Hit Problem Issues? - 365 Days to Better Baseball

Tuesday Tips to Tattoo the Ball - When Hit Problem, Do These

Even experienced baseball hitting coaches have trouble analyzing why hitters struggle from time to time. One coach may see one hit problem and another may notice a different hit problem. With that in mind, it is an awful lot to expect volunteer youth baseball coaches to be able to help ballplayers with their hitting problems. Some batting mistakes are more noticeable than others are, of course. Additionally, it is one thing to be able to know hitters' mistakes and another thing to have enough knowledge of hitting drills to solve the hit problem.

Hit Problem Awareness

An often-used phrase that I tell my hitting students goes like this, "You do not need to know what you are doing wrong, but you need to know how to fix it. That may seem to be an odd statement, but it is true, as long as coaches know a few baseball-hitting drills that solve many hitting mistakes. Following are two such drills that when performed enough, solve many batting technique mistakes. Therefore, as mentioned, coaches can have players Practice these and notice that, in a short time, players begin to hit the ball more consistently.

Hit Problem Drill #1

Players place a pad, as their baseball glove, under their lead armpit and take swings. The goal is to keep the glove under the armpit until the contact area at which time the glove should fly out. This practice method works because it forces good initial hitting position, leads to the correct first move of the swing and good extension with the glove flying out post contact. Many young ball players begin their baseball swings out of correct position, leading to the incorrect first moves and abbreviated follow throughs. This drill helps all of those.

Drill #2 that Solves Hit Problem

Players take their swing and kick their back knee forward of their front leg (Towards the pitcher) as they swing. This drill also forces the correct first move, as well as the weight transfer and hip turn, to other key ingredients to a perfect swing that batters often fail to do.

The good news is that hitters can do both drills at the same time if desired.