We have a bunting station as an everyday part of practice. I teach the "baseball style" as Gunner describes it but I'd just describe it as something that my players have had success with for 3 decades. In fact, we are known as a school that can hit and bunt so you have to be able to defend both. I want a "pinch" just before the area where the bat flattens out in the barrel. I want the other hand about two inches up from the knob. I don't want the velocity of the pitch at contact to jerk the bat back resulting in a foul ball.
How do we coach it? We start with a lite flite machine and those soft baseballs. We get rotated into the bunting position and a feeder feeds the ball and the bunter catches the ball with their top hand. We do this slowly at first and then turn this into a more rapid fire feed. In that way, the bunter has to be able to bend at the knees or slightly lift to get the bat (their hands) in the correct position to bunt. BTW, I want that bat at a 45 degree angle when they start. (So hands pretend to be at a 45 for this beginning drill.) I want the bat "up" as opposed to being middle to down wrt body position.
From the first sequence, we now take the player's game bat and they bunt one handed off of the same lite flite machine. They are to catch the ball with their hand with the bat in the way.
From there, they are allowed to use two hands on the bat and learn how to adjust with knees and the knob hand on bunts. The other or top hand always catches the ball.
It's an old LS T141 that was great for BP in 2002ish. The reason for the "pistol grip" is simple...the index helps the barrel from being "pushed" back. If you teach the "pinch the barrel" method, think about how many young kids don't have big enough hands to "pinch" or are to weak atm. Give it a shot, You'll instantly feel the control. As far as my left hand placement well it's about 8 inches away from my right but that's where Im comfortable. Just gotta let DD try it and see where she's comfortable with her hand placement. Another thing someone mentioned was catching it on the last 4 inches of the barrel. I would always tell them the last 2 inches of the barrel but yea, it was probably 3-5 As far as my hand placement on the barrel, i'd suggest the same. Wherever DD is comfortable but definitely on the barrel. And for the record, I've only bunted once in an official game... I was 12 and got benched right after lolWhat type of bat is that? I like pictures
Did not read all the responses but I think OP are/ were being taught to keep that top hand about 6 inches down from your picture, need to see both hands to be sure.
I learned, and teach, bat at 45 degrees for a different reason. When turning to bunt, hitter should bend knees until their eyes are at the top of their strike zone. Bat is held at 45° to bring end of bat to eye level. Any pitch higher than your bat and eyes are easy to take as balls. You never have to raise the bat to bunt, only go down.to piggy-back sluggers comments:
how you hold the bat is not important to me,
but bat angle IS.
I've always taught that when bunting in fastpitch,
the bat angle must be so that the barrel is always higher than the knob.
Also, slightly tipped forward toward the pitcher.
Flat bats bunt foul.
Dropped heads bunt foul also.
These are me observations.
Does DFP agree?
I'm just curious...
I learned, and teach, bat at 45 degrees for a different reason. When turning to bunt, hitter should bend knees until their eyes are at the top of their strike zone. Bat is held at 45° to bring end of bat to eye level. Any pitch higher than your bat and eyes are easy to take as balls. You never have to raise the bat to bunt, only go down.
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Brett Butler was the best bunter I can recall seeing in MLB in my lifetime.
In his MLB career he had 185 bunt hits, batted .489 on bunts and also had 103 successful sac bunts.
So what he teaches for bunting hand position is gospel to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg8Cf2f72Js