Grizzlies 14A: Hitting Drills at Home
Wednesday, June 24
Here are some hitting drills you can do at home with your parents
Barrier Drill (Fence Drill)
Have the batter stand one bat length from a barrier (I prefer a net to prevent damage to the bat, but you can use a fence). Have her take her normal swing. If she hits the barrier, she is unlocking her elbows before her shoulders and getting wide on the swing.
You can use this barrier even when you are using live hitting (use whiffle balls for ease).
HITTING: BASKETBALL DRILL
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This is a great drill for teaching follow-through. Get a couple of old basketballs and take most of the air out of them. Place them on one of those orange cones you see at construction sites. Have the batter take her normal swing and follow-through right through the basketball. HAVE THEM WEAR HELMETS!!! Use regular sized bats for this drill.
| HITTING: DROP DRILL |
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Use some type of back-stop and a bucket or old milk crate. Have one player hold the ball at shoulder height and drop it straight down into the strike-zone. The batter must see the ball and react fast enough to hit it. This drill teaches the batter to take their hands straight to the ball. Have the player dropping the balls, drop them at different times so the batter does not "cheat". The batter can watch the release of the ball, but cannot move prior to the ball being dropped. This drill has increased our team bat speed a lot.
| HITTING: HIP ROTATION DRILL |
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There are many types of Tee Drills, but the ones we use the most are the:
1. Hip turn: Place a ball on the tee at hip height. Have the batter hold a bat behind her hips and take a normal batting stance. Have her pivot and knock the ball off the tee. This teaches proper hip rotation and explosion.
2. Locate the tee at the proper impact point for inside pitches and then outside pitches. Place the balls on the tee and have the batter hit from a normal stance. This teaches the proper techinque for hitting these pitches.
| HITTING: EYE ON THE BALL PROGRAM |
If your players batting mechanics are good, and they're still not hitting the ball, they are probably not seeing it correctly, or perhaps not following it right to the bat. Here are a few drills that are designed to really keep your eye on the ball
BALLS AND STRIKES DRILL:
Have the pitchers throw pitches and the batters just watch the ball into the glove and call balls and strikes. You'll be amazed at what batters think are balls. The best thing for good eyes are just seeing live pitching...lots of it, even if it is just being a batter while your pitcher is doing a workout. You can learn to read different pitches, and the pitcher gets better practice when there is a batter in the box.
HITTING DIFFERENT OBJECT:
Try golf whiffle balls, small coffee can lids (thrown like frisbees), pinto beans, etc, anything that has them concentrating on a smaller than usual target and hitting something that moves, rather than moving in a straight line. This will improve their concentration and teach them to follow the ball all the way in.
MISS/MISS/HIT:
Use a series of three pitches to teach them to watch the ball. The first pitch, the batter swings over the ball. The second pitch, swings under the ball. The third pitch the batter hits the ball. Repeat this drill until they can do it every time. After that, you can really fine tune this: Pitch 1- just nick the top of the ball. Pitch 2-Just nick the battom of the ball. Pitch 3- Hit it right in the middle of the ball.
TWO-BALL SOFT TOSS:
Get two different color whiffle balls (say red & white) or mark half of the balls with a different color dot. Works better with whiffle baseballs or even golf whiffle balls. Its easier to toss s maller balls plus helps hitters in focus and coordination. Toss the two balls at the same time (from same hand) and ask the player to hit one of them, either red or white. This helps players to coordinate, focus and react to hit the correct color ball.
PICK A NUMBER:
Take 3 or 4 balls, write a number on each ball. The players job is to see the ball well enough to tell you which number is on the pitched ball. |
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