air and makes more of a whiff sound is going faster; and thus, makes evident that flicking the wrists is the fastest motion. Assuming the hitter is right-handed, the hitter’s right arm should be holding the bat by itself with the left arm-hand aiming the bat to hit the ball. Aiming the bat to hit the ball is tricky, the best way is not to aim the bat but to adjust the knees and torso to move the standardized swing in the path of the ball. Since the bat’s barrel is lagging behind the hands (so the hitter can flick his wrists) the bat should naturally want to hit the ball into opposite field, so do not think just because the ball goes to opposite field that it is because the swing is too slow, that is a myth from players who use poor technique. Now that the hands are taken care of, for the feet and legs: keep them still or at least held backwards until the flick of the wrists; then transfer all of the pent up power from the legs and torso forward and into the swing. Do not twist the back-foot as that wastes power on nothing; instead, simply let the back-foot follow the legs and body, which follow the arms, which follow the hands. That is the perfect swing. Yet, something else to keep in mind which is somewhat common sense is to keep the entire bat on a level plane as the swing is developing; doing so will drive the ball rather than pop it up or hit it into the ground. Practicing your swing slowly in the mirror, analyzing your moves and / or watching slo-motion video of professionals is a good way to fix these techniques into a hitter’s mind; any odd quirks will naturally work out, and the hitter should develop his own slightly unique approach to swinging the bat, presuming the hitter has talent. There are many different kinds of swings based off of the above swing; yet that level of technique is very finely tuned and takes hundreds of hours of practice. Situational swings are for the professionals. The hitter can have a perfect swing but even the perfect swing is still useless without the confidence to employ it in a game.
A fearless attitude, or confidence, means not to be scared of getting hit-by-pitch, or striking out through trying to get a walk or swinging for a home-run on an 0-2 count. Notice, that these three aspects are both physically and mentally related and will directly affect the batting average of a hitter. So, first get a manly attitude about being hit-by-pitch, after all, baseball is a male sport. Many hitters have been pegged and unless the ball hits them in the balls then there is not really any legitimate fear of injury; because every hitter should be wearing a good helmet and should hide his chest-stomach area if he perceives the ball is headed to hit him. The fear of getting hit by a pitch is what holds back some amateurs from using their skills at the plate. Next, make sure that striking out is not a fear. The fear of striking out is what causes some bad swings; either the hitter is scared of taking a pitch and striking out so he swings at a ball, or he is scared to swing at a pitch in a close count so he takes a strike on strike three. Maybe, he swings early and hits air because he is so scared of missing contact with the ball from a late reaction. To stop the fear of striking out, he should just not think about striking out, instead, think about hitting the ball; it is that simple! He should rely on his previous practicing and training and remember how effective it is. Essentially, the hitter should not have irrational emotion in his head, instead he should think about hitting and not striking out. Then there is the fear of exercising aggressiveness in the batter’s box. This is deadly to practiced technique because if a hitter is scared to use his technique for the reason of it being is too aggressive then he will relapse in a timid way to a less effective hitting style. Thus, he will not see improvement in his batting average. Aggressive hitting implies that the hitter is standing close to the plate which forces the pitcher to throw better pitches and swinging at any pitch that is even close to being a strike; but if the hitter has a fear of being hit-by-pitch then he is tempted to stand back in the box and that makes it very easy for the pitcher to set down the hitter. Standing back in the box because of fear, (by lack of confidence,) is how to strike-out or consistently make bad contact with the ball. To fix that problem, the hitter should remind himself that the techniques he wishes to employ are superior to his old routines. The main point is for the hitter to be aware of possible fears so the hitter can check and fix his mindset if needed.
Combining all three of these things together turns a below average hitter into an exceptional hitter, which means a good batting average. Practicing technique is the only way to succeed in hitting the baseball consistently. Though the league average is two-hundred-fifty the individual average of the good hitters is in the three-hundred-fifty to four-hundred range; meaning that if they get up to the plate the team is almost guaranteed to get one hit per inning in the good part of the lineup. The sky is not the limit for growth in a batting average, about five out of ten times the best hitter will get a hit, but that makes the limit for growth virtually unachievable, so constant growth is what is desired. Constant and consistent work of trained technique is the key; and usually good training comes from a good coach. Every head-coach loves a player with a good batting average; yet, not many head-coaches actually know how to methodically get a good batting average. Personal training is probably an amateur hitter’s best option for improvement of his batting average.
If this blog gets enough attention I will write another with a more in-depth analysis of how to swing a baseball bat, with pictures and diagrams - swinging a bat is more complicated than you might think at first.