There are a few key things to follow when you’re standing at home plate ready to launch. However, before you begin swinging on the first pitch, it is important to understand the following. Your thinking, proper position, body posture, arm positioning, bat positioning, hip, neck and head positioning, and swing keep going. This may seem like a lot of batting practice steps to go through and for youngsters to understand, but you’ll be surprised how much attention they’ll pay attention to, if you can almost guarantee them, they will hit the ball.

Your hitter’s mindset is important and is further instilled during the baseball batting training drills from the week before. Unlike in practice, they will face some smelly eyes from the pitcher and usually degrading comments from the catcher, in hopes of trying to confuse the batter. Your hitter will need to have a solid understanding of the steps mentioned above (we’ll go over each one in more detail), so that his confidence is high, both from the confidence of his voice and breath and, more importantly, from the repetition of successful contact with the ball during previous batting practice.

When your batter stands in front of home plate, you want him to initially get a proper base and spread his legs apart, the back leg behind the plate and the other covering two-thirds covering home plate. This stance should be shoulder-width apart and comfortable for the batter, with both feet pointing forward and not toward the pitcher or catcher. This is not their final position as will be mentioned in a minute, but for now, when they first walk to the plate to bat, ask them to stand with their feet shoulder-width apart.

Standing at the plate during batting practice, you’ll want your hitter to bend their knees 3-5 times, to make sure they’re not stiff and you feel a bit flexible. Bending your knees several times will also help keep you comfortable and in charge. Your body above your torso should be mostly straight up and down, with a slight forward bend over the plate.

If they are right-handed, their left side should be facing the pitcher, with their right grip above the left grip when holding the bat. Also, if you are left-handed, you should have your right shoulder facing the pitcher and your left grip over your right, again when holding the bat. As a side note, but extremely important, make sure these steps are followed both during batting practice and during every game.

As a right hand hitter, your right elbow should be placed almost at the level of your right shoulder, in other words, as you lift the bat, your right fist should be at the level of your right elbow which should be at the level of your right shoulder. By concentrating on forming a level horizontal “V” shape, this will help ensure that your elbow stays high and does not tip over.

With proper elbow placement, the bat (for a right-handed hitter) should tip forward at approximately 10:00 o’clock. Don’t let your batter start batting practice with the bat tilted down or even at a 9:00 angle, instead, the 10:00 to 10:30 bat position is best for the next swing and continuation.

To summarize so far, the feet should be spread apart, the toes pointed perpendicular to the lineup of the pitcher and catcher. Bring the bat toward ten o’clock with the elbow up and level with the fist and shoulder. Now ask them to roll back, or “throw” or roll their hips back away from the pitcher.

During batting practice, make sure they bring the front foot back so that it is only a couple of inches from the rear foot, staying parallel to each other. And don’t let them get sidetracked during game day.

Now have your hitter look that pitcher in the eye and be ready to follow your pitching arm releasing the ball and don’t let them take their eyes off you. And while they stare at the ball coming their way, ask them to come out with their lead foot, unroll their hips and swing their bat as hard as they can and point their lead foot in the direction they want to hit the ball.

Following these steps mentioned above during your weekly or daily batting practice will help ensure a less shy and more confident team on game day.