While you may never hit the ball as far as Babe Ruth, who holds the record for a 575-foot home run in 1921 in Detroit, you can improve your hitting enough to hit the ball farther. Bill Willis, author of "How to Hit Home Runs," says mathematical equations about energy prove that velocity or speed are more important than mass or weight in producing energy. Using a heavier bat will help you drive the ball, but speeding up your swing will do even more. You'll need additional strength to use a heavier bat and specific exercises to increase your bat's speed.
Increase Your Strength
Step 1
Lift free weights or weight machines to build all your muscles from your ankles to your legs, hips, torso and arms and wrists.
Step 2
Do the plank exercise, which is a twisting crunch exercise, and the bridge exercise to strengthen your core muscles. The Plum Boro Athletic Association trains its players to develop their core muscles with these exercises to help transfer speed and momentum from the legs and torso to the arms and upper body.
Step 3
Squeeze a tennis ball to strengthen your hands. Your grip on the bat and your ability to withstand the impact of the ball on the bat will improve your hitting.
Increase Your Bat Speed
Step 1
Jump rope, jump over cones or onto and off a step-up bench. Jumping is one form of plyometric exercise, used by athletes to increase muscle power and muscle explosiveness.
Step 2
Toss a weighted medicine ball. This exercise also uses plyometric principles to stretch your muscles and then contract them.
Step 3
Swing bats of different weights two times a week. Mike Macenko, a slow pitch softball hall of famer, recommends 10 to 12 swings for each bat for six sets, alternating between a bat 8 ounces lighter than your normal bat and a bat 8 ounces heavier than your normal bat and then swinging your normal bat for an additional set.
Tips and Warnings
- Another advantage of quick bat speed is that you'll be able to wait longer to see the ball.
- When using jumping to increase your muscle speed, always begin from ground level and jump onto and off of a padded surface. Try to land gently with a rocking foot motion, from toe to heel, to spread the impact of landing over a larger area. Allow your body to absorb the impact by keeping your knees bent forward with no side-to-side motion.
Things You'll Need
- Free weights or weight machines
- Medicine ball
References
- Baseball Almanac: Guiness Book of Baseball World Records
- Worsley School: How to Hit Homes Runs
- Plum Boro Athletic Association: Train the Core
- American Council on Exercise: Fit Facts -- Plyometrics: Controlled Impact/Maximum Power
- American College of Sports Medicine; Selecting and Effectively Using Medicine Balls; 2008
- Mike Macenko: Increasing Your Bat Speed
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