Scientific Terms

1. Rotation: a circular movement of an object around a center (or point) of rotation. A three-dimensional object rotates always around an imaginary line called a rotation axis.

2. Elbow Joint:Three bones form the elbow joint: the humerus of the upper arm, and the paired radius and ulna of the forearm

3. Plantar Flexion:the movement which increases the approximate 90 degree angle between the front part of the foot and the shin, as when depressing an automobile pedal

4. Extension:movement of a joint that results in increased angle between two bones or body surfaces at a joint.

5. Flexion:Bending movement that decreases the angle between two parts

6. Force: any influence which tends to change the motion of an object

7. Frontal Plane: any plane dividing the body into front and back

8. Pelvic Girdle: the irregular ring-shaped bony structure connecting the spine to the femurs

9. Hip Flexors:a group of skeletal muscles that act to flex the femur

10. Hip Rotators: group of muscles that act to rotate the hip

11.Knee Joint:joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two articulations: one between the femur and tibia, and one between the femur and patella

12. Shoulder Girdle: set of bones which connects the upper limb to the axial skeleton on each side

13. Triceps:  It is the muscle principally responsible for extension of the elbow joint (straightening of the arm).

14. Adducted:motion that pulls a structure or part towards the midline of the body, or towards the midline of a limb

15. Everts:  the movement of the sole of the foot away from the median plane

16. Depress:Movement in an inferior direction

17. Center of Gravity: he mean location of all the mass in a system

18.Sternum:long flat bony plate shaped like a capital "T" located anteriorly to the heart in the center of the thorax (chest).

19. Biceps Brachii:The biceps has several functions, the most important being to rotate the forearm (supination) and to flex the elbow

20. Brachialis: a muscle in the upper arm that flexes the elbow joint

This exercise is simply toe touches with your opposite hand. To execute this exercise, all there is to do it is extend both arms fully along the frontal plane, than rotate and flex at the pelvic girdle to reach down and touch your opposite toe. The reason this exercise is helpful for bunting is because it can strengthen and quicken to hip flexors and hip rotators, and can strengthen the abdominal muscles. The hip rotators are the important part because when bunting in a game, you need to be able to rotate very quickly, and this could help with that.

Drill Number 2 For Bunting



   The second drill for bunting is to simply pracice with a target area. As you can see in the video, all you need is a 2 small items, in this case it's 2 shoes. Place the two items about 8-10 feet away from each foul line. Than, simply practice bunting the ball, but attempting to get the ball to roll within the area from the foul line to the item. The reason you would want to get it in this area is because if you bunt it too close to the pitcher, the bunt might not do its job, which is to move the runner to the next base.

Drill # 1 for bunting - Improving your hand eye coordination

When bunting, or playing baseball in general, one needs to have extremely good hand-eye coordination. For this drill, it is very simple and can be done inside. All one needs is a bat and a few ping-pong balls. Take your normal bunting stance, then have a partner toss you ping-pong balls and simply practice bunting them. The reason this drill is affective is because it makes the batter focus more on watching the ball since it is much smaller than a baseball, making it that much harder to bunt.

Novice

Expert

Phase 1

Start in a normal batting position. A normal batting position is feet parallel to home plate, knees bent slightly at the knee joint. Feet should be a little wider than the shoulder girdle. Arms are flexed at the elbow joint, and arms are adducted for the most part.

Phase 2

Move your top hand about 12 or 13 inches up the bat and use thumb and index finger to hold the back part of the bat. (Make sure your not holding the bat all the way around with top hand or the ball could hit your fingers and break them) The hips slowly start to open up towards the pitcher, as well as the front foot everts toward the pitcher as well.

Phase 3

 In this stage, your whole upper half is opened up, but your feet at still parallel with home, just twisted open toward the pitcher. Your bottom hand should now come up about 5 to 6 inches to make controlling the bat easier. Slightly bend both knees, at the knee joint, and bend the arms, at the elbow joint, about 90 degrees. The upper half of the body also starts to depress to get a better center of gravity.

Phase 4

In this phase, the only change is that once your back foot is turned, then you plant it into the ground (plantar flexion)more to give you a sturdier base.

Phase 5

In this phase, you simply make sure the bat is at the top of the strike zone (around the sternum) when the ball is being thrown, and tilt the bat up to help insure hitting it on the ground.

Phase 6

Using your bottom hand, angle the bat in the direction you want to bunt the ball. In this case, I wanted to bunt the ball to 1^st base, so my bat is angled towards 1^st base.

Phase 7

To get ready for impact, flex the biceps brachii, brachialis, and triceps. The reason for this is because the bat needs to be firmly held when the ball hits it to make sure it goes far enough.To increase the odds of hitting the ball fair, in this phase you want to extend your arms so they are only flexed about 45 degrees. Also make sure to keep eyes on the ball at all times.

Phase 8

Notice that after contact, the bat moves backwards. The reason for this is because unlike a swing, you are not following through the ball. You simply want the ball to hit the bat, not hit the ball with the bat, thus the force of the ball should make the bat go slightly backwards after contact. The bat is only pointed down because this is after contact, so you have to release the bat.