Tony Gwynn spent 20 years in Major League Baseball playing for the San Diego Padres and was inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame in 2007. During that 20 year stint, he accumulated 3141 hits and had a lifetime batting average of 0.338 to rank 17th on MLB's All-Time Career Batting Average list. He won five major league batting titles, eight national league batting titles, seven silver slugger awards, and five national league gold gloves.
This past year, Tony Gwynn and SportsSkool developed this video that describes his secrets to hitting a baseball.
Secrets to Hitting a Baseball:
1. Batting Gloves: Get a pair of batting gloves that fit snuggly and do not have wrinkles when you put them on your hands.
2. Bat Selection: Choose a bat the feels comfortable, which is an individual choice.
3. Location you stand in the batter's box: Use a consistent location because you will be able to remember what different pitches look like and have an easier time to make an adjustment between consecutive at-bats.
4. Hitting mechanics:
- Use a balanced stance: Feel your behind under you.
- Keep your hands back and set your front foot down: When you take your hands back and set your foot down, like on a pillow, maintain your balanced stance - don't drift forward.
- Lead with the knob of the bat: After setting your front foot down, take the knob of the bat to the baseball. As you lead with the knob of the bat, the bat barrel will follow through the hitting zone.
- Hit thru the baseball: The object is not to hit the baseball, but to hit thru the baseball. As the bat travels through the hitting zone, keep your head still.
- Finish high: As you follow through the swing, finish high with the bat wrapping around your shoulders.
5. Seeing the pitcher's release point: To see a pitcher's release point, start by looking at the logo on the pitcher's hat then slowly shift your eyes from the logo to the pitcher's hand.
6. Let the ball get deep: By letting the ball get deeper into the zone, you have a higher probability of hitting the ball because you watch the ball travel an additional three or four feet and have more time to determine if and where to hit the ball.