Baseball Batting Tips: The Ideal Batting Stance

Your batting stance is not only the position of where your swing begins, but it’s a reflection of both personal comfort, balance and proficiency. Keep these tips in mind as you develop your own stance.

There are many different kinds of stances and setups you can use to bat. What’s important is that no matter what your stance looks like, it should be relaxed and balanced. The less complex your stance, the easier it will be to repeat.

A good stance begins by owning good plate coverage. You should be able to hit an inside pitch as well as an outside pitch, so you don’t want to stand too close or too far away from the plate. Your stance should be aligned to the pitcher with your feet, hips and shoulders on a line perpendicular to the rubber.

A good way to test your balance is to get in your stance and have your coach provide a slight push from different directions. If you have good balance, you should not fall out of your stance. Make sure to stay on the balls of your feet in an athletic position with knees slightly bent.

Another key for hitters is vision. In your setup, you should be able to turn your head so both of your eyes are on the pitcher. Your eyes should be level. To test your vision at the plate, have a coach go to the mound. Then, close your front eye, which is the eye closest to the pitcher. For a left-handed batter, close your right eye. From there, the coach will simulate a pitch, but instead of throwing a ball, they will flash numbers with their fingers at the point of release. You will have to read the number with your back eye and call it out as soon as you see it. This will help you get familiar with the correct head position to maintain in your setup.

The foundation for a good stance is a balanced, comfortable setup with eyes on the pitcher. Doing this can be the start to a great swing.