Sock-it-to-Me

Equipment Needed:
A hitting station and two socks

Purpose:
This drill is used to help improve bat swing while also helping players learn to shorten their swing.

Explanation:
Each player gets 10 swings with a sock under each armpit. The goal of the drill is to complete the swing without dropping the socks. Use a hitting station such as batting tee, soft toss, pitching machine, live pitching, etc. to conduct the drill. Inform the team that there will be 30 sprints (or a number of your choosing) at the conclusion of practice. The players have the opportunity to drop the number of sprints by not dropping the socks. For each sock that doesn't drop, (possible 20 since you have 10 swings and two socks) the number of sprints is reduced by one. A perfect score, no socks are dropped, would reduce the number of sprints to 10. Do not conduct the drill with a punishment motivation, such as, making players run for each number of socks dropped. This is also a good drill for team building, as players have a tendency to cheer for their teammates to be successful. The drill demands that the players use the inverted "V" and a short, compact stroke to be successful.