Opposite field hitting can make you a very valuable player despite all the hype about hitting for power day in and day out. It’s actually a little annoying when all these supposed gurus shun hitting the ball to the opposite field.

If the pitcher is throwing a change-up on the outside middle of the plate, you would be well served to wait on the ball and hit it in the middle or back road map zone to drive it up the middle or to the opposite field. Let this principle sink in.

Most Pros Use Opposite Field Hitting To Their Advantage

Consistently hitting to all fields makes you a very valuable hitter. Most clutch hitters in history hit to all fields. Derek Jeter is a great example. He has hit successfully for many years. This guy utilizes all hitting zones and he sprays the ball to all fields and he usually has dozens and dozens of clutch hits to the opposite field.

Hitting a line drive to the opposite field is just as valuable as pulling the ball down the line for a double. Now, it’s more likely you’ll hit for a little more power when you pull the ball, but it is possible to hit a home run the opposite way.

I’ll use Jeter as my example again. I’ve seen him hit at least 15 home runs to the opposite field.

Twins Great Made Living By Opposite Field Hitting

As a rookie in 1964, the Twins’ Tony Oliva won the American League batting title. “To win the batting title, it’s hard for anybody,” Oliva said. “I won the batting title my first year, but I was lucky. Everything went my way … I hit the ball hard all over the field.”

I wanted to touch on one more point before we leave the road map hitting zones. Keep both hands on the bat during contact. Never let go of the bat until just after contact so that you can get the maximum amount of power while having full extension.

Then, right after that you can let go with the top hand. Too many players are letting go too early, such as right on contact, and too many people are going through the whole zone with a two-handed swing. A full two-handed swing actually decreases bat speed by 8-10 miles per hour.

As a lot of you know, letting your top hand go after contact is the most natural way to finish the swing without slowing your swing down. You’ll definitely hit the ball harder if you keep both hands on the bat until right after contact. Practice this concept each time you take batting practice.

Now, I will say that if you are currently hitting successfully while leaving both hands on the bat and you are hitting the ball hard into the gaps, then you may not want to tinker with your swing. Consult your coach or father before trying new hitting techniques.

To sum up this post I want you to not get hooked on the hype of power hitting while ignoring the chance to become a complete hitter.

Opposite field hitting is what many pros become good at and I think we should all be good at it.

In our quest to hit the ball better I want to touch on an important piece of baseball hitting instruction. I’m calling it zone introduction and I hope it gives you an edge.

First, I want you to know it’s okay not to swing at every strike. There are hitter’s pitches and there are pitcher’s pitches which both may be strikes but not all of them are the best to swing at. This is where the hitter’s road map comes into play.

The road map can be used by players to hit the ball to any field. We’ll get into hitting zones later on with my blog, but I wanted to touch on them briefly here. Think of the whole plate as one major zone broken down into sections.

It’s really simple actually. Hitting balls in the front of the zone allow you to pull the ball. Hitting balls in the middle of the zone go up the middle or to the gaps and balls hit in the rear of the zone go to the opposite field.

I know what you’re asking yourself now. How do you master the road map of zones when pitchers throw all kinds of pitches at you? Today, pitchers are throwing sliders, knuckle balls, change-ups, screwballs, and other deceiving pitches.

If you’re in little league, you don’t have to worry about most of those. Even in high school, most pitchers are still just throwing fastballs and curves. Let’s just focus on the basics of the zone first.

This is where waiting comes in to play. It helps prevent you from being fooled. If you know the three zones we talked about earlier, you can learn and practice hitting at various locations as it crosses the plate. Let’s look at the curveball for a second as it relates to waiting and hitting in the proper zone.

In this example, let’s use a right-handed pitcher throwing a curveball to a left-handed hitter. The ball is thrown towards the outside corner of the plate but you recognize that it’s a curveball and you know it’s going to break towards the inside part of the plate.

You will want to wait but still hit the ball in the front zone and drive the ball. It’s important to wait so you don’t open your hips up ahead of your hands because your front shoulder will fly open and you’ll just hit a ground ball to the shortstop. In this example you could also wait and hit the ball in the middle zone to drive the ball in the gap or up the middle.

