Getting your feet back square to hit the baseball allows you a better chance to hit any pitch in any location that comes your way. That means if you click on any link on our site that takes you to an online store, they'll give us a small commission on whatever you buy in the next couple weeks. This thread is archived. Open stance vs Closed stance. Even though this is considered the "modern" way to shoot the basketball, watch the stance of Larry Bird and Michael Jordan...it's open. After 16 years of playing professionally, Doug retired and took a position as a Major League scout with the Colorado Rockies for 2 years. A golfer’s stance refers to the position of his feet in relation to one another and to the ball, before the beginning of a swing. How far from the plate should I be when I get in the batter's box? Your stride just needs to go straight toward the pitcher. All baseball batting stances have pros and cons and should be used to fit the type of hitter and the swing that you have. Batting stance (before pitch) … Next for the normal or balanced batting stance we want to set our stride mark and align our toes When starting out you can use a 2x4 or simply draw a line in the sand to replace the board. Stance Width; Stance Alignment; Clubface. Getting a little closer to the plate will take away the outside part of the plate and make it closer to them. "My best striking position is closed," Stanton said. Totally made in the USA and a portion of every sale goes to Autism Foundations. The open stance also could also help the batter if he is having trouble hitting a curve ball. A little trick, if you have a square stance and are striding towards home plate try starting with a closed stance. The batter with a closed stance is more likely to throw open his front shoulder thus losing power and possibly tightening up or inhibiting his swing. Whether they swing of not, this is the positioning of their body, posture, how they hold the bat etc. If you keep your feet closed at contact, you will be able to handle the pitches away much better and hit the ball with more success the other way. So, next time you need to buy something online, we hope you'll click through our website first! Bat speed is king when it comes to hitting and most strong hitters don’t go any longer than a 34 inch bat. But regardless of the vast variety of quirks, you will find that all hitters stances fall into one of these three categories: (1) Open (2) square, or (3) closed. Grip Strength; Grip Types (Overlap, Interlock and Baseball) Long vs Short Left Thumb Grip; Palm-and-Finger Grip vs All-Fingers Grip; Weight Distribution. Two golfers that come to mind that played from a closed stance include Sam Snead and Arnold Palmer. When the batter’s front foot is closer to home plate than the back foot, it is considered a closed stance. Weight Across your Feet; Weight Inside your Feet; Club Shaft. Stance Width; Stance Alignment; Clubface. best. The open stance involves a shift in foot placement to the more common square stance. You can use any stance you want, just for the record. A closed stance also fixes the coming over the top a bit. It is used mostly for selling out on a approach of looking for the ball the other way and hitting it that way. Pay attention to problems that you may have at the plate and make adjustments to make your swing more efficient. Notice how the toes in both stances are not aligned one leg is out the other is in. Close. You will find the right stance in the game by focusing on comfort and time. Sort by. Open Batting Stance. The answer is totally up to you, because the main object of batting is to hit the ball and be relaxed doing it. The Open Stance. Also, not every product pays us a commission, but if we like it, we still recommend it. This is a problem that some hitters have especially when a right handed hitter is facing a right handed pitcher and a left handed hitter is facing a left handed pitcher. Worth a checkout – http://www.striderightmats.com. When doing this you can also cock your hip by turing the hip slightly towards the back portion of home plate. The front knee should be turned in slightly towards the back knee as they pinch together while our weight should be evenly distributed on both legs. A player's ability to develop both an open and closed stance begins with footwork. The success of any baseball or softball hitter starts with the proper batting stance. It's not perfect., but I tend to come across the ball a bit (not much) so a closed stance would help me neutralize that path. Weight Across your Feet; Weight Inside your Feet; Club Shaft. My experience with open\closed stance is similar to Eric: open stance push ball right. We hope to keep all or most of the info on PBI free so that everyone can have access to it. In this section I will talk about the open, closed, and square batting stances, including what the advantages and disadvantages are of each one. There are many hitters (more in softball) that start in their stance at that distance and just lift their foot and place it back down (No stride, very little weight transfer). How to Set Up Properly. With this stance your feet will still be either side of the shooting line, however, they won’t be completely parallel. 