A common mistake that many baseball/softball players make during my private baseball/softball instruction is that they “roll over” on the ball. This means that when a player is swinging, his/her top hand (left hand for righties and right hand for lefties) rolls over too early on his/her swing. This causes the ball to be a weak ground ball, usually hitting right in front of home plate.
A few tips to help avoid this:
- Hit inside the ball (meaning the batter should pull his/her hands and knob more towards the pitcher and not towards 1st base for righties, and 3rd base for lefties)
- Make sure that the batters arms don’t get extended away from his/her body (don’t want to hit around the ball)
- When the batter is making contact with the ball, remember that the punching part of one’s hand is facing the pitcher
The Frisbee baseball/softball drill helps to avoid this. My video below with help explain how to do the Frisbee batting drill properly.
This drill helps the batter:
- Practice extension on his/her swing (short to the ball, and long through the ball)
- Works on keeping the batters head down during the swing (if the batters eyes look up towards where they think the ball will be going, they will get underneath the ball and won’t make solid contact)
- Get into the habit of staying balanced throughout the swing (and not falling away from the plate)