Hitting Drills for beginners

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Apr 13, 2015
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What would be your 2 or 3 top hitting drills for 14 yr olds who have never played before?
 
May 15, 2008
1,913
113
Cape Cod Mass.
Rather than drills I prefer a session where we learn grip, stance and posture then some side toss. Starting them off with those 3 basics is important, most beginners have no clue.
 
Jun 11, 2013
2,619
113
A lot depends on the kid. If they have good hand/eye you can really start working on the swing. If they can't even hit it you really have an issue.
 
Apr 20, 2018
4,581
113
SoCal
14 and never played. You have your work cut out for you. Hopefully they have some athletic background. Stance, posture, hands placement, grip then tee tee tee. Throwing a medicine ball might help them understand how the body sequences to generate power while staying within themselves.
 
May 10, 2022
2
3
What would be your 2 or 3 top hitting drills for 14 yr olds who have never played before?
I would suggest that drills may not be the silver bullet with beginners and may be detrimental for many kids. Instead, focusing heavily on patterns of movement and intention would be best, imho. However, it is important to begin with posture, balance, and grip.

With beginners, most of mine are much younger, but I'm guessing its all the same, make it fun and easy to understand. A few ideas: hit basketballs instead of softballs, front toss golf ball size whiffle balls and hit with pvc, practice swinging without moving their heels or head, stop the barrel at "extension" or point it back at my hat, and generally front toss, front toss, front toss... I like tee work, but beginners generally hate it. It's my view, the only way to get a beginner better quickly is to make it fun, make it challenging, and do it as a group.
A few movements I focus on are: keeping the head down through impact, keeping their hands loaded until after the stride, and I talk to them a lot about understanding how their elbows move through the swing because this is easy feedback to feel and work on. I also work with them to create a pre-swing mental routine, this is possibly the best bang for the buck. I often ask them to hit the ball off a tee into a specific parts of the net or field to get them to understand they control the ball with their swing. They likely won't be able to do many these at first, but after a good deal of practice, they will.
If they have other girls to compare themselves to and you give them a solid foundation for movement, they will go home and work on their own, which should be the primary goal.
 

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