Hitting Ground Balls: How to Improve Youth Hitting

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Hitting Too Many Ground Balls?

I think it was Ted Williams who said he tried to hit every ball he hit - in the air. While it is better than striking out, or “dinking” the ball, ground balls are the next best thing to hitting the ball in the air. Hitting line drives or big flies (not pop ups or lazy fly balls) should be the goal of good hitting. We will settle for a hard ground ball. Why? Because 80% of line drives will result in a hit, and only 30% of ground balls. More baseballs (or softballs) hit in the air - the better the chance for a hit.

What causes a ground ball?

Hitting a low pitch - late. This is the “thump - thump” ground ball, where the ball hit’s the ball (first thump) and immediately the ball hit’s the ground (second thump) just in front of home plate. These ground balls are usually very weakly hit, since the ground softened them up right away. Sometimes these balls are high bouncers, either way, they are easy outs. On a low pitch, the bat must come down a long way, then bottom out, before starting an upward swing plane toward the ball. If you are late, the bat will still be coming down when it strikes the ball, resulting in a quick bounce in front of home plate. To improve on this problem, take your Personal Pitcher and set it to throw low knee high strikes. Then practice getting the bat going in an upward plane before striking the ball. This is called Pitch Isolation Training. Train to hit the low pitch successfully, over and over, until you have it down.

Hitting a waist up pitch - too early. I call this the “ping pong” effect. Ever watch a table tennis (they prefer this term to “ping pong”) player slam a ball? He strikes the ball with an over hand swing which brings the wickedly hard hit smash down to the table. Without the over hand follow through, the ball would travel a long way straight toward the other player. Most baseball swings start slightly below the ball (as the bat enters into the swing plane with the pitch) and finish slightly over the ball, making contact with the center of the ball. If you are early, you will pass this “middle-of-the-ball” point of impact, and end up hitting the ball as you are (normally) finishing over the ball. The ping pong effect.

Swinging down on the ball. Some hitters are taught to swing down on the ball. This will of course result in beating the ball into the ground. What well meaning coaches think will happen is kind of the reverse of the ping pong smash. Like cutting a ball with a ping pong paddle, using an under cutting downward swing. The problem with this is that even with ping pong, this results in a weakly hit ball -if hit in the air. Chopping down on a ball is not the best way to produce back-spin on a batted ball. Trying to hit the ball dead center is the only sane method of hitting the round ball with a round bat -squarely. You may, by accident get a little more of the bottom half when doing this, then you will not only hit the ball hard, but get a little back-spin on the ball too.

Learn to hit the ball squarely

Use the mini polyball in conjuction with a small diameter bat. A mini polyball pitching machine can be used indoors (in a garage or basement) or outdoors (in the backyard or at the schoolyard). Hitting the small diameter ball with the small diameter bat will improve your hand eye focus and hitting contact. Hitting a regulation ball after this type of batting practice will seem - well easy.

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Polyball Batting Practice

The most practical way to improve your hitting skill. Serious batting practice - at home. (indoors or outdoors.) Fast balls, curve balls and sliders. Don't waste another coin at a commercial batting cage. Great for all ages and skill levels.

"If you are not doing Polyball Batting Practice -You are probably not taking enough batting practice"

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