Ok, so me and my friend have the same problem. We are 17,junior year, and we're both about 5'10 180 pounds. Me and him are probably the strongest kids on the team,(lower and upper body)and we have probably the fastest bat speed on the team too. Yet we don't hit that many homeruns... I don't understand how some string bean kids on my team can hit homers like there nothing, when they never lift weights or anything... Whats the deal? What do we do to improve? Is it something with mechanics? Any pointers?

lol this is funny im in the exact same situation.

what i ahve found is that i tend to grip the bat really tight, i fixed this by loosening my grip and am swinging and hitting alot harder than i used to but still have to fix alot more in my mechanics!

id say ure the same just mechanics, get the coach to help you one on one.

Are you sure about having the best bat speed? What kind of contact are you making vs. the stringbeans?

you probably have a very linear swing. To hit the ball with power you need rotational mechanics. Go to mikeepsteinhitting.com to learn more.

Don't try to hit the huge bombs work on your bat speed and just try to hit it hard some where the huge bombs will come if u just concentrate on hitting the ball where it is pitched. concentratinig on bombing one every time leads to strike outs.

I'm curious, do you use wood bats regularly? If not, you might consider spending your practice time working with a wood bat, rather than always swinging metal. With a wood bat, you'll learn to place the sweet spot of the bat on the ball, or you'll see poor results and will feel it in your hands. With metal, you can often get away with poor swing mechanics and still hit the ball with some authority. Generally, wood bats tend to be slightly heavier than metal, for comparable length and this can contribute to a bit more bat speed when going back to metal.

You should focus on making quality contact in each swing, and not worry too much about the result, whether it goes out of the park or not. If you develop a rotational swing with solid fundamentals and have the ability to generate bat speed, you'll hit some bombs. More important, you'll hit lots of hard line drives.

Regarding the strength part of hitting with power, you'll benefit from working on your core and lower body more than arms. Power comes from your lower half and core area.

Im 6'6" 230lbs and was not hitting nearly the amount of homeruns that players half my size were hitting. I found that power comes from your lower half, hips, and core. The further your lower half can rotate with your upper half staying in, the more torque you build up in your core. Then, its all released and you get your power. This concept helped me tons.

Send me some of your swings by email or by DVD and I will tell you what you need to do to become more proficient at hitting the ball. Just send me a personal message here and I will give you my address.