Baseball Hitting Drills:

Here is the first in a never ending series of hitting drills

Hitting Off a Tee: ---Baseball Hitting Drills

This drill is designed to teach the hitter to consistently hit the ball properly. It is mechanical specific intended to program hitting muscles and eye to ball coordination.

For this drill you’ll need a whiffle ball bat and a bucket of whiffle balls, you can use one ball if you want to chase it each time, but that defeats the purpose of the drill…. Which is lots and lots of swings.

Buy good quality whiffle balls & bat. (Buy a baseball size wiffle ball not a softball size.) The drill is intended develop eye to bat to ball coordination through hundreds of swings, over a period of time, and cheap equipment will not hold up to the abuse. You’ll also need a quality batting tee.---Baseball Hitting Drills

Set the tee at a specific height, and specific position on home plate, which you’ll change daily to simulate pitches everywhere in the strike zone. In order to reduce wasted time retrieving the batted balls, I’d suggest hitting into a net or against the side of the garage or similar building. If you’re hitting against a solid backstop position the tee @ 30 - 35 feet away from it in order to limit damage to the whiffle balls.

The key to knowing if you are performing this drill correctly and are developing good hitting mechanics, is the reaction of the ball as it comes off the tee.---Baseball Hitting Drills

When you hit the ball off the tee solidly, the ball will travel in such a manner as you’ll be able to hear the air flow through the holes, making a whooshing sound. If you don’t hit the ball correctly the ball will slice, dip, soar, or spin when it hits the ground.

Increasing Power Drill: ---Baseball Hitting Drills

Whether it be a martial arts student, a boxer or any other athlete who wants to increase his power, whether it be a punch, kick or bat swing, you’re taught to power through your target.

This drill is designed to increase your hitting power by teaching you how to power through your target by hitting a heavy object and swinging through it.

You’ll need a deflated soccer ball or basketball. A quality hitting tee, a large cupped plumbers plunger and a bat, wooden or composite. Slide the plumbers plunger, handle first, into the hitting tee with the plunger end up in order to cradle the basket ball / soccer ball.

The intended goal is to be able to hit the deflated ball off the tee without any hesitation in your swing as the bat makes contact with the ball.

Using your natural batting stance, swing and drive the deflated ball off the tee. (Don’t squeeze the bat handle too tightly, but be sure to have a firm grip or else you could injure your wrist from the sudden impact.) Initially you will experience a pausing of your bat, maybe even a complete stopping, as you strike the ball, but as your swing becomes more powerful and your bat speed increases you will eliminate this pause or hesitation of the bat upon contact, which will have you swinging through the ball, which will force the ball to travel much farther when hit.

Besides being able to see results, positive or negative, rather quickly you can see whether adjusting hip rotation or your strength training program is improving your power swing.Baseball Hitting Drills

Baseball Hitting Drills are designed to increase hitting skills, but this one is intended for young players who are afraid of a pitched baseball and quickly back out of the batters box.

Every now and then you’ll run across a youngster who is terrified of the baseball and no matter how much persuasion or coaxing you do, he will automatically begin backing out of the batters’ box as the pitcher begins his wind up, despite not having a clue as to where the ball is going.

For this drill you’ll need a dozen tennis balls, believe it or not tennis balls are essential to teaching baseball. The intent of this drill is for the coach to intentionally throw the tennis ball slightly behind the hitter, trying to hit him with every throw.Baseball Hitting Drills

One, getting hit with a ball doesn’t hurt like he feared it would, you have told him you’re throwing it hard enough to be comparable to being hit with a baseball, a slight exaggeration;

And Two, he needs to watch the ball to see where it is going, because backing out of the batters box doesn’t insure he won’t get hit.

This drill may have to be performed numerous times before the player totally conquers his fear and stops backing out of the box, but patience and perseverance on the part of the coach will be successful.----Baseball Hitting Drills

*** As a footnote to this. As the coach you may have to convince an over protective parent this is a safe drill intended to help the player and don‘t allow the other players to heckle the batter.***

Strike Zone Recognition: ---Baseball Hitting Drills

A player is never too young to learn the strike zone and this should be stressed as soon as he faces live pitching. However, at a young age, the batter is concentrating more on trying to hit the ball than worrying about whether it’s a strike or not.

The player will give you a dazed look and shake his head yes as you patiently explain how important it is to only swing at strikes, then swing at a ball over his head on the next pitch.

This drill is intended to have the player perform every aspect of his hitting motion except the swing. He’s not to hit the ball.

What you want the player to do is take his stride, but instead of swinging, you can have the player pretend to hold his bat to eliminate all inclination to swing, but I prefer to make it as realistic as possible and have them use their bat, he’s to follow the ball all the way into the catcher’s mitt.

He then tells you if the pitch was a ball or a strike.

This drill works best if the coach pitches, as he can see if the pitch is a strike, and either another coach or an older more experienced youth catch.

You can’t expect the hitter to know if the pitch was a strike if it’s not caught.

Plus you can have the catcher hold and frame the pitch.

You’re trying to teach what pitch to hit … not how to hit it.---Baseball Hitting Drills

Learning To Spray The Ball: --Baseball Hitting Drills

The ability to hit to a designated side of the field when you want, in a particular situation or circumstance can be an invaluable skill, in driving in runs, moving runners over or taking advantage of a defensive alignment shift.

Practicing certain hitting drills which address a specific issue, such as hitting to the opposite field or pulling the ball, creates muscle memory, coordination and increased power.

