Step by Step Swing Fundamentals: The Hitting Disk™ is fun and easy to use. Since it's flexible and soft, you can stuff it in your pocket to toss it around indoors. By following the steps below, you'll improve bat speed and power by adopting a fundamentally consistant swing. Check out the sample drills at the end of the instructions. Step 1 - Flop your Hitting Disk!
Hold the Hitting Disk™ in the palm of one hand. Half of the disk should flop over your thumb (see photo). Your Hitting Disk is labeled to help both right and left handers position the disk properly. You'll get the hang of it with just one or two tries!
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Step 2 - Clap your hands.
Maintaining a "palm up" position through your imaginary point of contact is the key to training effectively with the Hitting Disk™.
Tip: One of the most common problems in hitting is caused by rolling the hands too early in the swing - creating a substantial loss of bat-speed and power.
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Step 3 - Set your batting stance.
Your feet will be just past your shoulders, toes are slightly turned in, knees are bent, back elbow is down, hands are away from your body and back, just around your shoulders.
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Step 4 - Serve the pizza!
To get the hang of what the Hitting Disk can teach you, pretend there is a long table about waist high from home plate to the pitcher's mound. Imagine the Hitting Disk is a small pizza and you are going to slide the pizza straight down the table! Tip- be aggressive with your swing - taking the same swing as you would take with a bat. Make sure you do not push your hands through the ball as you need to drive your hands through the ball. |
Step 5 - Be aggressive through the ball.
When you release the disk or at your point of contact your top hand palm should be facing the sky. Don’t role your top hand over to early as this will create groundballs. Throwing the disk up indicates the same swing that creates fly balls. By sliding the imaginary pizza - you're performing a fundamental "palm up" hitting drill. If you've maintained your form through the toss, your Hitting Disk will fly straight like a line drive. For beginners, try throwing the disk about 10 yards, and advanced your goal to about 30 yards.
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Step 6 - Something Here
Hitting Tip: The longer you stay in form through
the ball at contact, the stronger hitter you will be. All good hitters
hit "through" the ball and not "at" Try imagining that you are hitting two balls spaced about a foot apart at one time. The first ball is the one you are hitting and the other ball is coming in right behind it. Go through the first ball, hit the imaginary second ball - then you can start to roll your hands. Remember, one of the most common mistakes for both young and advanced hitters is the tendancy to roll the hands too early! |
Step 7 - Don't forget the importance of balance.
Notice the proper line from the top of the hat, all the way down the body and straight out the knee into the ground (photo). You don’t want to have a bent front leg or be titling up. When you throw the disk the correct way, with the wind, it will go out like a line drive and land easily.
Sample Drills with Hitting Disk™ Target Drill - Tape up some targets that you can throw into to work on your opposite field contact and release points. To work on opposite field contact, just release the disk earlier in your swing as if you pull the ball all the time. The disk will automatically start flying to the left after contact or release point. Pizza Contest - Get a few players with disks in a line. Throw the disks at the same time and see who can throw the disk the longest. We have a great time with this contest at America's Baseball Camps. Players learn to really get aggressive with their swings, while maintaining good form. The beauty of training with a Hitting Disk is that no matter how hard you throw it, it won't fly unless your maintain proper swing form! Pre-Game Warm Up - We use Hitting Disks for pre game warm ups in small areas or when there's not much time. It works to warm up the swing plane - and we've found that there isn't much difference between swinging a bat 100 times throwing 100 disks. The same muscles are warmed up and the brain's coordination centers are stimulated.
Hitting Disks are available in quantity for Leagues
and Teams. Contact us for special pricing and
custom printing options.
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Choose
an area, inside or out, that has some open space. - you're going
to want to throw with the wind. 
Put
the other hand on top - all fingers touching with the disk between
your hands.
Now,
get in your normal batting stance and put your hands in the same
position you would with a baseball or softball bat - hands should
be up and around the face area. 
Once
you are in a comfortable hitting stance, you're ready to swing.
When
you come through to finish, make sure you finish high with your
hands - keeping your eyes on the ball at contact. Remember, you
want to keep a palm up, palm down position well through the ball.
Make
sure that when you have finished throwing the disk your stance is
still balanced.