Fun Drills for Tee Ball Practice

By Jim Bain

Don't believe kids in Tee-ball should be pushed to learn anything, that it's all just fun. Have you ever considered You are these kids first experience with playing baseball on a team, that you could very well be responsible for instilling the work ethic they may adhere to the rest of their life
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Kids at this age have a very limited attention span, which is disconcerting sometimes, but is not an insurmountable issue, as long as we have a plan to handle it. Here are some suggestions which will help.

Suggestion 1. You're not a drill sergeant, but if you let the kids know from the beginning that you are the Coach (Teacher) and are to be listened to at all times, the kids will listen. Kids are anxious to please, but that's not saying they won't have their days of showing up to practice bouncing off the walls,

Suggestion 2. Kids will respond to what you expect. In other words, if you don't expect them to learn or work...they won't. But if you take the time and patience to teach and let them know you expect them to learn what you're teaching...they will try their best to learn it.

Suggestion 3. The Tee Ball Drills must be fun and interesting, which can be quite difficult at times, but you won't have to worry about that because I'm going to guide you through some basic practice drills.

Let's begin with the three basic issues Throwing, Catching and Hitting.

Throwing Tee Ball Drill: Always teach the basics in a team environment, teaching everybody the same thing at the same time.

Line the team up in a single line, semi circle and have them sit down where they all can see you. Then explain you're going to show them how to throw a baseball the proper way, always throw that little phrase in or else Little Johnny is going to let you know he already knows how to throw a baseball. * Be smarter than Johnny and cut him off at the pass. *

Show them you place your thumb under the baseball, with two or three fingers on top of it. Don't worry about explaining about the seams, that's a long ways off.

Eyes on the target. Legs at shoulder width apart, turn sideways your glove hand pointing towards the target, the throwing hand extended out backwards away from the target.

Step towards your target with the opposite foot of your throwing hand, pushing off your rear foot begin your throwing motion, ending with your weight on the forward foot. Release the ball and follow through with your arm motion.

Make it fun: Place a large basket, laundry or fruit basket at home plate. Have the players spread out in a semi circle along the infield perimeter. Have them try to throw the ball into the basket. You can split the team in half and keep score for the team who hits or gets the closest to the basket.

Catching Tee Ball Drill: Begin with catching ground balls, then proceed to catching bouncing balls. Using a baseball roll the ball to the player. Teach him / her to get down on the ball, watch the ball all the way into the glove and cover the ball into the glove with the bare hand.

To begin this drill, the player should not wear his / her glove. Using a rubber or tennis ball, gently bounce the ball to the player. Teach the player to try and catch the ball with both hands, but have them pay particular attention to the way their glove hand is turned depending on high or low they catch the ball. This will begin orientating them to how their hand should be with the glove on, but not being able to see their hand.

Make it fun: split the team in half, in a straight line facing one another. Have a player roll the baseball to the opposing player, who will catch the ball then return roll it back to the other player. Keep score of which team catches the most grounders. Go through the entire line twice.
Then switching to rubber or tennis balls, have them throw a 1 bouncer to each other. Keep score, 1 point if you catch the ball, minus 1 point if it's a bad throw.

Hitting Tee Ball Drill: Demonstrate the basics to the entire team before allowing them to begin hitting.

1. Show them the Proper way to hold a bat, hands together, no cross handed holds. Don't worry about talking about lining your knuckles up or anything more advanced than just holding the bat right.

2. Show them how to take a batting stance. Feet shoulder width apart, knees slightly bent, bat held up with barrel behind their head. Hands and tee ball bat away from the body, good balance, looking at the tee,

3. Show them how to swing and hit the ball. Slight step forwards, eyes focused on the ball, level swing, weight transfer forward, extend arms and follow through after hitting the ball.

A little safety tip. Place a rag @ 4' away from them and instruct them to try to lay the bat down on as they make their last hit and run to first base. This will get them in the habit of laying the bat down and not throwing it.

Jim Bain, former Minor league baseball player, who since retiring has dedicated his life to teaching baseball to youth, shares his advice on pitching baseball drills on his exciting info packed website: http://www.learn-youth-baseball-coaching.com

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Youth Baseball Drills - Start the Kids on the Road to Success Early

By KC Andrus


Why Youth Baseball Drills?

