How Youth Pitching Machines Can Be Used to Develop a Young Hitter

Growing up as a kid, you see your favorite baseball players hitting home runs and you think to yourself, that's gonna be me. You want nothing more than to be able to step up to the plate, have the pitcher shaking in his boots, and crush scr888 a homer over the center field fences. Although this is a dream for many youngsters, it takes a lot of hard work to become a feared hitter. And that work begins as soon as you can swing a bat.

The first step in becoming a feared hitter is to develop your mechanics, and the best way to do that is with the use of youth pitching machines. Youth pitching machines allow you to see tons of pitches so that you can work on all the fundamentals of your swing. Here are a couple tips for helping you develop into a successful hitter:

1. Stance

When you step up to the plate, you want your feet to be a little wider than shoulder-width apart. Keep your knees bent slightly, with your weight on your back foot (closest to the catcher). When you hold the bat, try to line up your hands just outside of your back foot. Some players like to rock the bat as they wait for the pitch to get their momentum going toward the pitcher, while others like to remain still, focused on the pitcher. This varies for every player and you may need to try a few different approaches to find one that you are comfortable with.

2. Overcoming Fear

With your stance developed, you want to make sure you are standing close enough to the plate to hit the pitches. Youth pitching machines can be set up to throw straight fastballs down the middle of the plate. Make sure that with your stance you are close enough to hit these pitches. Fear can play a psychology game with a hitter, and you need to get over that fear if you intend on being a successful hitter.

First, just have youth pitching machines throw pitches at you without swinging at them. Get used to what a pitch looks like when it's coming at you really fast. Once you have gotten comfortable seeing fastballs down the middle, adjust the machine to throw pitches that are more inside on you. Again, don't swing. Just get used to seeing pitches coming inside on you and try not to duck out of the batter's box. Understand that you will almost certainly get beaned at least once in your baseball career, but you can't fear it. If you are afraid of the baseball, you will never be able to step up to the plate and be the dominant home run power that you dream to be.