Why Do You Need to Improve Your Hitting Skills?
All baseball players strive for a powerfully built upper and middle body backed up by a strong but flexible lower body. Being a good hitter or a fast pitcher requires more than brute strength. The more evenly distributed your body’s power is among the primary muscle groups, the effectively you’ll be able to generate strength and coordination for those home runs. Hitting a baseball is one of the most difficult tasks in all of sports. It takes a lot of practice to feel confident about making consistent contact with the ball. Our coaches will provide techniques on how to improve your swing and get you ready to conquer your next season at U.S. Baseball Camps!
What is a Hitting Drill?
Drills are essential for developing hitting skills. Batting cages and training sessions are where talent is truly cultivated, whether for professional players or for youth players as a means of learning the fundamentals of the game. Drills enable you to isolate a particular aspect of a specific skill that, when combined, helps develop the individual player’s overall talent.
What is a Top Hand Tee Drill?
The Top Hand Tee Drill helps the player get a sense of what both arms should be doing during a swing. This is a great drill to work on for players who tend to “roll over” their bats when swinging. The primary objective of this drill is to develop an effective, straight-hand path to the ball when hitting.
How to do a Top Hand Tee Drill
- See tee out in front of the plate and set up a ball for down the middle
- Make sure to find the smallest bat you have and choke up halfway on the grip
- The upper body will start loaded with both hands on the bat and back to a good launch position
- The hitter should move closer to the plate
- The player will take the bottom hand off the bat and place it on the chest to exercise this drill
- The hitter should first do the drill in slow motion to a point in contact without hitting the ball tee to get a good feel for the drill
- When you’re ready, the swing path should e slightly downward to get on the plate early while taking the knob of the bat to a direct line inside the ball
- Keep your elbow inside by the ribcage, not allowing hands to get away from your body
- We need to make sure we are firing the back hip, which would turn the back foot, keeping the lower body in sync with the upper body
- At contact, the palm should be facing the sky while punching through contact. Do not just push the top hand through throwing punch
- Stay through the ball after contact, keeping head down with eyes replacing the ball
- Continue to accelerate bat head through contact and stay long out front with good extension
Practicing hitting drills, such as the top hand tee drill, can help encourage good hitting fundamentals resulting in better and more accurate baseball swings. Players can integrate a variety of the drills at once for faster results if they pay attention to detail. Proper hitting fundamentals include the proper initial position, use of the hands and forearms from start to extension, hip rotation, weight transfer, head control, and a balanced follow-through.
If you want to develop your skills and learn all these tips and tricks, you can check out our website at https://usbaseballacademy.com/ for a full list of U.S. Baseball Academy camps near you. Our camps are the perfect choice to help your player learn, improve performance, and achieve goals in a fun, professional environment.