How to hit A Baseball Step By Step
How to HIT A BASEBALL (Step-By-Step!)
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hey it's coach Justin from ultimate
baseball training and with baseball
season finally here I thought it was
very important for us to go back to the
basics the fundamentals of how to hit a
baseball step by step and so that's
exactly what we're gonna be talking
about in today's video I think sometimes
it's easy to get bogged down with really
advanced topics and the reality of the
matter is baseball is a simple game I
believe we need to keep it that way and
the best players on the planet they're
great because they've mastered the
fundamentals and so this video is all
about the fundamentals but trust me I
really think no matter what level of
baseball player you are I think you're
gonna get a lot of value out of today's
video so without further ado let's jump
in and talk about how to hit a baseball
step by step so obviously the first part
of hitting is your stance your stance
can simply be described as your starting
point so something that you're gonna
notice is if you watch a big-league game
or a college game or whatever you're
gonna notice that not every single
player has the exact same stance and
there's a reason behind that and that is
because there's no such thing as a
perfect stance and so I'm gonna give you
kind of some guidelines in this
particular video that I think are good
especially when you're starting out but
at the end of the day the most important
thing that you have to understand when
it comes to your stance is that it's
just the starting point you know the
most traditional stance is having your
feet pretty much square or straight in
line with the pitcher that's a
traditional way to stand with your knees
bent you know in an athletic position
like you're playing linebacker in
football defense and basketball
something like that and then in terms of
you know your hand positioning I would
say a traditional stance is your hand or
your hands about shoulder height and
just a little bit back here like this so
this is more of you know your
traditional stance but like I said if
you watch a big league game one through
nine every hitter is gonna have a
slightly different stance you're gonna
see some guys who like to have their
feet a little bit open maybe they have a
hard time seeing the ball and so they
want to make sure they open up and see
the ball with both eyes sometimes you're
gonna see guys who like to close
themselves off although that's a kind of
a rare stance to see these days but
you're also gonna see guys who like to
have their stance really really wide
like Albert Pujols
you're gonna see guys who like to have
their feet super narrow like this some
guys like to have their hands up here
some guys like to have their hands down
here so again what I'm getting at is
your stance is just the starting point
but since this is how to hit a baseball
step by step I think that a good
starting point is just that traditional
stance that we talked about I think the
biggest thing with stance is you've got
to do something that sets you up for
success if your stance if you you know
think that you're your most effective
stance is with your feet really really
narrow but if that causes issues then
obviously we need to correct that okay
so for starters as a way just a general
way to start out in your stance
I recommend your feet slightly wider
than shoulder width apart in a nice
athletic position again your hands about
shoulder height you can have them a
little bit lower a little bit higher if
you'd like but about shoulder height and
then back here like this we don't really
want them in here we want a more back
here like this all right so that's
stance pretty self-explanatory and the
last thing I'll say on stance is that
you want to be nice and loose and
relaxed and have a little bit of
movement right you don't want to be
sitting here in the batter's box just
completely stiff and still like a statue
here because then it's very hard to kind
of get things going and generate any
sort of rhythm any sort of momentum in
your swing so stay nice and loose and
relaxed and have just a little bit of
motion that's gonna help you out all
right and then once you have a
comfortable stance that works for you
really the first part of the swing is
your load now the load is really just a
timing mechanism alright it's not very
easy to just stand here completely still
like this and step and swing at the same
time that just doesn't work we have to
load we have to do a weight shift back
which is all the load is it's a little
bit of a weight shift back or another
great word for it is a gather so it's a
gather against your back side you want
to make sure you're not loading over
your back side because your head's going
to be moving all over the place you're
not going to be balanced so the big
thing I want to stress with the load is
the biggest things that has to be nice
and smooth and controlled it has to be
against your backside and don't overdo
this it's really just to get your
momentum going a little bit and it's to
time the pitcher but really it's just so
we have to we have to load our
Menem against our backside so that we
can then transfer that momentum forward
in our stride but I think a lot of times
hitters you know take the load to an
extreme and they see one of their
favorite players on TV who have had
thousands and thousands hundreds of
thousands of swings in their career so
they've really mastered these swing
mechanics that we're talking about here
and that particular hitter might have a
leg kick and so you see 10 year-olds out
there trying to mimic their favorite
hitter and you know they have this huge
giant leg kick load and it doesn't work
for them it causes a whole host of
issues and so for starters you know
again I want you to find what works for
you not just a single cookie cutter
approach for every hitter but for
starters out there you know really just
get into a nice athletic stance more of
a traditional stance with your feet
square and then the load you have to
remember is really just a weight shift
back that's all it is it's going from
you know as the pitchers kind of getting
ready and getting his sign here like
this I get into my stance and then all
the load is is I load up like this it's
a timing mechanism loading against my
backside and then obviously we move into
the stride so the next thing is the
stride and if our load is simply to
gather our weight against our backside
if it's a weight shift back then the
stride all that is is a stride forward
