Comment BAT SPEED to get the full breakdown of how I boosted my bat speed while mastering this part of my swing.
87% Of High School Hitters Skip This Part of Their Swing
If your swing feels slow or you’re often late on fastballs, try this.
Often, “your swing is slow” isn't the main problem.
How you use your hips can affect how quickly your bat gains speed during your swing.
Training to decelerate with your hips will help you refine your swing sequence and increase your swing quickness.
Struggling with your swing path?
Try this **open stance drill**.
It forces you to **stay through the ball** and deliver the barrel into the **big part of the field**—which **increases the window** your bat stays in the zone and gives you **more time to adjust** (fastball or breaking ball)… even if you’re a little early.
**Result:** better direction, better contact.
If you fly open on your front side, you’re not ��weak”… you’re just missing your brakes.
Everyone talks about stretch and extension on the move forward (and yes, those matter). But the most overlooked piece I see is counter-rotation and hip deceleration.
Here’s the idea:
When you move forward and land into the ground, you should be able to use that leverage to slow the hips down.
That deceleration is what lets the bat outrace your body and gain speed through the zone—without spinning off early.
Quick checkpoints:
Land strong (feel the ground)
Keep the front side connected (don’t dump the shoulder)
Let the hips stop so the barrel can go.
Baseball is the best teacher for life because it forces you to master failure.
If you can’t be comfortable when you suck, when you fail, when it’s messy… you picked the wrong sport.
One of the biggest “separators” I’ve ever seen is simple: smile through it. Reset fast. Keep playing loud.
When I played, I was vocal — not to be someone I’m not… it was my system. How I took pressure off my shoulders and got back to competing.
If you’re struggling right now:
1) Expect failure
2) Stop making it mean something about you
3) Reset with a smile and go again
Save this for the next bad game/practice.
You can work as hard as you want, but if you don't start by believing that you're the best player out there, every minute you spend training will be wasted due to your lack of the right mindset. Everything begins with believing in yourself first, before others recognize and acknowledge how good you are.
If you let the last pitch, play, or at-bat determine how you'll feel for the rest of the game, you'll be miserable for the rest of the season.
Focus on winning the next pitch—whether it's good or bad, you have to do it again.