Hit the top of the ball, and other bad advice

“Common sense is not so common.” – Voltaire

There are many ideas taught over and over in baseball. Some of them begin to sound like reality just because they’re repeated so much. But just because something is said very often, even with sincerity, doesn’t make it the truth. One of most common teaches in baseball is telling hitter to “hit the top of the ball,” or “stay on top of the ball.” This is a bad idea for you to teach, because it just doesn’t work.

Here’s the reason. If I want to throw a basketball up into the hoop, do I push it downwards? Of course not. If I want to push a rock down a hill, do i start by trying to push it upwards? Of course not. These are so clear they’re almost silly. But so many of us have heard that you have to hit down on a baseball to make it go far. It’s just not so.

Can you hit the top back of the ball and create a ball with more backspin that travels further? Well, it might go slightly further if you hit it absolutely perfectly. But you’re much, much more likely to not hit the ball squarely. After a ball is pitched, its going downward, because of both gravity and the direction its thrown. At the same time, the bat is going down from the shoulder. It’s very easy for them to pass each other entirely because they’re not traveling on the same plane. Even a surface-to-air missile just needs to get close and explode; it doesn’t need to hit its target head-on, like you want to with a bat and a ball. Look at this video…

Want to be more successful at hitting? Match the path of your bat to the path of the ball for as long as possible. And do it on time. It works. Because the bat has to go down from the shoulder, you should get the bat head down earlier in the swing. The bat can then stay on the same plane as the ball for as long as possible. That way, even if your timing isn’t perfect, you can hit the ball squarely. And if your timing is perfect, the ball will go very far.

And, of course, the bat head is below the handle, to help direct the ball slightly uphill. Yes, just like the picture of the guy by the batting tee, that’s another thing that is frequently taught incorrectly to ballplayers. Just look at the videos.