The 5 Most Important Things To Know About Baseball and Softball Hitting -- Number 2 -- Arriving On Plane (i.e. - Palm Up, Palm Down)

Palm Up, Palm Down

“The Most Important Hitting Concept You Will Ever Learn”

Figure 1 - Go To Google and Search Home Run

When you attack a baseball or a softball, you are up against quite a few defenders. You have the pitcher the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd basemen, a Short Stop, and three Outfielders. The further up you get in the competitive ranks, the harder it becomes to get on base. Coaches and baseball people love to remind us that this is the game where being good 3 out of 10 times is considered great. You are going to need a strategy. 

Best Strategy: Hit the ball to the moon every time you are at the plate. Not possible? Ok. Back to reality then. You need to get on base in order to score. The pitcher is betting that you wont make it. You are batting that you do. Get it? Anyway, your most likely methods of reaching base are via a hard hit line drive or a hard hit ground ball between the defenders. Anything else, that is, anything that lingers a while is likely to get scooped up by the defense. Now what?

Now, as a hitter, you want to do the things that produce hard hit line drives and hard hit ground balls. Hit the pitcher hard every time, and I assure you, he or she will not like seeing you arrive at the plate. That is your goal. The more they do not like to see you, the more reluctant they become to throw you strikes, the more likely you are to end up ahead in the count, which ultimately makes you more likely to get on base. <if you understand how to take advantage of the count> (#DifferentStory)

Nearly all long term successful hitting over the past…well…forever has been done by hitters who arrive at the ball with opposing palms, one facing up, one facing down. Arriving at the ball in this formation allows you to have the best chance at hitting home runs, line drives and hard hit grounders. Those three outcomes lead to the chain of events previously mentioned.

Being in this position also places your hands in the optimal formation for transferring your stored energy via your hands into the ball. If your palms are facing toward the field, you can hit the ball. You can even hit the ball hard. BUT the palm up palm down position remains the superior position because of the likelihood that one hits balls fair and hard. Rolling the hands through at impact increases the likelihood that you hit pop flys and weakly struck grounders. No good.

Take the challenge. Type the words and see what you find. 

Happy Hitting.

Until Next Time,

Carl Young II

www.TheTrainingBat.com

@TrainingBat

Timing is the Key To Power in every Swing

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When you want to generate power in a golf swing, a punch, a long 3-pointer, whatever, you need to generate energy and then release it with control. If it's hitting a ball, the most important reason to be in control and on time is that in order to hit the ball amazingly hard you must must MUST get square with precision timing. If you do not, you will not hit the ball as hard as you can. You're saying it sounds simple...??...Good.

The funny thing...
Most people are not aware that is even what you ought to be doing. I see children and adults when I am either coaching or at conventions, and they think that hitting a baseball means twirling your tool around you with your hands. No. You should be generating a rush of energy in direct opposition to the oncoming object (i.e.-baseball or softball), as to send it flying in the opposite direction. Did we mention that the object is coming anywhere in a range of about 50mph (80kph for my Euro pals) to about 100mph (160kph). Geez. 

Lesson...
If you have a kid in little league, if you are a coach at a High School, if you are just an undeniable force of ball smacking swat skills, REMEMBER work on timing. We all want to see you hit balls farther than we want to walk to go get them. So again, practice timing. Hands back long as you can, and the fury of a bat stroke unlocking at the final moment are the things that need to be implemented. 

We'll Talk More. Good luck. 

@TrainingBat

The 5 Most Important Things to Know About Baseball and Softball Hitting -- Number 1 - Getting Square

Number One:

That's the knob of the Stacked Handle Training Bat, the first bat ever with a contoured planar grip. It is the best way to experience the swing plane on the market today. Arriving on plane with great timing and getting square, together as a bonded pair, make up the two most important hitting fundamentals that there are anywhere.

Let's start with...

Part 1 - Getting Square

Why does a carpenter use a square? Plumbing. No. Not what's behind your toilet. I am talking about what TheFreeDictionary.com calls:

Plumb.

adv. 

4. in a perpendicular or vertical direction.
5. exactly, precisely, or directly.
6. completely or absolutely: You're plumb right.

I like number 6 also, because yes; you are plumb right. A carpenter uses a square to get his or her connections right. If he doesn't use his square to get things plumb, whatever he builds will look like it was built by stuffed animals.

Now think back to baseball. We want to make good connections to the ball; right? To do so, we need to get plumb, square, perpendicular, exact, ...all of 'em. That is the most important thing. It's not about how cool you look swinging, or how you stand when you start or even where your elbows or toes are. NO. None of that stuff. If you do not get square, you will not make good contact. You will, therefore, either be making bad contact (grounding out weakly or popping up), or you will be striking out. That's point ONE.

Ill talk more, in a different post, about how the Stacked Handle Bat is what you really should be training with because of its tendency to allow you a natural path toward a square connection. For now though, let's stick to the list.

Ciao,

+Carl Young II
Visit: www.stackedhandle.com