How to Hit a Baseball or Softball Farther

Hitting a baseball or softball farther can improve your slugging percentage.

Hitting the ball farther means increasing your bat speed, because bat speed determines how far the ball will travel. When you swing the bat faster, you hit the ball harder and faster, causing it to travel farther. To hit the ball faster, you must not only practice swinging, but build muscle as well. Hitting the ball farther means more home runs, doubles and triples, which increase the amount of runs you bat in.

Things You'll Need

• Weights

Instructions

1. Train with light weights. Focus on your upper body. When you swing a bat, you use your chest, triceps, shoulders and upper back, so focus on strengthening these areas.

2. Strengthen your core and legs to give yourself a stable base. Some of the exercises you can do to strengthen these areas include lunges and squats.

3. Use a heavier bat during practice to strengthen your muscles. Find the bat weight you can handle. While a heavier bat will make you hit the ball farther, if you cannot swing it quickly, you won't hit the ball farther. Pick the heaviest bat you can swing comfortably. Usually this is a couple of ounces more than your normal bat.

References

• The Pitching Academy: How to Improve Bat Speed
• BodyBuilding.com: Build Incredible Speed for Baseball and Softball; Bob Alejo
• YouTube: How Do You Hit the Baseball Further?; Paul Reddick; June 3, 2010

Resources

• Read this Article in Spanish