If you enjoy playing baseball and want to improve your skills, there are some very basic skills you need to build upon in order to become a better player. Practicing your baseball skills can be difficult sometimes, as the best practice is playing matches and training with your team, so you can be forgiven that there isn’t much you can do by yourself to train.
It turns out that there is actually a lot you can do by yourself at home or at the park to practice the different elements of baseball, and begin refining your skills to make you a better player. Sprinting and running are easy enough to practice, but you can also practice swinging the bat and hitting the ball, as well as pitching and fielding, without needing a whole team around you. Here are three tips for improving your baseball skills for anyone that wants to play the game better.
Practice Your Swing
A good swing is key to batting a good game. This can be one of the most difficult elements for people to master, and this is one of the reasons a good batter is so highly prized by amateur and professional teams alike.
Trainers suggest that you need to complete between 100 and 150 practice swings a day if you want to perfect your batting. This isn’t just about simply swinging the bat either. The shape of your body and the mechanics of how your body’s muscles combine to bring power to your swing is incredibly important. By slowly perfecting your stance and body shape, and slowly adding speed to your swing, you can start to build the right muscles in your arms and back to give you control and accuracy when swinging a bat.
Once you have practiced ‘empty swinging’, without a pitched ball, you can then move to a batting cage or use a home machine that can pitch balls at you repeatedly. Here you can start swinging slowly to practice your accuracy, and slowly start adding power so you are swinging for home runs.
Get Pitch Perfect Practice at Home
Pitching is possibly the most crucial aspect of the game, and being able to pitch a variety of balls accurately will make you and incredibly important member of the team. You might not think there is much you can do to practice pitching at home, except throw a ball to a target on a wall, but there are actually plenty of options out there.
Practice pitching mounds you can use at home are becoming popular, and there are options available for any specific league requirements. Using these is not only much more realistic, but also positions you correctly for pitches, and helps you work on your body shape as you practice. Don’t use a target on a wall either. By pegging an old, thick towel with a target marked on it to a clothesline, you can practice repeatedly without dinging up your balls or making too much noise.
Practice Hand-to-Eye Coordination
One of the most important skills in baseball is hand-to-eye coordination. This skill is involved in every aspect of the game: pitching, fielding, and swinging.
All you really need is a ball to practice this vital skill. By bouncing the ball off walls and surfaces and catching it, you can make a start. Begin to add spin to the ball so that is bounces off at random angles, forcing you to react quickly. This is another skill that the pros recommend you practice 100 to 150 times a day. The more you catch, the better your hand-to-eye coordination and reactions are becoming, and you will see the difference it makes when you are pitching and batting, as well as in the outfield.
With these three simple skills mastered, you can make a huge difference to your baseball game, and your team. Get practicing now and you may one day find yourself in the major league!
