Batting & Pitching Blogs

More Line Drives In Baseball And Fastpitch Softball

Posted on August 7, 2016 at 9:35 PM

I enjoyed watching the College Baseball World Series this year.   I kept hearing the announcers saying they needed to get on top of the ball with fast hands.  Almost every hitter was swinging this way, hard as they could mainly with their arms and fast hands.   The problem was this made them swing down and out of the hitting zone way too soon.  The result was many foul balls, weak grounders and pop ups even when the pitch was right down the middle.   This is the same for the College Fastpitch Softball World Series.  


The former players in the booth kept saying for the hitters to hit the ball on the ground instead of in the air so they would have a better chance for a hit.  I have said before research shows that only 20 to 22% of fly balls are hits. With ground balls you have a 25 to 27% chance of it being a hit.  Line drives have a 70 to 75% chance of being a hit.   This shows very little difference between ground balls and fly balls. There is a huge difference with line drives, a three times better chance for a hit.   This is why all baseball and fastpitch softball hitters need to learn correctly how to hit more line drives.  These stats are the same for High School, College and Major Leagues.


To hit line drives your bat needs to be going straight through the middle of the ball.   The path the bat takes getting to the hitting zone determines how big of an area a hitter has to hit line drives.   Most good hitters time the ball to their front foot.  What I have seen is hitters that are swinging mainly with their arms have only about a six inch area to hit line drives.   The reason is their bat gets to the hitting zone with an out to in path.  Because of the weakened path they feel the need for more force and try to add this by tightening their grip and use fast hands.  To pull the bat faster the hitter will rotate, causing them to come out of their tilt, the hands will then go down to the ball and start to roll over just before impact, causing the bat to also roll over and pulling it out of the hitting zone way too quickly.   All of this is happening as the player is trying to hit the ball at their front foot.  This makes hitting line drives very difficult with so much going on.   Many hitters think they will add more power with fast hands but this actually takes force out of the bat, resulting in weaker and less consistent contact.


My students and their parents have seen the very best hitters hitters use their body (kris Bryant, Mike Trout, Ken Griffey Jr, etc.) can have up to a three foot area in the hitting zone to hit line drives much more often.   When using your body properly, there is no need to use fast hands because you will feel so much more force. The bat is coming forward with the body and can now go at least two feet past your front foot through the ball.   The more a hitter uses their body the larger the zone to hit line drives.   Since line drives give you a three times better chance of getting a hit wouldn't you want to have a full three foot area in your hitting zone to achieve this rather than just the six inch area like most hitters.   Using your body properly, instead of fast hands, makes hitting line drives so much easier.

Below is one of my students that was ahead of the ball but because he was using his body his hitting zone for line drives was much bigger. The result was a line drive that hit at the bottom of the fence for a double.  He is a Freshman and the best hitter on his team because he has such a large hitting zone.  If he was twisting his hips, swinging down, using fast hands and staying back he would have a much smaller hitting zone for line drives like 99% of hitters.  He would, like most hitters, have pulled this pitch foul, hit a weak grounder, popped it up or totally missed the ball.

When hitters learn to use their body to bring the bat forward, instead of the arms, they experience an amazing difference in how hard they hit the ball and the increased consistency of hitting line drives.   Students and parents tell me it is a night and day difference between the two swings.  My baseball and fastpitch softball students are hitting the ball so much harder, consistently and it even sounds different coming off the bat because the ball is hit more solid.   I have many people tell me other parents want to know what bat they are using because they are hitting the ball so much harder than anyone else and look so effortless.  They tell them its the swing not the bat.


Learn to use your body correctly and hit more line drives consistently.   This helps players to have a much more successful career and not quit at a young age like so many players are doing now.

If you would like to learn how to hit more line drives by swinging with your body and become a hitter with more power and a higher batting average call Mike Sedberry at 304-722-6393 for more information.  Click on our batting and pitching testimonials for baseball and softball on the left.  We are having amazing results with our students.


Categories: Baseball hitting, Fastpitch softball hitting

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