3 comments. Remember hitting starts from the ground up so the legs and hip are extremly important to hitting a baseball. Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. Beginners should start with this one. Also, I would love to hear your thoughts or questions in the comment section below. The first thing to do when you see an open stance is to find out if it's really a closed position in disguise and the batsman is stepping to the off side even though he starts from an open position. Let’s define the two terms to to make it clear. I used an open stance when I played. Stance is how the hitter sets up in the batters box, before the pitch is thrown. An extra couple miles per hour on your bat speed may help get the barrel to the baseball a little more consistently. Now, well into the second half of the season, Stanton is one of the most closed off hitters in baseball. Now that I'm starting sparring again, I'm wondering if someone can explain the advantages and disadvantages of an open stance vs. a closed stance. This is the most common stance hitters use in the batters box, and some would argue it’s the best batting stance. in football when someone wants to unleash and bending biting free kick doesn't he turn his hips or does he hit it from an open stance? The closed stance shown to the right has the batter place his lead foot closer towards the plate. Play hard! The batting stance, as far as choosing an open or closed position goes, there are pros and cons for each. Remember never get away from the basics. A closed batting stance is when your front foot is closer to the plate than your back foot – making you closed to the pitcher. Your upper body is already in the correct position to attack the baseball. What are the merits of each stance and in which situations should you choose one over the other? Over the following games, the new stance didn't just stick, it exaggerated. Proper Batting Stance for Baseball Players. Our Promise. Stance vs Swing. Shaft Lean; Shaft Length; Swing. Good luck. If you start them low, they can only move up. It would be impossible to step towards the direction of the incoming ball in the closed stance position. Batting stance is just the first of three phases in hitting. Many times from this position you may step open (which will result in ideally stepping towards the pitcher). You will see some hitters stand tall, some squat low, and some very wide. The variety of stances is often a source of confusion for players since they are not sure which one to use. Now in more than 32 states in the US and in Japan and Canada. This video covers the open stance forehands vs the closed stance forehands. It should be easy to see the pitcher with both eyes. It is more like you are facing the pitcher. The traditional closed stance forehand is struck after a player's non-dominant, or lead, foot has stepped toward the net. A closed stance is one where the toe line is not parallel to the target line but is rather crossing it in front of the ball. A certain stance may help your hands or your swing work a little better than another. My son (11 years old) uses a somewhat open but mostly closed (feet almost parallel) stance. Our facilities actually just bought new hitting mats to analyze stance and stride. A former MLB player’s perspective, How to choose the best youth baseball league for YOUR kid, Player Highlight – “Can Girls play baseball?” A study in toughness , Catchers – How to Improve Pop Time? You are open to the pitcher. It's all about comfort. This issue is very much an individual comfort thing, especially when dealing with how upright you stand or how low you squat. Our passion is to help baseball players maximize their potential. Some hitters use this stance because they are more successful at pulling the baseball. You should be able to touch the outside corner with the barrel of the bat. We support the site through affiliate relationships with baseball retailers. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast . It helped our HS team break the school record for wins and win its first Division Title in school history in Softball. When the bat travels through the strike zone, I am consistently hitting the ball at the trademark or just under it (regardless of what size bat I use).I may have already answered my question but what do you think? It also just feels more natural. Sometimes these hitters sell out to pulling the baseball and don’t get quite back to square, that is why they have to get closer to the plate then most hitters. It can create some problems with getting to an inside pitch. Just looking for opinions. – Doug, Doug Bernier, founder of Pro Baseball Insider.com, debuted in the Major Leagues in 2008 with the Colorado Rockies, and has played professional baseball for 5 organizations (CO Rockies, NY Yankees, PIT Pirates, MN Twins, & TX Rangers) over the past 16 years. I'm a huge power hitter and I have a closed stance. Notice how the front foot is aligned with the back portion of home plate where the plate begins to angle towards the catcher. Which one is the best? Or more simply, the toe line of a closed stance will be aimed at the right of the target. It feel natural and comfortable, rather than my