Hitting Tips for Slo-Pitch Softball Here are some hitting tip from Ray DeMarini's "The Secrets to Ultimate Bat Speed" and a few other places. I'll be updating this periodically, so keep checking back. If you have any tips you want to share with the rest of us softball nuts, e-mail me & I'll put them in here. 1. Keep your hands loose - you get a lot more speed with a relaxed grip than with a tight grip. 2. PUSH with your back hand while PULLING with your front hand - the PUSH will give you a significant increase in power & improve your follow-through. 3. Release your top hand off the bat - this will help give you more extension which means more power. If you don't already do this, it will probably feel uncomfortable at first, but work with it & you should see an increase in power. 4. Keep your hands out in front of the bat - basically throw your hands at the ball so that the last thing that comes through the strike zone is the bat head. 5. Hit the bottom half of the ball - this causes back spin which will carry the ball farther. 6. Make sure you are shifting your weight from your back foot to your front foot as you're powering through the ball. If you keep your weight on your back foot, you just won't generate that much power. 7. Make contact slightly in front of where you're standing because this will be where you're generating your max bat speed. Too far in front, though, and the bat will be decelerating when you hit the ball. Too soon in your swing, & you won't be generating enough speed & won't have enough leverage. 8. Drop your pinky finger off the knob to get more leverage because leverage = speed. 9. Choose pitches in your "power zone". Each of us has his own zone where he can hit with the most power. Try to be patient & really work on pitch selection. 10. "Ikey-Mikey" - start your swing with your chin on your front shoulder (Ikey), and end with your chin on your back shoulder (Mikey). This will keep your head down on the ball and prevent you from opening up too soon & losing power. Don't worry about hips, back elbow, and all that other stuff; concentrate on your hands - keeping them relaxed, swinging them fast and pulling (accelerating) through the ball to maintain as much speed as possible, and the rest (hips, weight transfer, follow-through, etc.) will take care of itself. You'll be surprised what you are capable of if you apply proven techniques and practice hard. If you WANT to hit with more power and consistency, you CAN and WILL; it is up to YOU.