Suggestions -- Best Indoor Hitting Drills

[SLAM96Coach]

I coach a first year 14U team and we have a large indoor gym we can use. It has a hardwood floor. We have squishy 12" balls, a ton of Jugs 12" Lite Flight Balls, a bunch of wiffles. We have Portable screens to pitch behind...a couple pitching machines ( single wheel jugs-style and a lite flite machine ). We have a couple jugs pop-up nets, a few tees and a couple ball on a stick things.

We've got 4 coaches to work stations. Our team has come off a good 12U year, but our belief is we need to hit the ball much better to compete at the 14U level.

What drills would you be running? We have the gym 2 hrs a week. What drills indoors have driven the biggest improvements...

Thank you.

 

[Mark H]

Drills are like medicine. They should be prescribed for a particular hitter with a certain problem or they should be maintenance drills a successful hitter has been doing all along. Let the good hitters hit. Personalize a plan for the hitters with problems. Work the plan and change the plan as results dictate.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I stress staying away from a lot of pitching machine work. (The single wheel one) I learned the hard way, when I had girls hit from it all winter. It can be used some though, for fun and for bunting and slapping.

T work is the best and then, soft toss from the front. moo

There are a lot of books out on the subject of drills. Check Amazon and if I have a chance I will look through mine.

 

[redzuk]

I stress staying away from a lot of pitching machine work. (The single wheel one) I learned the hard way, when I had girls hit from it all winter.

What happened? I'm guessing the whole team started off in a huge slump, couldnt hit anything. Until about the 8th game or so they started coming around. Thats what I saw recently from a team that only used the machine for drills, and used it quite a bit prior to the season. From Mark D.'s list of rants on his webpage he claims the machine teaches the player to hit without making a decision because every ball comes same spreed and same place, i'll buy that.

Carl

 

[jimginas]

I like a LOT of FRONT TOSS, a station for CHANGEUPS (VERY FEW coaches spend enough time teaching and letting their batters hit change ups), and BUNTING,,,, Softball is a SMALL BALL game in that 60' MAKES it a small ball game. Some teams can hit the smack out of the ball, but when you are facing great pitching, can you generate a run and in CLOSE games at the end, do you have confidence you can BUNT EVERY TIME if needed?
** Another drill to consider: See if you can get a LOBSTER (Tennis ball shooter) and shoot 70mph tennis balls at them. 1) Vision Training drills (Numbers or colors)
2) Once they are able to hit 70 mph tennis balls, 60mph Softballs look like grapefruits.
**** MAKE your batters learn what their REAL STRIKE ZONE IS. MANY don't know and some have a different perspective from their stance then their strike zone really is. One way to do this, is they stand in WITH their bat in a ready position (NEVER SWING) and tracks the ball from your pitchers warming up to the catcher and lets you know if she thinks its s strike or ball. Correct her and she will learn her strike zone, PLUS she learns how to track a ball batter and if she gets good, SHE PROGRESSES to start to pick up the seams of the ball to start to learn to recognize rise ball spin, screw ball, curve, etc... ALSO helps your pitchers to pitch with someone in the box!

 

[Amy in AZ.]

Yes, I was about 29 YO at the time and we hit in the cage all winter - and then couldn't hit at all when the season started.

Now, all I use my Jugs pitching machine for is outfield drills.

I have used it in the gym, for infield drills, but it really tears the indoor balls up, quickly.

 

[go4fpsb]

What happened? I'm guessing the whole team started off in a huge slump, couldnt hit anything. Until about the 8th game or so they started coming around. Thats what I saw recently from a team that only used the machine for drills, and used it quite a bit prior to the season. From Mark D.'s list of rants on his webpage he claims the machine teaches the player to hit without making a decision because every ball comes same spreed and same place, i'll buy that.

Carl

I agree if you don't vary the reaction times and give the batter some different looks at the ball that could happen. If you use a pitching machine here is a couple of suggestions that you have probably thought of but I'll mention them anyway.
1) If you use all new dimpled balls through the machine they will be very consistent. Try finding some that are wore down, mix them in and you'll get a different flight.
2) If you don't have a windmill attachment for the machine, show the windmill motion with your right arm and feed the ball into the machine with your left hand. This can help give the batter a cue when to start the hitting process to help her timing.
3) After hitting 6 or so at 40 or 43 feet successfully take a step toward the machine and hit a few, keep moving up until they get about half way to the machine and then go back step by step to the original start. This varies reaction time and helps to judge speed and improve timing, too.
4)Everyone generally starts by setting the machine to throw a middle of the plate strike. Use a throw down home plate and after hitting a few of those middle of the plate strikes, move the plate so they get an inside then an outside pitch to hit. Help them understand how to handle those strikes they maybe don't like to hit but will be seeing a lot of at the next level.

Those are some the ones I use and could think of off the top of my head. I am sure others have other good variations.

 

[jimginas]

I have a friend who uses 2 machines next to each other. One is set 15 MPH slower.
He uses them for teaching his batters to think changeup and react to fastballs.
He drops a ball in one or the other and the batter learns to keep her hands back and react. His teams always do well and his daughter is now playing at a small DIV 1 school.
Pretty interesting concept.
( He also teaches his batters how to foul balls off. THATS a lot of work! but again, he is successful and I wish I could teach that! )

 

[Mark H]

Machines can be used for some things but continued reliance on them can lead to what Amy describes. I'd rather see front toss like Jimginas mentions if live bp is out of the question.

 

[SBFAMILY]

I agree Mark H . That is why we use The Barry Bonds drill. #3 on go4fpsb list. Those that use a machine and don't move will have problems. I also agree with your first post. You can list a bunch of drills, but you do a drill to solve a problem.