How to hit A Curveball In Baseball
HOW TO HIT A CURVEBALL! - Baseball Hitting Tips
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hey guys what's going on coach Justin
here from ultimate baseball training and
in today's video I'm gonna teach you how
to hit a curveball now I got to be
honest when I first started seeing curve
balls I struggle with it I had no idea
how to hit them so I would be up in the
batter's box and I would be sitting
fastball and if a fastball came then I
would absolutely destroy it but anything
that spun I was an outright I'd either
swing and miss or I would just take it
because I was completely fooled and I
had no idea how to hit it I knew I
wasn't gonna hit it right and so today
in this video I'm gonna share with you
the keys on how to hit a curveball and
I'm even going to show you a great drill
that's gonna help you master hitting a
curveball
very quickly so let's jump right into it
all right the very first thing you have
to understand is everything is based off
of the fastball you have to have
fastball timing on every pitch and then
adjust to off-speed pitches and the
reason why I say that is because if you
are sitting on an off-speed pitch and
the pitcher decides to juice up a
fastball there's no way you're gonna be
able to catch up to it right if you are
thinking that a slow pitch is coming so
your rhythm and timing is for a slow
pitch and then he chooses one up it's
gonna be really really hard for you to
speed up your swing at the last second
and catch up to it right but it's much
easier if you're thinking fastball and
he throws you a slower pitch and all you
have to do is keep your hands back sink
down a little bit which we're gonna talk
about in this video and then crush the
baseball so time the fastball everything
has to be off a fastball timing that's
the very first thing another thing you
have to get through your head is your
swing does not change I see so many
players try to change their swing when
they try to hit a curveball your swing
does not change it's all rhythm and
timing that's the only thing that
changes but you should have the same
swing mechanically on a fastball and a
curveball let's talk about when you're
confident that a curveball is coming
right maybe you've been paying attention
hopefully you've been paying attention
to the pitcher and his tendencies right
but maybe you're up there and you're
down Oh 2 or 1 2 and you realize after
watching the game studying other hitters
at bats you realize hey his out-pitch is
a curveball 98% of the time when he has
two strikes he throws a curveball so
maybe you're you're really expecting a
curveball when you're confident that a
curveball is coming like I said your
swing does not change the only thing
that's gonna change is your timing so
what I mean by that is if I am timing a
fastball okay I'm in my stance right now
my fastball timing would look something
like load go okay 1 2 load go the only
thing that changes when I know when I'm
confident that a curveball is coming I
don't change my swing that that just
takes longer my stride has a longer
duration so instead of load go 1 2 it
would be more like load go 1 2 okay you
see the difference there
fastball boom boom curveball boom boom
it's just a rhythm and timing thing well
that's easy when you know that a
curveball is coming right but what about
when we have no idea that a curveball is
coming maybe the pitcher is really good
at pitching backwards throwing every
single pitch in his repertoire in any
count right so then what do we do well
if I come back over here to the ball and
the T then it goes back to again
fastball timing and our swing does not
change we're timing the fastball and
then all we do so remember load go
that's my fastball timing load go okay
it's quicker than if I know a curveball
is coming the only thing we do is okay
I'm ready for the fastball ready for the
fastball he's winding up he comes to the
plate load go and I recognize that it's
a curveball so all I have to do is keep
my hands back and something that I
didn't learn until later on in my career
was you have to sink a little bit with
the pitch right every every single coach
out there tells you o to hit the
curveball just keep your hands back keep
your hands back but they never tell you
how to do that and I found that sinking
a little bit lower to the ground is
going to help you do that alright so if
I'm facing this way
fastball timing is load go and then I
recognize up curveball I keep my hands
back here like this because as soon as
my hands start going forward then I'm
already beat that's when you swing it
those bad pitches in the dirt right so
as soon as we lose our hands then we
lose our entire body okay so when I
recognize it's a curveball up I keep my
hands back and then when my hands are
back my knob is facing the catcher I'm
in a good launch position my hands are
still back what I recommend you do is
just sink just a little bit sink a
little bit lower to the ground what that
does is it buys you a little bit of time
right I'm keeping everything back I'm
not out over my front side I'm staying
balanced my head's between my feet and
that just a little bit of sink for just
you know a split second will allow you
to let the ball travel it'll buy you
some time
and then all you do is you come up
through it and you take that same swing
and you crush that curveball so the
major keys is number one keep your hands
back right because when we lose our
hands we lose everything else
keep your hands back and just sink ever
so slightly it's not a huge you're not
dropping a foot or anything like that
and it's not going to take a whole bunch
of time
it's literally a fraction of a second
right it's just a little tiny sink that
buys you time but the major keys keep
your hands back sink a little bit and
then another major key let the ball
travel let it come to you I see a lot of
players make the mistake of swinging you
know that they get everything out way
out in front because they're really
trying to go get the baseball and
something that you have to realize is a
curveball you have time it's a lot
slower than a fastball right you have
time so fastball yes we need to be on it
we need to be ready to go a curveball
and you recognize it's a curveball it's
just a curveball
wait just a split second wait wait wait
keep your hands back as long as you can
and then those hanging curveballs those
are the pitches you're gonna take okay
so keep your hands back sink let the
ball travel and then the last major key
is adjust your sights so what I mean by
that when you are anticipating a
curveball is look a little bit higher
look for something up in the zone
because the curveball let's say a
right-handed pitcher to a right-handed
batter
it's gonna go up out of his hand and
it's going to start high and it's gonna
come down and break for a strike right
so adjust your sights look for something
up you get in trouble with curveballs
when you swing it a pitch it starts out
pretty low or starts out really low
because those pitchers are going to
break out of the zone or break in the
dirt the curveballs that you have
success with are the hanging curveballs
the ones that start out high up in the
zone not above your head but pretty high
up in the zone and sometimes they look
like they're almost coming at your front
hip those are the pitches that your eyes
need to light up because they're gonna
break right down for a belt high strike
and you're gonna be able to hit towering
home runs and one little curveball drill
that I want to share with you is a drill
you can do with the coach and just a tee
and some baseballs right so very limited
equipment this is when you're first
starting out learning how to hit a
curveball I like to call it the stride
to balance drill but this is a little
bit of a variation so what you're gonna
do is you're gonna put a ball on a tee
about belt high right and you're gonna
put it pretty much even with your front
foot because when we get to the point of
contact that's where we want to be okay
and you're gonna have a coach who's just
a few feet away and what they're gonna
do is as you go into your load they're
gonna call out either fastball or
curveball or fastball or off-speed so
they're gonna do a verbal command to you
now when it's a fastball let's say you
go into your load and they say fastball
then there's no pause we you know land
with our front foot our heel drops and
then we start our swing and we just take
regular swings focusing on hitting hard
line drives up the middle but if they
say curveball and the coaches need to
mix it up say fastball a couple times in
a row then throw in some curveballs
right the hitter doesn't need to know
what's coming beforehand so only do the
verbal command when they go into their
load but when they say curveball instead
of fastball you're just going right away
curveball you're gonna do what we talked
about so you're gonna recognize up
curveball hold your load for just a
split second longer
keep your hands back sink a little bit
lower to the ground and then after
you've waited just a split-second longer
then you're gonna come through you're
gonna put a good aggressive swing on the
baseball same swing is the fastball and
focus on low line drives I hope you
enjoyed today's video and before you go
I'll actually want to share with you my
free bat speed boosters it's a hundred
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do to grab that just click on the very
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