New Team needs hitting drills and tips

[Mrmike]

We are starting a new season for our 12U team this fall. We have always done soft toss, live hitting, cage hitting etc. We are in need of drills to groove the proper swing for our girls. Hips, hands, short compact swing etc. Too many of our girls have casting swings with no power. There has to be like 4-5 drills I can implement to groove and change their muscle memory before next spring. Any thoughts or ideas would be great.

 

[doublesteal]

There isn't a one size fits all to help each player. I have stations set up but depending on what a player needs to work on they each could be doing something different.

Typically I try and do.
1. Bunt Station
2. inside pitch (set up a plate and a tee where they should properly be hitting ball)
3. Outside pitch (same as above)
4. Front Toss/ or bounce toss station
5. Tee Station (this changes for each player based on what they need to work - high tee, happy Gilmore, front hand swings
6. Identification Station (balls with colored circles we start by just front tossing and have them call out colors, than we progress to yelling color as they hit, than only hitting certain colors)
7. 1-2-3/Load, contact, finish - pretty much 1 is load, than do 1-2 which is load and to contact, than 1-2-3 full swing. make sure positioning is correct at all point & repeat
8. Chuck it station (the dog toy with tennis balls into a fence)

 

[Seattlecoach]

Tee work! Work in a lot of tee work, particularly when you are asking a player to change something in their swing.

Also know that "drills" won't create perfect swings, they have to be done correctly and with a purpose.

 

[Pitching Dad]

Have them stand in front of a mesh net, have them put their bat knob against their belly button and then have them put the barrel end of the bat against the mesh netting, now have them swing. If they hit the netting during their swing they are casting. I used to make my girls swing 50 times like this at each practice. They get immediate notification on each swing if they casted. Don't do this against a fence unless they don't care about their bat.

 

[PEPPERS]

On the baseball game last evening the announcers were talking about what an impact Japanese players were having on the game. The reason they advised is how hard they work, on an average they spend 2 more hours practicing a day than the American player. According to them it does not stop there, when they leave the ball park, they practice the mechanics of the swing with dry swings, tee practice and slow swings.

IMO work on proper mechanic and timing.