Baseball is the great equalizer. Your body doesn’t have to be ripped to hit a baseball. All you need is eye-hand coordination and you can make solid contact. With that in mind, it’s important that you improve your eye-hand coordination.
Hold the Bat Over the Plate
One of the best ways to improve your eye-hand coordination is to stand at the plate with your bat out. Have someone pitch balls high, low and down the middle. Instead of swinging, move your bat so it meets the ball as it crosses the plate. This will help you improve your eye-hand coordination.
Catch Tennis Balls
Tennis balls are great for improving your eye-hand coordination. All you need is a bucket of balls, a friend, and a hard surface. Stand close to the hard surface, and have your friend stand beside you. Have him toss balls at the surface. After the balls bounce off the surface, you need to catch them. You’ll be amazed by how much you have to concentrate to catch the balls. That concentration will help you improve your eye-hand coordination.
Be sure your friend throws the balls at different speeds and different angles so you can get the most out of this drill.
Give Ping Pong a Try
It might sound strange, but ping pong can actually help you with baseball. Thus, challenge a friend to a game. Then, take your new skills out to the baseball field. You’ll be amazed at how big the baseball looks after you spend some time swinging at that tiny ping pong ball.
Have a Pitcher – Even if You’re Using a Pitching Machine
Pitching machines are great for improving your hitting. Unfortunately, they can be a disaster when it comes to eye-hand coordination. That’s because most people just place the ball in the pitching machine. Thus, you get out of the habit of watching the ball from the pitcher’s hands to the plate.
You can avoid this problem by having someone feed the ball into the machine with the same motion a pitcher would use. Then you can watch the ball, and still get the benefits of a pitching machine.
Eye-hand coordination is critical if you’re going to be a good contact hitter. Thus, you need to use all of these techniques to improve your eye-hand coordination. It may take some time to get to the point that you want to be at, but the journey will be well worth it.
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Tommy Albrecht is a writer and blogger, in his spare time he’s a devoted husband and father and a baseball coach. Please our site for great tips on exercises to improve your overall health.