Favorite Hitting Drills

squaring the ball

What I mean by the term squaring the ball is to make contact with the pitch with the bathead at a 90 degree angle to the path of the pitch, for an inside pitch one would make contact with the pitch out front of the hips with the bathead at a 90 degree angle with leftfield foul line.The pitch down the middle would be at a 90 degree angle to the path of the ball parallel with the hips making contact off the front knee, and the outside pitch would be to a 90 degree angle to the right field foul line making contact with the ball at the back hip. To many times the bathead lags thru the zone and the contact with the pitch is made with the bathead at a weaker angle than 90 degrees, thus resulting in a weak ground ball, the samething applies to an inside pitch that is hit when the wrist roll over to soon, bathead angle is to great and is not at most powerful position at point of contact, hitter can't keep ball fair if it is inside or rolls over outside pitch for weak gounder to SS. That is what squaring the ball means to me, and the hammer drill will help out with what is really the problem in squaring the ball ,and that is unhinging the wrist just before contact,not only does that allow the bathead to thrust forward but also provides the much wanted "pop" in the swing.

 

Contact point

The coach my DD is taking lessons from focusses on the contact point. He doesn't refer to it as squaring the ball but is the same thing that is being talked about and he gave her some great drills that breaks the swing down and focusses on the contact point and then driving through the ball.

He also put a 'science' spin on it that I hadn't thought of which made a LOT of sense to me when he said it. He said it is basic physics. The longer the bat stays in contact with the ball, the farther and harder the ball will travel. You can actually tell when you or someone else has done this properly. Have you ever hit a ball real hard and said wow, I didn't even feel it? Ever seen someone hammer the ball and the (composite) bat barely made a sound? Most of the time, that means that the bat stayed in contact with the ball for a LONG time which allowed the bat to transfer the energy to the ball.

 

Mechanics

I am in agreement with you guys, "squaring" the ball, does not just happen at contact it is something that is accomplished with mechanics much earlier in the swing. As hitting coaches sometimes we focus on the obvious problem instead of trying to find the root of the problem. An easy example of this is I hear coaches yelling at kids all the time to stop pulling their heads. If a kid is bailing out the front shoulder then there is no way for him not to pull his head but the coach never tries to fix the real problem. So the kid tries like heck to keep his head down but as long as the shoulder is bailing out then there is no way his head can stay in.
As a side point I am not sure there is a better feeling in the world than hitting a ball hard and you never felt. The only feeling that maybe better is when one if your girls does it.
Scott Miller
www.gaptogapsoftball.com

 

As "squaring the ball" is described, the key seems to be primarily getting the hips fully involved agressively in the swing. That allows the arms and hands to be able to move the bat correctly to the contact point according to pitch location without sacrificing bat speed. All of this is a big part of successful rotational transfer mechanics.

 

BetterBatter I would agree that squaring the ball is a part of proper mechanics. I would like to invite you to the linear vs rotational thread to get your opinion there.

 

semi-flattened basketball

My favorite is when they hit a soft-tossed semi-flat basketball. They can really feel the loss of power if they hit it farther back in the zone, so it teaches them to hit the ball slightly ahead of their front foot. I also notice a big increase in power if they pound a few basketballs in the cage and then take a few live pitches.

 

I took the air plugs out of the balls we use. That way it re-inflates just enough by itself. Otherwise there's the risk it my have too much air and ricochet too hard. Learned that the hard way with girls getting stitches. They should always wear helmets, though. And knee pads help protect against inside pitches. Yep, we pitch it sometimes but that's a little risky with power hitters.

One of the things we insist on is line drive hits. If the ball goes up or down the swing wasn't like we want it. The bb is unforgiving; if you're slightly over or under it lets you know. Sometimes, though, we do let them swing with a slight lift.

The girls love it and you can use that drill indoors, especially hitting towards a corner in the gym. That way it kicks the ball back out to the tosser when doing soft toss from the side.