Hitting Troubleshooting Guide

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Common Mistakes In Hitting And How To Fix Them

Let me preface this by saying, while these may sound like familiar faults and supposed easy fixes, there is no quick fix to any of these problems. It takes practice. Lots of practice. In order to create the proper swing, a lot of factors go into it. It may not be just practice that fixes these faults either. You may need to get stronger. You may need to have better coordination. You may need to have better body control. They all play a part. So just going out and doing the drills a thousand times will not ensure you are a better hitter. They will certainly help, though.

Unless your player is taking a bunch of swings per week, the actions outlined here need to become a habit; something the hitter does not have to think about while swinging or getting into the box. When teaching a new skill or correcting, it may be beneficial to go through the motion slowly at first, to let the player get the feel of the action. So, although there are a bunch of drills in here, they also need to be practiced under as close to game situations as you can. When done properly over and over without correction, you have succeeded.

The easiest faults to correct are the ones that you can control. So before I get into complicated swing faults, I will concentrate on the stance and the approach. Click on the links below to read about the topics and see teaching points and drills.

1. Proper Stance
2. Stepping in the Bucket
3. Opening Stride Foot
4. Over Striding
5. Dropping the Hands
6. Dropping the Barrel of the Bat or Leading With Rear Elbow
7. Barring the Lead Arm or Casting
8. Bad Hand Path/Bad Swing Plane
9. Poor Follow Through