How to Create Consistent Hitting Mechanics

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Article Title: How to Create Consistent Hitting Mechanics
By Nate Barnett

I'm sure you know from experience that hitting a baseball consistently for any length of time is one of the most difficult and frustrating things to do in sports. There are two areas of your overall baseball preparation you'll need to develop on a regular basis if you want the most consistency possible as a competitive athlete - the mental game of baseball, and proper hitting mechanics. If you're interesting in learning more about baseball psychology there are quite a few resources online as well as my blog. This article is reserved for teaching a little on the topic of hitting mechanics.

I get the chance to work with dozens and dozens of athletes individually each year. It's truly a rewarding experience much of the time, though at times it can be extremely frustrating to see such talented athletes fail to put in the necessary work to achieve some consistency in their swing. I never have a tough time getting the athletes to work hard when I work with them in the cage. It's when athletes have to motivate themselves to work outside of their practice days when their work habit breaks down.

In order to become a highly consistent and effective hitter, I prescribe the following "medicinal procedure" to be used away from practice:

1. Dry Drills: These are hitting mechanics related drills that are meant to reinforce muscle memory. It is impossible to only put in two to three days on a specific hitting technique and make it stick long-term. The problem you'll run into is that during a game your focus will be placed on the pitcher and not your mechanics. If you have failed to put in the necessary time to build quality muscle memory, you'll revert back to the problems you were initially trying to fix.

2. Mental Rehearsal: The mind is a powerful tool for good or evil. When you use your mind for positive imagery or visualization you will increase your effectiveness as a hitter. If your mind pollutes your body with thoughts of failure, your body will respond in a negative way. Lack of confidence and fear can destroy a good hitter. To make sure you are conditioning your brain in the right way, it's highly important that you replay mental video clips of yourself succeeding offensively. This is easy to do, many of you do it all day long in other areas. Sometimes your mind wanders in church or school and you lose focus as to what is occurring around you. If you can slip into this mode and daydream about your performances, you can truly become a master of the mental game of baseball.

Nate Barnett is owner of BMI Baseball. His website is devoted to teaching the mental game of baseball and hitting mechanics. After finishing a professional career in the Seattle Mariners Organization, Nate pursued his coaching and motivational training career.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nate_Barnett

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Hitting Drills For Baseball - How to Perfect Your Hitting Skills in Baseball

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Hitting Drills For Baseball - How to Perfect Your Hitting Skills in Baseball
By Carolyn Anderson

Hitting the baseball correctly is indeed an essential skill for baseball players. For all of us who loves to watch baseball, we often equate superb batting skills to being a good baseball player. Of course, as an essential skill in the sport, hitting the ball is one skill that all baseball players should master.

Although different individuals may have their own techniques in hitting the ball, it is however important to learn the correct way of doing it right from the start so you won't end up correcting a bad habit that is hard to straighten out later. Aside from learning the correct way of hitting the ball in theory, it is also important to have some hitting drills for baseball to help you practice what you know and help you body master the skills needed in hitting the ball nicely.

Keep in mind that making yourself a good batter in baseball is a combination of having a correct and good grip, an athletic and balanced stance and of course, the right swing. To help you practice these important skills, it is also important to condition your mind and body to be able to master this skill well. Here are some hitting drills for baseball to help you improve your batting and your performance in every game as well.

The Power Bat

One of the hitting drills for baseball that you can make use in improving your batting is the power bat drill. What you will do in this drill is to practice on an object heavier than a baseball. This drill aims to help you increase your power through the point of contact, and not decrease the speed of your swing as soon as it comes in contact with the ball.

The Chair Drill

As the name suggests, this hitting drill uses a chair to help you see the importance of your hands to the ball. By sitting down on a chair while hitting the ball eliminates movements on the lower body and helps you concentrate on your hand. You can ask a practice partner to throw a ball on your hitting zone while you will try to hit the ball as flat as you can focusing on your wrist action.

The Vision Drills

One of the hitting drills for baseball includes the vision drills which help in improving your reflexes to the ball as well as preparing your vision for the real game. This drill is usually done by using differently colored balls and hitting each color depending on the instructions given with them. Say, you have red, blue and yellow colored balls and you assigned red to be the balls you should hit, the yellow ones you should take. Indeed, vision drills will help sharpen your mind and your eyes and in dealing with pitching in the real game.

These are just three hitting drills for baseball, but there are still a lot you can do to improve your hitting skills. And of course, you have to keep in mind to concentrate and focus while in the game as well. Tension can be devastating to your hitting the ball also.

Carolyn Anderson is a sports lover and loves to learn some new sports and interests now and then. To help you master a superb batting, check out Parker Training System Manual. Also check out Youth Soccer Power Unleashed, a step-by-step training program to help you make your kids learn soccer and enjoy it.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carolyn_Anderson

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The Baseball Swing - Rotational Hitting Explained

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By Nate Barnett

It seems like baseball instruction in the area of hitting mechanics is splitting into two different camps. Rotational hitting vs. Linear hitting. If you're new to the baseball world, or are just unfamiliar with the new exciting terminology, let me offer some explanation.

Rotational Hitting

The purpose of the baseball swing is to transfer the most energy into the baseball as possible. In order to get the most energy created, there are specific parts of the body that need to move at the correct time in order for this energy to occur.

A rotational approach offers that the energy used in creating a powerful baseball swing stems from the back side of the body, and more specifically the lower half of the back side. The controlled chain reaction that happens when the back side is moved at precisely the correct time toward the pitch is quite powerful. On the flip side, incorrect timing of the back knee and hip will produce a sluggish bat.

A rotational approach to hitting uses the follow steps to a good baseball swing:

1. A good weight shift to the back leg from the stance position as a hitter is preparing to hit. Make sure that this weight shift is not purely horizontal in motion, since this will create an imbalance.

2. The next step is the trigger. This is the most important movement that separates a rotational hitter from a linear hitter. The triggering process should begin with the back knee turning and moving towards the pitcher (as apposed to simply spinning in place). The back hip will quickly follow the back knee in the rotation process. Lastly, the hands will begin to enter into the hitting zone. It's important that the hands do not begin the swing since the power is stemming from the back knee and hip. Early hand movement would negate any effort to use energy from the back side of the hitter's body.

3. As the bat enters the zone, one will begin to see signs that a rotational approach has been utilized. The common tell tale signs are the balance points. The easiest to explain in writing is that upon contact with the pitch there will be vertical alignment with the inside shoulder joint, the back hip, and the back knee joint. This alignment shows that balance is retained and no weight has shifted forward onto the front foot (more of a linear style).

As an aside, rotational hitting is used by most major colleges and a vast majority of Major League hitters. It provide balance and power to the baseball swing.

Nate Barnett is owner of BMI Baseball designed to improve the mental game of baseball in athletes. Learn how to help your game by improving the skill of mental baseball

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nate_Barnett

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