How To Make Better Contact When Hitting A Baseball [How To Tuesday Ep.2]

Hey guys, Coach Madden, official trainer of YouGoProBaseball.com and today we're talking
about how to have better contact when hitting a baseball.
Bat control is so important in a world full of bat speed programs and everyone is trying
to focus on creating more speed and more energy through the swing.
Now don't get me wrong, that is very very important if you want to be a power hitter.
But having good bat control and making contact is most important.
Because if you're swinging very very fast but you're not hitting the baseball, you're
not going to get anything done.
So bat control is most important.
It is the fundamental of hitting.
Now, the most important thing when it comes to making better contact when swinging is
to have good timing.
When the pitcher is pitching, you kind of want to be dancing with that pitcher.
So, as he's starting his wind up, you kind of want to have a little rhythm, and move
with that pitcher.
You don't just want to be standing still waiting for that guy to throw because then you're
going to be dead in the water and not have any energy to get the swing going.
So kind of have a rhythm with him, dance with him, see the ball, try to time it up.
There are many drills that you can do to practice this.
You can work on tracking.
When your pitchers on your team are throwing bullpens you can just hop in there and get
in there and just try to time it, try to time it.
You're not actually swinging because he's throwing a bullpen, but you're just in here
dancing with that pitcher, getting that load, stride, and act like you're swinging but you're
not really swinging.
Seeing the ball is also very important when it comes to having better contact when hitting.
Now, when you're looking at that pitcher, we talked about timing before, when you're
focusing out on that pitcher when he's about to pitch, you don't want to be super zoned
in right away.
What I tell all my guys is, you want to have a soft focus and then bring that soft focus
into a harder focus as he starts to deliver the baseball.
So when he gets into his wind up and he starts to pitch, you're kind of just gazing out there
and having a general view and you're watching everything he does and that's when you're
getting your timing, your rhythm with him.
Now as he gets to his release point you want to sharpen that focus into where he's releasing
that ball.
Then you have that hard focus.
The reason why we don't want to have a hard focus too early is because if you've ever
starred at something for a few seconds, you'll feel your eyes start to strain, they might
get watery, they might get itchy, and that's why we don't want to focus in too early.
We just want to have that general soft focus as he gets to release point, then we focus
hard for a short amount of time, see that ball, and make good contact.
Another way to work on your contact when hitting a baseball is to train small.
If you use these mini balls to work on your swing and work on your contact, hitting a
bigger ball is going to be a lot easier.
You can also get a skinny barrel bat.
This is a regular bat here, but they make skinny barrel bats where you can try to hit
these mini balls with a skinny barrel bat and if you can do that, hitting a regular
baseball with a regular bat is going to be a lot easier.
Now, what you can do with these mini balls is just get a partner out front and they can
flip it to you.
You just get ready, get your timing down, take it if it's a ball.
Another way to have better contact is to train strong, to train a strong contact point, and
be able to hit that ball and get through it.
Because I see a lot of guys, especially younger guys, when they get to contact they are very
weak through the contact point and it kind of just dinks out there.
You don't want that, you want to be strong through the contact point too.
So, here's a great drill to work on training to be strong through your contact point.
You can just put up a basketball or a soccer ball.
Preferably slightly deflated.
You're going to have to find a tee that works for it.
Also if you have one of the old rubber tees you can stick a plunger upside down in there
and that's a good way to hold the basketball or the soccer ball up.
As you can see with a regular tee, it's a little bit hard and you've really got to focus
on getting it balanced at first, but once you find that sweet spot you should be good.
Another way to work on having better contact is to train with a wood bat.
You know what they say, "aluminum makes good cans, wood makes good hitters".
The reason why is because the sweet spot on a wood bat is much smaller, much more condensed.
So, you have to be a better hitter and hit the ball in a smaller area when swinging with
a wood bat.
Some players will tape their wood bats on the sweet spot for two reasons.
One, it helps keep the bat and make it last longer.
Also, to tell them they're hitting the ball on that sweet spot.
So, on your BP wood bat, just put a little tape around that sweet spot and then you can
check to see if you're hitting the ball on the sweet spot more often than not.
And last but not least, I touched on it before, but tracking drills are huge for when it comes
to having better contact because you're going to be able to see the ball even better.
So if you have a batting cage by your house that you can get into that's really fast,
maybe a little faster than the pitching that you see.
It's great to get in there and just take that load and that stride and try to time up that
pitch without even really swinging at it.
Then you can get into a cage where it pitches the same speed as pitchers that you're going
to see and then take actually swings and try to work on your contact that way.
I hope you guys like this video.
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better contact in your swing.
I'll talk to you guys in the next video.

How To Make Better Contact When Hitting A Baseball [How To Tuesday Ep.2]

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