Baseball Tips On Hitting: Are You Getting Jammed Inside Too Often?

If you feel that too many pitchers are "getting in your kitchen" too often and jamming you inside, there may be several reasons why. We'll look at some possible solutions, starting with the easiest fixes first.

 1) Make sure you are not standing too close to the plate and make sure you don't have a bat that's too heavy or too long. Remember, it's always better to err on the side of a bat being too light but never err on the side of having a bat that's too heavy. I warned you...we always look for the easiest fixes first and if we didn't luck out that quickly, let's go a little deeper and get more involved.

2) Keep your hands inside the path of the baseball. Keeping your hands inside the baseball is one of the more important baseball tips on hitting. Getting your hands out too far away from the body will encourage you to get "jammed" in on your fists and the handle of the bat.

3) Make sure you are not straightening out your front arm too quickly. This will cause you to push your hands outside and create a slightly longer route to the baseball. "Always take the shortest route to granny's house."

4) Use more "hands" when swinging and less arms. A very common baseball hitting problem with youngsters and some older players who feel they need to "muscle" the ball to hit it hard. It actually slows up the baseball swing and will increase the chance of being jammed on the pitch. One of the more important baseball tips on hitting is that the hands are the main event and not the arms. There is no substitute for having quick hands. With all due respect, the baseball hitters with the quicker hands hit the ball the hardest, not the baseball hitters with the stronger arms.

5) Keep the back of your bottom hand facing the pitcher when starting your swing. You will be quicker and much more direct to the ball and have a better chance of getting the good part of the bat on the ball. Only at contact should one palm be facing up and the other palm facing down. Players have heard the two words "level swing" hollered out hundreds and hundreds of times. They try so hard to level out their swing and level it out at the very beginning of their swing. This is totally wrong. The very first part of the baseball swing is not level at all. It is a downward movement! 

The only possible way to achieve this is to have the front elbow pointing downward at the start of the swing and the back of the bottom hand facing the pitcher at the start of the swing and not facing the sky!

If you learn only these two things we mentioned about the back of the bottom hand facing the pitcher and the front elbow pointing downward, it will improve your baseball hitting immediately! You simply cannot be direct to the ball without doing both those things. They are two of the main reasons you will see a 95 M.P.H. fastball hit over the fence instead of making it to the catcher's mitt for a strike!