Favorite Hitting Drills

Here are my team's most favorite hitting drills. We use these in our indoor preseason practices and have alot of fun with them. I hope you will too.

1. MILK TOP SOFT TOSS
We us the plastic tops from gallon milk jugs and toss them just like we would with softballs. They provide a smaller target, causing the batter to concentrate more. Best of all, they don't damage the walls so we can even hit them in the hallways. One variation of this drill is to have the tosser place a top in each hand, rotate them around and toss one randomly. This forces the hitter to keep her weight back and focus on the tosser. A second variation is for the tosser to place two different colored milk tops in one hand, toss them up and call out the color of the one they want the batter to hit.

2. RAG BALL HIGH DROP
We have the tosser (dropper) stand on a bucket, a ladder or occasionally from the running track suspended above the gym. We have them do a little target practice to make sure they are dropping them on the plate. The batter then hits the rag ball into the wall 10-12 feet away from them. One key here, if your hitter is impatient, drop from a greater height. If you are preparing to face a good fastball pitcher, drop from a short distance. This increases reaction time.

3. TENNIS BALL BOUNCE TOSS
Set up as you would soft toss with the batter 10 to 12 feet from the wall and the tosser at a 45 degree angle. The tosser bounces the tennis ball as it comes off of the floor and crosses the plate in the strike zone. Hitter drives the ball. To get your fielders some practice, have one on either side of the hitter about 10 feet back fielding the balls as the ricochet off of the wall.

4. HIP TURN FROM TEE
Set the ball (we use ragball or tennis ball) on tee at belly button height to the hitter. Hitter holds a bat, broomstick, dowel or piece of PVC pipe behind her back; help in her elbow joints against back. She stands in the normal hitting position but must turn her hips to knock the ball from the tee. We occasionally place a ball on the ground next to the batter's back foot. If she is pivoting correctly, the ball will be knocked away as she turns on the ball of her back foot.

5. BUNTING FOR DOLLARS
Set up a small infield and make three zones from foul line to foul line and out from home plate. Make lines with masking tape and make them three-to-six-to-nine feet from home plate. These are your three zones. Use live pitching and give each player 10 balls to bunt. Balls that stop in the three-foot zone are worth $25; those in the six-foot zone are $10 and the nine-foot zone are worth $5. We use play money but you would never know it! Players can then use their loot to buy their way out of certain tasks (equipment pickup, lap running, sprints, etc.) They like this one so much they stick around after practice and work on it at home! A coach's dream. Well, these are our favorite hitting drills; I hope they can benefit your practices and increase your FUNdamentals. Happy Hitting.