Batting Basics

A good stance

• Weight balanced.
• Knees slightly bent.
• Belly button facing the plate.
• Head facing the pitcher (chin on the front shoulder).
• Front foot opposite the middle of the plate.
• Bat held in the fingers in front off the back shoulder.
• Hands together (touching) on the bat.
• Able to reach both sides of the plate.

Knuckles

When you set up in your stance the main (door knocker) knuckles in your two hands should be in a line. You can test whether they, and therefore your hands, are correctly aligned by sticking your two index fingers straight out from the bat. If your two index fingers are parallel your grip is OK, if not twist your hands round until they align correctly.

A good swing

• First movement is to bring your bat (and weight) slightly back.
• Keep eyes on the ball.
• Stride forwrds, then rotate your hips.
• Back foot 'squishes the bug'(heel comes up, toes turn but stay down).
• Belly button faces the pitcher, hips at 90 degrees to the pitcher, at contact.
• Head stays level.
• Fingernails of the top hand facing up, bottom hand facing down, at contact.
• Flat swing.
• Finish with chin on back shoulder.
• Hit through the ball.
• Top hand releases the bat after contact.
• Big follow through so the bat finishes behind the body.

A note on women's hips

Hip rotation is a vital part of generating power when batting. This is especially true for women. A recent army survey of male and female recruits found that the females had 59% of the upper body strength of the males but 72% of the lower body strength, showing women get a higher percentage of their body strength from their hips and legs.

An example: McGwire

1. Head down, eyes focused on the contact point even AFTER contact.
2. Arms extended in a full follow through, driving THROUGH the ball
3. Straight front leg, giving a stable base as the upper body rotates.
4. Front foot closed even though he has stepped forward, this helps keep the swing level and the ball down.
5. Weight stays central, lunging forward will lose power leaning too far back will cause the ball up to pop up high into the air.
6. Back foot 'squishing the bug', the foot rotates and the heel comes up but the toes stay on the floor.
7. Hips fully open, belly button facing the pitcher, tranfers all the force of the swing into the ball.

Hitting it where it's pitched

is good advice for a batter but what does it mean ? It means hit a pitch down the middle back over the pitcher, an outside pitch is hit to opposite field, an inside pitch down the line closest to the batter. The diagram shows how a right handed batter should look to hit the ball. The closer the ball is to the batter the earlier, further in front of the plate the batter should hit the ball.

7 steps

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