hey guys coach Justin from ultimate
baseball training and in today's video
we're gonna get into the beginner's
guide to hitting a baseball and we're
gonna go over the fundamentals of the
swing that you need to master before you
ever start worrying about how to hit
homeruns or advanced movement patterns
or anything else like that I think it's
so important to master the fundamentals
and the basics right before you get
caught up in the latest training gizmos
and gadgets and philosophies and
everything like that you need to master
the fundamentals and in fact that's how
professional players got to that point
in the first place is they mastered the
fundamentals and that's what they go
back to whenever they're in a slump
hitting coaches what do they do they go
back to the fundamentals so I think it's
very important that you understand the
fundamentals of hitting and without
further ado let's just jump right into
the beginner's guide to hitting a
baseball
all right the first place that I want
you to start is on the batting tee
because if you can't hit a stationary
object then how do you expect to hit a
moving object I think a lot of players
get in trouble when they just hop in the
cage and start hitting regular batting
practice before they've mastered the
fundamentals so start with your basic
old batting tee now the first part in
hitting is getting into a comfortable
stance so I want you to make sure that
you understand that the stance is simply
a starting position now I don't care if
you start the most traditional way to
start is what's called square so my feet
are square to the pitcher I don't care
if you start square or slightly open a
little bit or slightly closed a little
bit okay and I really don't care as long
as it doesn't cause other issues if you
start with your hands here or down here
a little bit lower or higher or in here
or back it really doesn't matter the
stance is a starting point and you need
to get that through your head because
you know if there was such thing as a
perfect stance when you turned on a
major league game and watched those guys
on TV they would all look the exact same
way when they get in the batter's box
right but they don't it's all different
they all have if you watch the lineup
they all have slightly of a different
stance but we're just going over the
beginners guide so for most players I
would say just as a general rule of
thumb you're gonna start with that
square stance that we just talked about
you can adjust accordingly but just for
basic start with a square stance and you
want to start with your feet a little
bit wider than shoulder width we want to
have a wide base an athletic base
similar to if we're playing you know
defense and basketball linebacker in
football if you just jump up in the air
and land you're gonna land in an
athletic position like that that's a
pretty good starting position all right
so we have our feet slightly wider than
shoulder width and from there I want you
with your lower half to have a little
bit of movement okay a little bit of
movement with your lower half and your
upper body which we'll talk about in
just a second but I want you to have
movement for two reasons number one if
you get in the batter's box and your
legs are completely still and your hands
are completely still like this and
you're still as a statue that is gonna
cause you to tense up your grips gonna
tense up your shoulders are gonna tense
up everything's going to tense up
we all know that tense muscles tight
muscles are slow muscles loose muscles
are fast muscles that's what we want so
we want to keep our body loose and
relaxed for that reason number two
though the second reason why you want to
have a loose stance and have a little
bit of rhythm and movement is because an
object in motion tends to stay in motion
an object at rest tends to stay at rest
so if we're still like a statue we are
adding in an additional step to our
swing because we have to overcome
inertia and get that our body going
right but if we just have a little bit
of movement nothing crazy and nothing
huge with a bat wiggle or anything but
if we just have a little bit of movement
a little bit of rhythm that's gonna help
with our timing and it's gonna help us
get to a great contact position and have
more success at the plate so we've got
our our good solid stance with our lower
half we got a little bit of movement now
with our hands a general rule of thumb
is your hands about shoulder height okay
generally I don't want to see them too
in here like too forward towards the
pitcher or too back like this and I
don't think it's for most hitters a good
idea to start down here or way up here
so start about shoulder height and I
think a great another rule of thumb is
place the handle of your bat on your
neck knob facing the catcher and then
lift up just a couple inches and that's
gonna be a really really good starting
point okay last thing I want to touch on
make sure your athletic your knees have
some flex to them we don't want to hit
with straight legs like this we don't
want them to be like this either we want
to have a little bit of flex in our
knees be in an athletic position ready
to go alright so now let's get into your
load so we're in our comfortable stance
the load is your first movement okay and
the load you have to understand that the
load is simply a weight shift back we're
picking up our front foot and obviously
all the way it's going to go to our back
side but it's really just we're
gathering ourselves we're loading as the
pitcher kind of winds up for his
delivery to the plate we are winding up
we are loading our body so that we can
eventually stride towards him and start
our swing but the load is a timing
mechanism to many young players think
