This week’s edition of youth hitting will look at a drill devoted to the improvement of your little leaguers confidence. Confidence is important at every age, but especially at your child’s adolescence when every strikeout, groundout, or pop out could mean the end of the world in his or her eyes. Mark Muto in Youth baseball: Great batting drills has developed a drill with three progressions that … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2013
Establish essential plate discipline
Much is made of the ‘five tool player’ in baseball. The player that can hit for power, hit for average, has arm strength, can field, and has the speed to run the bases. However, a tool that is just as important in baseball, and is often overlooked, is the ability to have plate discipline. By the time most hitters reach college or professional baseball, their idea of the strike zone and their … [Read more...]
What to look for when you buy baseball equipment
While we frequently recommend training aids on this blog, I thought we would look at an article that gives suggestions for buying baseball equipment this week. The article is taken from Swing Smarter.com and is entitled Unraveling 4 Momentous Baseball Equipment Buying Guidelines. While the article is helpful with certain suggestions towards baseball buying guidelines, it seems to take on the role … [Read more...]
A mental approach to hitting
This weeks hitting technique blog will not look at your technique inside the batters box, but outside of it. Connor Powers, on DeadRedHitting.com, looks at how your mental approach is integral to your performance in future at-bats in The Most Overlooked Part of Hitting. Powers acknowledges that the best hitters go through slumps but the attitude that you take after a strikeout may determine your … [Read more...]
Unconventional approach batting drills
Our training drills portion of our blog that normally takes place on Tuesday, and has been delayed because of the wonderful articles that I have found the last two days, will begin right now. Along with my discovery of a wonderful website that I have not encountered before, called BaseballThinkTank.com, I found an even more wonderful video on the website that gives a unique perspective on tee work … [Read more...]
Don’t have a lot of time to practice in the offseason? Here’s the answer.
For now we will skip the weekly drills segment of our blog, that was supposed to take place on Tuesday, because of the great articles I found for youth hitting yesterday, if you have not read it check it out, and the relevant blog that I found for today by David Keesee. Keesee, who has been referred to on this blog before, recently wrote a blog entitled Baseball Training Strategy and the Effect of … [Read more...]
Drills to improve common youth hitting errors
Upper cuts, slow swings, head pulling, lunging, who has not seen these problems from little league to high school, from the best hitters to the hitters that need a little bit more help? Glimer Baseball.org provides a way for parents and coaches to look at batters, realize their problems, and fix the problems with a problem specific drill. The website is non-profit and their information is helpful … [Read more...]
Tools to improve your bat path
This week’s featured training aid is the Instructo Swing. The Instructo Swing hitting tool forcefully coaches hitters, by the means of the guided rails, to keep their hands in the zone longer, keep their bat inside the ball, and keep the proper swing path towards the ball. The Instructo Swing is adjustable for right handed and left handed batters and can be angled, down, level, and upward. Proper … [Read more...]
How to not buckle your knees when you see a curve ball
What troubles most hitters as they adjust from youth baseball to high school baseball is when they face pitchers that can consistently throw curveballs for strikes in a variety of counts. SwingSmarter.com, in Deuce AKA Curveball Smashing 101: How to Hit Tape Measure Shots & Return Your Trays to Their Upright and Locked Positions, has looked to develop a comprehensive way to hit a curveball for … [Read more...]
Alternative strength training and hitting regiments for youths
Last week at this time we devoted our attention to strength training for high school hitters. While weight training should not be implemented for youth hitters, there are several simple, yet effective, ways to build hand, wrist, and forearm strength in youth baseball hitters that will serve them well in the long run. On Yahoo Voices, I found an article by a Coach Mc entitled Simple Tips to Improve … [Read more...]