Ahh, the joys of youth baseball. What a wonderful sight to behold, the children out there giving it there all, wearing their emotions on their sleeves and the parents in the stands biting their fingernails, overcome with nervousness. The sights and sounds of a little league game are one of the fondest memories of many children's childhoods and also becomes ingrained in the minds of their parents. Whether you are a parent, coach or player, however, it takes steady practice doing the RIGHT youth baseball drills to make your team a winner.

What Youth Baseball Drills are Effective?

Everyone knows that the most glamorous asset for a baseball player's inventory is his hitting skills, it is also his most valuable. So here are some common problems facing young hitters and some drills to help you improve.

Keep Your Eye on the Ball!

It's the first thing you learn as a baseball player and one of the most important. A good drill to improve this is to have someone stand on a mound and throw a ball and have the player track the ball all the way into the catcher's glove. Very simple and effective.

Hit Line Drives

If you're popping the ball up a lot or hitting way too many choppers, it is always one of two things: your timing is off or your swing is off and your bat path isn't straight to the ball. A good drill to make sure your bat path takes you straight to the ball is to practice hitting sharp line drives off of a tee.

My Timing Is Off

If you're struggling with timing and rhythm within your swing one of the best drills you can do to correct that problem would be soft toss. Have someone kneel on one knee out to the side and softly toss the ball up to you while you focus on timing and hitting the ball up the middle squarely.

What Other Measures Should I Take?

There are various other resources that can help you come up with Youth Baseball Drills and provide fantastic coaching tips. In order to get the best information, you have to sift through all of the misinformation on the internet. This is where I found the best information for me, it provides solid tips and even lets you in on some secrets to maximize hitting potential:

Youth Baseball Drills

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Free Youth Baseball Drills - 3 Great Ways to Improve the Youth

By KC Andrus

Youth baseball is a deep tradition, certainly in the American culture, and has always filled kids and parents live's with an amazing get away from the redundancy of normal life, as well as a way to channel children's energy (and hopefully wear them out, right parents? *wink* *wink*). But whether you're a parent, coach or player these six simple, free youth baseball drills are sure to get you and you're team going in the right direction, which is having fun, of course...and winning:
1. The first difficult transition in a baseball player's life is making the jump from tee ball to coach pitch (or machine pitch) whatever the case may be. A drill that makes this transition easier is to get a big, nerf soccer ball and have them hit that for a while just to get the feel of hitting a moving ball.

2. Baseball Ready Position Drill- this drill is great to teach kids the value of being in "ready position" when the ball is delivered to the plate. Have the infielder's line up at shortstop for ground ball practice just like normal, but BEFORE you hit them a ground ball make sure they get in a good athletic position so they can get a good jump on the ball.

3. Double Leg Kick Drill- This drill is for when the youngster's start pitching. Have the child stand in the outfield and pitch from the stretch the same as he would off the mound. But when he gets to his leg kick and his leg reaches it's highest point have him pause briefly, and then put his leg back down and leg kick again. This makes sure the pitcher is keeping his weight back and using his momentum toward the plate.

There are so many more great, free youth baseball drills. that will help your children improve and reach their true potential. It is wonderful for children to improve, and it is highly likely that the better they get the more fun they will have. It's just natural. Make sure to gather all the resources you can. The following site is one that I like a lot:

free youth baseball drills.

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Two Situations Drills For Little League Pitchers

By John R Di Nicola

Once you have had a couple of practices and have had infield and outfield practice you can venture to the next step working on game situations. You set your 9 players in their positions. Have your spare players as base runners. Have them stand behind home plate and you hit ball. This is so important it enables you to practice your pitchers and position players real situations. You will have to have patience. At first they will throw the ball around and be out of positions.

Below are two drills that are very important in teach the fundamentals of defense.

Situations

Backing up 3rd base and home plate.

With nobody on base and ball is hit into gap pitcher should line up in between third base and home plate.

With base runners on first base and ball hit into gap they should do the same and watch and see where the play may be and make their decision which base they should back up.

With men in scoring positions and ball hit into the gap they should back up home. You have to make sure the pitchers have good distance from the foul line so they are not to close and have a good angle to go between third and home. The Pitcher must have depth behind the base so they get overthrown ball.

The mistake they all make is getting to close to base. Explain, they are backing up to get the overthrow. If they are to close they can't make adjustments. This defeats the purpose of them backing up the base.

Covering Home Plate on Pass Ball

This drill is very important because you will have passed balls at this level. Providing the backstop is not to far back it is an excellent way to get what I call a cheap out.

You can have signals for the pitchers to call out to the catchers. Most of the time the catchers will not be able to pick up which directions the ball has traveled.

