Drills to Raise Batting Averages of Baseball Players

Frequently parents write wanting to know how they can help their baseball playing child to become a better hitter. It has long been my observation that most Little League managers hardly ever devote enough individual attention to hitting as is required.

For the next few weeks, I will point out a few drills parents can use to teach their youngster the skills to hit a baseball. The first thing I'm going to write about is personal attention.

First of all, pitch to him or her so they get more experience at hitting thrown balls. If you will only throw to them for one hour, they will get twelve times as much batting practice as they would in one Little League practice session.

To all you youth coaches of youth baseball teams, I recommend you arm yourself with a bucket of balls that you can lend out to parents willing to devote the time. This way, the parent can pitch them to a child, retrieve them, and start all over again.

If all parents would spend this one hour, two or three times a week, you would never see a child go through an entire season without ever hitting the ball in a game. This quite often happens. So, parents, if you lack the coordination to throw those balls to your youngster, perhaps you can enlist another adult to be a surrogate parent.

Baseball batting drills do not require a baseball field. All that is needed is:

1. A fence or a wall to hit into.
2. An area free of obstructions.

An awful lot of batting practice can derive from the parent tossing balls underhanded from the side as the batter hits the ball into a screen or fence. Even if you can't walk and chew gum, every parent can master this little trick.

Hitting baseballs is not enough. Unless good hitting form is stressed, such practice using bad habits can be harmful. That's why Shack can't hit free throws. He practices hours a day doing it wrong, repeating bad habits over and over.

You can see it is most important that every coach and parent involved in teaching children to hit a baseball must understand the basic fundamentals of hitting a baseball and insisting in the proper execution of every step in the process of hitting a baseball in all drills.

The late Edd Roush of Oakland City, Indiana, and a member of Baseball's Hall of Fame, once told me in an interview that hitting a baseball can be broken down into three checkpoints;

1. The legs
2. The head
3. Timing of the pitch

These three checkpoints can taught using the following sequences:

The Legs

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A good swing at a baseball requires the batter to step toward the pitcher with the front foot and pushing off his back foot. This action starts turning the body and as the body turns, the batter straightens his front leg as his arms bring the bat into a position to hit the ball.

Youngsters tend to use only the upper body, the shoulders and arms, to hit a pitched baseball. Big strong kids sometimes get away with this, and sometimes hit home runs; however, using the legs will help his swing. He can swing slower, increasing accuracy, and get his weight into the swing, thus increasing power in his swing.

The batter turns his shoulders and hips to get the bat in position to swing and uses his legs to turn the body forward with a slow but strong motion. This pulling action is more powerful and controlled than using the upper body alone.

A good exercise for developing this sequence is to have him lock a bat in his arms behind his back, stepping forward with the front foot and rotating the back foot until the heel is pointing toward the backstop, if he is at the plate.

The first part of the drill, stepping toward the pitcher, is quite natural if he is not afraid of being hit by a pitch, If he is afraid, there is a tendency to bail out, stepping in the bucket.

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Checking the Head and Eyes

Here is a drill that will help teach young hitters to follow a thrown baseball with their eyes and without moving the head. Of course, it is designed for beginners, but sometimes older players may benefit as well.

The procedure is as follows:

1. Instructor takes the position of a batter.
2. Have player stand on the pitching mound.
3. Go through the motion of swinging at an imaginary ball without movement of the head.
4. Ask the player to watch your head. Have him notice that your arms, wrists, shoulders, upper body, and feet move, the head remains still. It is only after the swing that the head turn toward first base.
5. Tell the players that you looking at the emblem on their hat, pretending it’s the ball. Ask them to watch your eyes as you again go through the act of hitting a baseball.
6. Have the player on the mound to replace you in the batter’s box and another player replace him on the mound.
7. Let them take turns at this drill at pretending to hit the ball.
8. As coach you critique their form and have players critique one another.

 Having the batter focus on the cap emblem of the “pretend pitcher” will help teach them to follow the ball in from the pitcher’s hand. Later, expand the drill by moving the pitcher closer to the plate, where he can throw straight, and adding a whiffle ball.

 Have the batter track the ball from the pitcher’s hand to the bat. First, he focuses on the cap emblem to get distance range. Then as the pitcher goes into his windup, the batter should focus on the shoulder of the pitching arm. As the ball is released, the batter’s eyes track the ball all the way in without moving the head. The eyes move, but it is important the head remain still.  

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