Struggle with Hitting the Outside Pitch?!

Struggle with hitting the outside pitch?

Two of the most common problems that I see with players trying to hit outside pitches are contact point (hitting too far out front) and over-rotation.

This can easily be trained and developed with proper tee set up and a focus on where your body is finishing. In the video, we have our hitter, Alyssa (who loves mashing inside pitches) performing a very good demonstration on how you can practice this by yourself on a tee. Here’s how she does it step-by-step:

Set the tee back in your stance - Place the tee on the outside corner of the plate, about 6 inches behind where you would normally make contact on middle pitches
Work inside/out - Pick a spot on the inside part of the ball as your focal point for contact. Hitting inside/out is extremely important when it comes to hitting this pitch well.
Have a target - Shoot for right or left (lefty) center gaps (or where they would be). Don’t have a cage or field practice this? That’s ok! Take any net and just offset it to the side that you want to hit and start playing target practice!
Get directional! - We LOVE a good hard rotation, but great hitters know when to decelerate and hold direction. For the outside pitch, we need to teach our body when to decelerate our rotation sooner so that we can stay through the ball (holding direction) instead of pulling off via over-rotating. Try to hold the barrel on line with the ball path as long as possible.
Pause on your finish - This can tell you a lot about what your body is doing. In this video, Alyssa is shooting for the right corner of the net - so her chest/hips should be stopping around that point. If you stop your finish and it is more towards the pitcher or the left side of the field, then we are over-rotating a bit. Focus on staying closed as long as possible.
Have fun with this and don’t cheat yourself! You won’t be perfect with it - so don’t expect to be! The more you train it, the more it becomes second nature and the better you become as a hitter!

🥎Thank you @coachryancarver for this explanation!!!🥎
Owner - Prime Athletic Center
Head Coach - Georgia Thunderbolts - Carver
Head Coach - The King’s Academy Varsity