You can use one, two and three. One being right, once he has turned to retrieve the ball. Two would be middle of backstop. Three would to the left. Organizing your practice set up your schedule and rotate your days you do the drills. You will find that some of the drills they will pick up quicker than others. The biggest thing is you cannot have marathon practices. By keeping the practices short and crisp you will keep players motivated. I found if you have a practice schedule and post it will show the players approximately how long each drill will be and what to expect.
Practice makes perfect.

By: John R. Di Nicola

Thank you for taking the time to read my article. If you would like further information on this topic or other information you can E-Mail me at:jdinicola@easypitching.com

You can follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/easypitching
Web site:http://www.easypitching.com,

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How to Hit For Power in Baseball

By Joe Brockhoff
Hitting for power has always been associated with the big strong player. But in our research, we have discovered it is not so much the size of the player, but rather the strength of his hands.
If strength needs to be improved, it is in the hands and wrists. The ability to use the body is also imperative. Big guys and little guys can hit for distance if they incorporate body action in their strokes. This means they have learned to use their hips first, and hands last, with a powerful snapping action.

It is imperative that the batter develops a quick pivot and quick hands. Many young players never develop power because they are taught to just "meet the ball." It's a common phrase in baseball. As a result, many hitters stop their hands on contact and they never hit through the ball.

A hitter must be aggressive. Hitting is controlled aggression, while maintaining balance and control.

Another problem young hitters have comes from watching baseball on TV. They let the top hand go too soon. My suggestion-finish with both hands. This will further incorporate hitting through the ball.

Add to this the problem that many players are taught baseball hitting drills by getting their hands out over the plate on contact. Some times this is as a result of being taught incorrectly to get extension over the plate. Extension does not occur on contact, but rather after contact. When hitters try to extend on contact, it is like sawing wood, using too much arms and shoulders. This method will not power the ball.

In order to learn how to hit for power in baseball the hitter has to get his hands out in front of the body to contact the ball, with the top hand over the bat, and the bottom hand under the bat. The top hand is then like a hammer on contact.

Using the hands like this will increase bat speed at least 30-40% more than the arm swing.

How to hit for power in baseball comes down to :

1. A strong body
2. Quick hips
3. Especially quick hands, out front on contact
4. Hitting through the ball
5. Being aggressive

Former Tulane Hall of Fame Baseball Coach, Joe Brockhoff, fully explains his baseball hitting drills with the Super 8 Hitting System, completely demonstrated with videos and baseball hitting tips to help you hit with more power and raise your batting average.
http://www.learnbaseballhitting.com/.
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Great Baseball Hitting Drills For Keeping The Head Closed

By Joe Brockhoff
It is very easy to get into the habit of pulling off the ball. This is especially true for power hitters. Have you ever seen a power hitter hit a home run and thereafter, he can't couch the ball? What happened? The home run took him out of himself. So as he pivots, he is also pivoting his head.
First of all, hitters should never take a 100% stroke. Doing this invites pulling off the ball. For efficiency, the stroke should be no more than 95%, saving 5% for command. As coaches, we sometimes go too far in the other direction by telling them to "just meet the ball." And now they start to aim the bat, which is not good either.

Hitting is a controlled explosion. Continue to be aggressive, with a 95% stroke. So what do we advise? The hitter is pulling off because he's rotating his complete body when he hits. He must focus on his head rotating in the opposite direction to the hips. As the hips rotate to the pitcher, the head should rotate to the ball.

Here are three baseball hitting drills for this:

DRILL #1

Place a pile-on or glove across from the hitter just outside the batter's box in front of home plate (45% angle). After the hitter makes contact, he looks into the pile-on area. This keeps the head inside.

DRILL #2 (with pitching machine or live pitcher)

Hitter assumes his stance, with no bat. To simulate holding a bat, his top hand grabs the thumb of his bottom hand. Coach stands in back of the hitter and holds his head on both sides . The hitter takes batless strokes at the pitched ball, while coach restricts the head to keep it on the ball as it enters the hit zone.

DRILL #3 (Full Take)

The hitter will coil, stride, and read the pitch to the catcher. This keeps the head independent and disciplines it to stay with the ball. Note: This head discipline should carry over to his regular hitting, in the "full take", a pitch that is an obvious ball.

Coaching Points. The hitter should not go to the point where his head is pushing against the back shoulder. This locks up the back shoulder and restricts his extension. The head swivels. It should never tilt while reading the pitch. This causes the body to tilt also and the eyes to look on a vertical plane. Eyes must stay basically horizontal for best vision and body control.

