My players were stopping their swings in the tournament recently and I realized that I hadn’t done enough [tag]baseball hitting drills[/tag] in practice in a while. We broke out this basketball drill and after only 4 hits with the basketball drill they were hitting doubles and triples in the next game.
Take half deflated basketballs and place them on a tee. Have the players set up in a normal batting stance. When they swing it forces them to follow through and shows them whether the stopped the swing or not.
PURPOSE: Increases the power of the swing but also stops that half swing that causes the ball to just drop on the dirt. Insures that they remember to follow-through on the swing.
Another tip I like is to have my kids hit very small pieces of gravel or dirt clods with soft toss especially pregame so the [tag]baseball[/tag] looks like a watermelon to them after they hit the small object. It’s also good to work on technique prior to game time.