Quick hands

[D.G. OutLaws 16u]

are there drills to help with this.

for younger kids a simple drill is 'quick' soft toss. Meaning coach is releasing the ball very close to hitting zone, rather than a ball released further away. With less reaction time available this will generate/force a 'quicker' swing.

 

[Wellphyt]

You need to ask the coach what he means by "Quicker". Does he mean that she needs to start her swing sooner? Does he mean he wants her to be shorter to the ball? Does he want her to swing harder? "Quicker" could mean any number of things.

 

[PEPPERS]

The hands stay inside the path of the ball and the knob of the bat absolutely stays inside the path of the ball. The hands also must be higher than the ball and you adjust the bat to make contact. We explain it as Elbow, then hands, then bat in the plane. It is not a level swing that some post. Even to hit a rise ball the elbow and hands still must be above the plane of the ball. To generate more bat speed here is a drill : Progression ball drill for bat speed: Hit a tennis ball, hard ball 5.25 oz., regular softball 6.25 oz., and finally a TCB ball that is around 15 oz,. and then repeat for bat speed. Note Amy they changed the TCB balls the new ones I just got in are slightly larger then the batch I got over a year ago The still weight the same, but have different brighter logo.

The hardball 5.25 oz, what type of balls are you using for this part of drill? We do the drill, got the ideal from Howard, I use some minature tennis balls I found in the pet section their are half the size of a regular tennis ball, regular tennis balls, a baseball, a regular softball and a large tennis ball also from the pet section, it is the same size as a softball, but feels a little heavier.

 

[SBFAMILY]

The above is Howard's drill modified to replace the weighed balls we use to make with the TCB balls.

 

[theaddition]

My 12 year old daughter is playing on a travel team this year. Her coach says she has a good swing but needs to get her hands to the ball quicker. I'm not familiar with hitting terminology. Can someone explain what this means and are there drills to help with this.

Why don't you ask the coach who gave you daughter the assessment?

A coach isn't a coach unless they give clear instructions on how to "git er done".

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Try this or I mean, look at the site. I am a follower of Howard, too - and he developed this. I have one ordered.

The WhipHit Bat

 

[gmdetective]

Concerning the Progressive Ball Drill, is this done with side toss, off the tee, or front toss?

 

[PEPPERS]

The video that was up for a while it was done with side toss.

 

[SBFAMILY]

A quote from someone alot smarter than I am " what is the purpose of doing a drill or using mechanics that you would never use in a game? For instance the quick hands drill where the person soft tossing throws balls out quickly for the hitter to hit.






Before long the hitter gets behind and misses or their mechanics and they get erratic and before long all the mechanics we have worked so hard on are soon lost and our efforts have been wasted.

You will hear people say this drill builds bat speed, stamina and quick hands…BULL CRAP! We just finished drills that promoted every aspect of hitting we can think of and we used good technique and mechanics. Some drills make no sense and this is one of them.

Softball and baseball is a ballistic sport and not an endurance sport so train in your mind on the execution of the mechanics and not on the results as you have no control of the results only on the execution!
"

 

[SBdad]

The Ultimate Hitting Machine is a good device for kids to use to work on quick swings (bat speed). You just lower the adjustment on the machine to toss the ball at a lower height ( so toss is about a foot or so above the machine), and have the kids swing quick before the ball starts back down. Info and video are on here Beebe Sports Inc.
It doesn't show girls hitting on the video, but works good for a girls fastpitch swing.