My girls were stopping their swings during games recently and this reminded me that I hadn’t done this batting “basketball” drill in awhile.  We broke out this drill and after only 4 hits with the bb drill the girls were hitting doubles and triples in the next game.

Take half deflated basketballs and place them on a tee. Have the girls set up in a normal batting stance. When they swing it forces them to follow through and shows them whether the stopped the swing or not.

PURPOSE:  This increases the power of the swing but also stops that half swing that causes the ball to just drop on the dirt.  It insures that they remember to follow-through on the swing.

Bunting-
I teach my softball team that bunting is as simple as “catching the ball with the bat”.

To show this, I have the athlete stand in the batters box in sacrifice bunting position squared up to the pitching machine without a bat.  We use lite-flite foam balls and pitch to the batter.  The right handed batter then literally catches the ball with her right hand; a left handed batter catches the ball with her left hand.  Those are the hands that control the location of the bat.

This works really well when trying to teach a right handed hitter to bunt from the left side, because in most cases she usually catches the ball with her left hand anyway.  You could also use a harder ball and have the batter wear a mitt on her catching hand. After a few successful catches or deflections (it is sometimes difficult to squeeze the foam ball with a bare hand), put a bat in her hand.

You should find improvement in eye-hand-bat-ball coordination resulting in improved bunting skills which should carry over to improved hitting as well.

Technorati Tags: slow pitch softball batting practice drills, softball, bunting

Fastpitch softball tip:  Reduce strike outs and to teach your players to keep their eye on the ball on contact.

These drills are best for 10-11 yr olds, but you can try it with athletic 9 year olds too. My girls do great with the tee and soft toss, but when it comes to hitting a pitched ball—it often falls apart.

I use the hard plastic baseballs.  First I demonstrate what I want them to do.  I have my bat and get into my stance.

I have a girl pitch a ball to me and I stop the ball from going past me by just bringing my hands to the ball and have my bat make contact with the ball. I am not swinging.  The knob of the bat is near my waist and the barrel of the bat is in contact position and my head is looking at the barrel of the bat.  This is where I show them where my head is on contact.  I’m not swinging at the pitch.  I’m consciously putting  the bat in position to make contact with the ball. It’s sort of a half -swing.

After my girls master this–and this will go quick–I have them do the drill adding a follow through.

Add a follow through (a squish the bug or hip rotation) and now they’re swinging fluidly and don’t realize it.  They just know their smacking the ball and hard.

I call out “connect and follow through” before each pitch.  Warning—Once they see how they can hit every ball pitched to them, they don’t want to stop.

This softball drill makes them keep their head in there and their eyes on the ball.  Naturally, they load on every pitch without reminders.  After they master keeping their eye on the ball—the rest is cake!  When a ball is coming 40 mph—all you have to do is put the bat on it and follow through—its going!

Technorati Tags: fastpitch softball hitting drills, Fastpitch softball, softball drill

Lightning Round Batting Practice
The player comes up to bat with a 2-2 count.  She is up there to hit the softball and swing at strikes.  I usually give them two chances the 1st go around and after that if they strike out, then we go to the next player.  A softball coach pitches, so you should not have walks.  Once you eliminate the fear for the kid getting out and swinging, this softball drill is really fun and fast paced.  That is why I call it “The Lightning Round”.

Closed Eyes Drill
This next drill requires multiple position batting tee.  Batter takes hitting position in box then closes eyes. The coach puts the ball in different positions on tee and batter then opens eyes and hits. This drill helps with recognizing pitch location .

Blackeyed Pea Drill
We started doing an old drill a few weeks ago that the players love. It’s called the Black eyed pea drill. Buy a bag of pea’s from the grocery store for a couple of bucks and get to doing soft toss. It’s a blast.  Start with a swift stick. You can use anything from a broom stick to a regular bat. After about 20 hits with these, a softball looks as big a a water melon.

Great way to get kids to keep there eyes on what they are trying to hit at all levels!

Technorati Tags: softball hitting drills, softball, softball drills, softball coach, softball drill

I usually start with a one ball toss.  Kneel down slightly in front and to the side of the batter and toss one softball to them and they hit it into the net or side of the batter’s cage.

Then when I feel the batter is making good contact I toss up two balls and tell them either top or bottom.  They then hit either the top or bottom ball.  After they get that down I move on to three balls. It’s harder on me tossing 3 balls than it is them as I usually have to use both hands.  I then tell them either top, bottom, or middle.

Usually the batters that like to hit the high ball struggle to hit the bottom ball and the batters that like the low ball struggle to hit the top one. This softball drill really helps them focus and they have fun doing it.

Technorati Tags: softball hitting drills, softball, softball drill

Required equipment:
Coach with a bat
16 inch softball

Place your infield at their position. The softball coach should hit the 16 inch softball to each position.  The players are to use their hands only, this helps them use both hands to grab the ball and throw with more accuracy to first base.  They have to place their hands on the softball correctly and throw with more power and a more direct line to the chest of the first basemen.

