Tempo, Balance, and Body Control: The Keys to Hitting
By Joe Shovald, Rhino Wisconsin Hitting Coordinator
“Balance is the first lesson I should teach a hitter.”
-Max Carey, HOF Outfielder (1910-1929)
Among all the aspects of swing mechanics, balance is something that is generally mentioned by all coaches and hitting instructors. Clearly, hitting a baseball is an athletic movement and being balanced and having good body control will give hitters the best chance to be successful. Balance and body control throughout is essential. From pre- pitch movements, to stride, to post stride, at point of contact and somewhat after contact.
Although balance is mentioned to all hitters, the process and approach to teaching and understanding it may not always be clear. As the Hitting Coordinator at Rhino Baseball WI, I assume the responsibility of effectively delivering information. I believe the amount of information I know is only relevant if I have the ability to get our players to understand it. The knowledge and experience of our staff at Rhino WI is deep, but most importantly, we work hard to deliver information clearly. We talk to our players daily about having purpose and being aware of intent. As coaches, we need to demonstrate purpose and intent in our teaching. Balance and body control is the base of what we teach our hitters to understand.
Our first step in teaching balance and body control is getting hitters to feel balanced and relaxed in their pre-pitch movements. More specifically, pre-stride. That set up position is crucial for hitters to feel relaxed. It’s the moment of clarity that a hitter needs to feel 100% committed to their approach. Being distracted by simply not feeling right limits confidence. Small, smooth movements in the set up and load phase begin to create tempo and start syncing the hitter’s movements to the pitcher movements. We like to shy away from big, quick movements and a load with a lot of movement away from the pitcher. By no means do we force kids into one specific mold, but slowing down and simplifying pre-pitch movements tends to increase body awareness.
Achieving good balance post-stride is generally a byproduct of having great tempo. Tempo controls the body, allowing weight to be forced into a firm front leg keeping weight centered during rotation. Hitters that display great tempo on a consistent basis are hitters that understand body control, specifically their feet. The coordination between a hitters eyes and feet is something we won’t overlook. As the eyes pick up a timing mechanism, the lower body begins. It’s nearly impossible to be successful without being able to get on time. We like to talk about slowing the lower body down and starting early enough to create body awareness. We would like our hitters to create good tempo and have constant flow throughout their swing. Regardless of a hitter’s style, tempo that creates balance and body control should build consistency along with the ability to adjust when timing isn’t perfect.
Early on in our off-season program we like to use drills that exaggerate the stride length and weight shift. We progress all the way back to their set up focusing on slowing the feet down and feeling body control. As we move along we tend to see swings get more explosive because of the strong body position when the stride foot plants. We also like to change speeds in toss and BP rounds attempting to catch them off balance. We want to make sure our hitters experience tough BP rounds that force them to adjust. When spring and summer seasons start, we would like our players to have had plenty of preparation for live situations. We have incorporated much more overhand BP this offseason to allow our hitters to pick up timing mechanisms which triggers their load and stride. Each hitter needs to understand that they own the responsibility of getting on time. Each individual hitter has the responsibility of figuring out what works for them when syncing their body movements with pitcher movements. There is no better way than to practice with purpose and intent.
