Most youth baseball players have long swings. A long swing is one in which the barrel of the bat starts too far from the correct hitting position or one that strays from the direct path to the contact area, or both. Long shifts lead to most hitting errors.
I think all baseball batting coaches agree that a compact baseball swing is desired. A compact swing is one that goes straight to the ball, while allowing batters time to wait for pitches and providing the power to drive the ball to all fields. While teaching the art of hitting for over 23 years, one thing I learned is that, unlike teaching pitching and fielding, you need to correct the batters’ upper body (bat position and 1st move) before to address lower body problems with excessive striding. coming out (in the bucket) and lunging. Over and over again, I have observed that coaches try to correct batters’ wrong steps and lower body actions to no avail. Batters’ wrong actions don’t go away because long swings create lower body problems that remain until your swings are more compact.
Over time, the subconscious minds of hitters have told them that when they can’t get the bat out to front in time, they must compensate. Hitters with long swings learn to incorrectly compensate for the aforementioned problems of striding, diving, and stepping on the bucket. They in order to get the bat to the thrown ball on time. Coaches can tell hitters with the wrong stride a million times not to go off, pass the stride, or lunge to no avail for the stated reason – their swing is long, and that’s the only way to avoid being continually late to the ball. . The only solution is to create a much shorter (compact) swing. This is not to say that the lower half of the body is not crucial to good basics of the shot, but the swing should be addressed first. As proof, good hitters can hit consistent line shots from the knees with a good swing, without the power, of course, but they can’t hit the ball solidly with great lower-half mechanics with a bad swing.
I have also repeatedly noticed that once compact swings develop with the correct hit starting positions and correct first moves, the lower half hitters’ issues go away. Without tight swings, hitters automatically revert to bad lower-body habits because they can’t wait long enough with the ball.
Therefore, it is necessary for coaches to teach the correct position to strike when landing with the stride foot. A compact swing begins with the correct barrel position of the bat when the batter’s front foot lands. The barrel of the bat should be in a line directly over the back shoulder with the hands at shoulder height and approximately two inches behind the back shoulder. From this position, the bat begins on a direct path to the ball with the batters’ rear elbow entering the body as the hands are directed to a palm up, palm down position through the contact and hitting zone. . Naturally, the bat is leveled earlier at lower pitches than at higher pitches.
Below are hitting drills that can turn long swings into compacts and drills that will help eliminate hitting errors when throwing, taking excessive strides, and stepping on the bucket:
Drills without batting tee available:
1. Dropped Ball Drill – Coaches stand slightly in front and to the side of the batter, out of harm’s way. After the batters land on their feet, the coaches drop the ball into the hitting zone. Hitters with long swings will continually be late in this drill, until they shorten and speed up their swings.
2. Net behind the batter drill – Have the batters stand mid-foot from a net that is directly behind them (toward the catcher) and swing without hitting the net on the way to the ball. To ensure that batters do not drift away from the net, they must hit the same net in their follow-through without taking their head or front shoulder off the ball.
3. Top Hand Drill: With a small bat or choking on their regular bat, hitters can work on hitting only with the upper hand, which will help them control the barrel in a more direct contact route.
With the use of a batting jersey:
1. High tee drill – When teeing off at chest level, hitters must work on line shots. Long shifts will generally result in blown balls, cut balls, or totally lost balls.
2. Dropped Ball Drill: By placing a batting tee at the batters’ waist and even with their hips back, batters must lose the tee on their way to the dropped balls.
With 2 batting tees available
1. Low / High Tee Drill – Place a ball on one tee at par with the batter’s front leg and a ball on the other tee one foot forward with the ball closest to the catcher a ball and a half width lower. Batters work to hit the line of strikes with the front ball after missing the back ball.
Of course, some of these hitting drills can also be done with live hitting practice. Finally, it should be emphasized that without the correct and described position of the barrel of the bat when landing the foot with a stride, none of these exercises work to fix and shorten the swing, leaving hitters with their long swing and problems in the lower part of the swing. Body.