that the load is a source of power so
you see them get the giant leg kicks and
stuff the load does not supply the
our that's why you see some great
hitters who don't even really have a
load they do like a toe tap or a very
small load and stride because that's not
your main source of power at all so your
load is a timing mechanism so all you're
gonna do you're in your comfortable
stance when the pitcher goes into his
wind-up I always like to teach dance
with the pitcher so when you're dancing
with someone obviously you want to have
rhythm they move one way you want to
move that same way so when the pitcher
starts his motion okay that's kind of
when you want to start your motion and
you go into your load and we want to
make sure we're loading against our
backside here my back leg against that
not over it because for two reasons
that is not a balanced position and also
watch how much if I do this watch how
much my head moves right so we want to
load against our back side and we're
just loading our lower half it's just a
gather with our lower half we're not
pushing our hands back or loading our
hands that's going to happen naturally
when we stride but for this part our
hands are saying staying in the same
spot or gathering our weight against our
back side the last point I want to make
about the load is it has to be smooth
right it's a timing mechanism and same
with dancing right you need to be smooth
with it
you can't be herky-jerky you know really
fast and load and stride it has to be
some rhythm watch how smooth the guy
like robinson cano looks when he's going
into his load and stride and throughout
his entire swing right so have some
rhythm and the load is simply a timing
mechanism and a weight shift back one
other quick thing on the load this is
something that nobody hardly ever talks
about is shoulder tilt so a lot of young
players what I see them do is they load
and they're they're in a position like
this after they load and their front
shoulders up in the air well we actually
want I'm gonna put the bat here so my
shoulders are pretty much level now what
we actually won is when we go into our
load our front shoulder is actually
going to be down like this okay so my
front shoulder is lower than my back
shoulder it's not extreme but it's a
little bit lower than my back shoulder
and then that's going to help create an
axis for us to swing around so that then
we swing we get to the point of contact
okay we get to the point of contact
our shoulders are going to switch my
front shoulders gonna be higher my back
shoulders gonna be lower but that's
something to pay attention to if that
shoulder tilt when you go into your load
just make sure you have that tilt down
your front shoulders a little bit lower
than your back all right so now we've
loaded and stride it now is when the
swing actually starts so I load I stride
and the swing actually starts if you pay
attention to my front foot it landed 45
degrees open when that front heel drops
you can also think of it like your front
heels going down and your back heel is
actually coming up like this for placing
your heels that's a great way to put it
but we load and we stride and our swing
starts when that front heel drops when
that front heel drops my hips you'll
automatically start to notice that
they're starting to rotate okay and
already my back knee is already
beginning to come forward and I'm
beginning to have that weight basically
on the inside part of my back toe okay
so my heel drops and what you should
really feel is that separation again and
you should literally feel your hips and
your lower half almost pulling the bat
through the zone right it shouldn't be
you loading your stride and you have to
consciously try to hack at the ball like
that it really should be natural once
you get to this good launch position
with separation that heel drops
everything else kind of automatically
pulls the bat through the zone one thing
I want you to pay attention to watch my
back knee and my knob at the same time
so I'm gonna load stride that heel drops
look how they're moving at the exact
same rate okay that's something you want
to pay attention to the heel drops in
the front and then the back heel Rises
and that knee starts going forward and
the knob starts going at the same time
this would be a great thing for you to
work on to get that sequencing your body
has to work together I also can't stress
the importance of staying connected
enough what I mean by staying connected
is we want throughout our entire swing
load stride our swing starts we want
everything in here tight to our body so
my back elbow here is gonna drop into a
slot here and we want everything tight
here to our body you'll see my bat like
the shaft of my bat it's pretty close to
my shoulder here this is what we want
this is a powerful position the reason
why we want to stay connected as opposed
to getting out here like this is because
when we are connected and in here we're
strongest ok so when we get to the
contact point we want everything to be
our arms to be in here like this
not out here like this this is chasing
this is no back control this is no power
this is a strong powerful position so
stay connected and one other thing
that's so important throughout your
entire swing I can't stress this enough
either this is something that's not
talked about nearly enough the distance
between your elbows needs to stay the
same distance throughout your entire
swing so what I mean by that let's say
this is my stance here ok this is the
way that I start you'll see the angle
that both my elbows make right we never
want whether it's in our load or our
stride or our swing itself we want those
elbows to remain the same distance apart
the entire swing until way after contact
when we get into a powerful position
