Saturday, September 1, 2012

Baseball Hitting Exercises - The Sweet Spot


Why the right baseball hitting exercises are crucial

Anybody who has ever played as much as one game of Little League can tell you that hitting a baseball is much more complex than just swinging the bat. Even when you make contact, you're not guaranteed success. Foul balls and tips, pop-outs, slow rolling ground balls, broken bats and more are just some of the missed results that can occur when you fail to hit the ball with the sweet spot of your bat. Learning how to do this effectively and as consistently as possible will help you improve your performance and grow as a player.
The sweet spot is just about two to three inches in length, and it's at the top, fat part of the bat just a few inches from its end. You'll know when you connect with the sweet spot, because the vibration and pain you sometimes feel as you hit will be almost nonexistent. All that's left is smooth connection, and a forceful impact that leads to great things for you on the field.

The truth is that with such a small sweet spot to work with, there isn't much room for error and you really need the right baseball hitting exercises to train yourself to make contact with that exact part of the bat. As mentioned, there is any number of potential negative outcomes when you hit the ball in a different location. You can add to that list jarring pain in your hands and wrists, not to mention a drop-off in your hits and performance.

One way to start improving the results that you see on the field is to practice correctly and perform the right baseball hitting exercises. Wooden bats have smaller sweet spots than metal bats. Metal bats have been designed of course to increase performance, power and overall batting success. Always hitting with metal bats will get you accustomed to this overcompensation and then when it's time to turn to a wooden bat, or when you face top notch pitching, you'll be left wondering what happened to your skills.

Therefore the right way to train is to train using wooden bats with smaller sweet spots. You'll get accustomed to hitting in the right way, to making contact in the right place and ultimately you will see a better outcome when it's actually time for you to be in the batter's box with the game on the line.

Another great technique to start making contact with the sweet spot is to mark off that spot on your bat when performing baseball hitting exercises. Use some tape to either mark the two ends of the sweet spot, or to make something like an X on the location where it is. Then as you practice you can focus on making contact in that specific location. You will train your body, your muscles, your eyes and your mind to perform that task perfectly, creating great muscle and mental memory to work from.

When you do this you will always know if you're swinging and hitting the right way. This visual cue offers immediate feedback and will let you know how and why you are falling short or making contact in less than ideal places. Remember, your swing is the complex union of many different muscles and movements, and training them together to complete a specific task or objective is the best way to improve your actual performance. From swing to swing you'll be able to adjust what you're doing and how you're doing it, and you'll quickly learn where you're going wrong.

As with all other aspects of baseball hitting exercises, and truly all sports in general, seeing consistently successful results is going to take some real time and effort. That's what separates good players from average ones and great ones from good ones. So continue to hone in on that sweet spot, train your body and your eyes to connect with your bat in the right place and at the right time and practice in the right fashion and before you know it you will start to see improved results.


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