Former Tulane Hall of Fame Baseball Coach, Joe Brockhoff, fully explains his baseball hitting drills with the Super 8 Hitting System, completely demonstrated with videos and hitting drills to help you hit with more power and raise your batting average.These techniques are fully explained in our baseball hitting instruction web site for the "Super 8 Hitting System", including batting aids and a series of baseball hitting videos, which demonstrates many baseball hitting drills. http://www.LearnBaseballHitting.com/lcp.

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Common Mistakes of Youth Baseball Players

By Tim Willman

Many young athletes lack the fundamentals necessary to reach their full athletic potential and become great hitters.

When hitting, you must remember to use the fundamentals and have good technique. I see so many players try to develop their skills, and they actually end up getting worse. This is because they lack the essential fundamentals to reach their full athletic potential.

One of the most common mistakes I see in youth hitters is the grip. When you are learning the proper grip, you should try to align your door knocking knuckles. Many players wrap their hands around the baseball bat and this causes them to roll their wrists. It also makes them have less power. If you align your door knocking knuckles, this will allow you to have a nice level swing and most likely have a better batting average.

Another common mistake that youth hitters have is the load and stride. A lot of young athletes believe that the load is a big sway for power. This is actually false. The load is simply a timing mechanism. Think about it this way. You load when the pitcher loads. The stride is also a part of timing. When the pitcher pus his foot down, most of the time that is when you should take your stride. A lot of young players will also try to have a big stride. This is going to make you land on your heel in spin out. Try to take a load that is around four to 6 inches long. This way you will stay balanced.

The last big mistake that I see youth hitters make is swinging for the fences. Of course every kid wants to hit a homerun, but if you try to more times than not you will end up popping up or striking out. Try to make contact with the ball and hit hard ground balls and line drives.
If you have some time please check out the resource box below.

Tim Willman is a former professional baseball player, having helped hundreds of people to easy baseball success! He's recently developed a hitting system showing you step-by-step how you can hit like a pro! To learn how to become a better hitter, visit, http://www.dynamitehitting.com/

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Baseball Drills Don't Have to Be Boring

By Chris Campbell
How many home runs have you hit lately? Probably not as many as the strikes that have been thrown against you. The pitcher definitely has a big advantage in baseball.

If you've been struggling with your batting average, rest assured, your not alone. Everyone (even the professional ball players) get into a slump at one time or another. Some players fell their not in a hitting slump, and that they've just never hit the ball as well as they could. Fortunately, it is a skill that can be improved.

Any batting practice, is better than sitting around watching TV, or playing video games. Shagging a few fly balls with some buddies while you each take a turn hitting, can sometimes be better than a formal batting practice session with your coach. Your relaxed, and thinking about having fun, rather than your swing technique. That said, it's not a formal substitute for regular team hitting practice under the coaches watchful eye.

If you don't feel your getting enough individual time from your baseball coach, then you may need to make other arrangements to improve your skills. There's nothing wrong with spending a few minutes after practice, asking the coach for specific things and you can work on. Then spend some time after practice to work on those drills.

Remember, that not all practice time needs to be fun. If your pressed for time when practicing, it's key to getting the most benefit out of the time you put in.

Not All Bats Fit All Hitters

Take a little extra time, to find the perfect bat for you. And when you find it, stick with it. Sometimes a low batting average, is simply the result of using the wrong sized bat for you. This is a simple problem to fix.

If your wondering what size bat you should be using, there's a simple test you can do to find out. Grab the handle end of the bat, point it straight out in any direction. If you can do that for 15 seconds or more without a shaky arm, you've found your bat.

Stand Proud As A Hitter

Don't assume, that everyone knows the best place to stand in the batters box. While it can vary from pitcher to pitcher, and batter to batter, there are some basics that should be understood. Consider strike zones, and your own swing when choosing.

It's good for both the pitcher, and the batter to have a target to aim for. So, always throw something down to be home plate. Even if you don't have an official home plate, try and mark the area with whatever you have at hand.

Be sure to visit the Baseball Coaching Drills website for some simple and effective baseball drills.
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Little League Baseball Drills

By Chris Campbell

If you've been lucky enough to have an opportunity to try and hit a fastball pitched by a professional, or semi-professional pitcher, then you know how hard it can be.

