This is how I set up our baseball hitting drill–Dual station T’s set up against the sideline fences, with two small groups to keep it fast paced and designed not to lose their attention.

I take the third small group (about 4) and start our “Field Tour” at home plate.  Since most of these players have zero knowledge and experience, I explain what home plate is and that the ball will be hit from this location.

I then teach them a basic fielders “Ready Position” and ask them to run to the pitcher’s mound and get in their ready position. Most of the time you will have to show them where it is. I then briefly explain the pitcher’s mound and ask “where does the baseball come from” to which they all say “home plate”.

I then say again “what position are we at?” to which they yell “pitcher’s mound.” This process continues until we have stood in our “ready position” at all the positions on the field.

It is extremely important that they say the positions they are standing in and the location the ball will come from so they know which way to face. The first day was a much slower process, but as the practices went by they all began to understand how the field was set up, the positions, and where they can expect to see a batted ball coming from. I can now tell them to go play short stop and at their very young age have no problems finding it.

This will also help as you start teaching fielder territory!

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Start by putting two players on the pitchers mound (#1 & #2).  Evenly distribute the remaining players at each of the 4 bases.  Have them form a line behind the first player at the base who is getting ready to receive a ball from the mound.

Start the ball with player #1 on the mound.  Have player #1 on the mound throw the baseball to the first person in line at any base.  Player #1 from the mound immediately runs to the end of the line at that base to which they just threw the ball.  The person who received the ball then immediately throws the ball back to the second player standing at the mound (now #1).  The player who just threw the ball back to the mound now races to the mound and gets ready to receive a ball next.

The now first player at the mound quickly throws the ball to a different base and runs to get in line at the base they just threw it to…..the cycle continues quickly with throwing, catching & running.

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Purpose: To learn to hit in all areas of the strike zone.
Procedure:

• From a plywood board or cardboard box, cut out the size of the strike zone and secure it  to a fence or wall.
• Draw nine balls in the rectangle of the strike zone – three across the top of the zone, three across the middle, and three across the bottom.
• Number the balls 1 through 9.  1,2, 3 across the top, 4, 5, 6 in the middle , and 7, 8, 9 on the bottom.
• The player stands in front of the strike zone and practices all parts of his swing on each ball in the zone.

Coaching points–The hitter should remember the entire sequence: stance, load, stride, pivot, and swing.

The baseball coach can stand behind the hitter and call out the number of the baseball at which the hitter should swing.

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Setup for this baseball drill:
4 fielders, 1 baserunner, two bases, two targets (anywhere from 30 to 60 feet from the base path), and a changing indicator. We like to put a target (maybe a bucket) on the ground (throwing for a tag) and another about 4 or 5 feet in the air (throwing to a player on a base). You can be creative for the changing indicator using hands, fingers, location within the basepath where the tag may occur.

Running the drill:
It all starts with a hot-box (or pickle) drill, where fielders are running down a baserunner caught between bases. Once the tag occurs, the tagger immediately looks at the indicator (with a sign for the lower target and another indicating the upper target). Determine the target and throw the baseball to hit the target. Sometimes we use which side of the halfway mark between bases where the tag occurs as an indicator.

The purpose of the indicator is to get the tagger to see the signal quickly (in a game its another base runner) and make the correct throw to the correct target.  Award a point for a tag and a point for hitting the correct target with the ball. you can split into teams and make it a contest.

This has been a great way to put mental pressure on our players as they make plays in the infield.

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I have them throw off of a mound, usually the warm-up pitchers mound because my assistant baseball coaches are using the baseball field for batting or fielding practice when I am working with my next-game starting pitcher on the side.

I ask him to throw a simulated game for 3 innings.  He pitches to the number of batters necessary to record 3 strikeouts per inning.  In other words, if he walks one batter in a given inning, he’d have to face (pretending of course) 4 batters instead of 3 to record three outs.  The maximum number of simulated at bats is 12.  I have a batter stand at the plate with a bat, BUT HE IS NOT ALLOWED TO SWING AT THE BALL.

The goal is to throw a strike on every pitch.  However, we work on developing the ability to hit spots.  I call the location, and the pitcher has to try to hit that spot.  I might say “heart of the plate at the knees” or “outside corner at the letters”.  We get them to throw up and down, in and out.

After they have thrown a simulated baseball game for 3 innings, I let them face 3 – 5 batters in live batting practice.  By this time, the pitcher is ramped up pretty good.

It helps our batters because they are facing “game speed” pitches, and it helps our pitchers because they get to test out the art of locating pitches which they would have been practicing on the side.

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All players take their position on the field. One player in the infield is given the ball and they choose where they want to throw the ball. The throw must be out of reach of the intended player on purpose making the other position player who should be backing up to get the ball. Then they overthrow the baseball to another position allowing another backup to take place.

This goes on until the baseball coach stops the drill. This works well with pitchers in determining where they need to be at all times.  Everyone on the field stays alert because they never know when they will be called on to backup a throw.

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Basically what you do is have one player about 10 feet from a baseball coach who is on one knee.  Have the player bent over in his ready position to field a ground ball.  The coach then rolls a ground ball to the right of the player, the player then fields the ball with both hands (using no glove) and flips the baseball back to the coach as quickly as possible. 

The coach then rolls a grounder back to the left of the player and the player has to shuffle his feet across, staying in a crouched position to field the ball.  Do this around 10 times back and forth.  Then go to the next player.

Object of this baseball drill is for the player to be able to shuffle his feet as quickly as he can and field the ball with both hand trying to stay in front of the ball.

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All players take their position on the field.
One player in the infield is given the baseball and they choose where they want to throw the ball.
The throw must be out of reach of the intended player on purpose making the other position player who should be backing up to get the ball. They then overthrow the ball to another position allowing another backup to take place.

This can go on until the baseball coach stops the drill. This works well with pitchers in determining where they need to be at all times. Everyone on the field stays alert because they never know when they will be called on to backup a throw.

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Fence Batting Drill
I get my boys to use a modified “baseball bat” which is a piece of broomstick about 22 inches long, with duct tape wrapped heavily on one end for weight.

I have them grip the “bat” properly (gripping the untaped end) and stand about the length of the “bat” away from a  wall or fence. Then, they simply swing the bat, slowly at first, and  gradually build speed till a full swing develops.

I find this helps to shorten the swing arc and increases the bat speed at the same time. I have developed quite a few power hitters from this simple baseball hitting drill. Fair dinkum!

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The baseball coach stands near center field with a glove. The player throws the baseball to the coach. Then the coach rolls the ball to the player while the player charges toward the coach. The player scoops the ball on the run and throws it back to the coach and keeps running towards the foul pole in the opposite field. The coach then throws the player either a line drive over his head or a pop fly.

This baseball drill teaches the player to make a long accurate throw, charge and scoop a ground ball, and how to run down a ball hit over their head.

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