Baseball Mechanics | Teen Ink

Baseball Mechanics

February 2, 2017
By bolt1324 BRONZE, Anchorage, Alaska
bolt1324 BRONZE, Anchorage, Alaska
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

The crack of the bat, the smell of popcorn, and cooking hotdogs--these are the things that define America’s pastime. Baseball - America’s game with its spectacular catches, hard hits, and speedy base running is for sure a great pastime.

 

Hitting the baseball is one of the hardest things to do in sports. First, you set your feet in a strong position, place your feet shoulder width apart, and your weight settling on your back foot. To be able to hit the inside pitch don’t crowd the plate to do this extend your bat as far out as you can, you should just be able to touch the the other side of home plate. To ensure power into your swing you have to use your hips, to use your hips you first have to keep your weight on your back foot, and be ready to transfer that weight to your front foot to the bat to the ball. When you transfer that weight you have to rotate your hips counter clockwise and pivot your back foot. Once you have the foot work down you have to learn to swing this part is probably the hardest part of hitting. That is because it takes a tremendous amount of hand eye coordination as well as great timing. While swinging you want to concentrate on watching the bat hit the ball. If you put this all together with practice and a lot of time spent you will get the hang of it and get better and better.


Fielding a hard hit ball is always challenging, but if you make sure to do a few simple things it will be a lot easier. First thing is a good foot placement, and a good ready position. To field a ball properly you have to have your legs bent and a little wider than your shoulders. Also, be sure to keep your butt down as well as your glove hand if you don’t the ball will go right under your glove and through your legs. When you are approaching a ball ready to field it be sure to have the opposite leg of your throwing arm a little bit staggered forwards, by doing this you are setting yourself up to be able to get up and ready to throw a lot faster. So now you have the basics of fielding a ball you have to know what to do with it once you field it. There are a few things you might have to do with the ball once you get it, one is you might need to hold a runner hit a cut off or maybe just throw it to first base. If you use your head and apply all these tips combined with a little athleticism you will notice a large increase in the quality of your fielding. 


Though it may seem simple running the bases takes lots of thought and skill. First of all you can’t run all over the infield you have to stay in the base path which is like a three to four foot imaginary spot you are supposed to run in. On top of that if people are in your way you can't just plow them over. Another thing is tagging up this comes into effect when a ball is in the air and is probably going to get caught you have to wait to run until after the ball is caught even if you already scored the other team only has to tag the base you were at with the ball in hand and you are out. Crazy enough even where you feet go when running the bases is important generally when running you want to put your left foot on the inside corner of the base,this allows you to spring off the base in a better way than just running by and tagging it would. Even when and where you run to is not up to you you have a special coach just for that and you have to listen to him no matter what. Even when what they tell you to do doesn’t seem like a great idea you still gotta do it. So remember foot placement base coaches and tagging up and you’ll be of the the races


Baseball a game of technique, skill, and athletics. Hitting properly enforces a good stance hips and keeping your head down to watch the ball hit the bat. Fielding requires  good ready position butt and glove down left foot forward and let it rip. Base running includes foot placement tagging up base path and base coaches right? So just like a good fastball keeps you on your toes apply this knowledge to you game and the pro’s are the limit I guess.



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