Today we are going to focus on baseball hitting drills that will improve your players hitting skill. These drills can be run with your youngest, as well as your experienced players.
The Fence Drill
The Fence drill begins with the knob of the bat on the batter’s abdomen, straight out towards the fence. He brings the bat back up into his regular hitting position and he’s going to go through his swing using the fence as a barrier out front.
This allows him to work on the proper sequence of the swing, and with the proper sequence of the swing he’s allowed to swing the bat, keep his hands inside, and swing properly.
The Fence Drill video below demonstrates this drill:
If his swing was to get out of sequence – in other words, if his upper body would go first before his hips would rotate, or he leads with his shoulders or his hands first – then he would make contact with the fence.
It’s a very good drill to work on the sequence of the swing, where upon front foot contact the back heel comes up, the hips begin to rotate, then the upper body, and last of all the bat.
With a left-hand hitter, the drill is exactly the same. The batter starts with the knob of the bat into his abdomen, the end of the bat against the screen. The hips clear the way for the hands to come in close to the body, thus giving us a short, quick swing.
A progressive variation of this drill would be to combine the fence drill with the front toss drill. It is recommended that a hitter would do 25 repetitions in one practice session.
The Perception, Rhythm and Timing Drill
The perception, rhythm, and timing drill assist in the hitter getting started at the correct time, working on his rhythm, plus tracking and perception skills. The hitter stands in against a live pitcher, whichcould be in a bullpen situation. He works on soft focusing, first of all, on the pitcher’s hat and head area, and then as the pitcher is getting to the point of release, he hard focuses on that release point.
Rhythm is a controlled motion which allows the body and bat to get into the launching position at the correct time against any pitcher or any velocity. A body in motion tends to stay in motion.
At the same time, he’s working on getting his front foot down when the ball is halfway to him, getting into a good balanced strength position.
Now as the front foot makes contact, he’s aggressively getting his back heel off the ground to begin the proper sequence of hip rotation. The hitter would stand in, in the bullpen situation, as long as the pitcher is going through his workout, which could be generally in the area of 25-50 pitches.
If the hitter begins to lose concentration, suggest replacing him halfway through the workout with another hitter. They actually do not take live swings in this drill; it is a rhythm, timing, and perception skill drill only.
Another variation of the perception, rhythm, and timing drill is to use wiffle balls or softie baseballs where the pitcher is working through his wind-up, the hitter is working on his rhythm and timing of when he gets his front side started, and when the front foot lands, getting his back heel up.
The hitter, again, is working on getting his front foot down when the ball is halfway to him.
Half Bat Drill
The half bat drill is used with wiffle balls in a front toss situation, with a hitter having only one hand on the bat at a time. The hitter is working through his entire swing, but he is really working on, in this case, his bottom hand coming through correctly with the palm being down as he makes contact with the ball.
It is an excellent drill to work on one particular hand at a time because the hitter can control the bat since you’ve taken a wooden bat and cut it in half. It makes it light. It makes it easy for the hitter to handle and control.
The hitter can also work on his top hand, where he’s working on bringing his back elbow into the slot in front of his body in a 45-degree angle and working on getting his top hand, with the palm up, coming into the contact area.
In this drill, as in all the drills, we are working on rhythm, timing, and the proper sequence of the swing. A hitter would want to take 10 repetitions with the bottom hand and 10 repetitions with the top hand. There should be a rest period in between each 10-set rep.
Remember to focus on working on rhythm, timing, and the proper sequence of the swing with each of your players. By practicing these drills sequences regularly, you will definitely see a tremendous improvement in your player’s swing!
Will you be trying these baseball hitting drills with your players? Be sure to share your feedback with us, by leaving a comment below, or you can share with other fans at our Facebook page! And if you’re interested in seeing more hitting drills and tips for youth baseball players, check out our complete collection of baseball hitting drills.