Baseball - coming To Hitting - The Stance

One of the toughest things in the world to do is to hit a round baseball coming at you at 95 miles per hour with a round bat, squarely enough so that you can send it off into the field ahead of you in such a manner that it goes far enough that you can get on base. Some of the greatest sports players from other mediums have said that they'd rather do whatever else than try to hit a baseball. Some of these population are some of the strongest and most mighty players in their respective sports, together with football tackles who have to deal with 300 pound bodies day in and day out.

So why is it that hitting is so difficult and what exactly is a pro ball player's arrival to hitting? To understand the difficult part, just try it yourself. To understand the approach, keep reading.

Baseball

A pro baseball player, at least if he is one of the best ones, develops what is called an arrival to hitting. Not everyone's arrival is the same, for if it was everybody would hit the same. But what is constant is that every player who develops an approach, sticks to it religiously. That is how he develops consistency.

The first part of the arrival is the stance that the player takes when he is up at the plate. There are basically two stances, open and closed. An open stance is when the batter stands up to the plate with the front of his body roughly facing the pitcher. In other words his body is exposed, or open to the pitcher. A finished stance is when the batter stands at the plate and his body is at a 90 degree or even smaller angle to the opposing pitcher. The benefit of an open stance is that you can swing the bat quicker after the ball is released since you are roughly in a swing position to start with. The disadvantage of an open stance is that on inside pitches you are more likely to pull the ball foul. The benefit of a finished stance is that you can originate more power when hitting the ball because the bat is being swung farther. Also, a finished stance makes you wait on the ball more and keeps you from committing too soon. Depending on the player's individual strengths and weaknesses, a single stance will be chosen.

Aside from the approach, there's how far up the bat a batter will hold it. Some batters who prefer to make caress over hitting home runs will choke up on the bat. This gives them more control. The stronger men in the game will hold the bat roughly all the way down at the end of it by the knob. This allows them to originate more power when they swing. Your typical power hitter will hold the bat this way.

In the next installment of our arrival to hitting two part series we'll focus on how a batter adjusts during an at bat depending on the count, the situation and the pitcher he is up against.

Baseball - coming To Hitting - The Stance

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