Batting drills for hitting .300.Batting drills are a good way to work on getting in a groove to make your swing more consistent. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The ultimate goal of any drill is to improve performance by making the swing be automatic. You program a perfect response, the swing that does exactly what you want it to do once you're playing baseball games Noun 1. baseball game - a ball game played with a bat and ball between two teams of nine players; teams take turns at bat trying to score runs; "he played baseball in high school"; "there was a baseball game on every empty lot"; "there was a desire for National League . You can't think about mechanics during the game; that mechanically sound swing must become second nature to you. DRILL #1: THE BATTING TEE A great tool that will teach you what pitches you can handle and what pitches you need to work on, the batting tee allows you to work on every pitch in every location of the strike zone. Move the tee around to different positions to simulate simulate - simulation all the different pitches you'll see in any game. Just keep in mind that the batting tee moves while you keep your feet in the same spot all the time. Begin with your stance: You put down the tee, get into the batter's box Noun 1. batter's box - an area on a baseball diamond (on either side of home plate) marked by lines within which the batter must stand when at bat baseball diamond, infield, diamond - the area of a baseball field that is enclosed by 3 bases and home plate , and mark your feet to know exactly where you are standing. By moving the batting tee you can hit the ball to every part of the field and be able to hit any pitch thrown to any location: outside, middle, middle-in, and inside. To hit the ball in, you have to hit it farther out farther out Of or relating to an option contract with a later expiration date than a contract that is currently owned or being considered. For example, a contract with a May expiration date is farther out than a contract with a February expiration date of in front--that's where you would move the tee. And the farther the pitch gets to the outside part of the plate, you now have to hit it farther back--and so that's where the tee moves (Photos 1-7). The hardest pitch to hit is the inside pitch, especially since the goal is to hit the ball fair. So that's one of the things you can focus on during your batting tee sessions. But all of these pitch locations require the same swing. Don't change your swing. Don't change where you step. Everything is exactly the same, except the location of the pitch. Coaching Summary: You control your mechanics by marking your feet, putting a line in the dirt to check your stride, and then moving the tee in different directions across the plate. Remember that you are moving the tee around; you are not moving, and your swing stays the same on all pitch locations. A young hitter needs that continuity and consistency of working on ideal mechanics while adjusting to different pitch locations. Your swing and stride never vary. Volume: How many swings you take in practice will depend on what you're working on that day. You might want to take ten to twenty swings to make contact with the ball as you face the tee to hit to left-field; take ten to twenty with tee moved slightly forward to hit to center-field; and ten to twenty with the tee moved considerably forward to hit to right field. In general, the goal is to use the tee to get at least 50 perfect swings, regardless of where you're hitting the ball. That's the way I want you to work: The goal is to work toward perfection of the swing. We are practicing to be perfect. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One-hand tee drills: Some hitters will do one-handed work with the bottom hand. I don't necessarily recommend this for young players, but as you get older and stronger it can be of some value to enhance solid mechanics Solid mechanics is the branch of physics and mathematics that concerns the behavior of solid matter under external actions (e.g., external forces, temperature changes, applied displacements, etc.). It is part of a broader study known as continuum mechanics. . I'm not going ask a ten-year-old to try one-handed drills, though, as he'll end up with some bad habits bad habit Unhealthy habit Clinical medicine A patterned behavior regarded as detrimental to physical or mental health, which is often linked to a lack of self-control. Cf Good habit. . DRILL #2: SOFT TOSS TOSS - Terminal Oriented Social Science TO THE FRONT I'll stand about fifteen feet in front of the hitter, about five strides in length, and toss baseballs from different locations (Photo 8). The good thing about soft toss is that the speed is nice and slow--that's beneficial because when we're talking about building the good foundation you'd like to work with a drill that doesn't rush you; no one is going to get hit with the ball; there's no fear of live pitching. Applications: This drill allows you to watch the stride, see if the hitter is square (using the straight-line, shoulder-width stance). You can simulate pitches to all locations, troubleshoot To find out why something does not work and to fix the problem. Troubleshooting a computer often requires determining whether the problem is due to malfunctioning hardware or buggy or out-of-date software. See debug. any problems and correct mechanics just by asking the hitter to hit balls to certain spots on the field, and to watch what he's doing with his swing. Coaching Summary: Soft toss is an effective drill to practice more swings in less time. You work at a slow pace and you can build the foundation of the swing at a slow, relaxed pace that helps to drill muscle-memory and repetition. