Baseball/softball Hitting Tips - Perfect And Direct Vision To The Ball!

As parents and coaches we often tell our children to keep their eyes on the ball when hitting a baseball or softball

. Without a doubt this is an excellent teaching point. It probably should be even stated more often by parents and coaches including myself.

When a major league player is hitting well and a sports writer says to him why are you hitting better this week because you werent hitting last week?, the player will most likely say, I am seeing the ball and it looks big !

Hitting a baseball or softball well is more a visual skill than anything else. There are many key components to being a successful hitter like muscle memory, stance, weight transference, grip, rhythm, hitting inside-out, balance, the launch position, mental imagery, using your hands, effective hitting drills and more.

Here are some tips on how to See The Ball when at bat:

Use soft focus and fine focus.

* When the pitcher is winding up, watch the pitcher from the waist up or look at the pitchers face. This is an example of soft focus.

* Where the pitcher releases the ball is fine focus. This is extremely important. This is where the hitters eyes should be - the point of release (the fine focus).

* Great hitters see the ball from the pitchers release of the ball. So a hitter in baseball and softball goes from soft to fine focus.

Some more tips in seeing the ball better

Study the pitcher by using these 3 initials, R-R-P.

1. The first R stands for Rhythm. Is the pitchers windup, fast, slow or in-between when he or she goes into the wind-up? This is rhythm.

2. The second R stands for Release. Where does the pitcher release the ball from? Does he have an overhand, three quarter, or side arm release? Windmill-style softball pitchers use an underhand release. Using fine focus will help determine his or her release point.

3. The P stands for the the type of pitches the pitcher has, and in what pitch count he or she throws them. For example, lets say you are hitting third in the line-up. Your two previous teammates at bat, strike out on a curve ball on a 0-2 pitch count. Now, all of a sudden the count on you is 0-2. What kind of pitch do you think you will be seeing? Probably a curve ball, but not necessarily. Your primary responsibility is to be ready for the fastball, no matter what the pitch count. However, in this situation the odds are that a curve ball will be thrown to you.

Remember when the ball is pitched the hitter needs to pick up the ball at the pitchers release point. The head and eyes go down to hit the ball. Ideally at contact, the hitters eyes and nose should be directly facing the middle of the ball. This will give you perfect and direct vision to the ball.

Try this exercise: Hold a ball and line your nose and chin directly to the middle of the ball. Does it look big? Move your nose and chin to the left or right of the balls center.

Now you are using peripheral vision, and the ball is not so big anymore!

And please remember this: After hitting the ball, keep your head and eyes down where you made contact with the ball for one second. This will prevent looking up before you hit the ball.

Also when putting your eyes and head down as you hit the ball, your bat takes a natural path to the ball. Your bat speed becomes faster, your hips rotate better and your follow through and balance will improve. There are many other ways to see the ball better, but these points will definitely improve you hitting.

Have fun and enjoy this great game!

by: Bobby Woods

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