Your stride is all about timing and creating a positive movement toward the pitch. Hitters inevitably get a little anxious and can end up almost jumping at the ball at times, throwing their timing way off. The swing should not start until the front foot lands. Over striding a lot of times causes kids to start their swing before their front foot lands, robbing them of power and creating dead pull hitters. There are a couple fixes here. First, try spreading your feet more in your stance. This may allow you to stride to the same spot and now get there in a more timely manner. Second, try shortening your stride, a little more difficult.
Quick Fix Drills
- Work with your coach to find the optimum stride length. Practice striding to that spot consistently during dry swings and tee work (same rules apply as above for striding).
- Work that same stride into soft toss drills/live batting practice.
- As with putting an object behind your feet to help correct improper stride path, try the same thing but put the object in front of front foot to limit the length of the stride.
Pro Tip: Hitters will tend to stride properly when hitting off a tee or during soft toss work. During live batting practice, the poor stride may re-surface. Have them keep practicing it, but more importantly, incorporate live batting practice into your routine to cement the stride into muscle memory. They have to practice in more game-like situations for it to become a habit.