Hitting Drills and Skills...

The Soft Tap

ü      You will need a whiffle ball or other soft ball. Have your training partner toss the ball up softly in front of you. From a good, fundamentally sound batting stance, try to hit the ball with the knob of your bat. Take the knob of the bat directly at the ball and just tap it. Be sure to incorporate your lower body action into the drill. Repeat until you are proficient and are using smooth, rhythmic motions to the ball.

If you have a small enough bat available, you can progress in this drill to one handed soft toss. Alternating your top hand drill and bottom hand drill, discussed above, while incorporating the action of striking a softly tossed ball into the drill. This is an excellent training method and will develop tremendously active hands through the hitting zone as well as improve your hand-eye coordination. The result will be pure striking of the ball at the optimum point of impact. Something every hitter strives for.

The Fence Drill

ü      Stand facing a fence, holding your back arm straight out so that the tip of your fingers just touch the fence. Now, with bat in hand and utilizing the proper fundamentals, swing the bat through the hitting zone, concentrating on taking your hands "to the ball". The tip of the bat should not hit the fence. If it does, you will get immediate negative feedback. Hitting the fence is a result of "casting" or "sweeping" your hands through the hitting zone. Take the hands directly at the ball (an inside path), then be sure to "squash the bug," hit against a stiff front side, and bring the wrist action into the swing. Finish high and over the front shoulder, your belly button facing the imaginary pitcher.

Remember, every time you swing the bat, swing it correctly. Muscle memory is powerful, use it to your advantage. Make your muscles remember a perfect swing when you practice and come game time, when your muscles are "reacting," your swing will be functional, beautiful to watch, and fundamentally sound. Perfect practice, makes perfect.

The Chair Drill

ü      Find yourself an old plastic chair, or a bucket with a lid, and sit on it. Lock your ankles around the legs of the chair or base of the bucket. This is to anchor yourself into the chair. We want to eliminate the lower body action in this drill. The only thing moving will be from the waist up. Take your bat and get in the hitting position. If you have the luxury of a practice partner, have him toss a ball up into the hitting zone. Take your hands directly at the ball, concentrating on the proper wrist action into and through the hitting zone. Finish high and over the shoulder. 

The Soft Toss

ü      The soft-toss may be used to work on pulling the ball, it can also be used for hitting the opposite way. The "tosser" must be a safe distance to the rear of the hitter. The hitter must not peak. The "tosser" tosses the ball from the inside of the plate diagonally across to the outside. The hitter picks up the ball with his peripheral vision and "tracks" the ball with both his body and his eyes to the hitting zone. As soon as the hitter sees the ball come into his view, he follows it with his body by taking a stride toward the opposite field side of second base. He pushes off with his rear foot but does not squash the bug. When the ball reaches the hitting zone, he swings with a quick bat and "strokes" the ball the other way. Throw your hands at the ball. On the follow through the hitter should drop to his back knee to emphasize the importance of not squashing or rotating the back hip.

 The Rolly Polly

ü      The "pitcher" will need a fence or "L" screen to protect himself for this drill. The player gets on both knees. By being on both knees the lower half of the body is virtually eliminated in the swing. This is important because the hands do need to be separated in drills in order to ingrain the proper muscle memory for their actions. The pitcher situates himself behind the "L" screen approximately 10 feet from the hitter. The pitcher then rolls the ball toward the center of the strike zone. The hitter "takes the knob of the bat directly toward the ball" (bottom hand leads). As the ball reaches the "hitting zone" the hitter then "directs" the head of the bat with the top hand (top hand directs) and strikes the ball. Immediate feedback is generated from each swing. If the bat strikes the ground first this is an indication that the bat-head is leveling out too soon. This is a major cause of pop-ups in real play. The player must make the adjustment with his top hand. If the ball is struck but rolls along the ground, or bounces away, the player has hit too much of the top of the ball. Again, the player must make the top hand adjustment. Ideally, the player will hit the center of the ball and the result will be a line drive slightly off the ground and headed sharply toward the pitcher. As you can see the drill is essentially three components; 1) the bottom hand must lead the bat to the ball 2) the top hand must direct the head of the bat to the ball 3) the player must strike the proper portion of the ball to be successful. Three tremendously important facets of hitting are rolled into one simple drill!

      The player can take the drill even further by having the pitcher roll the ball to the outside portion of the plate or to the inside portion. These are outstanding variations of the "NOW" drill seen elsewhere on this site. The player must "wait", "wait", "wait" for the outside ball to roll into the "hitting" zone and then accelerate the hands to strike the ball. Wait, Wait, Wait… Accelerate! This is the proper approach for hitting to the opposite field AND for hitting off-speed pitches and curveballs. On the contrary, the pitch rolled to the inside of the plate requires the player to get started early enough to get the bat-head into the hitting zone. The rolly-polly drill has many uses and can assist a hitter with several aspects of the swing. It can help you to BeABetterHitter. 

Vision Drills

Colored Horseshoe of Baseball

ü      This drill is used to warm up the eyes for live pitching.
-Color the ball between the inside seams and have the pitcher throw a variety of pitches from the mound or 60 feet 6 inches.
-In this drill, the batter picks up the spin as quickly as possible, calls out the pitch, and watches the ball into the catcher's mitt.
-If the batter has trouble identifying the pitch before he throws it, this helps the batter pick up the type of pitch if they don't recognize it at the release point. (Don't hit the ball, just call it in flight.)

Colored Baseballs

ü      Use 2-3 colored baseballs:
-------Red = Take
-------White = Hit Away
-------Green = Drag
-The batter must react to the color of the ball as soon as he/she recognizes the color.
-The drill can be used with live pitching or soft toss.

Soft Toss/Self Toss

ü      Use XLR8 Practice balls and toss the balls to yourself, hitting to all fields.
-The following drills or wrinkles to these drills can be added to make the task of hitting much more difficult and force better concentration by the batter.
-----Use a XLR8 Training Bat, or bat smaller than your regular bat.
-----The tosser calls the field (right, left, center) he/she wants the ball hit as soon as the ball is about to be tossed. If the batter hits the ball to the wrong field or pops the ball up, the players switch positions. The batter can take pitches or the tosser can call for the batter to take a pitch. It the batter swings on a take call, he's out and the players switch.
-----The batter closes his/her eyes and opens them when the tosser calls "open." The batter can take pitches or the tosser can hold the ball. If the player swings and no ball is thrown or pops the ball up the players switch.

Release Drill

ü      This drill teaches the player to pick up the pitch at the release point and to keep his/her head down on the swing.
- 1. The batter calls out the number of fingers, 1-5, that the pitcher throws at the batter, swings and again calls out the number of fingers that a coach has flashed after the bat passes the plate.
- 2. The coach flashing the numbers stands 5-6 feet in front of the outside corner of the plate.
-The drill can be made more difficult by having the pitcher use a ball and show pitches to the hitter without releasing the ball.
-The hitter would make the visual shift to the plate and hit a ball off a tee after calling out the pitch.
To make the drill even harder, replace the single tee with a double tee, placing the inside tee (higher) about 3-4 feet in front of the inside corner and the second tee (lower) equal to the front point of the outside corner.
-The batter is now forced to see the ball at the release point and react to the pitch (FB, Curve, etc.) If the pitcher show fastball, the batter must turn and pull the ball off the inside tee. If the batter reads off speed pitch, the batter must drive the ball to right field off the outside tee. (Reverse the tees for a left-handed batter.)