with our arms out here like this for
extension but throughout the entire
swing we want our elbows to stay the
same distance apart so we don't start
here like this and then all of a sudden
in our swing tuck in this elbow or we
don't start here and then all of a
sudden raise this elbow and flare it out
like this that's just obviously going to
result in bad habits and not the result
that you're looking for on the field but
I promise you this is a game-changer for
me when I consciously focus on ok I
start with my elbows here and I'm gonna
keep them there playing even when I get
to the point of contact they're still in
that same position man that's really
gonna help you out now let's talk about
what you should look like at the point
of contact when you actually hit the
baseball so we got a good comfortable
stance we go into our load and our
stride we get to a good solid launch
position right and everything is working
in sequence or connected our elbows are
staying the same distance apart and when
we get to the point of contact you
should look something like this there's
a few things I want to point out first
thing let's talk about our hands if you
look at my hands they're palm up palm
down here me
with my top hand its palm up and with my
bottom hand its palm down it's the
position you want to be in regardless of
where the pitch is because if I don't
get palm up palm down that's not a
powerful position and that's not a
powerful position either so we want to
stay palm up palm down another thing
that you'll notice when I go through my
swing at the contact point my barrel of
my bat is actually below my hands and
this again does not change a lot of
players try to keep their you know arrow
above their hands like this and no
professional hitter looks like this at
the point of contact right no matter if
it's a low pitch even if it's lower than
what's here boom the barrel still lower
even if it's a high pitch boom we lower
okay now let's talk about your eyes
obviously you want your eyes on the
baseball at the point of contact that's
the most important part of hitting is
seeing the baseball your front front leg
I just had players send me a swing when
at the point of contact his front leg
was bent like this that's not a powerful
position what is what's going to
generate the most force behind the
baseball is obviously we get in that
launch position it goes from being
flexed or being bent to eventually boom
we want to hit against what's called a
fir outside so that front leg is gonna
completely straighten out we're gonna
have we're gonna be pretty much on the
oh we've got a bend here with this back
side here so that's pretty much it for
your lower half your knees are pinching
together
obviously remember we want to have our
elbows be that same distance apart
so we're palm up palm down we want to
have a good L shape right here as well
but those are the things the keys that
you should look for when you get to the
contact point and that brings me to my
last point I want to talk about contact
points because we don't hit every single
pitch location we don't hit every single
pitch in the same spot right so for a
middle pitch right middle pitch you're
gonna want to strike that ball about
even with your front foot okay out in
front of the plate pretty much even with
your front foot right there and your
goal with that pitch is to
hit it right back up the middle right
the pitcher dictates where we hit the
ball so middle pitch we're driving it
right back up the middle now let's move
this tee to the inside pitch you'll
notice I not only moved it inside but I
moved it up because on an inside pitch
we're gonna pull our hands in which we
are pulling that ball okay we're not
going to try to hyper keep our hands in
here like this and dink it the other way
the only time we're gonna manipulate
something is maybe on a hit and run but
for the most part right and then last
contact point is the away pitch and
obviously for all these you have high
pitches middle pitches low pitches the
away pitch I move that a little bit
further back because with the away
pitches actually gonna let the ball
travel a little bit deeper in the grand
scheme of things you're still gonna make
contact with the ball out in front of
the plate you're not gonna hit it way
back here like this but you're gonna
that one a little bit deeper and hit it
to the opposite the last part of the
swing is extension and this is something
that a lot of hitters shouldn't really
worry about all you should worry about
is driving through the ball that should
be your mindset because if you do
everything right in the first half of
the swing and you're in a good position
at the point of contact then extension
is going to naturally happen kind of on
its own the biggest things you want to
avoid we don't want to stop at contact
and at contact we don't want to roll our
wrist and get flippy like this because
the reason why is I'm on playing with
the pitch here but as soon as I get
flippy after contact my bat is
immediately off playing with the pitch
and if my timing is a little off I'm
gonna miss so focus on getting into a
good extension position this is
something similar to what it should look
like into a good making a v-shape with
my arms here that's the point that you
want to get to but the biggest thing to
focus on is drive through the ball don't
stop at contact and really just try
throughout your entire swing we want to
get our bat on playing with the pitch as
early as possible so I'm on plane right
there and then stay boom ideal point of
contact stay on playing with the pitch
for as long as possible before we pull
off the ball
but that's extension and that's the
swing in a nutshell
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