Nail It

Ever try to hammer a nail into a thick piece of wood? Swing off-center, and the nail caroms off the intended path. Swing too soft and too slow, and the nail goes nowhere. Swing without enough focus or with insufficient control and you outright miss the nail. But swing with the proper aim and the right speed and the proper focus and with appropriate control, and the hammer strikes the nail so sweetly that you can’t even feel the strike, even as the nail disappears into the board.

That’s how it feels to hit a baseball. Square, solid, centered. When a batter “nails” a ball, the ball leaps off his bat as if he’s hammered it. Much of a batter’s practice must be devoted to learning this focused transfer of energy which occurs at the instant the ball is struck. It requires impeccable timing and exquisite aim, such that the bat does not push the ball off the bat, it propels the ball off the surface with overwhelming force in one split-second, precise swing.

Think of the ball as a nail and your bat as a hammer. Make the nail disappear with one swing, a swing so efficient that you don’t even feel the impact. Live for this moment, practice this moment, and cherish this moment when a swing comes together and you nail the ball through the outfield fence.

From May 2011, http://raisingahitter.wordpress.com