normal open stance, which feels restrictive. He has Major League time at every infield position, and has played every position on the field professionally except for catcher. That is something you need to play with and feel comfortable with. I know the biggest leap I made in becoming a better hitter was adjusting my personal stance and stride. When the best baseball and softball hitters get to their Launch Position, the distance between their feet is approximately 50-60% of their height. With users adjusting their feet, legs, and hips so that they’re facing the target more. Specifically, I'm thinking about what types of strikes would be good from each stance. share. The second stance, and also a very popular one with Major League hitters, is the closed stance. Againg this adds an extra step in the process. Your upper body is already closed off and your bat has to go a little further to get to an inside pitch because it has to get around your body. To determine how far away from the plate you should be, start at the plate and put one foot behind the other (heel to toe). Currently Doug is the Data and Game Planning Coordinator with the Colorado Rockies, Sign up for the 5 Point Power Booster videos here Get the free videos, Wow absolutely great article. Then they can look to their strength which is to pull the baseball. An open hitting stance is when your front foot is further from home plate than your back foot. Help us keep it free. Which one should you use? From here, you would like to get to square but if your front foot slides back from the plate then you have momentum starting to spin away from the pitcher. We want to explode our hips towards the pitcher. These steps are also important because they help us get balanced in the batter's box and by aligning our shoulders and legs up to the pitcher. Closed Stance Vs Open Stance Baseball sites: Closed Stance Vs Open Stance Baseball search in title. Once you do this hold the bat and place it over the plate. Doug I think you did a phenomenal job of touching the key points to different stances. We will show you what we feel has been a success for the majority of the hitters and these check points can possibly make you a better hitter if you apply them to a regular routine. In the square stance (which is the more typical stance), both feet are equal distance from home plate, or close to equal. If you really dive into it all you will see plenty of all time greats that play from an open or closed stance. Closed stance definition is - a stance (as in golf) in which the forward foot is closer to the line of play than the back foot. However, I see closed stance FH causing injury as well as poor performance in comparison, and players themselves report that they play more efficiently and feel more natural using the open stance once they are given the alternative. How we keep it free. Most people go to this stance because they are having trouble handling the pitch away and hitting the ball the other way. 100% Upvoted. Clubface Angle (Square, Open, or Closed; Grip. We tried and tried to fix it but we couldn't stop it, so we tried a open stance just this last week so he would just be stepping into the load vs striding forward. save hide report. Posted by. I don't really care what a hitters stance is as long as he gets squared away before he swings. How to steal bases – 6 Base Stealing Tips from MLB stolen base leader Eric Young Jr. 4 Baseball fielding tips from Rockies Nolan Arenado, Offensive Routines – Batting Practice and Pre Game Preparation, You should click to watch this great defensive play by Bernier, What baseball scouts look for: Advice from Orioles Scout, Everything you need to know about how to use a wood bat, Bat Path – The most important hitting trait no one is talking about, Baseball bat sensor product review: Swing Tracker by Diamond Kinetics, Linear vs Rotational Hitting, Pros and Cons of each baseball swing, How to know good from bad baseball instruction. We promise not to ever let commission or anything else sway us from giving a 100% honest reviews of baseball gear. Similarly to the face of the club, a stance can fall within one of three categories: square, open and closed. Click here to read more, FREE baseball tips and instruction, exclusively from the pros, Hitting Tips to Improve your Baseball Swing, Best batting stance – Comparing open, square, and closed batting stance, How to Steal Bases in Baseball | 4 Tips for advancing on wild pitches, passed balls and balls in the dirt, How Steph Curry built a monster | Pro Tips for Becoming a Top Athlete, How to field a backhand ground ball | Baseball Fielding Drills, How to Deal With Failing in Baseball – From JV to Professional Baseball, Off season baseball workouts for youth (AT HOME) Covid Edition, Mookie Betts just made base running cool again — [Plus 3 common base running mistakes to avoid], Baseball tips: What should I be doing during off season? June 27, 2019 admin Uncategorized 0. My son did have a regular stance but he was overloading on the front foot when he would come off his load. Many of us grew up playing baseball learning about the three basic batting stances: open, closed and square. 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