Sports are tough to practice. Every good athlete has a coach or somebody to help them shape up in particular areas, whether general fitness, health or sports-specific moves and motions. What about people who cannot afford a coach and have to work alone? Surely, there are ways to work on a sport on your own.
Yes, firstly, everybody can focus on their fitness and overall health. Sports specific skills can also be practiced, but only to an extent, depending on the sport.
Baseball is a rather specific sport, which can be practiced alone, though with some obstacles. Here are some ideas on how to work on your baseball skills alone.
Using a Wall to Practice Coordination
Baseball is a sport which requires great hand-eye coordination. It is an essential skill and trait to master. One can work on their hand-eye coordination by using a baseball and finding a solid wall, preferably with no windows nearby.
Throwing the ball at the wall and then catching it with your catching glove, then throwing it immediately once more should be a good substitution for catching and throwing the ball in a real game. Varying the angle of the throw should mimic the different positions that one might find themselves in while playing baseball. Throwing directly versus throwing at the floor first wil have different results.
Batting Without a Target
Batting is a relatively simple yet complex motion. One should take a regular baseball bat and practice batting in isolation. Working the motions with a baseball bat should help get the muscle memory working, but, there are dangers for getting things wrong. When we practice a complex physical motion and do it in a suboptimal or simply, wrong way, we learn how to do something but in a way which is either harmful or inefficient or both.
Since we have access to cameras with a phone attached to them, we can make use of that and take videos of our practice and then compare it with the batting of a professional baseball player.
Throwing With Precision
Baseball is all about precision, particularly when you are a pitcher. A wrong throw and the opposition gets a point, or rather, they get closer to having a point. One can practice throwing by using a ball and finding relatively small targets to try and hit, at a reasonable distance, most often the pitching distance, or that between the bases.
The more precise the throw, the better the pitching and overall throwing, essential to tagging out the opposing batter.
Baseball, like most sports, can be practiced alone and without a coach. It takes some effort and reorganization, particularly to include reviewing habits and trying to make the most out of every motion, whether a bat or a throw.
