Posted by: Ruben (Okjay38@aol.com) on Tue Oct 2 13:00:58 2001

First of all, the firmer your wrists, the more tense your body becomes. In order to hit, your body should remain relaxed as possible. Hold the bat in your fingertips to gain both power and relaxation. In order to hit the outside pitch, you must remember, that pitch cannot be hit in the same place you hit the inside pitch...which is out in front of the plate. You need to let the ball in on you, then swing. If you divide the plate into three sections starting front to back, you would want to hit an inside pitch before it reaches the front 1/3 of the plate. The outside pitch is the opposite. That pitch should be hit on or around the back 1/3 of the plate. If you take the exact same two swings, but hit one inside ball out in front, and one outside pitch as the ball reaches that back 1/3, you'll hit the ball in two different directions...WITH THE SAME SWING!! A good drill for this using a batting tee is to line up the ball with your back hip on the outside edge of the plate, simulating an outside fastball. Now take your same stance and swing and watch where you hit the ball.