Baseball Tips

Baseball is a very complicated sport, not only to learn, but to play as well. There are four basic things you need to know to play baseball:
Catching, Fielding, Throwing, and Hitting. If you can master these, you can become a good baseball player, assuming you know the rules.

Catching:

The first thing you need to know, is that you cannot be scared of the ball. If you are scared of the ball, you will never be able to master the art of catching. The second thing that you need to know is..You must wear a glove, or it WILL hurt (talking from past experience). The following are the 3 subcategories of catching:

Line Drives:

Line drives are probally the hardest to catch. Although, if you have good hand eye coordination you can master linedrives fairly easily.
Tip#1
Stay Focused, watch the ball leave the bat, and follow it with your eyes.
TIP#2
Be careful, spin can cause the ball to move greatly. This is why you must have hand eye coordination. Wherever the ball goes, thats where your glove should go. The second that the ball hits the glove, close your glove.
HINT #1
Before practicng, you should oil your glove so that you can move it with virtually no muscle or strength whatsoever. If you have caught the ball, without obtaining an injury, you have mastered the line drive, if you didn't catch it, try again. If you've died from an injury, I take no responsibility.

Pop Flies:

The art to catching pop flies comes form the ability to run, and run faster.
TIP#1
When the ball leaves the bat and starts heading your way, take three steps back. This is because if the ball happens to fall short, it is easier to run in and catch it, than to run back and catch it.
TIP#2
Catch the ball with your glove right above your nose. Do not try to be one of those pathetic Yankees (yes, its true, i'm a mets fan) and catch the ball by your foot.
HINT#1
Always catch the ball with one hand ready to cover your glove to make sure the ball doesn't bounce out. DO NOT try to catch the ball with just your glove due to spin on the ball that will cause it to fly out.

Diving Catches:

The technique of diving catches should only be attempted once one has mastered linedrives and pop flies. Diving catches may very well be the hardest thing to do in baseball.
TIP#1
The first rule in diving catches is to protect yourself. One should never go face first plummeting to the ground.
TIP#2
Dive with nothing holding you down. This means that if you are going to dive, don't decide in the middle o only go half way. This is usually when injuries accure. If you are going to dive, go all out, arms extended, legs extended.
HINT#1
If you are unsure if you be able to catch the ball even with a dive, dive legs first so that you can play the ball on a hop or catch it.

Fielding

The first thing you need to know about fielding is that you must always keep your eye on the ball.
HINT#1
Know where you are going to throw the ball even before it comes to you, therefore you do not have to think about it when you have it, but instead you will just throw it. Do this before every play.
TIP#1
When the ball comes off the bat, watch it thoroughly. Do not take your eyes of it.
TIP#2
Never cross your legs. move from side to side like you would in basketball. Never have one foot cross over the other.
TIP#3
Always stay in front of the ball, and keep your glove on the ground so that if the ball takes a bad hop, you can quickly pick your glove up and field it.
In my opinion, fielding is probably the easiest thing to learn. You do not have to be that athletic to do it, it just takes practice.

Choppers

The chopper is a subcategory under Fielding. For those who do not know, a chopper is when the ball is batted straight to the ground and bounces like a basketball towards the fielder. Play it like a regular grounder, but becareful, the ball has a knack to bounce up right when it gets to the fielder. Stay infront of it, but better yet, charge it right after the hit. Charging the ball gives it less time to make outrageous, unplayable hops.

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Throwing

Throwing is probally the easiest thing to do in baseball. It basically comes naturally.

HINT#1
Unless you must throw immediately, make sure you get a good grip on the ball.
TIP#1
Hold ball with the index and middle finger going up and the thumb coming around the side of the ball.
Pull arm all the way to the side of your head and just come from up to down.
TIP#2
Release ball about one foot over your head for best power and accuracy.
HINT#2
Practice this several times. If it is not comfortable for your arm because you fell clicking or it simply hurts, you have to choices: try a different tecnique, or give up baseball.

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Hitting

Hitting is extremely complicated. It is much harder than it looks. The secret to hitting relys on good hand eye coordination.
TIP#1
Watch ball as it leaves the pitcher's hand. Estimate when it will arive (approximately 4 inches in front of the plate is where you should know when it will arrive) and estimate how high or low it will be.
HINT#1
Even if the ball looks like it will be nowhere near the strike zone, keep your bat up and ready, because the ball can spin a ton, with a lot of movement forcing it to come back into the strike zone.
TIP#2
When you swing, keep eye on the bat as it connects witht the ball. Swing level, and not up. Swinging up is considered an upper cut, and you will only hit pop ups.
HINT#2
Try swinging with muscle; it does not matter how fast your bat moves, it matters how much muscle you put into it, how well your timing is, and how well you connect.

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