towards the pitcher both of these things
really set up set us up for success in
terms of timing okay now something that
I really want to emphasize with both the
load and the stride a common mistake I
see hitters make is when they go into
their load like we just talked about
what they do is they try to artificially
push their hands back like this and load
their hands and if you watch successful
hitters when they actually go into their
load phase of their swing their hands
don't really move a whole lot they're
not artificially you know pushing their
hands back towards the catcher really
what happens is they load and as they
stride forward towards the pitcher as
they stride forward that's kind of when
their hands start to walk away from
their body okay and that's when they get
this good separation and they get to
this good launch position which we'll
talk about in just a second okay so I
just want to emphasize that point of
when you're loading don't try to push
your hands
your hands might move just a little bit
but really it happens in your stride as
you strive towards the pitcher that's
when you get that really good separation
all right but let's talk about the
stride when you stride okay one
important aspect is you want your front
foot to land slightly open about 45
degrees okay you don't want to land with
your foot closed like this because
that's going to make it very difficult
for you to rotate your hips and you also
don't want it completely open like this
because then your Energy's pretty much
already spent okay so if you watch the
most successful hitters on the planet
when they go into their load and they
stride
their stride foot their front foot lands
slightly open about 45 degrees so that's
the stride we're in our stance our load
is just simply a gather against our back
side a weight shift back as we stride
forward that's shifting that weight back
towards the pitcher all right we want to
make sure that our weight doesn't get
out here like this a thing that I like
to tell players when they're loading and
striding is keep your head between your
feet okay because the common issue is
you know getting out over your front
front side when you stride but if you
focus on keeping your head between your
feet that's never going to happen
because it's my head between my feet
here no it's over my front foot so if
you just focus on keeping your head
between your feet that's going to keep
you in a nice balanced position the load
and the stride will be a breeze
now the launch position is something big
that not a lot of hitters are taught
what is the launch position the launch
position is simply the position that you
get into when your front foot hits the
ground so immediately when your front
foot hits the ground this is known as
your launch position and although I
talked about earlier how if you look at
a big league game every hitter is gonna
have a slightly different stance a
different starting point they're not
gonna have different launch positions
every single launch position is going to
look pretty much the same and same with
the positioning at the the hitters in at
the point of contact and so what are
kind of the the guidelines the absolutes
in terms of a launch position well the
launch positions obviously after you you
know load and stride we just talked
about when you stride your front foot
should be slightly open about 45 degrees
so with the launch position you're front
foot slightly open your lower half
you're sunk down into a nice athletic
position you're not tall you're sunk
down into a nice athletic position down
low
you're losing your legs your big muscles
that's where power is generated from
okay in terms of your upper body you're
getting really good separation and
you're getting length with your front
arm so what I mean by that is as I
stride forward towards the pitcher
remember that's when my body's naturally
walking away from my hands and so you
see what happened there this front arm
lengthened out it's not barred out
locked out like this but it's also you
know not in here like this because then
all I have is to throw my hands at the
ball so the more separation you can get
from your upper body and your lower body
the more bat speed and power you're
gonna be able to generate so that's the
launch position you land against like
front foot slightly open about 45
degrees
we're sunk down and do an athletic
position this front arm has some length
to it here your eyes are on the baseball
and then another big thing the knob of
your bat is facing down towards the
catcher this is a big deal whenever I
look at players swings that they send in
a lot of the times I'll see that their
knob is facing like the first base
dugout or even worse facing the pitcher
or you know facing the backstop like
this and they're wrapping the bat behind
their head so if you look at any
successful big league hitter when they
get to that launch position their nob is
facing down towards the catcher so you
should get in that same position now the
beauty of this is I'm a firm believer
that if you get to a good launch
position everything else in your swing
is gonna happen almost automatically
almost effortlessly without you really
needing to force anything okay so once
we're in that launch position and again
I want to stress this is not a robotic
you know piece by piece movement so I
know I'm describing the swinging spark
in parts here but understand that it's
not okay stance and load and stride it's
not that at all it has to be a nice
fluid natural motion okay but once we
get to the launch position then the next
part is obviously getting to the point
of contact so I got a ball on a tee here
I'm going to show you and really like I
said once you get into this really good
launch position that we talked about I'm
a four
believer that this sets you up for
success the rotational component of the
swing obviously there's a rotational
component right the rotational part
really starts when this front heel drops
okay when this front heel drops you're
gonna see that type of movement okay so
I load I stride and I'm kind of when I
get to the launch position I'm landing
on like the ball of my foot and then the
swing really starts when that front heel
drops front heel drops hips start to
rotate and that starts to pull
everything else through the zone
something I want you to pay attention to
with what I just did watch how my back
knee here and my nob they kind of work
together at the exact same time okay so
I'm gonna do that one more time my
stance I load my stride right get to my
