How to Prevent Strikeouts: Baseball Hitting Tips From a Former Major League Baseball Player

Nothing is more frustrating for young baseball players and their parents than strikeouts, especially if it is a recurring event. Strikeouts can lead to very depressed players and upset coaches and parents. Obviously, continual strikeouts cause athletes to lose confidence, self-esteem, and generally their desire to play fully. To do?

First, explain to the ballplayers that hitting a baseball is one of the hardest things to do in sports and that it takes good fundamentals, practice, and patience. Further explain that there are very few children who have the natural movements and hand-eye coordination necessary to be able to hit a ball automatically. This explanation is important to keep players from getting too frustrated and depressed and to give them the message that they have control over the situation if they are willing to work.

Next, the results of the batter’s at-bats should be analyzed. Sometimes it’s just a matter of the hitter getting a little more aggressive in hitting so he’s not always behind in the count. Non-aggressive hitters find themselves hitting two strikes far too often. If that’s not the problem, check the results of the player’s swings and errors. Are they under the ball (most common), on the ball, early or late? This will lead to what needs to be done.

The following are possible solutions for each of these situations:

1. When batters continually swing at the end of the pitch, challenge them with a higher speed that approximates game speeds. Many hitters will make the necessary adjustments on their own as they begin to see faster speeds and get their eyes used to seeing faster pitches.

2. Similar advice: When hitters are always early, they have to face much slower pitches to learn to wait on the ball.

3. When hitters are under the ball, they need to shorten their swing. This means keeping your swing path more direct by keeping the barrel of the bat above the ball on the approach to the ball. This can be done in a number of ways, including the following exercises.

Hitting Drill: Using two batting tees, place the tees one foot apart and in line with each other. Place a ball on both tees with the ball closer to the catcher about one ball width lower than the ball in front. Hitters should strive to hit the ball closest to the pitcher while missing the back ball.

Hitting Drill: In the same vein as the previous drill, set the height of the batting tee slightly above the rear hip and position the tee below the batter’s hands in his stance. Throw balls at the batter and have them go over the tee en route to contact. This will help hitters develop a more direct swing path and should lead to more consistent contact.

4. When hitters are on the ball, they should work on knee high pitches until they can begin to hit line drives at this pitch location. This will help them get used to driving their hands to the back of the ball while using their hips and legs in the correct way.

It’s important to note that habits are hard to change and there are times when I use “opposite drills” to change players’ habits. These drills are wildly different than what the player is doing and are often not the fundamentally sound swing either, but they are the only way the hitter can break his initial bad habit. The low hitting drills in #3 above could be considered opposite drills compared to what actually happens with a big swing. The goal is to finally find yourself in the middle with the right swing and this is one way to do it.

Finally, a great way to prevent strikeouts and promote more consistent contact is with lead arm work. The batter’s lead arm (hand) is the one carrying the bat to the ball, so swinging the bat with just the lead arm will help contact. This drill will force the hitter to use the lead arm and strengthen the front side, which is often the hitter’s weaker arm.