Flat s****r ball hitting drill

Brian Shanberg100+ posts

Recently read a tip from Ripken about using a flat s****r ball as a hitting drill to learn to drive the ball.
Has anyone tried this?
I've tried this and really like it.
I stand back about 20 feet and underhand the ball to the hitter. The first few swings jarred the bat out the hands of the youth hitter. But, he soon adjusted and began to swing and hit the flat s****r ball harder. Since the ball is nearly flat, any miss-hits are obvious as the s****r ball spins either up or down. The goal of the drill is to have the hitter drive the ball in a line drive. As the coach/pitcher throwing the ball underhand, you get hit a lot when they drive it correctly, but since its a nearly flat s****r ball, it doesn't hurt when you get hit. I do this drill in a cage so that I don't have to chase the ball after each pitch.
I then followed this drill with normal baseball batting practice to make sure their swing mechanics are in order and I'm surprised at the great results.

Just wondering if anyone else has tried this?

(Yes, there might actually be something positive coming from sokker afterall.)

4/16/089:17 AM

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Bulldog 195,000+ posts

I've seen and used a basketball before. I'd rather use the s****r ball.. that's all it's good for anyway, right?

And rather than doing it in the cage like that, we just used a tee.

4/16/0810:39 AM

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KLS_HittingAcadmeyMember

We use almost flat volleyballs off tees. We don't use any lawn fairies equipment.

4/16/089:28 PM

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tfox100+ posts

My son's instructor had him hit a flat ball of some sort but don't remember now what kind.

I have carried it on in our sessions and I believe it to be a good drill,as long as it isn't too heavy for the kid.

4/16/0810:06 PM

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Brian Shanberg100+ posts

We worked the sokker ball into our workout again yesterday.
We begin hitting with the metal bat for about 20 hits.
Then, move to wood bat for about 20 hits.
Then, move to the s****r ball for about 20 hits.
Then, back to the wood bat for 15 hits.
Then, back to the metal bat for the last 15 to 20 hits. He gets much more distance on this round of metal bat hitting than he did on the first round.

All are pitches. We need to start doing more Tee work. But, my kid is 11 and he needs to see the rewards of hitting a good long ball. His attention span when using the Tee is less than 5 minutes. The Tee sessions don't provide as much immediate gratification to a kid that would rather be playing kick-the-can with his buddies down the street. Seeing his face light up when he connects on the live pitched long ball is great. (He also takes much satisfaction when he 'shotguns' me with a sokker ball hit. But, those don't hurt much.)

Double header today. Let's see if there's short term payoff...

4/17/089:22 AM

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