Hitting Tips – Baseball Swing Advice & How to Play Baseball by Jack Perconte

Defensive Readiness – Positive Coaching Methods

Before every pitch, youth baseball coaches should ask the defense, “What are you going to do with the ball if it is hit to you, and what are your responsibilities if the ball is hit elsewhere?” In this manner young baseball players will begin to not only learn the game, but start thinking the game. Of course, some players have good baseball instincts already but all can learn with good positive coaching methods.

Hall of Fame Pitching Tip
Greg Maddux recently told my son after giving up a hit on an inside pitch after getting ahead in the count on outside pitches, “Have a reason for going inside, don’t just do it because you think the hitter is looking away.” The point is that unless you know the hitter can handle the outside half pitch, stay out there until he proves he can hit it. This is especially true for teaching young pitchers how to pitch – most young hitters struggle on outside pitches so there is usually no reason to pitch inside.

Baseball Fielding Consistency
One thing that young players have to be careful of is trying to copy major league players when it comes to fielding a baseball. Baseball people must realize that major league and pro playing fields are immaculately groomed where bad hops occur only occasionally. Young ballplayers fields are not nearly as groomed and inconsistent hops occur often. With this in mind, it is important that young players learn to line every ball up in the middle of their body or even slightly to there glove side when fielding. This is especially true in the outfield where the common major league method of one hand off to the side catching of the ball will not work on the normal youth playing field.

Common Baseball Bunting Mistakes
Bunting a baseball is not as easy as it looks, but at the same time, hitters make it tougher than it has to be. There are three common mistakes that bunters often make, even at the major league level.
1. Batters do not completely square their shoulders to the pitcher – this often cause the inability to put the bat out front enough and to create good bat angles.

2. Batters do not put enough flex in their knees which creates a big strike zone (too much bat movement required) and the inability to just bend the knees on lower pitches

3. Batters do not cover the entire plate when they initially set the bat out. Often they only have the inner half of the plate covered leaving them to have to reach on any pitch away.

Remember the key to bunting is having to move the bat as little as possible when attempting to bunt.

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Most hitters have natural swing tendencies that may not be fundamentally correct and therfore may be hard to overcome. The key is finding that one hitting drill that “fights” against that negative natural tendency. Players should use that hitting drill often to overcome the bad habit and go back to it when they begin to struggle because there is a good chance the negative natural tendency has crept back in and is the cause of the hitting struggles. An experienced hitting coach will usually be able to find this drill for hitters.

Batting Practice without a Bat

I always encourage hitters to go down to the bullpen when pitchers are warming up and ask the pitcher if they can stand in the batters box when they are pitching. No bat is necessary but a helmet is. This is a good way to see game-like pitching by just just getting use to watching the ball without thinking of swinging. Of course, this benefits the pitcher as well as they get practice with a batter in the box. Hitters should take their regular stance but be mindful of getting out of the way on wayward pitches.

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Dustin Pedroia – Oh yea
Just heard where Red Sox star (all 5 foot seven of him) was taking ground balls on his knees the day after he was diagnosed with a broken foot. I love that story for a few reasons. 1. So often we think of the million dollar athletes as spoiled – “the day after, on his knees, knowing he could not play for a number of weeks. 2. Ground balls on the knees is a drill I recommend to students, especially indoors in the off season even while watching TV 3. I also recommend to my baseball students that they should do something everyday to improve their skills even for as little as five minutes per day, when baseball is their favorite sport. Way to be a role model, Dustin Pedroia.

There are no Shortcuts to Success
Remember, players that are working on their skills when others are not, are the athletes that usually succeed in the long run. Because  kids are in baseball shape this time of year, having them continue to practice after their season ends is a good idea. It is an especially good time to start an arm strengthening throwing program.