We’re going to look at two Batting Practice Drills which will teach a right handed hitter how to hit to the opposite field (right field) and a left handed hitter to pull the ball into right field with power.

The drills will require the use of training aids and a pitcher.

The first Hitting Drill involves a right handed hitter taking an inside pitch and hitting it to right field. This is a common scenario of pitcher versus hitter with a runner on second or third base. The pitcher will work the inside portion of the plate attempting to induce a ground ball to left side of the infield, preventing the runner on second from advancing or the runner on third from scoring. The hitter wants to put the ball in play on the right side of the fielder in order to advance or score the runner.

For this drill you will need a modified heavy baseball bat, which if you can’t locate to buy you can make. Be sure to constantly monitor the bat’s integrity because one step not performed correctly could result in a safety issue.

Fabricating A Modified Bat: --Baseball Hitting Drills

Here are the steps I took to make this modified hitting aid.

* I bought a 33” wooden baseball bat, weight obviously didn’t matter because I was going to alter that anyway. I did however, buy a bat with a thicker handle, assuming, at least at first, the hitters would have trouble swinging the bat and would be hitting quite a few off the handle.

* Securing the bat in a vise, be sure to wrap the bat in cloth or other material thick enough to prevent the vise jaws from digging into the bat and ruining it.

I then measured in 3” from the bat’s barrel end and drew a line around the entire circumference in pencil. I carefully wrapped painters blue tape around the bat’s circumference along the pencil line. This is to help stop the bat from splintering as you saw it.

I used a hand saw, but a power saw, jig saw or reciprocating saw would also do the job. It’s imperative the cut is square and even. I now had a 30” bat.

* After making the cut I smoothed the bat head by hand rubbing it with sandpaper. Using a tri-square I drew two intersecting lines showing me the exact middle of the bat. You can use a different method if you want, but be sure you’re in the center or else the bat will be weighted lop sided.---Baseball Hitting Drills

* You’ll need to buy, depending on the weight and size available, a lead stick(s), actually they’re an alloy but they still call them a lead stick, with which to add weight to the bat. A plumbing supply house will always stock this if you have trouble locating it elsewhere.

* Using a ladle or other suitable holding and pouring devise, place the lead into it and melt it over an open flame. Be sure to use thick gloves or an oven mitt while holding the ladle as it will get hot.

* You have already repositioned the bat in the vise with the drilled hole in the cut off end facing up. Take the molted lead and carefully pour it into the drilled hole. A word of warning. You must have enough lead melted to completely fill the hole in One continuous pour. You can not pour hot lead over solidified lead as it will not bond together, but will remain two separate pieces which is definitely unsafe.--Baseball Hitting Drills

* Allow the lead to cool and harden. Remove the bat from the vise and going to a clear area free of anything you could damage should the lead come out of the bat, test swing it several times.

* I nailed in a corner alligator clip over the lead and spread several coats of polyurethane over the end of the bat to help seal the bat and secure the lead.

* As a precaution check the bat periodically to insure the lead is still secure.

Now that you have the training aid required let’s revisit the drill. The hitter, right handed hitter, will assume his normal batting stance. The pitcher will throw balls to the hitter on the inside portion of the plate.

The hitter will practice Quickly opening his hips as he swings. By accelerating the opening of the hips the hitter will be able to open his body to face the ball and allow him to bring the bat through the hitting zone on a level plane to meet the ball.

Let’s do that again. The pitch is on the inside part of the plate. The hitter strides forward or simply raises and drops his front foot. He will Pivot quickly on his right foot (back foot) which will open his hips and possibly move his front foot towards third base, essentially sliding his foot into the bucket.----Baseball Hitting Drills

His body is now squarely facing the pitcher, his left shoulder facing the third base dugout. His hands are in tight to his body, which is created by the explosion of the hips, his bat is level through the hitting zone.

This action accomplishes several things. The hips opening creates more bat speed, which creates more power. The hands being in tight to the body allows the entire barrel of the bat to cross the plate, instead of the handle.

By utilizing this drill with the assistance of the weighted bat, the hands and bat speed dramatically increases, which increases the power of balls hit to right field as 98% of the hits should go to the right side of the infield.

Pulling the ball to the right side of the field for a left handed hitter. You’ll need an L-shaped protective pitching net to facilitate this drill, or an obstruction of similar non-injuring material.

The goal of this drill is to require the hitter to pull the baseball only.

Set the net adjacent to the side of home plate opposite the left handed hitter. This will pose an obstacle the entire length of the plate, in front and behind, which the hitter can not hit with his bat.

This will require the hitter to increase his hip action, increasing the bat speed in order to hit the ball early as it crosses the plate. This will tend to have the hitter pull the ball to the right side of the field.

If he’s late in his swing, hitting the ball late into the zone, or goes out over the plate to hit the ball, he’ll hit the netting with his bat telling him he did not properly hit the ball in order to pull it, and even if the ball is pulled to the right side, it is hit with limited power.

Hitting is a matter of hitting the ball where it’s pitched, which is difficult enough in its own right, but being able to adjust your body and swing to hit the ball to a specific field no matter where the pitch is located, well…that’s big time hitting.

In-Depth and Informative Hitting Links on Tips, Advise and Drills:

Baseball Hitting Drills to learn youth baseball coaching

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Baseball Hitting Instruction

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Baseball Batting Tips

Baseball Batting Drills

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