With spring approaching, many of the youth baseball and softball leagues are drafting their teams and preparing for their season. One aspect of the game, more than any other, is used to gauge whether the season was a success or failure by the parents and players. That aspect is hitting. If the young athlete hits well this season, then it must have been successful season. I personally do not subscribe to this opinion, but I have coached enough baseball and softball teams to understand this fact. Parents do not like their child being singled out and not performing. Hitting, in the game of baseball, requires one offensive player to be on the field amongst all the defenders, thus one player is being observed in isolation. This is how the game is played.
Successful hitters have a few things in common: hand-eye coordination, bat control and speed, hand and wrist strength, good mechanics, pitch recognition, and a willingness to take lots of practice swings. Hopefully, the coach will provide ample opportunities for practice swings. Hand-eye coordination, strength for bat control and speed, and hand and wrist strength come with physical maturity. Good mechanics need to be taught.
Over the next few posts, I will break down the many elements of the swing and describe the proper mechanics. Today, I'll start with the stance.
The Stance
The batter's stance is the foundation for the swing. A batter's stance is a matter of personal comfort; that is, there are no absolute rules. However, there is one extremely important guideline: your stance should allow for a simple and smooth transition from a relaxed position to one that will put you into a strong, well-balanced athletic position to hit the ball. Since the stance is the first event in a chain reaction that ultimately ends with the swing, the proper stance will enable you to have a much better chance of making solid contact with the ball.
The standard batting stance places your feet just outside your shoulders with your weight evenly distributed between the inside balls of your feet (some hitting instructors recommend putting a little more weight on your back foot, but I believe the weight shift should occur during the pre-swing movement). Line your feet up square to the pitcher so that a line drawn through your toes is parallel to the inside of the batter's box and extends directly to the pitcher. Flex your knees slightly and bend at the waist. Keep your upper body tall and your front shoulders pointing directly to the pitcher. A batter can tell if there is enough flex in the knees by looking down at their shoes and only seeing the toe and one or two strings in the shoelace. Hold your hands about shoulder level, aligned with the inside of your rear shoulder, four to six inches away from your body, with the bat in the fingers and not the palms.
Many successful major league baseball players employ unorthodox stances that are used to identify them. While these professional players may be starting from idiosyncratic stances, just before the pitcher releases the ball they all look the same: front foot is planting directly back at the pitcher, front leg is slightly bent, hands are positioned just behind the rear shoulder. Their body is coiled and ready to unwind on the incoming pitch. Your stance, no matter how unique, must allow you to consistently get to the hitting position quickly and effortlessly.
The standard position for a batter to stand in the batter's box is to place the front foot opposite the middle of the plate, which is where the plate angles back to the point. Since both feet are just outside the shoulders, this will place the back foot a few inches inside the back of the box. A line drawn through the toes of both feet should extend directly back to the pitcher. The distance from the plate is determined by two criteria: player comfort and complete plate coverage. Some players are comfortable standing right next to the plate while others like to have some distance to get away from inside fast balls. If a player stands close to the plate, they will need a quick hip rotation to get the bat through the hitting zone on inside pitches. If the player wants to stand away from the plate then their stride must be toward the plate to reach pitches on the outside corner.
The goal of the stance is to enable the quick transition from a quiet and restful position into applying an extreme amount of force from your legs, torso, and arms through the bat to the ball. The stance is the base structure from which the swing movement starts and is often the root of hitting mistakes. Remember, your stance is a matter of personal preference, but it must allow you to transition smoothly into your swing.
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