1. Blink of an Eye
Baseball is a slow game that happens in an instant. The act of hitting a baseball, or missing it for that matter, is anything but slow. A ninety-five mile an hour pitch takes four tenths of a second to reach the batter and the contact of bat and ball lasts for a thousandth of a second. Factor in that a batter only has three or two tenths of a second to react to the thrown pitch and you see why people describe hitting a baseball as the hardest thing to do in all of sports.
2. Pitch Recognition
The skill of recognizing a pitch is part practice, part homework and part educated guessing. The practice part is just taking hour and hours of batting in the batting cage to improve timing and eye-hand coordination. The homework part is knowing what the opposing pitcher's strengths, weaknesses and tendencies are in the game. Most pitchers have two or three pitches they like to use and there are certain situations when they use each of them. Finally the batter tries to recognize what pitch is coming to the plate by the spin, pitcher motion and movement on the baseball.
3. Swing Mechanics
Maximizing bat speed through the hitting zone while maintaining the most bat control is the fine line baseball hitters walk at the plate. When starting a swing the batter needs to stay back on the pitch and put the weight on the back foot. He should raise the bat off the shoulder and start to step on the front foot. As this happens, the weight is still on the back foot. The batter will bring the front shoulder forward while at the same time making sure the shoulder stays closed. As the batter begins the swing, the hips rotate through the hitting zone. A split second after the hips rotate, the bat follows. The batter must remember to keep his head down and the weight back and balanced.
4. Batting Stance
There are no hard and fast rules about the batting stance when attempting to hit a baseball. The batting stance is more about feeling comfortable the plate. However, the one constant is where the bat makes contact with the baseball. If you watch the great hitters their stances may differ but they make contact with baseball at roughly the same point ovre the plate and and the same place on the bat.
5. Concentration
When hitting a baseball a player must have a one-track mind. He must think only of the baseball coming to the plate. The hitter cannot think about the stance, the game situation or the fight he had with their spouse last night.
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