Mechanics Of Hitting: Part Six – Baseball is 90% Mental

By: Coach Theune

I believe yogi said "baseball is 90 percent mental and the other half is physical".

I think we can all agree that we don’t do our best work when we are angry. Well its is true for hitting too. I have seen many, many players swing at a bad pitch or let a good pitch go by and get upset and they let it affect them to the point where they can not focus on the most important thing, the next pitch! Baseball is a game of failure. You need to control your emotions, if you can’t you are worthless to the team. I know that’s a harsh statement but it's very true. (remember, there are other players on the team and you have a moral contract with them to do your best at all times.) Look at it this way, you can’t change what has just happened but you can focus on what happens next, don’t let the last pitch dictate how you feel about the next one. Just take the game one pitch at a time. The best way to stay focused and not let your emotions get the better of you is to realize that in every at bat, you have a specific job to do, whether it is to hit behind the runner or to execute a bunt or to hit the ball to the outfield, each at bat has a purpose and its already predetermined for you, just focus on the job at hand. With practice and dedication you will not only believe in yourself but you will have the confidence to execute. For me, I always wanted to be up with the bases loaded or with the game hanging in the balance because I knew that I had practiced and drilled and i believed in myself because I had the confidence to execute the play.

Listen, hitting a pitched baseball is arguably the single most difficult thing to do in all of sport, so don’t get all uptight if it takes a while to get the fundamentals down. Familiarize yourself with what you’ve read, call me or use the blog. The best advice I can give you is when it comes to hitting, do your homework (I mean read and understand the info I have given you) then seek out a true professional and get lessons. Be prepared to commit yourself to getting better over a long period of time. It’s well worth it because a sports scholarship is a lot cheaper than college tuition.

When it comes to choosing a professional I always tell people this; if a coach tells you or your player something that just doesn’t seem right, or that you or your kid don’t understand, ask him to explain it. Ask how will it help? Can you demonstrate it? A good coach will gladly answer and demonstrate anything he teaches, if he can’t or is obviously lost, its time to get a new coach.

I am well aware that my views my seem to be somewhat uncompromising, but a good coach is 2 things, confident of his knowledge, and not afraid to learn.

Mechanics Of Hitting: Part Four - Hitting

By Coach Theune

Ok we are all ready and comfortable in the box, (by the way, this takes practice. You may not feel right at first because of existing bad mechanics and muscle memory, but with hard work and dedication, you will).

As the pitcher begins his windup, we shift our weight to our back foot just a little, almost in a rocking motion. When the pitcher delivers the pitch we take a small 6-8 inch stride with our front foot and start to shift our weight forward, this gets our lower body in motion and starts the hitting sequence. We then begin to rotate our hips and back foot towards the pitcher and begin the actual swing. (there are several complex movements that go into the swing but i wanted to give a full description before i went into detail.) Ok here is the technical breakdown of the swing. We shift our weight back as the pitcher goes into his windup, then as the pitch comes at us, we shift our weight forward using the stride. (When we take the stride we should understand that what we are doing is starting the momentum that builds the torque that will travel up our body and out our arms).

When you stride, your front leg or stride leg moves about 8 inches forward towards the pitcher and hits gently on the ground. Next you begin to rotate your hips and back leg towards the pitcher. Your stride leg locks which forces the momentum go up, instead of towards the pitcher, and allows you to become balanced. (It is the lower body that is responsible for generating the torque that flows up and out.)

Next, you swing, upon making contact, your back arm should be bent and the palm of your top hand should be facing up. Only after you have hit the ball do your arms straighten out and follow through. Your head should be down, by that i mean you should see the ball hit your bat every time!! Many coaches call this the point of contact. You need to be focused on the ball from start to finish for this to happen. Your head should still be down looking at the point of contact even after you have hit the ball, for a split second.

Mechanics Of Hitting: Part Five - Stride

By Coach Theune

But wait there’s more! Did you ever wonder how some players can hit the ball to the opposite field with wicked power? I’ll tell you, it’s the stride! Say what? Yes it is the stride! Great hitters position themselves during the swing with the stride to get the sweet spot of the bat on the ball, its no secret that to hit the opposite way, you need to hit the ball at the back of the plate, but to do so with power takes positioning. You stride towards the plate for an outside pitch, straight ahead for a pitch down the middle and away from the plate for the inside pitch. (this is also why hand position is so important, it gives you that glorious thing called time to see the ball and react to it!!!) When a player is said to have “gone with the pitch” or has “turned on a pitch”, it means his stride positioned his body to get the sweet spot on the ball.


Here's something else that nay help, the way to hit a good curve ball is the same way you hit the outside pitch, position your body and hit the ball at the back of the plate.

Here are some keys to knowing your swing is getting there. After you swing you are still in balance. Your front foot is at a 45 degree angle inward. Your front leg is locked. Your head is down. You have hit the ball.

This is the physical aspect of hitting and it is extremely difficult to learn and maybe impossible to master. Many professionals argue that the mental aspect of hitting is even more important.

Mechanics Of Hitting: Part Three – Body Language

By Coach Theune

Let’s move on to body position or body language, its important to be relaxed when at the plate so we want to be in a position that does not require any type of balancing act. We want our feet to be shoulder width apart, or close to it. If your feet are too close together, you can’t get your lower body into the swing and if they are too far apart, balance becomes a problem. With our feet shoulder width apart we bend our knees slightly so the weight of our body is on the balls of our feet, not on our heels, our back is straight or just slightly bent forward, head straight and level. Some coaches tell you, your chin should be at your front shoulder at the start of your swing and on the back shoulder when you are finished. This is sound advice. Remember we are supposed to be comfortable. The reason we don’t want to be bent over too much is because our head will be tilted and our eyes will not be level, all you have to do is tilt your head down and look at something sideways to understand the importance of that!
So, just like that we know the how to's, and the what for's, of positioning ourselves in the batter’s box, our stance, grip, hand position, bat position and body position, whew!

Now we can move on to actually hitting the ball!