Archive for the ‘Hitting Drills’ Category

Value of a Batting Tee


Image via Wikipedia

There are many hitting aides on the market but I believe the batting tee is still the best batting aide to assist hitters in their swing development. Unfortunately, most players, coaches and parents do not know how to use the batting tee correctly. Because of that, the tee does not do them much [...]

Controlling Stride & Balance Drill


I have talked many times of the value of having hitters hit on a self-made balance beam. I realize many people are not going to make one,
so here is a possible solution to helping hitters with balance and overstriding issues. Look around the house for a small table or bench that is as wide or [...]

Hitting Drills to Control the Head (Eyes)


Good article at http://baseballcoachesdigest.blogspot.com/2009/12/minimizing-head-movement-and-rotational.html on the importance of the head (which controls the eyes of course). A few baseball hitting drills that will help hitters with this idea are the following:
1. Place hitter on their back knee for some tee work or soft toss flips.
2. Have hitters stand straight with their feet together and don’t have [...]

Hitting Tips for First Two Weeks of Practice


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Bad habits are often formed at the beginning of the season and hitters may not ever recover. Here are 5 baseball hitting tips that will help prevent bad habits  from forming.
1. Do not head out to the batting cages as the way to begin preseason- practice. Trying to gain timing before the swing [...]

Chase Utley Swing Analysis – Compact & Balance (Beam)


It is a beautiful sight to see a hitter who appears to not even swing hard and see the ball jump off their bat. That is the groove Chase Utley of the Phillies was in. Obviously, he is swinging hard but because of his compact swing and overall balance, there appears to be so little effort exerted. [...]

Drill that Guarantees the Correct Swing


Excerpt of Jack’s Ezine Article – There are very few coaches of young baseball players who can look at a baseball swing and know it is a good fundamental swing. Even many high school coaches are not experienced enough to do this. There are some fine technical ingredients that are hard to notice by an [...]

Seeing the Baseball – Vision Drills


Head down at contact

Throwing Numbers

  Often when hitters have trouble timing the ball, the problem is that they are not seeing the ball the whole way from the pitchers hand to the contact area. Sometimes they are concentrating on “waiting” for the ball, which is usually a good thing, but they may forget to concentrate [...]

Most Common Hitting Mistake


Knob pointing out, not down – barrel falling back

 
 
 
 
 
 
When working with hitters, the most common mistake I would encounter were hitters who would not begin their swing from the correct hitting position. Instead of keeping the knob of the bat down before swinging, they would push the knob of the bat up and allow the [...]

Baseball Swing Drill # 3


The 3rd drill coaches can use when there is only time for three drills would be the 1,2,3,4 drill. This drill will allow the coach to check the hitters swing positions every step of the way.
Execution of baseball swing drill 1,2,3,4:

Hitting drill 2 – if only have time for 3


 
The second hitting drill to use to start the season or when there is only time for a few drills, which often is the case, with the amount of practice time available, is the back knee fire drill. I would also call this the “check the swing” drill because this is usually what happens when [...]

The Fab 3 – Hitting tips & Best Hitting Drills


Often, I get the question “If you could only teach 3 hitting drills to hitters, which ones would they be? This is obviously a tough question when there are so many good hitting drills that address hitting fundamentals. To answer the question I usually go with these 3 and I will explain why.

The Value of Hitting Drills – How to Play Baseball


It is very common for hitters to just grab a bat and begin hitting at the beginning of the season or before a game. Hitting a pitched ball will help hitters to develop their timing, which of course is important. However, it is unlikely that those hitters will be able to change their hitting fundmentals [...]

Hitting with Power – How to Play Baseball


photo credit: Matt Vorwald
Baseball Hitting – Power
Everybody wants to hit with more power. This is easier said than done. Smaller and weaker hitters are at an obvious disadvantage but their are still steps that can be done.