Dropping the Hands

SportScout · Aug 2, 2017

Hello Coaches,
I'm looking for coaching advice on how to help my 7-9 year old players from dropping their hands, which leads to swinging up at pitches while batting. I've tried a drill where you rest a batting helmet on the top of the bat... the player then slowly swings... if she drops her hands, then the helmet falls off. If she swings correctly, then the helmet will never fall off.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.

GunnerShotgun · Aug 2, 2017

What I have found over the years is that batters that drop their hands do not understand the role of the hands in the swing. Give the hands something to do...

CoogansBluff · Aug 2, 2017

SportScout said:
I've tried a drill where you rest a batting helmet on the top of the bat... the player then slowly swings... if she drops her hands, then the helmet falls off. If she swings correctly, then the helmet will never fall off.

Not sure I follow this. ... Are you saying you want the barrel-end of the bat not to go below the hands throughout the swing? And for the barrel to swing flat through the hitting zone? That's the only way I can envision doing that drill to contact and keeping a helmet from falling off.

4 girl's dad · Aug 2, 2017

I have had pretty good results doing tip n rip drills. Doesn't always carry over but it seemed to help my younger players get a feel of swinging and not dropping their hands.

JasonS · Aug 3, 2017

I've used the first two drills in this video... may try #3 and #4 at our next practice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRtPryivdsg

Another drill we have used recently is a soft-toss drill. Have your batter take her regular stance but bring her hands down to her waist... it will be a little uncomfortable... a lot, for some... as you toss the ball to her, she brings her hands back up to "normal" and takes her swing.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

GunnerShotgun · Aug 3, 2017

When I say give the hands something to do I am talking about "turning the barrel". I wasn't trying to be cryptic.

Try and simulate bat lag which in my humble opinion comes from turning the barrel (both hands moving in opposite direction). The tip and rip drills along with split grip, reverse hand, and the "Vlad" drill work well here.

slider75 · Aug 6, 2017

Set up a tee with the ball placed in the middle of the zone, at the front edge of home plate. Have the hitter take their stance with a bat and place a kick ball between their trailing shoulder and trailing-hand wrist so that it is held just snugly enough that it stays place. To be clear, the bat is held normally, with both hands. Have the hitter take a full swing at the ball on the tee. The kickball should come out just before contact, but will feel that it happens at the same time as contact. It will feel a bit odd at first but the hitter will quickly gain comfort. As with most drills, it takes a lot of reps to build up the correct form but it helps keep things in the "right" place.

Dropping the Hands

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

SportScout

GunnerShotgun

CoogansBluff

4 girl's dad

JasonS

GunnerShotgun

slider75

Similar threads

Latest posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Share this page

Online statistics

Forum statistics