Let’s stop here with this baseball hitting instruction on zones for the moment and read part two when you are ready.

I present to you my new favorite baseball hitting instruction tip. Stay calm and focused no matter what.

Hall of Fame legend Ted Williams once said that hitting is 50 percent from the neck up. I can personally testify that he is right. If you aren’t mentally in the game, you might as well leave the bat in the dugout.

I’ve seen and experienced a break down mentally at the plate and it’s not pretty. Major leaguers do it occasionally. Almost every time, break downs usually end with either a strike out, ground out, or pop out.

It’s not that you aren’t talented; it’s that your head was playing games with you and you couldn’t focus. Let me give one example. You take the first pitch for a strike right down the middle. That’s okay. Wait for the right pitch. The second pitch comes and barely grazes the outside corner and the umpire growls with a loud strike call.

That kind of ticks you off and you give him a dirty look and nearly start pouting. Now you’re mentally unfocused and you start to panic a little. A situation like this can lead to second guessing yourself every time you go up to bat the next several games.

You’ve really got to focus, concentrate, and relax when you’re at the plate. Be aggressive but loosen up too. You need to be ready to attack each pitch, while at the same time being calm and waiting for a good pitch to hit.

At my hitting prime, it was like I had tunnel vision during my at bats. I was in a zone. Yes, I took the signs from the coach at third and assessed the situation and my mission, but then reverted to tunnel vision.

The only people in the world were the pitcher and me. That’s the kind of focus I’m talking about.

Chone Figgins of the Seattle Mariners made a great statement in an April 2010 interview with the Seattle Times. “It’s just getting in the box and being comfortable with your feet,” Figgins said as his team packed for the trip home, having taken two of three from the Royals. “Getting comfortable with your feet, most guys will tell you they feel they’re ready to attack the ball.”

If you are going to try one thing this week to improve your batting average I want you to take this baseball hitting instruction tip and try it out because the focused and calm hitters are the ones who get all the great hits.

As for baseball hitting tips when you step into the batter’s box you need to know your mission. With nobody on base it’s very elementary: pick a good pitch and get a hit. But your mission changes if there are runners on base.

You may be asked to hit and run or like we said earlier, to advance the runner whether it’s from second to third or getting that runner in from third base by hitting the ball to the right side.

Baseball Hitting Tips – The More You Know, The Better

I was taught that the more you study each hitting situation and ask yourself how you can best help the team, the better hitter you’ll be and the stats will be there. I’ll be honest. It was tempting early on for me to get up to bat and try to rip the ball in the gap every time or even go for the big home run. But that is really only serving myself and not the team.

Always strive to make good contact and minimize outs. Your good contact could mean the difference between a huge rally and a strikeout. I’m not here to say that striking out can’t happen once in a while. Even Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies struck out 181 times in 2006 and still hit over .300 with 182 hits and 58 homeruns.

Baseball Hitting Tips – Do You Know What Pitch Is Coming?

Being able to study and recognize each pitch takes the edge away from the pitcher and instead gives you the edge. Once you know what pitch is coming, the easier it is to know whether it will be a strike or a ball. Even in Little League, where there are mainly fast balls, you need to know where the ball is going and at what rate of speed.

The sooner you know what pitch is coming the more often you’ll swing at strikes. And when you show that you only swing at strikes, the pitcher will be forced to throw you better pitches or else he knows you’re going to walk.

At the same time, if a pitcher knows you swing at the balls outside, he’s going to throw you those pitches outside the strike zone because he feels he’ll be successful.

Work at controlling your temptation to swing at unhittable strikes, such as the tempting high fast ball or the low fast ball just outside of the plate when you have two strikes. Be disciplined and swing only at strikes.

Now you can add these baseball hitting tips to your arsenal and remember to practice recognizing different pitches so you can be ready to hit the ball no matter what.

The mental game of baseball hitting is very important and even comes into play early on. The first time I noticed the mental game was in Little League. You can take yourself right out of a game if you are scared or don’t think you can hit the ball. This can cause some major setbacks.

Many major leaguers of today weren’t naturally gifted and destined to become great baseball players. They worked very hard year after year. They experienced setbacks too, just like you, but they pressed on. In high school, I played against one of the great hitters of the last ten years, Todd Helton. He was the best hitter I saw during my high school career and the stories of his work ethic were inspirational.

