Compact Swing: Three Tips to a Short Compact Swing in Youth Baseball

Ever seen a youth baseball player suffer through a batting slump where every pitch seems too fast to hit? Coaches constantly remind some youth baseball players to choke up on the bat with two strikes? Do you see youth baseball players lunging at home plate to try and hit the ball? As coaches of youth baseball we need to recognize these problems have the same solution - a short compact swing. Youth baseball hitters have a limited amount of time to move from a ready position to a contact position after the pitcher releases his pitch. A long, loopy swing takes precious seconds to complete. Fastballs get by before the barrel whips around and through the contact zone. The pitches seem too quick and the player can't seem to catch up.
The answer is a short compact swing.

With two strikes, good hitters think defensively. A youth baseball players hitting emphasis should change from destroying the baseball to making solid contact. The goal becomes put the ball in play, even when that two-strike pitch is likely to be a tough pitch. The best way to accomplish that goal is to implement a more short compact swing for our youth baseball players.

A youth baseball hitter who repeatedly finds himself out on his front foot (we call this lunging) has a swing long and slow and this forces him to swing early. He doesn't have the bat speed to stay back and properly judge a pitch's speed and location. He begins his swing earlier, hoping for a fastball. He's wrong more often than not? A short compact swing addresses this issue and allows for more solid contact.

There are many ways to address this common problem. Concentrating on three main points, however - a short stride, quick hands and a quick bat - will make a youth baseball players swing more compact. Here are a few drills to eliminate that loopy swing.

1) Short Stride
If the ball seem to get on youth baseball players before they are ready, the stride might be to long and using up too much valuable time. A quick stride is a short stride. Many good hitters at all ages use no stride at all. They simply drop a raised front heel. Simply and quickly raise the front foot and put it back down in the same spot. The point of the stride is to get your weight shifting forward at impact. You do not need a twelve inch stride to accomplish that. Another point is, the longer you stride the more your head moves during the swing. If your head moves, your eyes move. This makes for much weaker hand eye coordination. Keep your stride short so your head will stay still and you can see the pitch more clearly. The less distance you stride, the less time needed to swing, the more time you have to look at the ball. This helps accomplish the short compact swing for our youth baseball players

2) Quick Hands
For a short compact swing we need to get our hands to the ball quickly.A long, sweeping swing is a slow swing. It decreases the speed of the bat head through the hitting zone. A quick and compact swing is one in which the wrists stay cocked until the last possible moment before exploding through the pitch. One key to keeping those wrists cocked and increasing bat head speed is to initiate your swing by driving the knob of the bat at the pitch. I also like to use the phrase throw your hands at the ball. Hopefully we have the proper size bat and we do not have to choke up on the bat too much if at all. For more information on choosing a youth baseball bat look at How toChoose a Youth Baseball Bat .Good hitters take a direct path from the load position to impact position. As the pitch comes in, they keep most of their weight loaded on the back leg while judging pitch speed and location. When the decision is made to swing, the first movement is forward, driving the knob of the bat handle directly toward the baseball. The barrel of the bat trails behind the hands and is the last thing to swing around and through. Using the knob in this way keeps the wrists cocked longer. Wrists that relax too soon result in a sweeping, slow swing. To obtain the highest bat speed, keep the wrists cocked and snap the barrel through at the last possible moment.

3) Quick Swing
The image you want is one of waiting, watching, then exploding the bat through the ball.. We do not want long, loopy swings sweep through the strike zone. They must be started early in order to get the barrel to the ball in time for impact. More often than not, the hitter will find himself on his front foot because of misjudged pitch speed. Get in the habit of staying short and quick

Hard hit balls do not require brute strength, it requires bat speed. It requires a short, compact, explosive swing, Generate bat speed with quickness; don't rely on the big muscles. Use the hands more than the body.With a short compact swing, players will have more time to judge the speed and location of each pitch. They will be able to see and read each pitch better. Youth baseball players will also begin to find it easier to check swing or hold back on bad pitches. The greatest thing to come from a short compact swing is the nice hard hit line drives and added distance to hard hit baseballs

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