Using TV to Teach Baseball
Never a bad idea to point out good fundamentals to youth ball players when watching a game on TV. “Boy, I love the way he hustles down the line,” and “Look at the balance he has when he swings,” are just two examples of pointing out good baseball fundamentals and effort when casually watching a baseball game. Pointing out little fundamentals in the area where your son is struggling in his game is especially helpful, as long as said in a matter of fact way and not being too obvious. This TV teaching can even be done while kids are playing video games, of course, with how realistic video games are now days.

Valuable Baseball Hitting Advice
I have gone to several youth baseball games recently and continually notice that kids, for whatever reason, are not ready for pitches that are on the outer half of the plate. Youth players need to realize that outside is generally where pitchers are trying to put the ball 9o% of the time. Also, they should realize that this will become even more of a problem as they advance in baseball and pitchers become more consistent with their pitching control into high school and beyond. With this in mind, hitters should be taught to 1. work on outer half pitches as much as possible 2. Step into the ball slightly and not away from home 3. Expect balls to be pitched away.
Hitters are become overly worried about getting jammed by pitches, but they should realize that good hitters get jammed occasionally but good hitters are ready to cover balls out away from them.

http://www.seamheads.com/2010/06/14/touring-the-bases-again-with-jack-perconte/

Tee Ball Game for Practice

Often ball players think that batting tees are only for little kids. Not a bad idea to play a tee ball game with your team every once in a while in order to emphasize the importance of using a batting tee. I often tell hitters, “If you can’t hit the ball consistently well when it is sitting on the tee, how are you going to be consistent when the ball is moving?” Playing a game with the tee, even for older teams can make this point and show hitters that it takes practice to gain consistency.

Never Fail to Analyze Results
Very simple hitting tips for quick fixes – when hitters are hitting to many ground balls hitters should set the batting tee at their knees and hit till they start to hit line drives.
Similarly, when they are popping everything up they should work on chest high pitches on the batting tee until they can hit line drives consistently. When no contact, work on all pitch locations especially with lead-arm drills, which promote contact.

Parents & Coaches Beware
As the hot summer months are here, baseball travel teams generally are in full swing with games and tournaments. This is the time of season when many arm injuries can set in, especially for pitchers. Coaches will have a tendency to start stretching pitchers arms, especially when they have a chance to win a tournament.
Pitchers, who are on travel teams or in leagues without set inning guidelines, are in the most danger of developing sore and tired arms. Adults associated with these teams and leagues should pay special attention to “overuse” throwing. Parents should listen to their kids and check with them about how their arms are feeling. Remember, winning is not more important than the health of youth ballplayers.

Positive Coaching
I am not one of those that always think that things were better “back in the day” compared to today. People often say “Players are not as good today as when I played” or “Players of today are lacking in the fundamentals” etc… At the higher levels of baseball, this may or may not be true. But from my experience, kids of today do not have the game strategy knowledge that we had when I grew up. Part of this is due to the fact that kids are into so many other things – when I grew up it was pretty much baseball, football and basketball, depending on the time of year. We watched baseball and played it continually throughout the warm months of the year. Therefore, learning baseball strategy, positioning and where to throw balls became ingrained  sooner than kids of today. With this in mind, baseball coaches should be doing a few things to help kids understand the game better. 1. Take kids to or encourage kids to attend more high school level and above baseball games and have them notice  how players move around on batted balls – i.e. cutoffs, relays, positioning, where to throw balls. 2. Practice game situations as much as possible so kids learn to throw the ball to the correct base and lineup correctly for cutoff and relay plays.

Judging Fly Balls
I get this question a lot, “How do I get a player to learn to judge a fly ball?” Unfortunately, there is no easy drill to help.  Some players have more of knack for it than others, but it takes a lot of practice. I played baseball a long time but one thing I found out after all that time, is that I could not judge a fly ball from the outfield. From second base I could easily tell how deep a ball was hit off the bat, but when standing in the outfield I could not – too much time in the infield I guess. The point is that there is no easy way to teach kids how to judge a fly ball. The only solution is to hit them a ton of balls and have them work on catching fly balls during batting practice.

