How to Be a Switch Hitter

Switch hitting is one of the biggest advantages a batter can have, particularly when he has advanced up the ladder to baseball's top levels. Chipper Jones, Mickey Mantle, Eddie Murray and Pete Rose represent a cross-section of some of the best switch hitters in Major League Baseball history. The common misconception is that switch hitters choose to bat right-handed against left-handed pitchers and vice-versa because they can't hit the curve ball. While they may do better when facing a fastball, all top-level switch hitters have learned how to hit the breaking pitch. Stopping a switch hitter is a very difficult assignment for a pitcher and the added angst may lead to more mistake pitches that the hitter can exploit. If this sounds like an intriguing skill, the following tips will teach you how to be a switch hitter.

Difficulty: Challenging

Instructions

1. Eliminate all holes from your swing on your natural side. Choose to build up your strength rather than try to hide your weakness. Understanding what makes you a good hitter from your natural side of the plate will help you become a productive hitter from the other side. Work on timing and understanding how the pitcher wants to work you and set you up. Bring a strong mental approach into the box and you will become a solid or expert hitter from your natural side.

2. When a right-handed hitter starts switch-hitting, he has to build his swing from scratch in batting practice every day. Moving to the left-handed side of the batter's box does present the switch-hitter with one immediate advantage. His dominant right hand becomes the lead hand on his swing. This means the batter should have excellent quickness at the plate and should be able to drive the ball for power right away when he gets a pitch he knows he likes. For example, on a low inside pitch the hitter should not have a problem dropping his hands into the hitting zone and using his lead arm to propel the bat with quickness through the hitting zone. The beginning switch hitter may be surprised to see the ball fly toward the right field power alley or foul pole with speed, velocity and distance.

3. Work on hitting all pitches and building strength and dexterity with your opposite arm. You have proven right away that you can handle an inside pitch with power. That pitch was in your power zone. What about the pitch over the outside corner? That pitch requires strength, dexterity and the quick decision to take that pitch to the opposite field. The beginning switch hitter will likely hit a weak grounder on that pitch, but can learn to punch that ball on a line to the opposite field.

4. The switch hitter has to understand that he will still see the breaking ball. The big advantage is that the ball will break towards him instead of away from him. Those pitches are not necessarily easy to hit, but when those pitches break over the middle of the plate or down and in they are mistakes that can be handled. Don't let those mistakes go. Take advantage of them and handle them aggressively.

5. Work on hitting from your opposite side every day and couple that work against live pitching with study in the video room. Look at your technique. You should not want to have your left-handed swing mirror your right-handed swing. As a matter of fact, a switch-hitter often looks like two different hitters. That is fine and you will learn more about hitting than any other hitter and that will give you and your team an advantage.

Tips & Warnings

• Realize that switch-hitting will only come naturally if you have a parent that starts you off as a switch hitter very early in your baseball career, perhaps before the age of 10. This is unusual. Switch-hitters are made and not born and it takes excessive practice and long hours of video study to excel as a switch hitter.

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