How to Swing a Baseball Bat

Part of the Video Series Baseball for Beginners

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Home runs are in your baseball future. Learn how to swing a baseball bat depending on where the pitch is thrown, in this free video.

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How to Swing a Baseball Bat
The next thing we are going to talk about is proper swing technique. And so we get in our stance. Legs shoulder width apart, our hands with our knuckles lined up slightly behind our right ear. And the first thing that is going to happen in your swing is you’re going to shift your hips back as the pitcher starts his motion. So the pitcher is going to be on a mound, he's going to do his wind up and he gets about right here that will be about the time that you are in your stance and you’re getting right here. The first movement is back with your back leg and then as he progresses toward the plate and progresses with his motion and his windup and has the ball about ready to be released, your next move is going to be from back and you’re going to stride, it’s what we call a stride. Lift up this foot and you put it right back down. A lot of coaches or teachers will say they are checking the water or something to that affect because you don’t want to make it a real strong move you want to move back slowly and then just kind of tap with your front foot and you still have a lot of your weight back. So we start here, we move back is our first movement, we tap or check the water a real tentative step and then right here is when we are going to start to begin our swing. And so the first thing that happens is this elbow comes in, it brings our hands, our back leg starts to turn and we follow that with our eyes on the ball the whole time. Take the barrel of the bat to the baseball, make contact and then finish our swing as balanced as we can. We want to stay as upright and avoid a follow through swing like this and you want to avoid a follow through swing falling back. Balance is very important when you are hitting. Probably the most important thing are balance and timing. And so you move back, we have our stride, by this time the ball has been released from his hand, we move our elbow down, our elbow starts our hands, we use our hips, turn our back foot, make contact and then finish our swing.

About the Expert

Expert: Ben Graham was an outstanding high school and collegiate baseball player where he won all-conference honors. Read More