Hitting and batspeed drills

If you want to promote bad habits, do these...
- fence drill, quick hands, bounce drills, 2 tee drills

If you have time to waste on unproductive activities...
- Do heavy - light bats, plastic golf balls, skinny bats, etc.

If you want good drills...
- use a tee or front toss (to work on fundamentals)
Make sure the balls go level or up, not down.

- use real balls, real bats, at game speed (to work on fundamentals, offspeed pitches and timing)
Make sure balls are not going down. They should return to the height of the pitcher's hand if you're swinging "level".

Hit off a tee in the field. See if they hit it out of the infield.

I disagree with Sultan's view of the Bounce Drill, although he does not see it often anymore it was effective at checking to see if the player is reaching or lunging anticipating the pitch. It must be worked in with other tosses and a surprise when thrown to verify that the hitter is able to stay back on an offspeed pitch.

The bounce drill in in of itself if done by itself is pointless though.

College and pro teams rely primarily on tee and front-toss drills...and for good reason: they work.

Remember that batspeed derives from the lower body with strong legs and initiated by a turn of the hips.

There are a few good training bats out there but stick with those designed to hit real balls. Using wood bats for tee and front-toss work is never a bad idea...even for 12 year olds.

Keep them on the tee until they can demonstrate the ability to drive it up the middle on a line drive trajectory at will.

Please suggest some good drills that should and need to be done? Looking for some good drills for 30 min - to 1 hr. any help and suggestions would be great - Thanks

See my post above.

At age 12, kids need to get tee and flip drills down cold since that will be their training bread and butter as they move up. The kids who get bored with these drills won't be moving up anyway so don't waste time trying to make them happy.

30 min to 1 hour on tee and flips is just about right. Just make sure they are learning to square it up and drive it down the center of the cage and not just flailing away.

If you can set the tee up on a field, have them hit to specific targets, i.e. 4-hole, 6-hole, outfield gaps, etc.

If I had it to do all over again, I think I would start with bunting off the front toss. Seems to help them learn to see the ball.

As was said: T, T, T. I have become a big believer in constraint training to keep from developing bad habits and correct those already learned.

Again if I had it to do all over again I would avoid the fence drill like the plague.

Invest in a video camera, it makes all the difference in the world.

At 12 I think you may have some strength issues with some of the kids. Try and mix in strength type of exercise to develop core and shoulders.

I would also focus on technique. Make sure it is solid.

Big fan of tee and front toss. Not sure what is up with NDD and the fence drill. I like it because it gives me the feel of keeping my hands close to my body.

Lefty...

Have about 12 kids and looking to do stations - so 1-front toss 2-tee work and what other suggestions for some stations and or drills to do?

quote:

Originally posted by NDD:

Invest in a video camera, it makes all the difference in the world.

A little hand held camera as mentioned by NDD can make a massive difference in you being able to see technique. Having a bunch of drills to work on is arguably not productive if you don't know what you're looking for

I bought this one a year ago and has been awesome because of the 60 frames per second frame rate. Think there is a newer model out there too.

Kaos,
Some other hitting drills we do...

tee work – inside/ outside
ball position & stance appropriate for inside and outside pitches. focus on line drive to proper location.

tee – hit a letter
specific visual focus on a spot on the ball slightly inside and centered

crossover tee drill for natural load
happy gilmore footwork where back foot crosses behind front to force an exagerated front shoulder load

multi tee zone drill
hit two balls along level plane to keep bat in the zone longer

downhill tee drill – back foot pushing off of backside of mat

heavy ball –old basketballs or s****r balls partially deflated. on tee or soft toss. encourages strong hands thru to finish, level path or hitter will get feedback.

two ball soft toss – call high/low. quick swing, pitch recognition

balance board - in regular athletic footwear, not spikes, take tee work standing on a 2x6.
full swing, finish balanced

slow motion first half tee drill
mechanics check – with coach observing, hitter goes from set to load to ball contact at sweetspot in super slow mo. lots of flaws get picked up here

front toss hit oppo
variation – mix inside/outside

front toss location recognition
call out "in" or "out", then hit accordingly


mix speeds – stay loaded
coach pitch from 40’ or 25’ with wiffle

bunt to targets

toss from behind - soft toss from direction of catcher - hitter has to stay inside and be quick

power contest
best ball, every ball counts, oppo only, s****r ball

mirror drill
check swing plane, balance, stance, etc. can be done standing still as well as swinging

zone focus
swing at less than two zone, two strike zone

hit & run
get the ball on the ground, right side if possible

squeeze, safety squeeze
work timing of squaring, bat on any ball for squeeze, etc.

coach pitch, give count/situation
likely pitch type, zone, responsibility, etc.

bullpen visual hitting
hitter stands in or behind pitchers bullpen to get extra looks at pitches. can add a verbal callout as soon as pitch is recognized (in/out, fast/slow)

line drive focus
tee, soft toss, front toss or coach pitch. objective is to drive ball thru tunnel or to a target that results in line drives.


There are different hitting philosophies and some posters here will not like some of these drills. Take what you like and let me know if you need any explained further. We turn alot of these into mini-contests at times. Just keeping best scores gets the competitive juices flowing.

Thanks! Any others that have different drills or what do you do for hitting stations and to improve hitting and batspeed

quote:

Originally posted by Nate Barnett:

quote:

Originally posted by NDD:

Invest in a video camera, it makes all the difference in the world.

A little hand held camera as mentioned by NDD can make a massive difference in you being able to see technique. Having a bunch of drills to work on is arguably not productive if you don't know what you're looking for

I bought this one a year ago and has been awesome because of the 60 frames per second frame rate. Think there is a newer model out there too.

I couldn't believe what I was missing until I saw it in 60 FPS

The Ultimate Hitting Machine (www.shop.beebesports.com) is a good product to use to work on bat speed. Adjust the machine to toss the ball at a low toss, so the kids will get the bat around quick, before ball starts back down.
Also works good using a one handed trainer bat.

Adjust it for a higher toss and wait until ball starts back down before swinging, will help teach a kid to sit back and wait.

Hit weighted balls off the tee.

quote:

Also works good using a one handed trainer bat.

If using a short bat with one hand this product helps to develop and keep the proper grip on the bat with either the top or bottom hand.

Try The Bat Jack Grip Trainer... http://www.TheBatJack.com