Bat Grip for Strength, Power, & Control
Learn the right technique for bat grip as we show you how to handle the bat for maximum power, strength, and control.
What's going on, guys? Welcome back to the channel and welcome back to our quick tips video series. So in today's video, we're going to follow up on what we talked about last week. We had talked about bat angle and set up. So today we're going to be talking about bat grip. We're going to go over preferred grip we like to teach our hitters, and some of the things that we see in our lessons that you want to avoid and talk about why we want to avoid them. So let's start with bat grip that we like to teach our hitters.
Avoid Palms
The first thing that we want to keep in mind here is we want to avoid holding the bat in the palm of our hands, right down there. We do not want to do that, but we like to have our guys do is put the handle on the bat, right over the calluses at the bottom of the fingers or at the top of the hands, so right along here. So we want to make sure that we're avoiding the bat handle in the palm and going right at the top there.
Line Up Knuckles
Second thing that we want to keep in mind here and that we're looking for, is the knuckles on your fingers. We want to make sure that those are the knuckles that you're lining up. We see a lot of guys line up knuckles on their hands or the flat part of their fingers. Like this, they wind up with that. We want to avoid that and make sure you have a nice straight line across the knuckles and our fingers.
There are a couple reasons why we want to do this. Number one, is having our knuckles lined up is going to put us at palm up, palm down position at contact, the strongest position you can be in. Number two, is when you line up those knuckles, it creates angles in your wrist which allows you to, with the bat, throw the bat head through the zone much better than if you had it in your palms or you were misaligned. You get into this position. We see those flared elbows a lot.
Bat Grip Corrections
It gets you here and allows you to really throw the bat head. So let's talk about some of the things that we see in our lessons and some of the bat grips that we'd like to fix or some of the things that we want to avoid. The first one is we kind of went over already, is having your big knuckles lined up or the flat part of your fingers here, not those knuckles. So whenever we get into this position, when we get to contact again, those elbows are going to be flared and it's not going to be a very strong position, can’t throw the bat head.
That's why we want to line up the knuckles right there. One of the really common things that we see with a lot of players is they have some variation of their hand or finger off the bat. What I mean by that is, some guys like to hold their knob in the palm, which means the pinky is down at the bottom. We also see a lot of guys with fingers off the bat like this.
The reason that we don't want to do this is because we're losing control and we're losing power. A good way to think about this is having all 10 fingers. Both of your hands on the bat, there's a hundred percent of your control and your power. Every finger that comes off is 10% that you're losing, so if you see a guy who's up at bat two fingers off the handle, they're swinging with 80% of their control and their power.
Correct Grip Changes
So one of the other things that we see from a lot of players is they might have the correct grip. They have their knuckles lined up. They have all their fingers on the bat, but they create a gap in between their hands just like that. So what we like to tell people is make sure that the bottom fat part of your hand right here is on top of your thumb. And what we're trying to force there, is number one, keeping all of your hand on the bat, but two, it keeps you from flaring your elbow like that. We want to stay nice and tight and that's going to help with that.
Hook Drill
There are two ways to make sure you are using the correct grip when hitting. The first drill, we call it the hook drill. It's very simple. Just rest the bat at 90 degrees on the shoulder like this. And take your hands and hook them onto the bat like this and just relax the elbows, flip the thumbs underneath. And this should line your knuckles up straight. This helps you feel relaxed in your arms and elbows and then get into your setup. That's the first drill you can do.
The second one, if you have a swing path trainer, I'm going to set it up here. What you want to do here is get into your contact position and then simply follow that swing path back up to your setup. And this is going to help make sure that your knuckles are lined up, that your palm up, palm down, that right there, and then go into your swing.
So that is it for today's video. If you guys have any questions or you have any suggestions for future videos that we can do. If there's anything you'd like to hear us talk about. Leave them in the comments below. Make sure to like and subscribe and we'll see you in the next video.
Check out a recent review of our swing path trainer from Baseball Mode. If you're ready to improve your game, grab the swing path trainer today.
