- Dec 28, 2008
- 386
- 0
1. Mauers Quick Swing - I use the device in a modified form. I connect the device so that the elbow part with 2 openings is really at the end of the tube so it is longer. I hold a yellow ball at 1hole and a white ball at the other hole. Girls focus on "pretent" pitcher until they hear a ball rolling in the tube. If the ball is white they have to lay off of that pitch. If it is yellow they must hammer the pitch. The goal of the drill is to get them used to getting "geared up mentally" and taking stride, but reacting to ball and holding off. The Quick Swing can go up and down to really speed up reaction time. Some girls start thinking ball and then can't react fast enough to strike, so this drill really enforces them thinking strike (attack mode) and then holding up if need be. Lots of options.
2. Ping pong wiffle balls with a Thunderstick or broom handle - I toss 1 colored ball and 1 white ball in the air at the same time and call out which one to hit after I toss them. The girls have to hit the 1 that I call. Drill really forces them to have great head/eye control.
3. I do a forward toss (from behind net) situated off to the left of a right handed batter. So the trajectory of the ball is going across their body from inside pitch to outside pitch. Initially with the drill I say "this is a slow pitcher force yourself to wait until the ball gets past you and is an outside pitch that you need to drive to right field." After they learn the skills necessary for timing and make themselves wait I then vary the pitches and will tell them "this girl is fast jump on it" or "this girl is slow wait". Similar to having 2 pitching machines at different speeds but with the twist that everything is starting inside and their brains want to trigger on it to pull it.
4. Call the pitch - I use throwdown plates like pitchers/catcher use that have the areas in different colors. I soft toss to them and before swinging they have to call the pitch out loud. This forces recognition and then faster reaction time because they aren't allowed to swing until after they've called it. Call also be done by calling high/low/belt or whatever. Idea is to help them understand that they aren't just blindly swinging at any pitch to the same location, they have to interpret the pitch and then do the right thing, while also forcing them to speed things up both mentally and physically.
5. I like to add competition just about any time I can to just about anything that the girls do. So I do the drills with 2 girls at a time (taking turns of course) and the last rotation we then count the number of correct attacks, the number of line drives, the number of line drives to the opposite field etc. Give them incentive to work harder than they might on their own.
2. Ping pong wiffle balls with a Thunderstick or broom handle - I toss 1 colored ball and 1 white ball in the air at the same time and call out which one to hit after I toss them. The girls have to hit the 1 that I call. Drill really forces them to have great head/eye control.
3. I do a forward toss (from behind net) situated off to the left of a right handed batter. So the trajectory of the ball is going across their body from inside pitch to outside pitch. Initially with the drill I say "this is a slow pitcher force yourself to wait until the ball gets past you and is an outside pitch that you need to drive to right field." After they learn the skills necessary for timing and make themselves wait I then vary the pitches and will tell them "this girl is fast jump on it" or "this girl is slow wait". Similar to having 2 pitching machines at different speeds but with the twist that everything is starting inside and their brains want to trigger on it to pull it.
4. Call the pitch - I use throwdown plates like pitchers/catcher use that have the areas in different colors. I soft toss to them and before swinging they have to call the pitch out loud. This forces recognition and then faster reaction time because they aren't allowed to swing until after they've called it. Call also be done by calling high/low/belt or whatever. Idea is to help them understand that they aren't just blindly swinging at any pitch to the same location, they have to interpret the pitch and then do the right thing, while also forcing them to speed things up both mentally and physically.
5. I like to add competition just about any time I can to just about anything that the girls do. So I do the drills with 2 girls at a time (taking turns of course) and the last rotation we then count the number of correct attacks, the number of line drives, the number of line drives to the opposite field etc. Give them incentive to work harder than they might on their own.
