Favorite Hitting Drills

Teaching hitting a softball is a passion of mine and I was wondering what other coaches are doing out there. My question to this form is what are your favorite and most productive hitting drills? For me I love using tee's and breaking the swing down into parts. To me allows the girls to focus on what they need to be doing correctly.
One thing I like about this forum is it seems you all are passionate about the game and are really discussing the isues of the game, so lets tackle hitting.
Scott Miller

 

swinging at a large punching bag with your bat such as an Everlast is my single favorite thing to teach. You can position it on a hand truck or otherwise stabilize it on the floor. ... nothing, imho, will give you feedback on where you need to be AT THE POINT OF CONTACT like hitting a bag in this fashion because your swing stops at contact.

It helps if the student has seen some video of top olympians or MLB players so they know where the upper half and lower should be at contact... let them play copy cat. About 1500 reps on the bag are necessary if you are trying to correct a fault or just starting out with a new player.

 

Not trying to hijack the thread...

Am also interested in what others do to help with watching the ball, hand-eye coordination, and swing speed.

For instance, I like to do the drop drill (stand on a bucket and drop the ball straight down) for swing speed and use a pitching machine into a mat and have them point to (with the bat) EXACTLY where the ball hit the mat after it passed them to make sure they are watching the ball the entire way.

 

Drills

I like the hitting of the bag and to take that to the next level after they get to a good contact, have them hit a flat basketball and now they will work on driving throught the ball. I may have to try the weighted bag idea.
For hand eye cordination one drill that I like and girls like it, too, is to first start with two balls and while standing on the bucket drop both at the same time one on top of the other and tell them to hit the top or bottom. You can also do this like normal soft toss and then say top or bottom and they will have to hit that one. I like this because they have to go from soft focus to hard focus.
Scott Miller
www.gaptogapsoftball.com

 

Bmac- Where are you?

One of the best hitting coaches i know of and has been doing this for about 10 years is Ben McKinney (Bmac1) with the Carolina Cardinals.

I know he stays busy all year with hitting lessons, but hopefully he will add something to this discussion.

 

I love to use the punching bag. I've got a 75-lb. bag stuffed inside an old Army duffle bag to make it last longer. I spray painted 3 yellow balls on it for high, middle and low. We hang it on the fence. The kids love it.

I also have an 8-lb. squishy ball that I suspend from a rope. I've seen better ones that are professionally made, though.

 

The drop drill is great! I was reading just last night and that coach suggested to also try pinto beans in place of the ball. I'm going to try it.

Watching live pitching is also good--just watching it, not hitting it. I think it's good for the pitcher also. I wish we would do it regularly when the pitchers are practicing.

PS: I saw one of your students today. That girl can kill the ball!! Don't know about that switching to the left side, though. I'll be interested to see how that turns out.

 

Swoosh!

One of my favorite drills I call the swoosh drill. The batter steps back away from the plate and just starts swinging the bat really loosely back and forth at middle of the strike zone level. She swings faster and faster staying really loose and limber listening for the swooshing sound of the bat (usually about 6 or 7 swings is good). Then, without taking anymore swings, she steps back to the plate and hits the next ball (either soft toss, or pitched). It results in a MUCH farther hit ball. I then explain to her the importance of the tension-free swing. Which is the effect of the swoosh swings. It would work in a game also but I haven't found anyone who will do it in a game. Modesty, I guess.

 

hitting drill

the beans really work especially using a cut off broom stick. don't forget to use safety glasses when you throw them.

 

Which student? We have had a bunch of big hitters over the past few years and we worked with a lot of them (especially the ones with speed) on slapping and/or drag bunting from the left side which I think also helps them 'see' the ball better.

Also forgot one of our favorite things to do at the end of practice is play stick ball. I sawed off a couple broom stick handles (one 32", the other 36") and made a grip on them with athletic tape and we use tennis balls. Basically, if they can crush a tennis ball with a stick, they will have no problem hitting a big old softball with a bat. At the end of the year, we award one of the bats to the girl (or in last years case, the coach) that hits the most homeruns over the season.