Tips on How to Hit a Home Run

In many ways baseball is a lot like Zen Buddhism. This is especially true when a player picks up the bat and walks up to the batter’s box to face the opposing pitcher. Trying to hit a home run is counter-productive. The best results occur when the player follows good swinging technique and tries to drive the ball into the outfield. The home runs will come, but good hitting skills are more important.

Instructions

1. Learn how to swing. This is one of the most important skills that you need to learn. A good, steady, level swing will develop with practice.

2. Keep your eye on the ball. This is another basic fundamental that is all so important to the development of a young hitter, for to be a good hitter you must have a keen eye.

3. Develop a power swing. Not every successful player needs to do this, but most who play the game will be able to produce a strong swing that will generate home runs from time to time. Don’t forget the first two steps as you continue with the game of baseball. One should keep in mind that a stronger swing will naturally develop as time goes on.

4. Wait for a good pitch to hit. Some pitches are more easily knocked out of the park than others. Of course, if you are up against a very talented pitcher these pitches may be very infrequent. One might have to settle for just getting on base.

5. Don’t try to hit a home run. A batter, even someone that has developed a powerful swing, is better off if he tries to drive the ball into the outfield instead of over the fence. The home runs will come with time, but “trying to hit a home run” is usually counter-productive. Hank Aaron was this kind of hitter.

Tips & Warnings

• There are great players who rarely hit home runs. This includes pitchers of course, but also the infield positions of second base and shortstop are often fielded by players who excel in fielding and baserunning but lack the power to hit a home run. They may even have a high batting average and on base percentage, but they have a difficult time hitting the ball out of the park.

• You do not have to hit the ball out of the park to get a home run. An inside-the-park home run is usually limited to the fleet of foot, but it can be one of the most exciting events in baseball.

• There are exceptions to the rule and swinging for the fences is no exception. Daryl Strawberry and Harmon Kilibrew are two successful major-league players, who swang with a decisive upper-cut and racked up an impressive number of home runs with their unusual batting technique. They also struck out a lot.