The Proper Baseball
Hitting Stance
A Balanced Baseball Batting
Stance is one of the Best Baseball Batting Tips given to a
Little League Baseball Hitting Instructor to achieve Proper Baseball
Hitting Fundamentals
There is
much debate about the proper stance from which to best hit a baseball. By far the most important issue to
consider is which one the hitter is most comfortable using. Many times young players will try to
use a copycat stance that imitates their favorite baseball player. I’ve seen many instances - including
my own sons – where young players imitate hitters like Ken Griffey Jr., Alex
Rodriguez, Prince Fielder and others. While there is nothing wrong with
cloning the swing of your favorite player, as coaches we need to be sure that
the imitation of that baseball hitting stance does not impact the ability of
the player having a good, solid swing.
There are
generally three types of stances that are used: the closed stance, the open
stance, and the parallel stance.
For young players the parallel stance offers the most benefits and is
the easiest to teach. Let’s take
a moment to discuss the merits of the other two stances prior to reviewing the
parallel baseball hitting stance.
The Closed
Stance
A closed or inverted baseball hitting
stance is considered
one where the front foot is closer to the home plate side
of the batters box than the back foot.
The advantage of this type of stance is that some players say it is
easier to hit a baseball pitch on the outside part of the plate. The merits of this stance begin and
end with that single point. The way that
most coaches view this stance is different than the players who endorse it
and the view is negative.
Coaches agree that a closed stance often makes it difficult for a
hitter to see the pitcher with both eyes. The player's head is turned away from the pitcher
with the closed stance. Seeing the ball with both eyes allows
for your body to react to the speed, the spin and the location of the pitch in
a much more fluent manner.
Additional issues occur when a hitter is faced with a ball on the
inside part of the plate. Most
baseball hitters with a closed or inverted stance will have a difficult time
getting to the inside pitch effectively.
The reason for this is that their natural swing will position the bat
more towards the outside part of the plate causing many balls to be hit on the
inside or the thin part of the bat, not the sweet spot. The result is that
the baseball hitter gets jammed more easily and has more soft ground
balls hit in the infield for easy outs. The other issue hitters face is that
the closed stance forces them to turn and open their hips prematurely during
the course of the swing. When a
player opens at their hips prematurely it tends to lead to weakly hit ball
usually hit to the pull hitting side of the infield.
The Open
Stance
The open
stance is typically used by hitters trying to see the ball better as it leaves
the pitchers hand. In the open
stance the front foot is back farther from home plate than their rear
foot. Many times the front foot
is turned and is pointing towards the pitcher in order to help the player
start their swing earlier. This
style has become popular as younger players emulate their baseball
heroes. As is the opposite of the
closed stance, the open stance helps with pitches thrown on the inside part of
the plate. The difficulty is seen
on balls thrown on the outside part of the plate. Since the momentum of the player is
being shifted away from the plate during the course of the swing, baseball
pitches on the outside part of the plate are often hit as a result of lunging
the baseball bat at the ball.
These types of hits are normally not effective in delivering the
results that player is seeking.
One of the ways that coaches permit the open stance to occur is to
allow the player to begin their stance as open and then correct it as the
pitch is thrown. This is
accomplished by placing the front foot in line with the back foot in the
center of the batter’s box as the ball is delivered to the plate. Hitters have said that this method
helps in to see the ball better with both eyes while still allowing them to be
in the correct position to hit the ball as the pitch is made.
The Parallel
Stance
The
parallel or natural stance is between the two previously mentioned stances and
it is the preferred style to consistently generate solid swings and contact
with the ball. With the parallel
stance the feet are parallel in the batter’s box and both feet are pointing
directly at home plate. The
benefits of this stance are most seen in the batter’s ability to hit the ball
whether the pitch is on the inside or the outside part of the plate. The player also has the ability to see
the pitcher release the ball with both eyes. As coaches, we can help our players develop
the fastest with the fewest chances of slipping into bad habits by helping
them to adopt the parallel stance. A few inches either to the open or closed position is acceptable and
is considered to be parallel for most coaches, but never more than half
of the length of the player's foot.
Regardless of which type of stance a player chooses and a coach elects to support, the
most important concept of a hitting stance is one of balance and
smoothness. I have focused many
hitting lessons around the sole concept of keeping a player’s head still while
in the swinging motion. Many
players are taught to run on the tips of their toes while pursuing fly balls
in the outfield. The idea behind
this method of teaching is that a player’s head will remain a consistent level
while pursuing the fly ball.
Having your head stay in a consistent level allows the ball to come to
you on a continuous flight path.
The same is true of watching a pitched baseball. If a player’s head remains stationary
during the pitch and while continuing through the swing, the players’ eyes
will have the best chance of staying focused on hitting the baseball. This single focus point has
helped many players remove themselves from a slump and get them back to making
solid contact with the baseball.
Now that we have reviewed the proper
stance and discussed that the best baseball batting tips given to a little
league baseball hitting instructor to achieve proper baseball hitting
fundamentals involve a balanced baseball hitting stance, let’s break it into a
little bit smaller pieces by focusing on the
Proper Foot Placement
to use while hitting a baseball.
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