HITTING Site Map Bad Advice Skills & Instructions BASIC ADVANCED BASICS In General The Bat Grip Stance Load & Stride Swing Special Situations Bunting Illustrated Step by Step   ADVANCED Stance versus Swing Bat Angle  Bat Selection  Aluminum or wood Bat Size Bat Sizes and Age Getting Ready HITTING APPROACH  KNOW YOURSELF How do you step in the box? KNOW YOUR OPPONENT STRATEGY KNOW THE SITUATION BE A TOUGH OUT GRIP LOOSEN UP PICK IT UP LIKE AN AX KEEP LOOSE STANCE  DIG IN WEIGHT AND HANDS LOCATION IN THE BOX DEPTH Proper Hitting Goals On-Deck Preparation Stance versus Swing Bat Angle COIL STRIDE COMMON PROBLEM Keep the Front Toe Closed During the Stride Perfecting the Stride Hitting Off Your Front Leg "Squishing the Bug" Flat-Snap Hitting Finishing the Swing Seeing the Ball Plate Coverage and Forward Extension  Poor Timing Correcting a Weak Swing Lunging and Over Striding Lunging forward during stride Over Striding Staying Closed Before the Swing  Stepping Out on the Pitch The Level Swing Bunting The K Factor (The Strike factor) Trouble Shooting Your Hitting         Report Broken Links

Squish The Bug   Hitting Off Your Front Leg  Some wrong advice given to young hitters is to hit off your back leg. During the swing, the weight should shift from the backside of the hitter to the front side. Energy is transferred to the hands by the stiffening of the front leg (similar to pole vaulting). The back leg adds nothing at the point of contact with the ball; it simply aided in the weight transfer. The rear foot is pivoted up on the toe. Many good hitters actually have their rear toe off the ground an inch or so at contact. In addition, the advice of "squishing the bug" with your rear toe seems to emphasize one's weight staying back during the swing rather than going forward and pivoting hard with the back foot. This isn't a good image for hitting. The focus instead should be on getting the weight up on a stiff front leg.   "You've Gotta Squish the Bug!"   One of the worst hitting phrases I hear all the time is, "You've got to squish the bug." I asked a colleague of mine, Don Reynolds, Farm Director for the Montreal Expos, what he felt was a common fallacy taught to young hitters today. His replay was, "Squishing the bug."  The reason why hitters are told to squish the bug is valid, however, the results are not. The premise behind squishing the bug is to get the hitter to turn his back foot and rotate his hips.   By squishing the bug, hitters tend to leave too much weight back, therefore, not transferring their weight to the center position. Following are the results of squishing the bug:   A rotational swing which will cause you to pull off the ball prematurely.  A collapsing of the back side which will cause you to hit weak fly balls to the opposite field. The long term results of squishing the bug are players who have a longer, slower swing and a tendency to pop the ball up or pull off the outside pitch. This action also produces hitters who cannot comer the plate properly. I have had to correct many young draftees from this habit. For some, the habit is so engrained that they cannot make the adjustment. When you are playing at a high level, pitchers can pitch to your weakness info acquired from www.goodswing.com   Click the button above to go back to the web page or web site you were at before coming to this page [Official Little League Rules & Regulations]   [Parents]   [Players/Kids] Learn How to: [Hit]  [Pitching]  [Infield]  [Outfield]  [Catcher]  [Baserunning]  [Coach] [Baseball Humor]  [Baseball Terminology]  [Site Map] [Sign Our Guestbook] [Privacy Statement/Disclaimer]  [Terms] Copyright © 2000 Brookside Little League, Inc. All rights reserved Brookside Little League, Inc. Indianapolis, In   Do you like what you see,  got a gripe,  would you like to see something added to this site? We would love to hear from you! jontanderson@juno.com