Teaching Hitting

By Jonathan Berohn

When summer rolls around, so does baseball season. For kids just starting out in the sport or advancing to the next level, that also means a season of frustration is moving in.

As anyone who plays baseball has surely heard, the hardest thing to do in sports is hit. Unfortunately, it’s not a whole lot easier to teach people how to hit—especially young kids. There are a few basic fundamentals, though, that can really make a difference—and really help your kids (and any kids you coach) hit the ball and enjoy the game.

The Basics

Everything starts with the stance. Sure, you can tune into any major league baseball game and see guys standing all sorts of ways. Don’t let your kids or players do that or you’ll just be asking for trouble.

In a group setting, trying to instruct 15 different kids on 15 different stances is simply not going to work.

For one-on-one teaching, you’re still best off starting with the easiest stance. There will be plenty of time for your kid to adopt his best Julio Franco later in life.

That said, the basic stance is based on simplicity. Have the hitter stand with both feet slightly wider than his or her shoulders and their knees slightly bent. Both feet should make a straight line to the pitcher. You should also position them slightly behind the plate, and close enough to it so that they can reach out and touch the outside of the plate with their bat

Hands

Once you have a good stance, you can focus on the hands. Kids seem to have a tendency to want to hold their hands down around their rib cage. All this does is force them to have a hitch in their swing, which will lead to a lot of strikeouts and frustration.

To help prevent this, have your batters start by holding their back elbows parallel with their shoulders.

When I’m coaching, “keep your elbow up,” is the number one thing I find myself calling out to remind kids when they are at the plate. Number two is “step right at the pitcher,” but we’ll get to that in a moment.

Once they have their elbows up, hand position is pretty straightforward. Have them hold their hands right behind their ears, about 6 inches or so away from their heads.

The final thing to remember about hands is the grip. Hitters shouldn’t grip the bat too tightly—that will only make them tense and hamper their swings. Having them hold the bat in their fingers rather than clenched tightly in the middle of their hands helps this.

Footwork

Now we’re getting to the actual swinging. When it’s time to swing everything starts—or should, anyway—with the feet.

I’m constantly reminding my players to step straight at the pitcher. The reason for this is simple. If you step away, your foot goes out, your hips go out, your shoulder goes out, and your head goes out. And I’ve yet to see anyone who can hit a baseball when they aren’t looking at it.

At the same time, you don’t want to take an exaggerated step toward the plate, because then you’ll be hitting across your body—also not good. The simplest and best approach is to take a small step right toward the pitcher. Notice the “small” here.

I always tell kids to think of their step as their trigger. They’re not trying to stride halfway to the mound here. All they need is a small step to get their weight moving and their bat started.

The Swing

Tony Gwynn came up with an interesting way to describe what to do. He says hitters should imagine themselves hitting the ball with the knob of the bat. Another way of thinking of this is that you want your hands to go straight from the ready position right to the ball. In other words, the first movement of the swing is hands forward.

The most common mistake I see with actual swinging is kids (and hitters of all ages) waste their first movement by dropping their elbows. What this does is force an uppercut swing, and you end up golfing. If your first move is hand toward the ball, you get the level swing that you need to make the most contact.

Contact

The final thing to remember—and perhaps the most commonly overlooked by kids’ coaches—is that you want to hit the ball out in front of you.

By this, I mean teach your hitter to aim for the ball before it is even with their bodies. This is where standing behind the plate is useful.

If you stand behind the plate, then hitting the ball over the plate will put you in good shape. This is important because trying to hit the ball when it is next to you essentially prevents you from extending your arms and getting a full swing at it. Hitting the ball out in front of you makes you take that full swing.

Problems

The most obvious issue here is that this recipe for hitting is, well…kind of complicated. Unfortunately, there’s really not an easy way to learn to hit.

You’ve got to have your fundamentals down if you want to hit, and kids have to learn them from somewhere.

I have found, though, that after you teach kids the basics, you can essentially boil down the concepts to four key reminders: keep your elbow up; keep your hands back; step straight at the pitcher; hit the ball out in front of you. Even young kids seem to be able to remember these basics, and they make up the essence of what you really need to do to hit.

It won’t happen overnight, of course, but if they practice enough, virtually any kid can hit using these principles.

Troubleshooting

The most common problems you’ll come across with kids who are struggling are fairly easy to diagnose. Kids dropping their hands or stepping away are pretty easy to see.

There are times, however, when a kid will seem to be doing everything right but still swinging and missing more often than not. Chances are that kid is not hitting the ball out in front but trying to hit it when it’s right next them. One way to help break this habit is to work on hitting soft tosses.

Have the kid stand about 5 feet away from the backstop, and (while standing to the side so as not to get brained) toss the ball into the proper hitting location and let them practice hitting the ball where they should. Obviously, make sure you are getting your tosses out in front so the hitters have to extend their arms. Repeat this drill often enough, and you’ll find your hitters making a lot more solid contact.

Hitting Aids

There are also a couple of interesting hitting aids out there to help kids learn. The Hit-A-Way is essentially a ball on a cord that wraps around a pole when you hit it, then unwraps so you can hit it again. This is a great device for solo practice. It helps reinforce aim like the soft toss drill, and it improves aim through repetition.

The Hit-n-Stik, on the other hand, is a flexible stick with a ball sized target at the end. To use the Hit-n-Stik, a coach holds the target where the hitter should be aiming and the hitter hits it. Rinse and repeat as necessary. While an interesting concept, I prefer the Hit-A-Way personally.

If a coach is available to help, hitting a moving ball in a soft toss drill is much more useful than hitting a stick. Hitting aids seems best to me as ways for kids to practice by themselves—and in that regard the Hit-A-Way just seems to work better. The Hit-n-Stik does have a solo practice stand, but the Hit-A-Way is more flexible (all you need is a pole or a tree) and more challenging.