Don’t Neglect the Baseball Drills
If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a thousand times – players begin the season hitting up a storm and gradually fall off as the season goes on. Did the pitching improve that much? Probably not. What is missing is that players stop doing the little baseball drills – Batting tee work, flips, pepper etc… – that keeps the fundamentals and focus sharp. Continual adherence to the fundamentals will usually keep baseball players consistent, and keep the prolonged slumps away.

Key to Balance
I stump my baseball students all the time with this question, “What is the key to your balance in baseball?” They eventually get to the right answer when I keep saying “higher up.” Yes, the key to balance is a player’s head – in more ways than one I might add. Anyway, three things I teach players when doing the three main baseball skills:
When Hitting – Batter’s head must be leaning slightly towards home plate, putting their weight towards the balls of their feet.
When Throwing (Pitching) – Head must get over front foot to promote a good follow through.
When Fielding – Head must be out front of feet in order to stay down and low.

Pitching Prospects
It is very common for youth coaches to pick kids with the strongest arms to be chosen to be the teams pitchers. I propose coaches pick their pitchers from the ones who throw the most strikes, regardless of speed.  When kids throw strikes, baseball is a fun game because the game moves along, kids get the opportunity to field balls and learn game situations. When kids throw ball after ball, no one benefits. Sure the hitters may have the advantage of hitting soft throwing pitchers but players can hit with some degree of safety and confidence that the ball will be around the plate. The game is less boring and all benefit.. When fast throwing kids gain the necessary control in practice, they should be given the chance to pitch.

4 Keys to Learning Good Backhand Fielding Tip
When teaching young players to backhand a ground ball, I try to emphasize 4 things. 1. On the crossover, players should never raise the glove above the level it started in ready position. 2. Players should keep the glove in front or even with their glove side foot when reaching for ball. 3. Players should keep a relaxed elbow when fielding so they have soft hands when giving with the hop. 4. This is the one ball that players should attempt to catch in the web of the glove – so it will not bounce out. 

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Pitching Tip
The warmer the weather, the shorter the time needed to warm up the arm for pitching. Pitching is hard work so players should be careful of leaving their best stuff (and energy) in the bullpen. Taking three quarters the number of pitches than usual should be sufficient on a hot day.

Baseball Practice Order

It is good for coaches to mix up the order of each practice, where one day they work on defense first and another hitting etc… However, having said that, it is important that coaches do not wear players down early in baseball practice to where their effort levels are diminished as practice goes on. Doing too many base running drills and fielding drills in the beginning can war kids energy down to the point that their effort and concentration is affected the later part of baseball practice. This can be especially true on hot days. Coaches may want to do less energy sapping skill drills at the beginning and save the high energy stuff for the end of practices.

Freeze Drill
In batting practice, I have hitters perform the freeze drill at the completion of their swing. Hitters have to hold their finish while seeing the bat barrel  on the contact side of their head. The only way hitters can get to this complete finish position is when their hips fully turn and their head stays in on the ball. Of course, it is only a drill and it also emphasizes great balance.

Baseball Slide Practice
Next rainy day – have your player(s) put on some old clothes and head to a grassy area and practice feet first sliding. Parents should even do it with them, it is almost as fun as going sledding with kids. Showing them how to pop up baseball slide slide, hook slide and even dive back to the base can be a lot of fun for the whole family. Much safer and more fun when grass is very wet.

Throwing Strikes Drill for Baseball Pitchers
One of my favorite drills for young baseball pitchers learning to pitch is the advance and retreat drill. Once pitchers have warmed up, I start them at the midway mark between home and pitchers mound, where they begin pitching. For every strike they throw they back up a step towards mound and for every ball they move a step closer to home. I then count the number of pitches it takes them to get back to the pitchers mound. The next time we work on pitching the pitcher tries to beat their previous number of pitches (less the better, of course). Great way for baseball pitchers to focus and try to keep the same mechanics as they increase the distance from home plate.

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