Baseball Batting Tips and Techniques

Mickey Mantle, one of the great baseball batters did not have a clue when he started playing the game at the tender age of 16, that he would go on to become one of the greatest baseball players. He was a batter par excellence and as such, he has got a mention in the baseball hall of fame. So what made him click with his batting? What were the baseball batting techniques which probably helped him catapult to such a level in the game? Well, let's see some tricks on how to hit a baseball, which might help us uncover the secrets of Mantle and the likes.

Batting Techniques for Baseball

Stance
A batter's stance is of the utmost importance on the home plate. If the stance is incorrect, then, the whole batting technique can crumble. For a perfect stance, stand with your feet apart, wider than your hips and point your toes towards the home plate. It should be such that if you draw a line across the toes, it would directly reach to the pitcher. Keep your knees bent and legs loose, distributing your weight evenly on both legs. Make sure your elbow comes above the center of your belly, keeping your arms close to the body. At the waist, bend slightly forward. Remember to keep your chin above the front shoulder.

Get a Grip
Now that you know what is a perfect stance, you need to get a proper hold on the grip. There are basically a couple of grips which are used the most by batters. Whichever grip you chose, make sure that you do not grip the bat too tightly. A fundamental tip for batting well is that right handers should hold the bat with their right hand on the top and vice versa for the left handers. One of the most used grip is the choke grip. A choke grip is when the top knuckles of one hand are lined up with middle knuckles of the other hand, around 4 to 6 inches from the bottom of the bat.

Then there is a standard grip, most often used by major league baseball players. This grip involves lining your middle knuckles up in a straight row. For a good standard grip, hold the bat on the place where the fingers meet your palms and grip with your fingers, rather than your palms. This will serve you a better bat speed as you can move your wrists freely with this stance.

The baseball batting tips were just a warm up. Now we come to a harder part, which is baseball hitting drills.

Baseball Hitting Drills

Power Bat Drill
In a power bat drill, the baseball players sharpen their batting skills by hitting an object heavier than a baseball. Through the point of contact they achieve increased power on hitting the ball later. The goal is to hit the ball without the decrease in the speed of the swing of the bat at the point of impact. For this activity a batting cage net or a batting cage is required, along with a plunger and a flat soccer or basketball.

Colored Ball Drill
This is a very interesting drill, which helps the batters a great deal with their reflexes and thinking at the home plate. In this drill, the baseball balls are colored with different colors. Someone places a ball in the pitcher's glove, without letting the batter know the color. The pitcher will call out a color of the ball before pitching. The batter can only hit if the color matches the ball pitched and is in the striking zone.

Pitch Behind Drill
The aim of this drill is to get the timid batters rid of their fear and backing out at the plate. This is a gradual process, wherein the coach can use tennis balls first to pitch at the batter and pitch them behind the batter. Initially, the batter might back out, but then later he will realize that he better check the ball before backing out. As the batter grows in confidence, he will hit the normal baseball (ball) without backing out.

Here are some tips given by famous baseball players on how to hit a baseball.

• Stay inside the ball so that you can hit it better. To get a second opinion, have someone (who knows the game of course!) to check out your swing for a better check of your swing mechanics.
• Be patient and don't be unnecessarily aggressive. Concentrate on hitting the ball in play.
• Try to hit the ball up the middle and keep your head still. Go to the plate saying that you will hit the ball.
• Wait up for a good pitch and do not be in a hurry to hit the ball out of the park
• Get a hold of the strike zone and do not swing at bad pitches.

Keep these baseball batting tips and techniques in mind while training for baseball, and who knows, you could be the next Mickey Mantle or Babe Ruth! So are you ready to face the pitches with some mind-blowing batting and dazzle the home plate? Go on! Happy playing!