There have been a few crossover athletes, that move between baseball and other sports, that have tried their hand at doing just that. Micheal Jordan for instance was only able to bat around 200 when he played for a professional farm team. I don't think he ever performed that low on a basketball court for even 5 minutes.

While some drills can make you batting more effective, there's no substitute for quantity over quality in this scenario. It's simple, the more time junior can spend with a bat in his hand, the better. That means, hitting with mom, hitting, with dad, hitting with friends, or even older brothers / sisters. Have a bag of balls near that door, that makes it convenient to grab on the way out for a little practice time.

During a game of baseball, there's only one hitter at a time. And, during practice, there is also usually only one hitter at a time. So, if you do the math, it becomes pretty apparent, how little time your kids will get with a bat in hand during practice. Getting some practice time at home can make a huge difference in the early years.

Don't if your going to put in the time for extra hitting practice, there are a few things you can do to make practice more effective.

Get The Right Piece Of Wood

A bat that fits the player, is just as important as having baseball shoes that fit your feet. The weight of the bat is most important for good feed, as it can greatly influence the speed and timing of your swing.

There is a simple test for sizing a bat for your kids abilities. While standing, simply have them hold the bat out perpendicular to their body. If they can do that for at least 15 or 20 seconds, then the bat should be fine.

How A Batter Stands

While it may seem painfully obvious to most of us, make sure your kids have a solid understanding of where the strike zone is. it's fundamental to reaching all pitches, and is both a simple thing to do, and simple thing to forget to do.

It's pretty simple to ignore, but if your hitting a ball, you really should have a home plate to stand next to, and to pitch over. Even if it's just a rock, or an extra glove, make sure you use one whenever your having batting practice.

These Little League Baseball Practice, are meant to make practice fun. If your a coach looking for Fun Baseball Practice Drills, you've come to the right spot.
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Baseball Practice Drills

By Frank LaMorte
There is nothing worse than having a baseball practice and players are standing around waiting their turn to field a pop up or ground ball or even take batting practice. During practice it is essential to introduce drills that will provide repetition necessary to improve players skills. The only way to get better at a sport is to practice and repeat the proper behaviors to learn.
A critical component to any successful baseball practice is repetition, repetition and more repetition. As such I would like to introduce several drills that I have used that improved all my players' skills while having a fun time.

Head to Head Ground Ball Drill

First,break the players down into four groups. For purpose of this example let's say there are 20 players. Put players in groups of 5 making 4 distinct groups. A group of 5 will face another group of 5 at 11 to 15 yards apart depending on the skill level. Set the width of play at no more than 4 yards and expand the area as skill levels increase. Have the lead player on one side throw ground balls to the player on the other side. Once the player throws the ball he rotates to the back of the line. The player receiving the ball will throw to the next player in line. Repeat this for as long as you like. Each player in a short period of time can easily field 100 ground balls or more.

Pop Up Drill

This is one of my favorite drills that has the added advantage of increasing endurance. Once again break players down into 4 groups of 5 players. You can use other players or coaches to help. Designate two areas of play that is anywhere from 10 to 15 yards away and at least 4 to 6 yards in width. These areas should be opposite of each other. These areas can be expanded depending on the skill level of the athletes.

Have at least a dozen balls handy and have the player enter the field of play as you toss a fly ball to him, over his right shoulder, left shoulder, left side, right side and as he runs toward you. Toss the balls at a brisk pace to keep the player running and concentrating on making the play. This will allow him to work on technique while increasing range over time. When the dozen balls are used have the player retrieve them and return to your bucket. Then turn to field two and repeat with a new player. Keep doing this and in less than a half hour each player would have fielded at least 100 fly balls. You will be amazed at how effective this drill is and no one will be standing around for long.

Dirt Lines Ground Ball Drill

This drill is used to teach young players to get their hands and glove out front when fielding a grounder. The young player often gets in the habit of catching grounders close to his or her feet or slightly in front of the toes. As coaches, we want infielders to extend their arms and get the glove out in front so that they can see the ball into it. The player should "lay" the glove on the ground out in front of his body . Each players distance will vary. However, a good rule of thumb is to try and extend the length from the players arm or from the tip of the fingers to the armpit. Another good measuring scale is they should be able to extend the length of the the bat they use. This distance is measured on the ground from the back of his heel outward. For this drill we pair two players. The players will roll grounders to each other from about 6 to 8 feet. The coach draws two lines in the dirt about 8 feet apart. The players must catch the ball out in front of this line. The coach will then draw a second line for each player - this is the "feet" line. The players feet must stay behind this line. The players roll the ball and catch it while making sure to:

1. Get extension.
2. Keep the elbows off the ribs.
3. Funnel the ball in using the top "bare" hand.
4. Work their feet as they bring the ball up to the correct "T" throwing position.
5. Roll the ball back to your partner.
6. Repeat the process 50 to 100 times.

