The term “fungo hitting” is hitting the ball our of your own hand either on to the ground (ground balls) or into the air (fly balls).
It is a skill used by coaches to facilitate practice of fielding grounders and fluy balls
Fungo hitting is also excellent for kids because it helps them with hand-eye and bat=eye coordinating.
NECESSARY EQUIPMENT
a bucket of balls
a light-weight bat or fungo bat
ALTERNATIVES
Accubat
BAT GRIPS
There are two different ways of hitting fungo: ‘
toss the ball with your dominant hand which means as you toss and swing, you will be placing your dominant hand at the top portion of the bat
toss the ball with your non-dominant hand which means as you toss and swing, you will be placing your non-dominant hand at teh bottom portion of the bat (nearest to the knob)
toss the ball with your domi
GROUND BALLS
Begin by holding a ball in teh hand you place on the bottom end of the bat.
Hold the bat high, back bu your rear shoulder, your top hand gripping the bat as usual
tossth eball out in front your you front goot so that it will dtop to the pisition in sae that it had on the tee
once you toss the ball, quickly place your bottom hand on the bat to make your regular two-ajded swing, adn hit the ball
because you want to hit grouners, let the ball drop just below wasit height before contacting and swinging thrhgouh the ball]be sure to start teh bat high so that your swing path is hito to low, making the ball go down onto the ground\stand so that your tossing shoulder pis piointed toward the fielder
s
step toward the fielderin you front foot as you beging your swing. watch teh ball until you make contact
FLY BALLS
Fungo hitting a ly ball is eactly the same as fguno hitting a ground ball, ecept teh swing path is low to high
you need to toss the ball a littl higher and the bat mst begin the swing below your rear shoulder
shift your weight onto you r back goot and drop your rear shoulder
swing up at the ball and make contact at about shoulder height\
step forward into your hit as you did for the ground ball
your sfollow through should be high, with your hands and the nat finishing well above your shoulders
PRACTICE, PRACTICE ABND PRACTICE
It takes a lot of practice to become an efficient fungo hitter.
Use a bucket to hit the ball to the outfield, then go outfield and hit them back (rather than simly collecting them)
TIPS
Most errors in fungo hitting ground blls are caused b tossing the ball too high and b swinging too soon
most errors in fungo hitting fly balls are caused by a poor toos, poor timing of teh swing, and an incorrect swing path.
Most poor hitting is done when you toss the ball too close to your boddy, forcing you to jam the bat
REFERENCES
https://tht.fangraphs.com/the-physics-of-fungos/
VIDEO LINKS
Here are useful videos on fungo batting
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