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SOFT-TOSS VARIATIONS Variation #1: If a player has to tendency to start his swing by going forward instead of taking a step back, you can have him pick up his foot and do the soft-toss drill while standing on one leg (you can also do this with the batting tee). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] This one-leg soft-toss drill develops balance, relaxed hands, and the ability to wait on the pitch while "hanging" with one foot in the air. Variation #2: From the hanging drill, I'll move to having the hitter use a regular stance. Then I'll go back and forth between the hanging drill and the regular soft-toss drill. The goal is to merge the two drills so the hitter feels comfortable and natural in the stance; the hanging part of it simply adds more balance to it and prevents that forward movement. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Volume: Take 45 swings (half of a bucket of balls) and vary the number of hanging versus regular soft-toss drills. DRILL #3: SOFT TOSS WITH A SHORT BAT You can also do the soft-toss drill with what's known as a short bat--37 to 39 ounces and only 30 inches (Photo 9, far right). Tony Clark
The heavy weight of the short bat makes you that much more aware if you are pulling off your shoulder, as the weight allows you to feel that you're pulling around the ball. Now, if you swing the bat correctly, the weight doesn't feel that heavy. The short bat won't lie to you: It really tells you if you are coming around the ball or hitting underneath it; you have to be more precise with the short bat. Volume: Ten to 20 perfect swings with the short bat is plenty of work; this is not something I'd recommend to a younger player who is going to struggle with the added weight. DRILLS AND CREATIVE THINKING ABOUT HITTING I've seen coaches experiment with all sorts of different drills to improve their player's ability to hit different pitches: The Net Drill: The hitter swings the bat at a ball thrown alongside a net; the goal is to not hit the net with the bat--and you won't hit it if you are swinging the bat correctly. The net drill gives you immediate feedback. You will know right away if you are doing something wrong. The Chew Drill: I've seen Gerald Perry [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] You have to experiment to figure out what's best suited to correct your problems, with constant repetition of the ideal swing. GETTING A GRIP Grip is the key to success or failure with any bat. When I was coaching my kids back in Evansville, IN, I noticed that they would always squeeze the bat too hard rather than apply a relaxed grip. What's more, kids can't understand the concept of putting the bat in the fingertips "Fingertips" is a 1963 number-one hit single recorded live by "Little" Stevie Wonder for Motown's Tamla label. Wonder's first hit single, "Fingertips" was the first live, non-studio recording to reach number-one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the United States. and lining up the knuckles. For proper knuckle knuckle /knuck·le/ (nuk´'l) the dorsal aspect of any phalangeal joint, or any similarly bent structure. knuck·le n. 1. alignment, you want to line up the middle knuckles on both hands (Photo 10). The V-Grip bat (Photo 11) is perfect for all of these drills, and of course you can use it in games, because with it your hands are automatically in the ideal hitting position: setting the right knuckle alignment and fingertip fin·ger·tip n. The extreme end or tip of a finger. grip. The V-Grip bat gives you the freedom to hit different pitches in different locations with that whipping WHIPPING, punishment. The infliction of stripes. 2. This mode of punishment, which is still practiced in some of the states, is a relict of barbarism; it has yielded in most of the middle and northern states to the penitentiary system. motion of the inside-out swing. Excerpted from Don Mattingly's Hitting is Simple: The ABC's of Batting .300, by Don Mattingly As a child he grew up in Oxford and attended Josca's Preparatory School before going to Magdalen College School. , St. Martin's St. Martin's or St. Martins may refer to:
New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , NY. V-Grip bats are available online at www.mattinglybaseball.com or www.donmattingly.com. By Don Mattingly, Bench Coach, New York Yankees  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism.
RELATED ARTICLE: SOFT-TOSS APPLICATIONS: * A coach can use soft toss to see if a hitter is striding from point A to point B. * As a coach I can analyze if a player is getting underneath the ball. * It's a good way to practice a lot of swings to in a controlled atmosphere A controlled atmosphere is an agricultural storage method. An atmosphere in which oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen concentrations are regulated, as well as temperature and humidity. Two major classes of commodity can be stored in controlled atmosphere. 1. . * It's easy to change speeds and to vary the pace and location of the pitches. |
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