This is the one of the baseball hitting drills our kids love the most; we call it “Going for the Points”. It teaches aggressiveness and confidence at the plate and that, if it is a strike, you need to be swinging.
Going for the Points
- Put a full defense on the field
- 3 kids form a hitting group
- coach pitches
- Each hitter stays up until he either misses a pitch (strike), fouls a ball out of play (strike), or lets a strike go by.
- If you hit a fair ball you stay up.
- If you hit a base hit or if the fielders make an error that would have allowed the batter to reach base, you get a point.
Players in the field focus to make the fielding plays so as not to give away points and hitters concentrate on making contact and not letting good pitches go by.
Hitting group gets 3 rounds then they go out and play defense and a different group of 3 comes in. Assistant coach or team mom keeps track of their individual points or if the groups are even ( 4 groups of 3) we have group scores. Player or group with most points at end of drill gets a rousing cheer at end of practice and is excused from wind sprints.
They love it because it is competitive and they get to hit. coaches love it because they have to concentrate on defense and make the plays; they police themselves on lack of focus in the field and being ready to make plays.