It takes a lot of time to perfect your baseball swing. As you get older, it gets harder. When kids get to high school, pitchers are throwing hard and have different types of pitches. It is important to start with the basics and learn the fundamental skills, as this is the best way to hit consistently as you grow older.
Your baseball swing needs to be practiced repeatedly so that it is committed to your muscle memory. Once the pitcher releases the ball, there isn’t time to think about it; you need to be ready to swing. Take a look at five tips for perfecting your baseball swing.
- Use the Dry Cut Drill
In the Dry Cut Drill, the coach will give verbal commands counting from one to four to help you develop muscle memory for your swing. It stands for the following:
- Load
- Stride
- See the ball
- Hit the ball
It is important to stay balanced through all of the steps. You begin this drill in your batting stance. As you move through the motions of loading, striding, listening for pitch location, and swinging, you will develop a rhythm for your swing. You can practice this without a ball to develop a feel for it.
- Tee Drill
This drill is great when you want to work on where you should hit the ball. The contact point has an impact on where the ball travels, and you can work on this skill by hitting off a tee. By moving the tee to different positions, the player can learn where to hit different kinds of pitches.
For example, an outside pitch needs to be hit to the opposite field, while the middle pitch should be hit over the center fielder’s head. The inside pitch should be hit down the foul line on the pull side. The hitter can practice and learn how to adjust the swing for different pitches so that he can hit more effectively.
- Flip Drill
Another hitting drill that will help you perfect your hitting is the Flip Drill. The person “flipping” the ball tosses it to help the hitter practice their swing for different kinds of hits. If you are working on an inside pitch, the flipper tosses the ball to the front hip of the hitter. This allows him to work on pulling the ball.
If they are working on a middle pitch, the flipper tosses the ball from a 45 degree angle directly in front of the hitter. It should move towards the belt buckle, and the hitter learns to hit a line drive straight up the middle of the field.
Finally, for an outside pitch, the flipper should toss the ball from behind the hitter, and the hitter learns to hit to the opposite field.
- Batting Practice
In batting practice, the coach tosses the ball from behind a screen. The coach can count to four to help the batter develop a rhythm, and the repetition helps improve batting.
- Live AT-Bats
This is where the batter works on hitting pitches from a machine or a pitcher. The hitter has the opportunity to put all of his skills together and improve his swing.