How to Teach a Kid to Hit a Baseball

By Alexis
Last Updated on

Baseball is an amazing sport for all ages, I personally think that baseball is a great way to teach kids about sportsmanship. Teaching children to work cohesively with each other at a young age is great for personal development. In the physical aspect, it helps develop hand to eye coordination and keeps kids fit! But what matters to them the most? It’s fun!

Let’s not forget though, baseball is not the easiest thing to teach. I’ve put together a few techniques to help you teach a kid to hit a baseball with power and how to teach a kid to swing a bat level!

youth baseball hitting mechanics

How to Teach a 6 Year Old To Hit a Baseball

You probably already know that 6 year olds are not eligible to use proper equipment. It’s imperative that you start them off with a plastic bat and a softball to avoid injury. 

This isn’t just for 6 year olds, you can use this guide for how to teach a 7 year old to hit a baseball, or any age. When it comes to teaching a 10 year old baseball or older though, keep in mind to adjust the detail of information you are teaching according to the level of understanding, and adjust the equipment being used according to age, build, and level of the child you are teaching.

This is the time to teach a kid to hit a baseball off a tee because you’ll want to be focusing on teaching the following things:

Parts of a Bat

For the younger kids, go ahead and skip the details by teaching them the “bottom”, “top”, “handle”, and “sweet spot” of the baseball bat. These are the basics they need to know, field time is much more important at this time because you want to spike their interest in the game rather than turning it into another boring subject at school.

Where to Grip The Bat

Once they know the main parts of the bat, show them where on the handle they need to grip so that at a young age they get accustomed to proper placement.

How to Grip The Bat

Ask the kids to make two fists of both hands and put them on top of each other. Tell them to align their knuckles.

Proper Stance

Show the kids where it is they need to stand. You can go ahead and teach them the basic parts of the field if you like. But this article is more focused on teaching them to hit, so show them where to stand in the batters’ box.

Help them align their feet to their shoulders and make sure they know they always need to do this first before getting into a position to hit the ball off the tee. Remind them of the sweet spot and tell them they need to position themselves so that the sweet spot will hit the ball when swinging.

Check this Video out:

How to Swing The Bat

Tell them that when they swing the bat, they need to keep their knuckles aligned. At first they may find it hard, but by slowly guiding them from the first stance into a swing and showing them how to properly twist their body, into the final stance at the end of the swing, they can get a better understanding of how to swing the bat.

Most people will tell kids to hit a ground ball. I don’t recommend doing this. It may work today but it might shape them to play as if they are always against bad fielders. For those who aren’t so good at hitting the ball, it might help to give them a confident boost being able to run to a base after hitting a ground ball, but it’s important to ensure you are giving them drills in between to improve their fly hit.

Moving Away From the Tee

Once the kids are consistent in hitting off the tee, it’s time to move onto pitching a ball for them to hit. Again, keep the ball soft and continue to let them use the plastic bats as a safety precaution. When you toss the ball, make sure it’s a soft under-hand throw. Keep the throws slow but effective so they have time to adjust and hit in the air!

Baseball Hitting Drills For Beginners

These hitting drills are great for all ages, these can even be used as 3 year old hitting drills, or even for college players. Just remember that you must adjust the type of equipment according to level, and intensity of the drills.

Here is Another Video for you:

Double Tee Drill

Helps in following through the proper swing loop. Use two tees, place them next to each other, about a foot apart. The child should hit the ball off the first tee while missing the ball off the second tee. You will see the child adjusting his swing by hip rotation, stride, and position.

Windshield Wipers Drill

Have the child stand with the bat pointing straight up in front of him with straight arms and a slight bend in the elbows. Have the child rotate the bat all the way to the left, as far as he can go, and bring it back up and do the same to the right, this is 1 rep. Do 10-15 reps. This will build muscle and will help in how to teach a kid to swing a bat harder.

Tee Hitting Drill

Have the child hit the ball off the tee as usual, then to simulate different kinds of pitches, move the tee around and have the child aim for a certain point. You can also keep the tee in one position, and have the child aim for different points.

Conclusion

Like I mentioned a few times, it’s important to consistently “upgrade” these drills and the way you teach the kids by making adjustments in details and equipment used. All in all, this article is focused on teaching kids how to hit a baseball. The next lesson should be on teaching them about fielding and pitching. It’s important they understand all these concepts before you have them get up and play so they know how it feels to be in the position of a batter, a pitcher, a fielder, and a baserunner so they learn how to play correctly and fairly.

Updated on

Photo of author
AUTHOR
Alexis
Alexis has been playing baseball since he was around 10. He is a 2020 high school graduate that currently trying to achieve his dream of becoming a professional baseball player.