launch position and then with my front
heel drops see how my back knee and my
nob are working together at the same
time okay and so again you get to that
good launch position and this is all
just gonna happen
automatically so you shouldn't be you
know trying to force your body into any
positions in terms of getting to contact
the biggest thing in my mind is you got
to watch the baseball you got to hit it
on the barrel and you have to focus on
staying connected what I mean by staying
connected is keeping everything in tight
to your body see how in here I'm tight
to my body here my arms are tight to my
body here this is a powerful position
okay same thing at the point of contact
when everything is in tight in here to
my body
well my hands are close to my body I'm
quick there I'm powerful there however
the moment that you get disconnected or
the moment that you let your hands get
out here away from your body like this
or at the point of contact if you're
like this right if everything's away
from your body here that's not a quick
position I said I want a powerful
position okay so the biggest thing was
getting to contact you want to watch the
ball get on plane as early as you can
and then really focus on staying
connected keeping everything tight to
your body okay one other interesting
thing that I want to point out really
quickly before I move on is
something called shoulder tilt okay so
what you're going to notice with the
most successful hitters out there is
when they're in their stance their
shoulders are flat okay but they don't
remain flat throughout your entire swing
what actually happens is when you load
and you stride okay I'm gonna do it like
this you can see the baseball bat it's
flat here when I load and I stride and I
get to the launch position my front
shoulder is actually slightly lower than
my back shoulder here it's not much it's
like 9 degrees it's not much and then as
I rotate when my front heel drops and I
rotate and I actually get to the point
of contact here my shoulder switch you
see that so at the point of contact my
back shoulder is actually lower and I
get a lot of questions from players
saying it looks like you know you're
dropping your back shoulder and what
they don't realize is every successful
hitter if you freeze-frame them at the
point of contact their back shoulder is
definitely lower so you don't want to
drop your back shoulder you know too
early and dump your barrel like this but
just to understand that at the point of
contact your back shoulder is going to
be a little bit lower let's talk about
the point of contact we got our stance
load stride we get to a good launch
position our front heel drops the
rotational part of our swing happens
what should we look like at the point of
contact I think it's great to videotape
yourself from the side and make sure
that you know you have these
fundamentals locked in at the point of
contact one of the biggest things is
your front leg if you want to make sure
that your front leg is straight that
you're hitting against a firm front side
okay because if your front knee is bent
like this you're leaking power okay and
that's not a very comfortable or
athletic position so you want your front
leg to be straight at the point of
contact they call it hitting against a
firm front side your back leg you
actually want a reverse l-shape with
your back leg okay you don't want to be
too tall at the point of contact like
this because you're not doing a good job
of staying back you stay back properly
you're gonna have a really good reverse
l-shape all right so that's kind of it
for your lower half as you notice I was
kind of up on my my back toe and the
reasoning for that is you know when my
front heel drops and my hips violently
rotate it's actually going to that
rotation of my hips
is actually gonna pull this back hip
towards the pitcher a little bit which
is going to pull this back toe it's
going to get me up on this back toe and
you'll see a lot of hitters there back
toe actually leaves the ground Bryce
Harper's a great example okay but that's
your lower half at the point of contact
and then your upper half you want to
make sure that obviously you know your
eyes are on the baseball you're not
pulling your head your eyes are on the
baseball your hands are palm up palm
down if you open them up like this palm
up palm down okay I have a good l-shaped
with this arm here and here's a big
thing okay your elbows have to maintain
the same distance apart throughout your
entire swing too many times I see
hitters at the point of contact with
this front arm straight like this okay
this front arm should not you should not
be getting extension at the point of
contact extension is a byproduct of
doing everything else right in your
swing and extension happens after
actually well after you hit the ball
okay so at the point of contact make
sure that you should still have really
good bend in your arms like this and
then the last thing like I just talked
about extension extension is not
something that you really need to
consciously focus on usually usually
it's something that if you do everything
else properly in your swing it kind of
happens on its own but I still want to
touch on a couple things so I look good
at the point of contact here right I
make contact with the ball the big thing
is mentally thinking about driving
through the ball a lot of young hitters
in particular when they get to contact
they stop at the point of contact or
they get to the point of contact like
this and they immediately get like
really flippy with their hands here and
watch my bat okay my bats on playing
with the pitch here on playing on
playing on plane as soon as I flip my
wrist like this immediately after
contact my bat is off plane right there
so that means my timing has to be
absolutely perfect otherwise I'm gonna
get on top and I'm gonna roll that ball
over okay so the biggest thing is
mentally think about driving through the
baseball hitting it hard having a great
mentality driving through the baseball
and just continuing to gain ground
towards the pitcher with your top hand
what I mean by that okay point of
contact here continue to gain ground
towards the pitcher with your top hand
and then the last thing you always want
to finish your swing high you don't want
to be finishing your swing low because
that means you know you're chopping down
you're trying to get on top of the
baseball okay
so if we do everything right we're gonna
finish our swing nice and high I hope
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