• The grip should never be so tight as to produce muscle tension in your hands and arms.
• Tension tightens your body and restricts movement, the worst thing you can do for a swing.
• The grip should promote the maneuverability of the hands and wrist, each of which is vital to the creation of bat speed and extension of the swing.
• Don't squeeze the bat, simply surround the bat handle with your hands.
• Grip the bat with your bottom hand, first by simply laying the bat over the top part of the hand where the palm ends and the fingers start.
  
• The fingers then should fold around the bat naturally. Repeat the same procedure with the top hand and make sure that the middle knuckles on both hands are parallel to one another. This best allows the wrist joints to accelerate.

The Stance

There are three basic stances and each is the platform for distinct results.

The most effective stance for you is the one that comes most naturally.

Don't add unnecessary responsibilities or motions to your hitting method simply because you want to copy your baseball or softball hero.

Open Stance

This stance is most frequently employed by the rotational (or pull hitter) for the purpose of hitting the inside pitch or to see and track the pitch more effectively, the front foot is a little open, aiming to the right of the pitcher, and the back toe is pointed straight toward homeplate.

Although this stance is effective for balls thrown on the inner half of the plate, it is equally as ineffective, however, on balls thrown on the outer half of the plate because striding away from the plate causes the hips and body to open too soon.

Because a large majority of pitches are thrown on the outer 1 / 2 of the plate, this stance is not suitable for consistent contact.

However, some players start open to see the ball better and as they stride, close themselves back up to being square.

The Closed Stance

This stance is employed by players who tend to throw open their hips too early or those
who have problems dealing with the pitch on the outside of the plate.

This hitter starts with his front foot two to four inches nearer to home plate than his back foot.

The benefits with this type of stance are generally one-dimensional.

Once again, while the closed stance allows the hitter to make contact with the outside pitch more efficiently, it also
makes it hard for him to hit the inside pitch because he has to swing across his
body, making the rotation of the hip more difficult.

The other possible issue using this stance is the hitter's vision may be impaired since he can't see the pitch
with the back eye.

The Square Stance

This stance is by far the most beneficial of the 3.

Your feet are shoulder width apart and pointed straight towards homeplate.

The square stance also allows you to hit balls in all areas of the strike zone, thereby reducing a hitter's vulnerabilities.

And with this stance, the hitter can effectively see the pitcher with both eyes.

The square stance is the best place to start and certainly the best stance for beginning hitters.

Once you establish a solid base with the square stance you can and will experiment...but with the foundation firmly in place, you'll never too far away from the basics that the square stance ensures.

The Well balanced Square Stance with Proper Plate Coverage

When you take your stance inside the batters box, you must establish equilibrium as well as
plate coverage.

You'll be able to achieve both by using this straightforward two-step procedure:

1.  Go to the rear of the batter’s box, spread your feet shoulder-width apart.While keeping the legs straight, bend over slightly from the hips and touch the out-side corner of the plate with the tip of the bat. The top fifty percent of your body ought to lean slightly over your feet and you should feel your body weight over the balls of both feet.
2. Without elevating your head or top half of your body, scarcely bend your knees.
   

Great job. You now have achieved a balanced stance while ensuring plate protection simultaneously. This process should be duplicated each time prior to taking a cut. And by doing so, it results in being a habit.

Let's look at the benefits of the balanced stance together with plate coverage:

1. It allows you to control movement and aggressively attack the ball.
2. Flexing at the hip places your head in the most reliable posture to follow the pitch with your eyes, and also minimizes head movement.
3.  It enables you to hit pitches in any area of the strike zone.
4.  It ensures a powerful foundation for other types of effective movements in the swing.