Bat Drag Part 2 - Drills and Muscle Memory

[RichK]

There's been a great discussion of what bat drag looks like and what cues and movements help players and coaches understand it and start to correct it. I feel like I get these concepts and have spent time working with our players on slo-mo swings and tee work to get them to understand them as well.

But what drills would you all suggest to burn bat drag fixes into muscle memory? I have several thousand swings left this winter with our players, how best to use them to create muscle memory on live swings that will fix bat drag problems that almost all of our 1st year 12Uers have to some extent?

If you had a tunnel to dedicate or a time slot to run through 3-5 drills what would you recommend? Seems there's some consensus around hand-over. Would you recommend a barrier (such as a tee) behind the hitting tee? Or does that do more harm then good? Any gadgets you really recommend, like the Instructo Swing or Whip-It? What role do they play in the process?

And what about a progression, ie, start with these things and then move to these more advanced drills?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Hitter]

There's been a great discussion of what bat drag looks like and what cues and movements help players and coaches understand it and start to correct it. I feel like I get these concepts and have spent time working with our players on slo-mo swings and tee work to get them to understand them as well.

But what drills would you all suggest to burn bat drag fixes into muscle memory? I have several thousand swings left this winter with our players, how best to use them to create muscle memory on live swings that will fix bat drag problems that almost all of our 1st year 12Uers have to some extent?

If you had a tunnel to dedicate or a time slot to run through 3-5 drills what would you recommend? Seems there's some consensus around hand-over. Would you recommend a barrier (such as a tee) behind the hitting tee? Or does that do more harm then good? Any gadgets you really recommend, like the Instructo Swing or Whip-It? What role do they play in the process?

And what about a progression, ie, start with these things and then move to these more advanced drills?

Thanks in advance.

RichK

The tee is under utilized in my opinion. Most kids or even coaches will just put the tee inside, middle or outside and take a few swings and figure they got their tee work in.

We measure off from the back corner of the tee using the length of the bat. With the net marked at 51 and 39 inches using two horizontal lines measured from the ground up and then a vertical line exactly in the center. Now position the tee about 4.5 feet from the net and we have an idea where the ball should go based on where the tee is located and IF your is consistent etc. We have a window of opportunity is what we call it that is not scientific however we have found it useful. We measure off from the back corner of the tee 4 inches forward toward the pitcher and draw a line or mark your tee. If CSHILT sees this please post a picture of the rubber mat and Schutt tee please. Now measure 12.5 inches and make another line and this is a s far forward that we want to hit the ball in front of us and keep it fair. The back line is as far back we would want to hit the outside pitch and keep it fair in our opinion.

Now that we have the plate and net laid out we start up the middle first using slow motion drills, elbows, knob leading the elbow and flip the ball into the net exactly in the center and in our zone. Then hit the ball harder and progress to a full cut. This could be a hundred cuts. Then move the tee outside to the back of the window and start over directing the ball to the zone as it is set up from the angles off home plate. Again slow and deliberate progressing to a full cut. Now place the tee in the front inside of the window. When done start by placing the tee as low as it will go inside and work across the plate to the back outside corner moving the tee after 10 cuts in small increments. Then repeat moving the tee upwards until you are out of tee height and then get a bucket and place the tee on top of it. Can not find a tee that is low enough? Get a V8 quart bottle and fill it 3/4 full with rocks or sand and stuff a rag inside and take some duct tape and stuff it in si the tape keeps the rag in place. makes less noise when you knock it over. Drill a 3/4 inch hole in the cap using a wood bit and then screw it on and tape it on with duct tape. This puts the ball below the knees as most knee caps (hollow of the knee) are 15 to 18 inches for most human beings and this is about 14 inches or a little less. You are looking at 1 .5 hours of tee time and as Crystl says unless you can make the ball go off thetee where you want it to go you do not deserve to hit a ball that is moving YET!

Make sure they are tracking the ball to the tee and not staring at it the whole time. We also glue a rag inside the tee to focus on keeping our head down during the contact phase of the ball. It has nothing to do with tracking as we know we are stronger with our head down verses up.

Thanks Howard

 

[Mike]

We measure off from the back corner of the tee 4 inches forward toward the pitcher and draw a line or mark your tee. If CSHILT sees this please post a picture of the rubber mat and Schutt tee please. Now measure 12.5 inches and make another line and this is a s far forward that we want to hit the ball in front of us and keep it fair. The back line is as far back we would want to hit the outside pitch and keep it fair in our opinion.

Window of opportunity. Now I get it. It only took like a hundred times reading it. Thanks.
Is this just another visual cue for when they go to live pitching? Does it translate?

Thanks,
Mike
p.s. Do you draw your lines on both sides of the tee and make a square or just one line on the outside going towards the pitcher?

 

[cshilt]

I will post the pictures to this thread tonight when I get home from work.

 

[Hitter]

Window of opportunity. Now I get it. It only took like a hundred times reading it. Thanks.
Is this just another visual cue for when they go to live pitching? Does it translate?

Thanks,
Mike
p.s. Do you draw your lines on both sides of the tee and make a square or just one line on the outside going towards the pitcher?

Mike

Chris will post it tonight so you can see it for yourself. I do baseball and softball so I use decals also. The lines run even to the front of home plate to create the window. The red line will be where we measure off from to do our drills and then there is a green line and a yellow line. Green line ball may still go fair and yellow line ....could be going foul fast! I also put in gray duct tape and my hitters learn yo hit pitches 5 to 8 inches off the plate because they can and if they want to that is OK by me!

I think he will also show you an old rubber bath mat I drew the basic same pattern so kids can put it in their bat bag and it does not cost $136 dollars. It even has an X drawn on it for tee positions when you work inside to outside.

Thanks Howard

 

[Mark H]

There's been a great discussion of what bat drag looks like and what cues and movements help players and coaches understand it and start to correct it. I feel like I get these concepts and have spent time working with our players on slo-mo swings and tee work to get them to understand them as well.

But what drills would you all suggest to burn bat drag fixes into muscle memory? I have several thousand swings left this winter with our players, how best to use them to create muscle memory on live swings that will fix bat drag problems that almost all of our 1st year 12Uers have to some extent?

If you had a tunnel to dedicate or a time slot to run through 3-5 drills what would you recommend? Seems there's some consensus around hand-over. Would you recommend a barrier (such as a tee) behind the hitting tee? Or does that do more harm then good? Any gadgets you really recommend, like the Instructo Swing or Whip-It? What role do they play in the process?

And what about a progression, ie, start with these things and then move to these more advanced drills?

Thanks in advance.

For most kids the stride and the arm drop are one move. I take away the stride till they can create good movement from there. I'm on the road right now but studying everything on Siggy's site and everything on englishbey's site.

 

[cshilt]

Here is Howard's Schutt tee and the Magic Bath Mat(tm)

 

[Hitter]

Here is Howard's Schutt tee and the Magic Bath Mat(tm)

Thank you Chris!

Howard

 

[mkral]

Howard,
So you work anywhere between the green and red lines right? As far as the farthest forward and farthest back. and on the bath mat you are using the whole "X" on the bath mat then for tee location right?
Thanks
Mike

 

[Hitter]

Howard,
So you work anywhere between the green and red lines right? As far as the farthest forward and farthest back. and on the bath mat you are using the whole "X" on the bath mat then for tee location right?
Thanks
Mike

Mike

I work between the blue lines and we measure off from the red line.

The X is the pattern we work the tee across from inside to outside.

Depending on the hitter some can keep it fair at the green line and most foul it on the yellow line.

The Schutt tee has no holes for the middle so I added them also as well as more on the edge of home plate.

Thanks Howard