Knob to the ball v Hands inside the ball – What’s the difference?

I’ve said numerous times on my site that one size never fits all when it comes to teaching baseball.  Everyone plays and learns differently and therefore requires unique methods of instruction.  This is true right down to the phrases that players and coaches use.

Two popular phrases in hitting are “keep your hands inside the baseball” and “take the knob to the ball.”  Both are similar but if I had my pick, I would choose “take the knob to the baseball.”  In my opinion, “taking the knob to the ball” allows the hitter to hit pitches in all locations because of how the method properly takes the barrel to the ball.

“Keeping your hands inside the ball” can do the same thing on inside pitches but in my experience tends to take the barrel away from the proper path to the ball on most pitches middle-away.  This leads to batters slicing balls to the opposite field instead of driving the ball the other way.

Someday I’ll make my own video on the subject but until then, check out this Diamond Demo with Albert Pujols where he talks about a few things related his own hitting philosophy including “taking the knob to the ball.”

Note: If the video below does not appear or work on your browser, click HERE.  The whole video has valuable insights but he begins discussing “knob to the ball” at the 6:00 mark.