One of the most important baseball tips about hitting is that you should learn to recognize a curve ball as quickly as possible. Recognizing a curveball quickly is not an easy thing to do. Hitting a well-placed corner isn’t easy either. That’s why you’ll hear the expression, “he’s a good fastball hitter” ten times for every time you hear, “he’s a good curveball hitter.” I’m well aware that part of that is because a lot more fastballs are being thrown, so of course more fastballs are going to be hit harder. But I’m also well aware that the motion in the curveball makes baseball much more difficult, and the slower speed disrupts timing. The quicker you can recognize that it’s the curveball the pitcher is throwing, the better chance you have of hitting well. As we’ve said many times, a split second is an eternity when it comes to hitting in baseball and it certainly applies here. That’s why pitchers who have “late breaking” pitches are often very successful, because the batter doesn’t realize it’s a breaking ball until it’s a fraction of a second too late.

Ways to quickly recognize the curveball:

  • Watch the launch point of the launcher very closely. One of the best baseball tips to remember is that quite often, a pitcher’s launch point for a curveball can be slightly different than his fastball’s launch point.
  • Observe the trajectory of the ball as soon as the pitcher throws it. It might as well have a slight arc that isn’t present on the fastball.
  • Note the pitcher’s arm angle. There’s a good chance that with the fastball, the pitcher can go almost directly overhead and with the curveball he can drop down a bit. This happens very often because many pitchers are in love with horizontal movement. (Personally, I’m in love with the downward motion.)
  • Practice watching as many curveballs as possible.

Let’s say you play three times a week and get about ten at-bats a week. Of those ten at-bats, you see about one curveball per at-bat, which is about ten a week. I strongly suggest that to get better at recognizing a curve faster, you should see more than ten per week. If you’re serious about baseball hitting and having better bats against the curveball, here’s what I recommend you do.

1. Whenever you have batting practice with your team, ask your pitcher to mix up some curveballs during his last ten or twelve swings.

2. If one of your pitchers is batting practice, stand behind the backstop and practice trying to spot his curveball as quickly as possible.

3. If one of your pitchers is throwing a bull pen, stand nearby and watch him closely. Try to read the curve as fast as you can.

If you’re serious about your baseball swings, you’ll find the time to do these things. By doing the things listed above, you may very well see 50 curveballs a week instead of just 10 a week. I am well aware that it is not as efficient as if you were upstairs hitting in the batter’s box, but it will still improve your curveball recognition. How can you not help? He has to help you.

Hit the curveball:

  • Fast hands are an essential part of successful hitting in baseball. If your hands are fast, you can “stay behind” longer. By hanging back and not over-committing, this is extremely helpful when trying to hit the curveball. There is much less chance that you will be fooled by it and lose your balance and be too far forward. There is no substitute for having fast hands.
  • “Hit it where it’s thrown.” An old cliché, but still one of the best baseball tips for hitting. A hard, low, faraway curveball with very good downward movement is not an easy pitch to hit. I strongly recommend hitting the opposite field. Very few well placed low and far curveballs are drawn by a batter and hit well.