Simple Baseball Drills

A great training method that I’ve used is cutting out a picture from the sports page, photo copy it and distribute it to the players. Sometimes when us coaches talk too much the kid’s eyes glaze over and a picture is worth a thousand words.

Here’s a batter in perfect position:

Photo credit: Gateman

I love the line in his pants. There’s a straight line from his left knee to his ear and he’s up on his toe on his back foot. Head is down and arm’s are fully extended. What a powerful swing! And, he’s completely balanced over both feet. He probably only took a 6 to 8 inch stride. Hopefully, the kids take home the picture and dream of hitting a line drive on Saturday!

I always hear on TV that most ballplayers don’t know [tag]how to bunt[/tag]. How can that be? I had a friend, who was a great motivator and coach, who loved to bunt in critical situations. Because of him, I’ve always taught bunting as a strategy.

Now this is how I like to teach bunting:

Have your kids move up in the box, but don’t make it so obvious that the catcher picks up on it. The reason for moving up in the box is so they have a better chance of bunting the ball fair. If they’re way back in the box the ball has more of a chance of going foul. Don’t square around! I hate to tell kids what not to do because then they’re thinking of what I said and end up doing it! Telling other coaches what not to do is alright. I have the kids pivot on their toes, keeping the knees bent (athletic position) and face the pitcher with their upper body. They will look like they’re running towards the pitcher when in the correct position.

The rules for holding and moving the bat are:

1. Move both hands up the barrel for better control, but keep them down far enough so they don’t get hit. Hands should be spread apart about 5 inches and below the label.
2. Let the bat “give” with the pitch, almost like catching the ball with the bat.
3. Only move the bat down to the ball, if they move it up they will pop up the pitch.
4. Get the ball down one of the lines before running.

If you find there’s a kid that bunts well then you can teach him/her [tag]how to bunt for a base hit[/tag]. The cool thing is, the technique is the same. They just have to wait longer so they can surprise the infield.

Soft toss is one of the best methods of teaching young players how to properly swing the bat.  I found a great resource for performing the proper soft toss.  You should start this drill with a “T” so the ball is not the main focus of the drill.

1. The batter should be in position and ready to hit the ball.
2. Have them “load the hands” by moving them straight back about 4 to 6 inches.
3. The batter takes a small step with their lead foot.
4. The heal of the back foot should be turned out.
5. The batter will swing on your command.

The coach needs to call out each step using a one word command.  This drill is a little choppy in the beginning, but after a few repititions, you both will get the hang of it.  We used this drill before a game when the batting cage had a backlog of hitters.  It reminded kids of the process of swinging a bat.  We would start out saying the commands and then the last few swings would be watching them put everything together.  Maybe using a “ready…swing”, while watching the hands moving back, the small lead foot step and the back heal turn.