Helton appeared to have natural talent, but what I saw was a guy who quite literally worked harder than most. I can’t guarantee that you’ll become a major leaguer if you work hard like Helton, but I will tell you that your chances of becoming the type of baseball player you desire is much greater if you don’t give up.

The Mental Game of Baseball Hitting – Master Each Situation

Your purpose when you go up to bat is to master each situation. Goals are great, but when it comes to hitting you don’t want to put a limit on what you can do. What I mean is that if your goal is to hit .300 then you might only hit .300 or just below, when your potential is much greater.

Instead, use .300 as a marker, a standard. Master each hitting situation and improve on that year after year. Each year try to do better than the previous year. Hit better for average, get a few more hits, drive in one more run, or hit one more home run than the previous season.

Something I learned after all my years of playing was to always approach the plate confident and ready to attack the ball. Each time at the plate is a new start. Forget about the last at bat where you popped up or grounded out. Also, every time up to bat is a new situation.

Maybe you need to hit it to the right side of the field to get that runner in from third base. If that happens to be a ground out or a sacrifice fly then so be it. You drove the run in and helped your team in a big way.

One current player who is a great example of this very thing is Ichiro Suzuki. This guy is one of the greatest hitters of today. He won the rookie of the year award in 2001 and once won the American League MVP. He has hit more than 200 hits in nine out of 10 MLB seasons, hit over .300 each of those seasons, and holds the MLB record for most hits in a season with 262.

Suzuki can do it all. He masters each and every hitting situation to the best of his abilities. He can bunt, he can steal, he can hit the ball the other way, and he can even hit the big home run. Teammates say that in batting practice he can hit a homerun at will.

The Mental Game of Baseball Hitting – 70% Failure Is Okay?

Here is a troubling stat … or is it? You can have the perfect swing and do the right thing and still fail 70 percent of the time. But, in baseball failing seven times out of ten is still considered successful. Hitting a baseball at 70 or more miles per hour is tough and that’s why hitting .300 is a benchmark for success.

Even little leaguers can whip the ball 40-50 miles per hour and they’re not that far from the plate. Some of these kids are even throwing huge curve balls, fork balls and change-ups.

Another challenge to hitting is that there’s a possibility you’ll face three or four different pitchers in one game who all have different styles and talents.

So, it’s very easy to see why hitting is tough and why you need to develop very good hitting habits. The key to success starts in the head and that’s why we should pay attention to the mental game of baseball hitting.

Image by Donovan Solano – License

To me, baseball confidence as a hitter means being in command whether you’re in the batter’s box, kneeling in the on-deck circle or sitting in the dugout. Here’s a look from my perspective.

I was very blessed to grow up with a dad who had playing and coaching experience and an older brother who was an all-star every year. As a young child, I dreamed of the day I could follow my brother’s footsteps.

One year, while living in Seattle, WA, I desperately wanted a hitting book from my favorite players at the time. I begged my dad for it, but instead he directed me to a Hall of Fame player’s book on hitting instead.

I read both books and they were inspirational and educational. I was overly anxious and excited to try out the new techniques. I began putting these techniques into practice and immediately my hitting improved drastically. I went on to make the 15-year-old all-star team.

Baseball Confidence – A Key Ingredient To Hitting Better

I was so proud and realized that by studying, practicing and having confidence in myself, I could be a great baseball player. I started hitting with assurance and power and began to hit to all fields. Being left-handed, I would rip the ball to the gap in left center field because pitchers were throwing to the outside part of the plate.

The most important aspect of baseball that I learned through the years is to have fun. The day baseball becomes a chore is the day your skills will diminish. It may also be the day you move on and leave baseball behind you.

Baseball Confidence – Work Ethic Matters

I found baseball to be fun, challenging, and I credit it partially to being a catalyst to building my character and work ethic. You can be serious and disciplined while still having fun. I want to stress something that goes along with building character and work ethic and that is … Never Give Up.

Even through all my years as an all-star, that didn’t give me the desired starting first baseman’s job in high school. My first year of high school, in fact, I wasn’t a starter. I platooned in the outfield and pitched. Some of you watch more games from the bench than you want.

