How To Hit Tough Low And Away Strikes!

By Larry Cicchiello
Updated: November 6, 2013

When trying to overcome any baseball hitting struggles, you should always look for the “easy fix” first before getting more complicated. Why get overly involved and complex unless necessary? You simply can’t bombard a baseball hitter with the thirty five thing necessary for the so called perfect baseball swing. The finest hitters on the planet only have a handful of perfect swings throughout the entire season. Sometimes less is indeed truly more. Here is a list of things to try if low and away pitches are causing baseball hitting problems for you.

1) The two most obvious reasons can be you are standing too far away from the plate or maybe your bat is not long enough and you cannot effectively reach the pitch over the outside corner. Like I said, we always start out simple.

2) You may be opening your front side too early, one of the most common baseball hitting problems for baseball hitters at any level. It simply means that you are opening up too quickly and are pulling away from where the hitting is taking place.
Staying “closed” is one of the more important baseball tips on hitting. If you are opening up too early, it simply takes you too far away from the pitch, especially pitches over the outside portion of the plate.

3) You can try bending at the waist if you are not bending already. If you are already bending, bend a little more. This will give you better extension and better plate coverage of the outside corner simply because you will be closer to it.

4) You can try striding with your front foot closed instead of pointing straight out across from your body or even worse yet toward the pitcher. In other words, turn the toes on your front foot and point them a little bit back toward the catcher. This will strongly encourage you to “stay closed” and not “fly open” and away from the pitch. You will have very little, if any success at all, against tough low and away strikes if you open up too early.

“Staying closed” is easily one of the most important baseball tips on hitting you can ever learn. Baseball hitting does not take place out toward third base if you are a right-handed hitter or out toward first base if you are a left-handed hitter. Opening up a fraction of a second too early is a recipe for disaster for a hitter.

Baseball hitting is taking place right in front of you and not to the left or to the right. The front hip and front shoulder should be forced open by the swing itself. Stay closed or you and I will no longer be on speaking terms!