It seems like such a simple question, however, like most things in baseball, there is a little more to it than meets the eye. At Clutch Hitting, our goal is to simply give children the best probability of succeeding by teaching them fundamental concepts that are based on sound logic. That is to say we do not teach children the style of hitting we used to hit with or the style we like the most. What we do try teach, however, is sound logical (i.e. fundamental) steps which lend themselves to reasoned explanations that are hopefully easy to understand and progressively reinforce through practice. This all starts with where a batter stands in the batter's box.
Baseball is often called "a game of inches," but it can just as easily be called "a game of angles." Where a batter stands in the batter's box will undoubtedly affect the angles he creates for himself and whether a batted ball will be fair or foul.
1. First, take note that the foul lines go out from the back corner of home plate. (1) These lines represent the angles a batter must work with. Although we will use the batter's box as an obvious reference point, it is really irrelevant to where a batter stands.
Little League Note - Major League ballplayers stand where they do because of particular strategies that they have chosen to incorporate. They know their swing and what they give up based on where they stand. In short, DO NOT COPY A MAJOR LEAGUE PLAYER'S APPROACH UNLESS YOU ARE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY DOING! And unfortunately, probably the only way to know is by speaking with them.
2. A batter's front foot should be even with the back, side corner of home plate as shown. (2)
3. In order to determine how far to stand from home plate, ballplayers should be instructed to lay their bat down across the back, side corner of home plate, placing the end of the bat at one tip and allowing the handle/knob to rest in the batter's box. (3)
4. Next, the batter should place his front foot/toe against the handle/knob of the bat (4) and then spread his legs for his stance by moving his back foot only.
Little League Note - This may seem simplistic, but Bernie Williams, the All-Star Centerfielder for the New York Yankees, and the 1998 American League Batting Champion, does this each time he steps up to the plate. In fact, he takes this basic approach one step further, and draws a straight line in the batter's box so that he is sure to stand square to the plate. (see Tip "The Stride").
5. But how far apart should the legs be? The appropriate width of a batter's stance is normally equivalent to the size of the bat he is using. Therefore, a good rule to follow is to perform Step 4, and then place the bat down, one end at the front foot, the other at the back part of the batter's box. (5) Then, a batter can simply spread his legs the length of the bat.
6. Why is this so important?
a. First, for the simple reason that it makes sure that the batter has full plate coverage.
b. In addition, this plate coverage actually puts the barrel of the bat over the middle portion of the plate. (6)
c. And, as we stated at the very beginning, it creates the proper angles. It would be unfortunate for a batter to take a swing, doing everything correctly, even having perfect timing, only to produce a foul ball! Again, it is "a game of angles."
d. Moreover, notice that the further towards the front of the batter's box a batter stands, the closer he is to the pitcher, thus the earlier he must decide whether the pitch is a strike or not. (7) That is, pitches that may fall out of the strike zone, (i.e. breaking pitches), now appear to be strikes because either they have not finished their break or are just about to break. Therefore, not only does a batter give up time to decide whether or not the pitch is a strike and throw off the angles, he also enlarges the strike zone when standing "up in the box."
e. When a batter stands "back in the box," (8) true, he does give himself more time to decide whether to swing and obviously more time to hit the ball as he has moved away from the pitcher. Unfortunately, however, he has also given the pitch more time to move. That is, the batter will lose the ability to hit breaking pitches before they break (i.e. while they are still "hanging" and may also swing at pitches as they are "leaving" or moving out of the strike zone instead of entering it).
Since it seems that too far "up front" in the box causes just the opposite problems as standing "back in" the box, it may seem that we are advocating simply standing in the middle. If that were true, other coaches may logic that each batter should stand in the appropriate place in the box dependent on his strengths as well as what pitch he expects. And that is precisely what leads to the problems described above. At Clutch Hitting, as we state with many of our Tips, they are designed to simply give ballplayers the best overall probability of success without taking short cuts. As such, standing consistent with the angles of the field as described above is the most productive compromise for ALL HITTERS in order to be able to hit all types of pitches as well as hit them fair.