To change that you need to work hard every practice, make the most of your playing time, study and learn techniques that will make you better, and even watch the players who are more advanced.

You can gain baseball confidence not only as a hitter but as a fielder and while it is very much a mental part of the game it also involves dedication and hard work.

Image: Master isolated images / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Baseball hitting drills have been proven since the game was invented to help batters improve their skills.  I played baseball for many years all the way up to college ball and can attest to that.

I learned drills playing Little League, Babe Ruth, high school ball and every league in between.  Coaches and parents all teach them because they involve the basic mechanics of hitting.

The next time you see players moan and groan about this part of practice you must remind them that it will do them a whole lot of good and that MLB players routinely practice these drills every week.

Baseball Hitting Drills For Youth

Baseball players learn hitting drill for baseball in their youth most of the time.  Here is a small selection of drills everyone should consider using.

• Batting Tee Drills – There’s a reason the very first league is called T-Ball and that’s because they hit off a tee. The ball is placed in a static position and you can hit it virtually anywhere you want.This is great for advanced players too because you can work on all your mechanics and hit it to all parts of the field.
• Soft Toss – This is one of the best youth baseball hitting drills out there. A player, coach or parent takes a knee to the side of the player and underhand tosses the ball to the hitter. He swings and hits the ball into a net or chain link fence.This is great because you’re actually swinging and striking the ball.



• Batting Chair – This drill is unique because you have a player sitting on a chair in the batter’s box and someone is throwing him real batting practice. This drill really focuses on the hands to the ball.
• Top Hand Drill – This is another variation of soft toss drill but the batter will have just his top hand on the bat. The coach will toss the ball to the batter and he will swing at the top portion of the ball, driving it into the ground.
• Power Hand Drill – This is pretty much the opposite of the top hand drill. The batter will hold the bat with his bottom hand and drive the soft tossed ball into the net or fence.
• Full Count Drill – My last example is a great one! Divide the players into two groups with the coaches pitching. Each batter will get a pitch to hit simulating a 3-2 count. This is one of the great hitting drills for baseball.

Baseball Hitting Drills – Consistency Matters

As you can see, some of these drills are to work on basic mechanics and some of these are baseball hitting drills for power. I recommend mixing them up each week and trying something different every now and then to keep batting practice from becoming stale.

You can’t just do these drills at the beginning of the season and be done with it. You should strive to have the players do these activities throughout the season.

The best thing a batter can do to become a better player quickly is consistently participate in baseball hitting drills.

If you want to learn baseball hitting then you are in luck because there are multiple ways to learn. Whether you are a player, coach or dad, you can soak up baseball hitting tips fairly easily.

My personal goal is to help as many people as I can learn this skill because I’ve been there, done that. I love hitting the baseball and was very successful.

As a player, I understand the feelings you get when you get a hit. As a coach, I understand that improving players skills and helping the team win is important.

As a father, I understand the pride you feel when your child accomplishes something great. Let me tell you … hitting the ball is a great accomplishment.

Learn Baseball Hitting By Reading

A great way to start learning about hitting is by reading. There are several books out there that provide great information like Ted Williams’ book.

I have written a baseball hitting book myself based on all my years of baseball experience.

Read these books and soak up the information. Take notes and try out the techniques on a weekly basis. Share this information with others and even get a group together and practice what you’ve learned.

There are also great videos on the subject, whether you buy them from Amazon or watch them on YouTube. Take some time and find some really good instructional videos.

Find videos with baseball hitting drills and try them out. Watch MLB highlight videos and watch how the professionals hit. Look at how they act. Watch what they do when they have two strikes on them. It’s actually quite fascinating.

I would also recommend going to games in your town to watch how the players hit the ball. Watch what they do in certain situations such as when they come up to bat with a runner on second base and no outs.

Learn Baseball Hitting Through Experience

This may seem silly for me to say because you probably already know, but I’m obligated to talk about it.

The best way to learn is by actually hitting. I know this and you know this. Do we actually follow through, though?

On a Saturday afternoon are you too engaged in watching sports on TV? Are your weekends too booked up to work on hitting?

