Baseball Hitting Aids

By Jon Doyle, MA, CSCS

There are all kinds of baseball hitting aids on the market today. In fact it seems like new ones pop out every week, all of them claiming to be able to instantly unlock all of your secret potential. Can some of them actually produce results and help you improve your hitting? Of course they can but a lot of them will be nothing but a waste of time and money, and others can even end up screwing up your swing and your approach. Use this basic guide to help choose the appropriate hitting aids that you should use, if you have been seeking them out for a boost.

The first thing that you need to consider when you're dealing with baseball hitting aids is that it needs to be something that actually carries over to the game. It's the same as when you're training for any sport or activity. You want to be doing specific movements and exercises that translate directly towards on the field performance.

Baseball hitting aids should be specifically helping you with some aspect of your swing, stance, approach, mechanics or anything else that you can bring with you straight to the plate next time you're up there. Otherwise, what's the point? The best exercises, training techniques and routines and so forth are those that directly translate to what you actually do when you're playing the game.

Along the same lines, you want to avoid baseball hitting aids that seem to be the latest fad, trend or gadget. People always come up with crazy ideas for weird machines or systems that can somehow provide you with that infomercial quality, instant-super success. If it's hyped up so much it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If it looks like a weird or cheap gadget or fad, then it probably is!

You should have an open mind when you're training and looking for a boost, but you should still be able to sniff out something that has disaster written out all over it. So use a bit of common sense and avoid the gimmicks that are so prevalent out there today. You'll be saving yourself some of your hard earned cash and you'll be saving yourself a good deal of aggravation as well.

Now, if you have found baseball hitting aids that you want to use, make sure to jump in slowly so to speak. In fact, you should be dipping in your toes as opposed to diving right in headfirst. That's because some of these gadgets and systems can really take a good thing that you have going and make it that much worse, twisting it all out of proportion, removing the fundamentals or who knows what else.

So take it slow with new baseball hitting aids, don't turn your whole life over to it before you see what it does and how it works out for you. Then you'll be able to make adjustments as you go, and if it's a valuable technique, approach, exercise or anything else you can begin to rely upon it more. If it's not, you will not have thrown everything else away in your attempt to follow this one specific product.

Finally, remember that when you're dealing with your swing, adding something heavy, large or bulky to what you're doing is only going to throw you off. Sure, throwing a donut on your bat as you take a few practice swings can help to loosen you up. But practicing your swing with a 10 lb bat or who knows what else is only going to completely throw your motion and your technique off. Adding weight and bulk to the equation is a recipe for disaster. If it doesn't lead to physical injury, it will certainly injure your swing and your performance.

So as you can see, there are a variety of factors and self-tests that you can use to weed out the junk and garbage from the baseball hitting aids that could actually be beneficial for you. Don't fall for the hype around a product, and instead use your common sense to evaluate what is really legit. Start off slowly with any new aid, avoid the fads and find something that transfers directly to the game and hopefully you'll be able to find something that really helps you out.