How to Hit a Baseball for Beginners & Youth Players // 5 Easy Steps for Hitting Success

[@buildingbetterbaseball]

Let me know one thing you learned today about hitting a baseball - did you hear something you've never heard before? Be sure to leave a comment!

[@jennlatona2797]

I'm having my son practice these techniques right now 👍🏻 thanks for your attention to helping us build a better batter 😂⚾

[@buildingbetterbaseball]

@@jennlatona2797 That's awesome Jenn, I'm glad you're finding it helpful!

[@derekday8757]

Great video! Thanks for the tips.

[@markneglio5439]

Good advice!

[@6toolbaseball]

Great video

[@ffffrfffg1358]

Great tips… how do you recommend teaching these to a 9 yo, so that we aren’t filling their head and having them overthinking all the time?

[@buildingbetterbaseball]

Hi there - what you're referring to is what I call "over coaching", and trust me I did that ALL the time when I first started. Basically you tell a player 5 different things to do and they're like "wait what?". So I would definitely take it one step at a time. Have them master one piece, and then move onto the next one. If you want to give them just a few tips - I've always found that the two big ones that get quick results is having the athletic, balanced stance & the knob of the bat to the ball. Once they have those, you can go into the details of the load and so on, but that's where I would start. I actually have a full module in my "Coaching Youth Baseball" course that talks about "over coaching" and provides strategies on how to teach without overwhelming players. Here's a link if you'd like to check it out: www.buildingbetterbaseball.com/coachingyouthbaseball. Hope this helps!

[@baseballlife8225]

Thanks coach hart !!

[@buildingbetterbaseball]

You're welcome - I'm grateful to be able to use this platform to teach the game we all love, I'm glad you found it helpful!

[@ivanvaughn6207]

I teach baseball just like you

[@chadgallison1062]

Load Load Load... the one thing I try to teach my kids over everything... great video... no load, no power. Then I fine tune the rest.

[@chadgallison1062]

I actually like to line my kids up on the baseline. I am a left-handed batter, so all right handers in front of me and all lefties behind me. And they follow my steps... I like a 4 step process. 1 - load (hands back), 2 - hips (weight back), 3- front leg down, 4 - bat through plane.

[@jonnyt16]

Seems like everyone is teaching to keep your arms bent at the point of contact (staying inside the ball) rather than having the arms extended at the point of contact as shown in your video. Which is better? Thank you.

[@buildingbetterbaseball]

Hey there! The way I see it is that every player is different and there's tons of different ways to hit a baseball that are all successful for the player who's doing it. I can only speak to what I did through my baseball career and what worked for me. My thought process is that with triangle extension, you're getting the full range of motion and full power behind your swing. When you keep your arms bent at contact, that to me sounds like "alligator arms" and you're leaving a lot of power on the table. To me, that's like a pitcher who doesn't fully extend his arm on the release of the pitch, he short arms it. Or like a runner who doesn't take full strides when they're running. I think with what you're saying - "keeping your arms bent", and "staying inside the ball".. those to me are two different things. I believe you can still stay inside the ball with triangle extension - I don't think "arms bent" correlates with staying inside the ball. Because you can still swing with your arms bent and not stay inside the ball. I hope this makes sense and answers your question! Back to my initial statement, If you check out my Hitting Basics course: www.buildingbetterbaseball.com/hittingbasics - you'll see that I'm 100% all about the player finding their own unique swing. There's not only one effective way to hit a baseball - just like there's not one effective type of shoe, or bank, or vehicle - they all work great. My philosophy is search and discover as many ways as you can and find what works for you. Hope this helps!

[@BallinANDDrawin]

How would you explain how to bend your knees to a 5 year old who hasn't played basketball?

[@buildingbetterbaseball]

Hey Correy, for anyone who hasn't played basketball before, I usually say "stand with your feet wider than your shoulders and rest your hands on your thighs (quadriceps).. and then with a straight back without bending forward at the waist, bend your knees and squat until you can touch just below your kneecaps with your fingers. I hope this helps!

[@ivanvaughn6207]

Use a cone and have him touch the cone everytime he swings