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When it comes to learning how to swing a baseball bat, most parents are concerned about the safety of their young children. Fortunately, there are many safe and effective ways parents can teach their kids to safely hit the ball. One of the most important safety steps parents can take is teaching their child how to grip the bat with a proper hand motion. In order to do this safely, it’s important to understand how different hand motion positions affect bat swing actions.
How to Swing a Baseball Bat Properly
How to swing a baseball bat that is handed to the left (folded) differs from how to swing one that is handed to the right. The basic swing action is similar no matter which hand you use to swing.
The key is making sure your swing remains fluid, continuous, and in balance with your body weight. This can be accomplished by simply shifting your weight from one side of your body to another. For example, when lifting your club, you never have to switch from one foot to the other.
Left-Handed Batter
Many people mistakenly believe that a left handed batter must “face” the direction of the pitcher while swinging. This is simply not true. As a matter of fact, if your swing is carried straight down the path of the baseball, then you are carrying your swing “away from” the pitcher. With a left-handed batter, you’ll have more power if you swing to the right.
Learning how to swing a baseball bat the right way is simple. In fact, the simplest swing motion to learn is an overhand follow through. It’s difficult to make consistent contact with the ball with the help of your hands, so what you should focus on is swinging the bat in the proper direction.
Right-Handed Batter
If you’re a right-handed batter, you’ll notice that your baseball glove should be slightly open when you begin the swing process. This is due to the orientation of your hand on the club.
When you are a left-handed batter, your grip should be a little closed.
To learn how to swing a baseball bat the right way, it’s important to keep your hand in the same closed position throughout the swing.
Don’t ever start the swing out of position – simply move it along the hitting zone until you find an ideal spot. Once you’ve found that spot, just slide your hand along the hitting zone until you are at the end of the bat.
Tips on How to Swing a Baseball Bat
Your Wrist
Remember that your wrist should also be slightly bent during your follow through in learning how to swing a baseball bat. Your wrists shouldn’t be bent at the elbow joint yet, or else you’ll find yourself placing your bat too much pressure on that joint.
Warming Up
Warming up is just as important as anything else when learning how to swing a baseball bat. Make sure you do your warm up and stretching exercises before each game.
Good Posture
Remember that every part of your body needs to move properly in order to swing a baseball bat the right way. For example, you can’t hit a baseball if your legs, hips, arms, and torso don’t move in sync with one another. This means that you should have good posture when learning how to swing a baseball bat. Don’t try to reach for the top of the ball or try to swing down too hard – this will only cause your wrists to lock in place and not allow you to have the proper swing.
Practice
Learning how to swing a baseball bat isn’t rocket science. There’s no secret code to remember to get a perfect swing every time. What you do need to do though is to practice and make sure you have good technique. The more you swing the bat properly, the better chance you’ll have to swing it correctly the first time you take the field.
Conclusions
Just like any skill, to do well you have to practice a lot. Same with batting. In addition to putting the bat on the field for practice, you can also practice with an imaginary ball. Try to hit the imaginary ball whenever you can. Once you can perform a perfect swing, you’ll bring your baseball game to the next level.
