Baseball Batting help

[mark1j]

My son plays middle school baseball. Almost all of his hits are foul balls. When he does make good contact it is a good hit. What can we do to help with this. He has a good hard swing but its always foul balls.

[Bh_liberty]

Need a lot more info to help answer that question. Is he right or left handed? Which side do his foul balls go to?


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[mark1j]

Right handed. Some go to the right side and others will go up and behind.

[Bh_liberty]

Without seeing him bat And going solely off that information. A foul ball Up and behind he’s barely catching the bottom of the ball. So he needs to stop swinging for the home run and try to hit the ball on the ground. We teach our kids to try hit the top half of the ball and not try to get under it. Ground balls and line drives are way better than fly balls. Foul balls to the right side he’s just a touch behind so you might try either a lighter bat or scooting back in the betters box just a hair. This will give you a place to start with him.


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[mark1j]

Thanks. That info gives me a place to start. He is probably the best hitter on the team (I'm biased) but he will go through several foul balls before he connects.

[ctom87]

Sounds like his bat isn't spending a lot of time in the hitting plane. Albert Pujols is one of the best at this. I will see if I can find some videos that explain what i am thinking.

[jaker_cc]

My son plays middle school baseball. Almost all of his hits are foul balls. When he does make good contact it is a good hit. What can we do to help with this. He has a good hard swing but its always foul balls.

Ok…. Ok. I’m glad you are trying to help your son. That’s great. But as a baseball guy, reading this paragraph is painful. Foul balls aren’t hits, hits aren’t foul balls. Contact is good, but the direction of the ball is important. His swing doesn’t need to be hard, it needs to be smooth. He also needs to keep the head of the bat in the zone as long as possible. Swinging hard with no knowledge of how is most likely resulting in him pulling his front shoulder out away from the plate and/or dropping the bat head resulting in foul balls on the first base side for a righty. The majority of kids pull their shoulder out and drag the bat, instead of staying inside and throwing the head of the bat at the ball.

From reading this it doesn’t sound like you are a baseball person, not a shot at you at all. Find your kid a hitting coach in the area and let them teach him how to hit.

[jaker_cc]

Right handed. Some go to the right side and others will go up and behind.

Up and behind isn’t always bad. You can take a great cut at the ball and just miss it. I’m more interested in why he’s fouling a bunch of balls off to the right side. Could be that he’s late, could be that he’s casting, could be a ton of things. I’d like to see a video of him taking about a minutes worth of bp. That would help a ton

[ctom87]

Imagine a 3D box, we can call it the strike zone... but basically if you can get the head of your bat parallel to the ground and keep it parallel as long as possible, that give you the greatest chance of making good contact. If the head of the bat is only parallel for a short time, then obviously there isn't as much of a chance to make good contact.

https://youtu.be/bcw45s0n7tc

^This guy shows a lot of pros that are doing what I was trying to say. Elbow tucks into ribs, hands go first, hips fire (this is where power comes from), bat head accelerates.

But when I was playing I was in the business of missing bat heads Jaker definitely sounds like he knows what he's talking about and sounds like he is explaining very well what I attempted to.

[mark1j]

I'm definitely not a baseball person and not sure how to help. I actually hated it and could not stand to watch it until my kids started playing and now I enjoy it and wish I had played when younger. Lots of good information given. I really appreciate the feedback.

[AndyMane]

live BP and lots of it. Gotta put in work. Maybe post a video or two of his swing, its really hard to diagnose without seeing what he is doing.

[steve corn]

My son had the same problem for a while. I had him start his step to swing when the pitcher released the ball but watch the pitch and then decide to swing or not based on where the pitch was, ball or strike. This helped him.

[Kgert]

This was taught to me by an ex pro. If he’s right handed have him start taking slow bp only holding the bat with his right hand. Swings are normal and right palm must finish up thru the swing. Over and over till line drives start occurring. You will also build strength that way. Worked brilliantly on my two kids. They don’t like it though cause you won’t hit the ball super hard but does it’s job with form. Keep that head down on that ball thru the swing. Hope it works for you.

Edited to also say don’t grind the kid out with this. Once swings start showing signs of good line drives and not pop ups, fouls, or chips into the ground, bring two hands on the bat and give a few bp swings that way too. Then when it starts again consistently bring him back to this drill. My kids would realize this form while batting during the game and correct in the box. Strike one foul, strike two foul, adjust, line drive left or right center. Takes a lot of time in bp and the kids gotta like it. This drill works best where kid can see it on a field not in a cage. But once they get it cage is fine. Good luck!

[Cull hunter]

Find a hitting coach and don’t ask on this forum.

[aggie2000tx]

Find a hitting coach. It is money well spent if he is wanting to get better.

Hitting balls off a tee can tell you a lot. Tee work is important at all levels of the game.