One of my favorite players over the years has been Nick Markakis. He’s been a consistent player for many years – excelling at the plate & defensively for many years. He’s always hit for decent average and driven more runs in than guys typically do with his HR totals. One of the reasons why is that he’s a tough out – a man that can drive the baseball to all fields.
Hitting Position:
The picture above is a little bit post-hitting position, but we can tell that Nick’s balance was evenly distributed and that he’s already on a good path to the baseball. Notice how far his back his hands are while deeply driving his front hip out of the way. A lot of young hitters get their hips “tied up” underneath them – trying to fire through the baseball but not clearing the front hip back and around themselves enough.
The result is a contact position where the head, spine and body are stiff and straightening up too much. Markakis is a great example of a hitter with a beautiful, deep hip turn.
Here we see the result – contact deep in Markakis’ stance (for an inside pitch), hands inside the baseball, barrel on the ball, hips cleared, head down.
Nick’s another hitter that uses a two handed finish on many swings. His back heel “collapses” a bit, while still being off the ground. This back foot position is becoming more and more common amongst hitters throughout baseball. As long as the heel is off the ground & weight is off the back foot at contact, its a pretty acceptable position.
A final note on his finish – notice how his top hand is still to the left of his bottom hand, even well into his finish. His hands haven’t “rolled over” yet, and his swing is long done. Rolling the top hand over the bottom hand is a no-no at contact, but it’s also something you can emphasize well after contact without any loss in power or bat speed – in fact, I’d bet that if you practiced some swings with the sole intent of preventing the hands from rolling over as long as possible, that your hitting position and contact would improve going forward.
