7 Tips for Boosting Your Baseball Skills

When we play sports, it takes time, effort, and practice to improve our skills. Baseball is no different from any other sport, game, or physical challenge. We have to practice, take on feedback, make changes and grow as a player if we want to be the best that we can be. Even the very best pro ballers still practice daily, never resting, to make sure they can have a long career and stay at the top of their game.

But sometimes things don’t quite go to plan. We’re playing, we’re practicing, we’re training hard, and yet we don’t seem to be improving or we just can’t make that next big leap to get into the starting team. When this happens, sometimes we need to change things up a little to really improve our skills. Here are 7 tips to help you boost your baseball skills, wherever you are on your journey.

Choose the Right Equipment

Playing with the wrong bat or gloves will mean that you can never be as good as you could be. Sometimes, you’ll just have to play with what you’ve got, or what is currently available. But if you are in a position to invest in your own bat and gloves, it’s worth taking the time to find the right gear. Make sure your gloves fit well and are comfortable, and that your bat suits you and your batting style instead of just buying a popular one.

Work on Your Confidence and Mindset

Confidence is a huge part of any sport. Go to the pitching mound or plate feeling anxious or unsure and you won’t perform well. Take a deep breath, believe in yourself, and avoid overthinking or dwelling on past mistakes, and you’ve got a much better chance.

Improve Your Hand-Eye Coordination

After physical strength and fitness, hand-eye coordination is perhaps one of the most important skills for any batter. You’ll never get your timing right if this is poor. To improve your hand-eye coordination first, get your eyes checked regularly. Then, train them by practicing with smaller bats and balls and enjoying other balls games in your spare time.

Stick to a Training Routine – But Adapt When You Need to

Practice makes perfect, as they say. Get into a practice routine that means you train regularly, but that includes cross-training and is easy to stick to. Building a routine will make things much easier, especially if you have a busy lifestyle.

But remember to adapt when you need to. Your summer training routine might not work in the colder months, for example. In the winter, indoor practice pitching mounds like these can be a great investment. It can also be useful for warming up in the summer or quick sessions at home.

Work on Your Non-Dominant Arm

Whether you are pitching or batting, baseball relies on the dominant side of your body, perhaps more than most other sports.

But you mustn’t neglect the other side completely. Practicing pitching and batting with your non-dominant hand helps to improve your hand-eye coordination, your core strength, and balance, and it means that you don’t have to stop training when you are injured.

Improve Core and Lower Body Strength

Your arms are obviously incredibly important. But balance is also crucial to being a great baseball player. Work on your lower body, and especially your core and back to boost balance and give you a more powerful swing.

Enjoy Yourself

Often, when we’re struggling to improve, we start to obsess. We take our training more seriously; we work harder than ever, and we lose sight of what is important. Baseball is meant to be fun. If you have stopped enjoying yourself, take a break, or get back to basics for a while. You might find that your game improves massively when you are enjoying playing.

Remember, even with these tips, improvement takes time. Don’t feel downhearted if you don’t see changes straight away. Stick with it, work hard, have fun, and your skills will improve.