In order to create the best possible baseball swing, you have to start at the foundation and build your way up. Before you can worry about the angle of your shoulders or the way in which your weight shifts through the point of contact, you have to understand the three basic components of a swing.
These components are referred to as the load, stride, and the swing. Without understanding the basics of how these three components work together, you will never be able to create a consistent swing that gets you great results.
The Load
When you load your swing, you are positioning yourself and your bat to move your weight and power through the point of contact. At the load point of your swing, you want to bring the bat back on the same plane as the ground with your hands even with your shoulders. As you are practicing your swing, it is important to stop at each point to make sure that everything is lined up properly. As you bring the bat back to load your swing, you need to stop and make sure everything is aligned properly.
As you load your swing, your feet and hands need to be in the proper position. There are two lines you use to get your feet and hands in the right position. The first line is a straight line on the ground that points towards your target. As you line up your feet, your toes should be on that line with your feet shoulder width apart.
The line for your hands extends from your forehead down past your knees and to the ground. Your hands should be set up ahead of this line, and they will never go behind this line throughout your swing. You can take a video of your stance to see if your hands and feet are lined up properly to help create good habits when you load your swing.
The Stride
When you stride, you put your leading foot forward to help establish the tempo of your swing. After loading your swing, you will pause and then take a stride into the plane of the ball. The key when you stride is to stay on that same plane that you used to load. Your foot should move out one stride, but it should not come forward. Allowing your foot to come forward will cause your balance to be off.
A good way to work on a proper stride is to draw a chalk line at your feet to represent the plane where your swing will take place. As you make your stride, you should never allow your toes to cross that line. If they do, then you need to keep practicing.
The Swing
In this exercise, we are not going to concern ourselves with the minute details of a good swing. We just want to make good contact with a reliable motion. Remember when we talked about your hands being ahead of the line that runs from your forehead and past your knees? Throughout the entire execution of your swing, your hands should never fall behind that line.
If your hands go behind the line with your knees, then you are turning your upper body the wrong way and taking away the momentum of your swing. Your goal is to get used to taking your swing in a forward motion, instead of making a big turn with your upper body that is only going to make your swing worse.
Double Motion
As you practice your three separate swing steps, it is important to work to put them together into a single swing. You should never have two loads or two strides before you execute your swing. A double motion in the load or the stride will cause your timing to become way off, and you will never be able to get the results you want with that type of motion. That is why when you practice the three steps to a better swing, you should do them one at a time and become used to putting the three together into one fluid motion.
A good baseball swing starts with a good foundation. In order to have that foundation, you need to make sure that your basic mechanics are working properly. With this three step drill, you will learn the importance of bringing the load, stride and stance together into one fluid motion. Once you perfect these basics, then you can get into the details that will enhance your swing even more.
