Drills to Improve Staying Closed When Hitting

 The Importance of Staying Closed When Hitting

Many hitters are taught to take their lead arm or front arm toward the ball to swing. They are told that this will supply the power in the swing. However, there is one significant flaw that happens when hitters are lead arm dominant. That problem is that the hitter becomes pull-happy and the front shoulder flies open. This causes a hitter to rush his whole body because he is trying to compensate for improper sequencing. Additionally, the hitter who is pull-happy has issues with outside pitches because he is pulling off too soon. This causes him to either roll over his swing to his pull side or weakly hit balls to the opposite field. The best hitters stay closed, are properly sequenced, and hit the pitch where it is thrown, which ultimately makes them fearsome to the opponent. 

If you look at the gifs below you will see one common theme, each hitter is staying closed and in proper sequence with their swing. Following each gif, I will go over the hitting sequence of top hitters throughout the history of baseball. One thing to notice is how each hitter uses his legs and lower half. The start of the swing is linear in nature but rotational in action. 

(Hank Aaron)

(Mickey Mantle)

(Barry Bonds)

Each of these all-time hitters has different capabilities and skills. With that being said, the sequence of their swings is similar, as is for all top hitters. When the pitch is delivered by the pitcher, the hands of the hitter go back, pointing the knob of the bat to the catcher. As the hitter gets to front foot strike pressure is built up from his front foot all the way to his hands. His hands are back and ready to be delivered to the pitch, but the hitter needs his hips/pelvis to initiate the start of that movement. The power source of the swing is the lower half. Without the rotational movement of the hips/pelvis, the hitter's bigger muscles will not be used efficiently. When the hitter allows his lower half of the body to initiate the wallop in the swing, it frees up the force of the bigger muscles to supply the power. The fine skill of the hitter is what comes next with the hands. The hitter delivers the knob of the bat in line with the ball, which leads the barrel to the middle inside of the pitch in order to stay "inside" of the baseball. When the hitter hits the middle inside of the baseball, there will be a slight upswing allowing the hitter to hit line drives. 

Overall it takes plenty of practice to create muscle memory to hit consistently. Once a hitter can get the proper sequence of the swing down, consistent success will follow. The main key to success for any hitter is to understand how his body feels when he is hitting well. This will give the hitter a foundation to make adjustments based on the pitcher's plan of attack, and get him out of a slump. In essence, if a hitter is properly sequenced, he will stay closed which will allow him to hit any pitch to any field.