There are many drills to be used in baseball for pitching, hitting, fielding, running, bunting, etc. There are more drills then one could imagine. Employ a few new drills with each practice and watch your players enthusiasm and desire to return to practice. More importantly watch the development of your athletes, while they have lots of fun.

Keep the practices exciting and games stimulating and players will wait with excitement for the next opportunity to be with their team.

Coaching sports requires a set of skills acquired over time. Regardless of ones natural talents and instincts in dealing with the athlete there is much to learn in terms of how to become an effective coach. Learning how to run practice, use drills, techniques, and much more is an important part of coaching and learning any sport. For more information on coaching sports visit http://www.sportsnest.com

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3 Drills That Make Batting Cage Work More Productive

By Nick Dixon
Batting cage batting practice is a great way to improve batting skill, bat speed and batter confidence. Coach Dixon discusses three Hitting Drills That Make Batting Cage Work More Productive. The three drills are the MOVE UP, COUNT ADJUSTMENT and LINE DRIVE CONTEST. These drills are great ways to get maximum benefits from your baseball teams batting cage workouts. The three drills are:

Move Up Batting Drill

Purpose: Used to improve bat speed, visual concentration, and batter confidence.

Description: The MOVE-UP hitting drill: The batter learns to see and hit the ball quicker out of the machine or batters hand. Before the drill begins, 4 spots are marked on the floor, in measured distances of 40, 35, 30, and 25 feet. The machine or pitcher should maintain a safe medium speed velocity during this drill. The accuracy of your pitching machine must be checked and rechecked during the drill for safety purposes. The spots are the locations at which the batter will take a certain number of swings. The batter hits 4 balls at each spot and then move closer to the machine or pitcher at the next spot.

Procedure: The batter hits 4 to 6 balls at each spot, then moves to the next spot closer to the machine or pitcher. The machine or pitcher should not deliver the next pitcher until the batter assumes a proper stance, triggers or loads to the proper launch position, and has visual focus on the pitcher or machine. The batter starts the drill at 40 feet and hits at all spots until he has hit 4 to 6 balls at each spot, ending with ball hit at the closest spot to the pitcher, 25 feet. Distances can be shortened or made longer to meet the needs of your players.

Coaching Points: Sometimes you may have the player hit two balls at each spots moving toward the machine and then hit two balls at each spot moving away from the machine, until two balls are hit at each location or distance. This process makes the batter adjust to varying changes in pitch speed. This drill is great for teaching batters to stay-back and let the ball in.

Count Adjustment Drill

Purpose: The drill is great for teaching young hitters to make adjustments in their approach at the plate based on the current count. Batters learn to be properly aggressive for the following counts or situations 0-0, 2-0, 0-2, 3-1, runner at 3rd with 1 or less outs, and hit-in-run.

Procedure: We have 5 batting cages at our facility. Batters are always hitting in all cages. In a normal situation, the players would be hitting every pitch that they can reach to a location based on the pitch location. To change the approach, a coach calls a count such as 2-0. For the next two pitches, the batter will be properly aggressive as he would with that count in a game. Of course in this situation, the batter is looking for a pitch in that perfect spot. If the ball is at that anticipated location, the batter attacks, the ball. If the ball is not in that spot the batter will hold off the pitch and adjust to the new count of 2-1 or 3-0. If the coach calls, Runner at 3rd, the batter is looking for a pitch up to drive deep enough for a score or tag and score. The batter will try to lift the ball and drive a deep fly ball to the outfield. If the coach calls, Hit-n-Run, the batter will execute a hit-in-run approach at the plate.

Line Drive Contest Drill

After a session of batting cage workouts, we often end the day with a line-drive hitting contest. An assistant coach will do the pitching. The coach is protected by a L-screen. The player should only swing at great pitches. The contest is to see which player hits the most line-drives in a row. A line-drive is a ball that hits the side walls, back wall, or pitchers L-Screen hard and directly off the batters bat. The hit ball can not touch the top of the cage in front of the pitching protective L-Screen. As long as the batter hits line-drives with each swing, the batter continues to bat and his TOTAL COUNT increases. This drill tends to put pressure on the hitters making them learn to hit under pressure.

