Hitting Tips

So far this year I’ve been hitting .470, that’s a long way from the consistent .200 average I’ve had over the last two years of playing baseball. So, how did I go from a .200 hitter at the end of the lineup to hitting 3rd or higher? Here are some hitting tips that I used to help. First off I worked a lot on my hitting by exercising and frequenting the batting cage but the most influential thing I did was read Ted Williams’ book The Science of Hitting some people say its outdated, their wrong, it is probably one of the best books to read on hitting a baseball, Ted covers the basics and the essentials in a baseball swing and breaks it down to the minute details. Another good book is Charlie Lau’s The Art of Hitting .300, it’s very detailed and has a lot of pictures to aide visualization of a good swing. Another thing I did and this takes from Ted’s tips on hitting, is look at the pitcher before my at bats. I generally watch the pitcher from the bench but when I’m in the hole I get up and stand right behind the backstop and watch him throw to see where his pitches are going, where his release point is, what the ump’s strike zone looks like, and what he’s got for that particular day, standing in the on deck circle is an invaluable time to check out the pitcher that I feel not enough people take advantage of. Third, I prolong the at bat as long as possible. This is not to say that I get up there and aim for a long at bat, it could be a very quick at bat, but what I try to do is stay in the game while I’m at the plate and not let the at bat get away from me. For example I once struck out on three pitches, it was a quick at bat not just because it lasted three pitches, but mentally I was not in the game I was not fully focused and not thinking, I just took a few hacks and left. A good at bat, I would think, is one where the batter is in control, not the pitcher, where he gets into a deep count, say 2-2 or 3-2, and fouls a few off and is prepared for what’s coming; let’s say the pitcher likes to throw a changeup in a 2 strike count, if I were thinking properly I would look for it and if I know I can’t hit his changeup I would try to get a piece. My last piece of advice is this, swing at strikes. It sounds simple but it isn’t, it’s hard to learn the strike zone and also yourself well enough to know when to hold up. I see a lot of people swing at high pitches, the high fastball looks so good because it’s right at your eye level, you see it the best, but you can never hit it, I always remind myself it’s up there for a reason leave it there