Whether playing competitively or just looking for some fun, everyone should know how to play the game of America's pastime. Baseball can be a great night out with friends and family, or it can be a solid workout. However you play, it is important to know the basics before you go out and play.
1. Equipment
All you need to start crushing baseballs is the proper size bat and a baseball. If you go to your local batting cages, they will provide you with everything you need. Choosing the correct size bat depends mainly on your height. Once you have picked out the best bat for yourself, you are ready to hit.
2. Stance & Grip
The most important part of a baseball swung is the batter's stance. Any great hitter will tell you, it doesn't matter how good of a player you are, if you do not have a good stance, you have no chance against good pitching. The basics of getting into a good stance is being balanced. Start off by setting your feet about shoulder width apart, and increase from there until you feel comfortable. Next, you put weight into your legs by bending at the knees, and sinking into your hips. Now you should be in a nice, comfortable stance ready to hit, but first, make sure you are holding the bat properly. If you bat from the right side, your left hand goes on the bottom and right hand right on top (see top pic). If you bat from the left side, your right hand goes on the bottom and left hand on top (see bottom pic).
3. Swinging the Bat
Now that you are in a comfortable and powerful stance, it is time to crush some baseballs. Instead of having the "swing" mindset, think more about just throwing the hands. When you throw your hands at the ball, your bat will follow and will help you make more contact. You always want to try and make contact out in front of your body around your front foot. A helpful tip that I always use is, "Aim small, miss small". Aim for a small part of the ball, throw your hands at it, and more often than not, the ball will be crushed.
Playing baseball is a part of America's pastime that should be enjoyed by everyone. Since it began, the game has increased greatly as it is now played worldwide by billions of people. There are countless baseball and softball leagues from all ages available to join and batting cages are never more than a few miles away. Once you begin to crush baseballs, I guarantee you will become addicted and fall in love. Being able to crush a baseball is an unexplainable feeling that I hope everyone gets to experience some day. Now get out there and crush!
Baseball is a popular sport that I’ve always wanted to play for fun with my friends or family. The baseball scene from the movie Twilight caught my attention. It seemed so fun and I want the bond that the Collins family had when playing baseball. After reading this blog, I am well aware on how to crush a ball. Im not saying I’ll get it on my first try but I feel confident enough to hit a few balls by the end of the day. You provided good organization, pictures, and clarity. I like how you referred to your pictures when explaining the process in your third paragraph. Providing tips and specific details made your description strong. However, the introduction can be reworded or backed up with history. In your last sentence, you stated that it Is important to know the basics but only explained how to hit the ball. Maybe you should include the purpose of the game, the purpose of hitting the bat, and the positions(Or atleast the position you’re explaining). Other than that, you did a great job in teaching how to crush baseballs. You show a lot of passion for this sport; I can tell you are a great baseball player. You are very enthusiastic, encouraging, and motivating when it comes to baseball.
ReplyDeleteDixie, thank you for your feedback. Your suggestions make sense, however, my blog is only to inform the audience on how to hit a baseball, not how to play the whole sport. In hitting, there is only one position, the batter. Even though the other positions on the field are important to the game, they are irrelevant when it comes to hitting. The purpose of hitting is to hit the ball hard, which is why I am posting how to CRUSH baseballs and not how to bunt, or softly tap baseballs.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you set the reader up to get excited. By reminding us that baseball is America's sport, we are given a reason to enjoy it. I would warn though, that your statistic at the end of "billions" of people in the world playing baseball is probably inaccurate. Dubious as well was your declaration that "more times than not, the ball will be crushed," if the directions are followed correctly. Perhaps this is true in a batter's cage, but you never mentioned whether you were talking about going to the batter's cage or facing a real pitcher. As we all know from watching baseball, usually the ball is not crushed.
ReplyDeleteYour description of how to get into a stance and the concept of "throwing your hands" at a small part of the ball were very descriptive and got me pumped. I hope I get to go to the batter's cage someday. Great choice of images.
It would take a supercomputer to properly determine the variables in physics involved in throwing a pitch. axial sports
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