The CoachesBest Baseball Store has a great selection of BASEBALL HITTING, COACHING and TRAINING DVDs

Check out BattingCagesDirect.com for top quality batting cages at discount prices. They specialize in complete batting cage kits with net and frame included for one low price.
Nick Dixon is the President and founder of Nedco Sports, the "Hit2win Company". Dixon is also an active and full time high school baseball coach with over 25 years experience. Dixon is widely recognized as an expert in the area of baseball training, practice and skill development. Coach Dixon is better known as the inventor of several of baseball and softball's most popular training products such as the Original BatAction Hitting Machine, SKLZ Derek Jeter Hurricane Hitting Machine, Original Hitting Stick, Hit2win Trainer, SKLZ Target Trainer, SKLZ Derek Jeter ZipnHit Pro, and Strikeback Trainer. Dixon is also a contributing writer for BaseballCoachingDigest, the Baseball 2Day Coaches Journal, Batting Cage Builder, the American Baseball Directory and the Hit2win Baseball Coaches Monthly Newsletter. Dixon has 5 blogs related to baseball training including the BaseballCoachingDigest Blog, CoachesBest Training Blog, Hurricane Machine Training Blog, Batting Cage Buyers Blog, and the Bat Action Training Blog.
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How Baseball Hitting Drills Will Improve Your Average

By Alan Bryan
Even the most established ball player uses baseball hitting drills on a daily basis to help keep their skills sharp and look for improvement. Hitting baseball, or softball for that matter, is a difficult task. Even a quarter of an inch difference in your swing can result in a weak pop up or ground out back to the mound. There are many baseball hitting drills that can help you refine your swing.

Hitting off a tee: Not just for tee ball players, even major league players hit off a tee almost daily to practice hand eye coordination and tweaking a swing to get the head of the bat through the hitting zone quickly

Short Toss: Practicing hitting off a pitcher from very short distance will help with reaction time and also help with taking out the waste in your swing. If you dance around in the batters box in short toss, the ball will be by you. This is also helps with hip and foot placement

Shorter Bat: Probably a little known baseball hitting drill is to use a bat that is shorter than what you use in a game for practice. What this will teach is getting your arms extended through the swing zone and better hand/eye coordination

Learning some basic baseball hitting drills, and doing them on a daily basis can help you become a most successful hitter on any level. Remember that there is no replacement for hard work and determination. Baseball is a game based on failure. Even the most successful hitters fail almost 70% of the time.

Doing basic baseball hitting drills may seem like a waste of time, but even the most season pro use the same basic drills every day to keep on task. For the best baseball drill videos and techniques. visit http://www.batspeedtraining.info/.

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Baseball Drills - Offensive Pressure Creates Opportunities

By Nate Barnett


One of the best ways to force long innings (when you are on offense of course) and to win more games is to put added pressure on the defense. There are multiple ways of doing this, a couple of which are outlined here. Understanding the concerns of a defense and exploiting those concerns are valuable techniques any good coach will insert into his baseball drills.

Pressure Cooker #1 - Run Like the Wind:

Don't skip this part because you, your son, or the team you coach has little speed. You don't need any to understand this concept. The more offensive movement is created on the base paths, the more potential there is for defensive mistakes. Create movement the following ways:

A. Bigger lead offs. Most youth baseball players don't get a proper lead off at any base. Because of this, the defense doesn't feel the perceived threat of the runner. How long is a good lead? A runner should be able to rotate and dive (body fully extended) back to the bag in time if he is watching the right movements from the pitcher. Getting aggressive leads will do two things. First, it will force the pitcher to split concentration between the runner and the hitter. This will help out the hitter as pitch location may improve with the lack of focus from the pitcher. Secondly, the more throws drawn by the runner at first base (primarily) can results in potential overthrows as well as an increased opportunity to utilize a stolen base or a hit and run play.

B. Take aggressive turns on the bases. I frequently see many younger players after hitting a baseball, jog down to first base and take a small turn around first. This puts zero pressure on the defense. The first goal on any hit to the outfield is to reach second base. The mentality that every hit is a double will help runners become more aggressive. Obviously I'm not advocating running bases wildly, I'm simply promoting adding some extra heat on the defense to provoke some mistakes.

