To teach your kid hit a baseball is a long journey. Therefore, when introducing a kid to the art of hitting, it is better to focus on the basics to avoid overwhelming them. That is why we share the five basic aspects to start:
Keep your eyes on the baseball
It is no coincidence that the phrase that any of us heard the most when we learned how to hit a baseball was “keep your eyes on the ball.” Nevertheless, it is basic advice; it is also a vital one.
This is why we need to check that your kid is tracking the ball from the pitcher’s hand to the hitting zone. Indeed, your kid should be watching the ball when the bat makes contact with it.
Additionally, repeating the exercise of following the ball over and over again will develop their skill of recognizing different arm speeds and pitches.
Hit the baseball on time
A pitcher’s success is often based on disrupting the batter’s timing. For the same reason, your kid’s success will increase if their swing arrives on time. Even before developing a polished swing, a batter can succeed with the proper timing.
However, we must check how to train this skill. Many batters with good timing at batting practice fail in a real game. Moreover, it is important to practice facing different pitch types and speeds, as they will find in a real game.
Make your kid go through batting machines with different speeds to deliver the skill of adjusting the timing to them.
Hit with discipline
Hitting is one of the more difficult tasks in any sport. That is why great hitters only succeed about 30% of the time. Therefore, we don’t want to make it even harder trying to hit bad pitches.
The plate discipline starts at the batting practice. Don’t force your kid to swing at every pitch during training. Teach him to be aggressive on strikes and patient on pitches that are out of the strike zone.
On NDG Batting Center, you and your kid will be able to see if each pitch faced was in or out of the strike zone, helping develop a clear strike zone awareness.
Hit the ball with direction
Another essential skill related to strike zone awareness is hitting the ball where it is pitched. In other words, this is basically directing your hit based on where the ball was pitched in the zone.
If the ball is in the outer side of the zone, let it travel a little more and drive it the opposite way. If it comes into the inner side of the zone, hit it a little further and pull it. But, If the pitch is in the middle of the plate, drive it to the middle of the field.
Hitting the ball where it is pitched will make it much easier for your kid to connect with consistency. As major leaguers say: just take what the pitcher is giving you.
Hit a baseball requires practice…
and fun
Finally, to teach your kid hit a baseball requires a lot of practice, but at the same time kids are all about fun… and baseball is a game. Competitiveness is a good thing, however it should not take away the fun of playing ball with your dad or your friends.
In NDG Batting Center we are all about combining training with entertainment. You will find several different pitching and fielding machines, coaching services and a huge store with baseball and softball equipment and memorabilia. We will be waiting for you and your kids to come visit us.