We must make time to practice and learn. Just take one hour per weekend and do some fun baseball hitting drills, take batting practice, hit off the tee and just plain swing the bat.

Just go in the backyard and swing the bat for 10 or 15 minutes per day. Go through game scenarios. Trust me, it’s not just a silly exercise. It really works.

Many of this seems elementary, but these are the best ways to learn baseball hitting guaranteed.

Learning how to become a better baseball hitter can be frustrating at times for players and parents. Players want to hit better for several different reasons and parents just want their kids to be happy and accomplish great things.

Becoming a better hitter can be done quickly and over a period of time. Yes, I just contradicted myself but I do so for a reason.

How To Become a Better Baseball Hitter Quickly

We all want it and want it now! Whether it’s material items or ancient wisdom … we want it now! This gets us in trouble in most situations and sometimes once we have it, we’re disappointed.

Not so in hitting! It’s an absolute fact that every time we become a little better we have that much more of a chance to get a hit and help our team win.

The best way of becoming a better hitter quickly is by practicing. Not just normal baseball practice, but taking extra time to work on your skills.

This might mean staying late and getting extra batting practice with a few of the guys and a coach. It might mean staying late by yourself and hitting off of the tee for 30 minutes. It might mean going home and doing some batting drills there.

If you want increased skills quickly then you have to work hard for it.

After doing this for a few weeks, you will be surprised at how much you’ve improved.

How To Become a Better Baseball Hitter Over Time

So we know we can actually get better pretty quickly but as the cheesy saying goes … Rome wasn’t built in a day.

I believe there is growth for everyone no matter what their skills are. You can get better quickly, but you can get even better over time.

There is something to be said about game experience. Again, you absolutely will become a better batter the more games you play. Experience in the batter’s box seeing all sorts of different pitches is going to allow you to master hitting.

Batting practice isn’t the same as in-game pitching.

The more games you play, the better you will become at situational hitting. You’ll have runners on base, outs, errors, fast ball, bunting situation and fans in the bleachers.

As the season goes on, as the years go on, you just need to focus before and during each at-bat and relax. I’m a believer that all the hard work and practice you put in will translate into more hits during real games as long as you are focused.

Learning how to become a better baseball hitter is up to you and how hard you work.

Whether we are players, coaches or parents, you want to know how to improve your batting skills. That’s one of the things I like about the competitive spirit.

We may be a .290 hitter, which isn’t bad, but we want to be a .330 hitter. We want to be better hitters for several reasons.

How To Improve Your Batting Skills – Reasons Why

I’ll break this down to where I talk about everyone because the reasons can be different and that’s okay.

For players, we want to be the best baseball players we can be. We want to help our teams win as many ballgames as possible. Nobody likes to lose. The more great hitters you have on a team the better.

We also like to emulate the pros and if they are hitting .315 then we want to as well.

Players also feel pride and accomplishment when their hitting skills improve and they consistently get hits.

For coaches, they want all their hitters to improve. They want this so they have a better chance at winning each game and also because most coaches care about the players and want them to become the best they can be.

For parents, they want their kids to become good in anything they do, whether it’s baseball or academics. They want their kids to feel good about what they’re doing.

Parents, especially dads, are very competitive too. We not only want our kids to play well and win … we sometimes want them to dominate.

There’s nothing wrong with that. The opposite is us just wanting our kids go through the motions and call it a day.

How To Improve Your Batting Skills – Practice

Sometimes we need learning materials like ebooks, videos, hitting camps or special instruction. The way to become a better hitter is to spend time actually practicing.

Some dads are already knowledgeable about how to help our kids hit better. Some dads don’t and need to get information or coaching.

Once we have that knowledge we must practice. Batting skills are improved by taking plenty of batting practice and swinging the bat.

This includes lots of hitting drills such as hitting off the tee, soft toss and all the other drills we are accustomed to.

I don’t know one MLB player success story where they said they didn’t practice their hitting almost every day.

We don’t want to become obsessive but just taking an hour every day for hitting practice isn’t too much to ask. If that just means hitting off a tee or just swinging the bat in the backyard then fine.

I know a story of a player who swung the bat in the yard 100 times per day and he felt that really helped him.

Once you know how to improve your batting skills you just need to practice.