How to Hold a Baseball Bat | Proper Bat Grip

What is the correct way to hold a baseball bat? It is more than just picking up the bat with your hands and swinging. How to hold a baseball bat correctly is one of the first things a player should learn. Proper bat grip will allow you to drive through the ball with your best possible swing through the zone, creating strong contact.

Proper Baseball Bat Grip Benefits

There are several benefits for properly gripping the baseball bat. You might not think that hand positioning is important but here are just a few things that are affected by how you hold the bat:

• Swing speed will be quicker, helping the bat to enter the strike zone faster.
• The bat will make stronger contact with the baseball giving your swing the power to drive through the ball.
• With your hands in the proper position on the bat, you will have the ability to make quick adjustments for different pitches.
• A good bat grip will allow your whole body to be relaxed white batting and that is the most important thing about being a good hitter.

How to Hold a Baseball Bat

Many professional hitting instructors teach entire courses on proper baseball bat grip. Each batter will have their own unique grip, but the most important thing is that the body is comfortable and relaxed.

1. Place the head of the baseball bat on the ground. The head should be in front of your lead foot. Grab the handle with your bottom, non-dominant hand. Grabbing the baseball bat like this creates an angle that generates extra whip with your wrist.
2. Wrap the index finger of the bottom hand around the bat followed by the other three fingers. There should be a separation between the index finger and the other three bottom fingers. Your knuckle needs to point up the barrel of the bat. You want to grip the bat with your pad of your fingers and not the palm of your hand.
3. Take the top hand and grip the handle as you did with the bottom hand. The index finger should again be separated from the other three fingers. All four fingers need to make contact with the handle and the thumb needs to be in a comfortable position. The second knuckles down all your fingers should be lined up or close to alignment.
4. The bat should be light in your fingers. Your grip will automatically tighten when swinging so you will have the strongest grip when the bat makes contact with the baseball.
5. Using too tight of a grip will fatigue your muscles and result in a weaker, slower swing. When gripping the bat, your bottom hand can have a tighter grip, but your top hand should remain loose for better control.

How you grip the baseball bat is essential in how balanced your swing will be and how well you will make contact with the baseball.  It may benefit your swing to find the best baseball bat grip tape for your wood bat or to replace on your aluminum bat for enhanced comfortability and control.

It is important to remember to be relaxed in the batter’s box. A relaxed batter will have better control and more powerful hits in all parts of the strike zone.

View our complete guide to baseball hitting mechanics.
View the best hitting aids for baseball and softball.

Now that you know the basics of how to properly grip a baseball bat, it is time to practice. Practice proper baseball bat grip over and over so that you build up muscle memory. Over time, holding a baseball bat will become natural and automatic.

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