There are numerous exercises for baseball hitter conditioning. In today’s video blog post, I am sharing some excellent drills that incorporate tubing, which can be used to check that your players are understanding and executing the proper mechanics of hitting.
For these baseball hitter conditioning drills, you will need a 5-6 foot piece of plastic tubing. The use of tubing in the drills allows the hitters to feel feedback and gain a better sense of what they are doing right and wrong, based on the feel on the cord or the movement of the cord during the drill variations.
Baseball Hitter Conditioning Drill #1:
– Put the tube underneath the back foot of the hitter when the are in their hitting stance.
– Pull the length of tubing “toned”, straight back in a line.
– If the hitter takes the correct stride and maintains weight in the back side, the tubing will stay on the ground.
– If the hitter takes an incorrect stride by putting too much weight forward, his foot will release the tube.
Baseball Hitter Conditioning Drill #2:
- The hitter takes his stance position
- Place the tube around the upper part of the knee
- Hold the tube in “toned” position (see video)
- The hitter is going to stride, and stay in this position if he is striding correctly
- If he strides incorrectly, he will pull heavily on the tubing.
Baseball Hitter Conditioning Drill #3
- The hitter will take his initial stride or takeoff position
- The tubing is placed underneath the front foot (under the ball of the foot), and the tubing is pulled taught to a diagonal away from the hitter.
- The hitter should be able to take a full swing and not release the tubing.
- If your hitter is rolling the front foot or spinning out, the tubing will be released.
Baseball Hitter Conditioning Drill #4
- There are some hitters who have a tendency to take their hands forward when they stride.
- Place the tubing into the hitters grip of the back hand and pull the tubing “toned”
- When the hitter strides, he should actually create slack from taking the hands back
- A poor hitter will stride and move his arms forward, making the tubing tight.
Baseball Hitter Conditioning Drill #5
- This drill works well for hitters who don’t use their hands correctly.
- Place the tubing into the hitters grip of the front hand and pull the tubing “toned”
- A good hitter will take the tubing in it’s toned state, and make it tight by taking his hands back as he strides.
- A poor hitter will take the toned state and create slack by bringing his hands forward when he strides.
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