Pressure Cooker #2 - Have a Pitch Plan

It's quite common to watch hitters all the way through high school swing at pitches quite out of the zone. Most of the time this is caused from a lack of a game plan, or improper teaching during baseball drills. Each hitter should have a specific pitch plan based upon his hitting strengths. Every hitter has a special pitch, or one that is more favorable to hit than others. This needs to be the focus early in the count. No other pitches should be offered at early in the count other than the favorite pitch. The only thing that would change this scenario would be if a coach called some sort of offensive play.

A more selective approach to hitting will put pressure on defensive two different ways:

A. More pitches will be thrown by pitchers which will (hopefully) force a pitching change earlier in the game. Since more relievers in youth baseball are not as good as starters, this is a plus for the offense.

B. Getting better pitches to hit will create more baseballs in play. The more balls hit hard there are, the greater chance there is for a mistake by the defense.

Finally, there is no secret that perceived pressure causes more mistakes. If an offense can manufacture pressure and remain confident in doing so, they will enjoy watching an error filled defense play more timid and give games away.

Nate Barnett is owner of BMI Baseball, a baseball instruction company based out of Washington State. A former professional baseball player, Nate has written a free downloadable ebook on mental baseball drills to overcome failure. Also, come check out a free sample of his video enhanced ebook, Hitting Mechanics 101.

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Allowing Failure In Youth Baseball Drills

By Nate Barnett
I'm sure you have heard the words, "practice makes perfect". Or, "perfect practice makes perfect". And while I enjoy the utopian view that someday I'll get to coach the perfect team, or the perfect player, it's just not going to happen. Especially not in a sport where failure is a common and frequent occurrence. It is vital that our athletes understand failure and be taught how to employ a strategy to use failure as a positive and not as a negative. It takes some rewiring in the minds of athletes, but it's well worth the time spent.

What I would like to explore here is how failure can be utilized during youth baseball drills and during practice in order to create more fundamentally solid baseball players.

For many youth today failure is terrifying. Afraid of messing up a speech in class, afraid of getting an "F" on a exam, afraid of striking out, and afraid of being rejected in this or that. Failure is everywhere and and it is an integral part of our daily lives. The problem I have with the focus on failure is that it tends to paralyze many from attempting to achieve. Let me be clear when I say that I am not trying to do away with things that cause failure, or to shelter youth from experiencing it, I'm simply stating the lens in which we view failure needs to be cleaned.
Facilitating a new angle on failure during youth baseball drills and practice time is actually quite simple. I'll provide one solid example on one aspect of the game of baseball and let you apply the principle to the rest.

A Tangible Example: Batting Practice

When working with hitters, I will watch closely how they approach batting practice. During BP, all hitters want to do well, and why not, it's their time to shine. However, it usually only takes a few missed pitches, a few ground outs, or a few fly outs before the hitter begins to be frustrated and lose focus. This just compounds the problem.

The problem is not the missed pitches or the poor results, the problem is the perceived meaning of the missed pitches. In other words, the hitter sees the missed opportunities as a sign of inferiority. This feeling compounded upon will create a belief that the athlete himself has failed.
Good hitters approach batting practice mistakes far differently. A few missed pitches, repeated ground outs or fly outs simply communicate to a quality athlete that there is something not quite right with his swing. Instead of focusing on the feeling of personal inferiority, a non-emotional response is used and the mistake is not personalized. Upon completion of batting practice, this same athlete can be found in the batting cage or off to the side working on the specific problem.
The key differences with the above examples is how each hitter dealt with failure. In the first example the hitter allowed the mistakes to be an end result. Personal inferiority. The mentally successful hitter viewed the mistake as simply a PART of his offensive game that needed some help. Two drastically different view points.

I would highly encourage during your youth baseball drills to teach and cultivate the following ideas:

1. Failure is just an indicator of something that needs to change.

2. Failure should never be allowed to be related to the person of the athlete.

Nate Barnett is owner of BMI Baseball http://bmibaseball.com and is based out of Washington State. His expertise is in the area of hitting, pitching, and mental training. Coach Barnett's passion is working with youth in helping expand their vision for their baseball future. After finishing a professional career in the Seattle Mariners Organization, Nate pursued his coaching and motivational training career. His instructional blog is located at http://bmibaseball.com/blog
His new FREE ebook, Toxic Baseball: Are you polluting your game? can be found on the main BMI Baseball website.

Hitting 101, an ebook on complete hitting mechanics will be released by June 1st, 2008. Features include numerous illustrations, video clips, and a special offer to discuss your hitting questions over live on the phone strategy sessions.

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