Yesterday's post dealt with some indoor practice tips. Below are some drills specific for those hitting stations that allow you to maximize the time and space available. Of course, these tips and drills are also great for individual players who are looking for ways to improve their hitting when they are stuck indoors at home.
Hitting drills for station work:No stride drills – I’m a big fan of these drills because they stress to players that you don’t need a big stride to hit. Live hitting, short toss, soft-toss, and tee work are all options for no-stride stations.High pitch Tee – set the tee to the highest position to work on the highest pitch a batter can hit. Placing the tee on a chair works great. This forces the batter to work on getting on top of the ball.Low pitch Tee – Set the tee to the lowest position. As kids get older, more pitches will be down there so they better learn how to hit it. A future post will show a video clip of this one which has a different twist to it!Soft toss – Options for stations include normal bats and indoor balls, broom handles and tennis balls or golf Wiffle-balls, inside pitch, outside pitch, high pitch, and low pitch.Stand in – Great option for a station if pitchers are throwing as well.Wall 1 – Often called the fence drill where a hitter faces bat-distance away from a wall or fence and swings. Works on keeping the hands inside the ball so the bat doesn’t contact the wall. A padded gym wall helps in case the player does make contact with the wall.Wall 2 – Batter stands as if the wall is where the pitcher is. His front foot is proper stride distance from the wall. He strides to the wall and completes a fundamentally sound slow motion swing until the bat gently taps the wall. This works on swing mechanics, proper stride length, and prevents lunging.Soft-toss / Top hand – The batter places his back knee down on the ground and extends his front leg out towards the wall or catch net. Batter swings using only his top hand on the bat. Tiny Little League bats are good for this drill. Works on proper top hand performance on the swing.Soft –toss / Bottom hand – Same as above but with the bottom hand.Mirror swings – Slow motion or full speed swings where the batter can watch their own mechanics and make adjustments. Windows work very well also depending on the reflection.Bunting - Stations may include bunting to first, bunting to third, suicide squeeze, base-hit bunts to first, and base-hit bunts to third.
There are many more so please add if there are some you use frequently!