I have been using this softball drill for many years and it has not failed me.  My girls have learned to place their bodies directly in front of the ball to get both hands on the ball and remembered to throw with power to the chest of the first base men or anyone else.

I also use the 16 inch softball for batting; this causes the batter to bring their bat around much faster to hit the ball.  It also causes more power behind the hit to make the ball go farther.  Once they use this hitting a 12 inch, they end up with more power and a faster swing.

Technorati Tags: softball coach, softball batting drills, softball, softball drill

We lay down 6 plates and have a batter with helmets at each plate.  We have the “pitchers” pitch to each batter and have them square and bunt the ball back to the pitcher. As soon as you bunt, you move over one station quickly, set your feet and bunt again until you make it all the way through the line of pitchers. When you make it to the end of the line you run to the beginning of the line and give your bat to the next person getting ready to go.

After our girls have quickly gone through twice, we have them grab their mitt and jump in line and take over and become a pitcher until everyone have been through the line twice.

The second phase is to set up two stations. Each station has a pitcher, catcher and batter with a home plate. These stations are separated by at least 20 feet and everyone in line has their helmet on for safety. Each batter is pitched two pitches and instructed to lay the bunt down or practice pulling back if the pitch is considerably out of the strike zone. After each batter has received 2 pitches, she gives her bat to the next person in line, and then moves to the back of the other line to face the other pitcher.

We normally run this softball drill for approx. 20 minutes to make sure each girl receives plenty of reps.

Technorati Tags: softball batting drills, softball, softball drill

To get the most use of our limited 1 1/2 hour practice sessions, I’m using a 4-station approach to keep them active and get a lot of repetition.  It does require 3-4 adults (we use 2 softball coaches and 1 or 2 parent volunteers), and in our case, 2 hitting “nets”.  Each station runs for 5 minutes.

As players come in at different times to start practice, they are matched up with a “buddy” or two for stretching and throwing.  1st group to finish stretching/throwing goes to 1st hitting station, and so on.

Station 1: 2 or 3 players with a coach.  Simply work or basic hitting mechanics:  stance, bat position, and 3-step “pop-torque-swing” for lead leg stride (or replace), rotation, and swing with a balanced follow-through.  After 5 minutes group 1 goes to station 2 (2nd group comes in ; coach stays to get consistent instruction to all players) and 2nd group comes in.

Station 2: Hitting from the tee.  Each player takes 5 swings from the tee hitting into net.  We have parent volunteer observing the player’s hitting techniques which they’ve observed at station 1.  Players rotate after 5 swings.  After 5 minutes group 1 goes to station 3 and is replaced by group 2.

Station 3: Soft toss hitting.  Each player takes 5 swings into net.  We have parent volunteer toss (angled from side & behind) with mix of tosses (inside toss = pull ; middle toss = up the middle ; outside toss = opposite field).  Players rotate after 5 swings.  After 5 minutes, to to station 4.

Station 4: Coach pitch.  Each player takes 5 swings from home plate at normal pitching distance.  We have 2nd coach pitch and observe the swing for any needed instruction learned at station 1 and developed through stations 2 and 3.  Players rotate after 5 swings.  (we have the 1st group players that have already hit “retrieve” their balls).

As the early groups complete, we’ll have the softball coach from station 1 get them ready for fielding softball drills while the later groups complete station 4 (or we’ll have them do live fielding with station 4).  We try to rotate our small groups from practice-to-practice as to who goes into station 1 first.

This keeps all players active for a 20 minute session with a good number of swings from the tee, from soft toss, and from live pitching.

Technorati Tags: softball coaching tips, softball coach, softball, softball drills

Coach #1 pitches from the front of the mound.
Coach #2 manages the hitters
Coach #3 manages the transition of hitters and fielders.

• With a 12 to 14 man roster, put a full defensive team in the field (minus a pitcher)
• Create a lineup of your remaining 4 to 6 players
• Coach #2’s job is to manage the dugout and lineup which without leadership can become chaotic
• With Coach #1 pulling balls from a bucket, pitch to the first batter.

o   All batters start with 2 strikes on them
o   A strikeout ends the batters term as a “hitter”
o   Every hit is live and the defense is trying to end each batter’s term as a “hitter” by getting them out
o   If the batter hits safely, she remains in the lineup at the end of the line
o   Batters can stay in the lineup as long as they continue to hit safely

• If the hitter is out in any way (strikeout or in the field), she rotates back to the field (sprinting at all times)
• Coach #3 walks the field and upon any “hitter” getting out, he taps the next fielder on the head and they spring in to the dugout to get a helmet and a bat.  They then take their place in the end of the lineup.  They are replaced in the field by the softball player that last got out.

This softball drill re-creates “game like” intensity for both fielders and batters.  It also promotes a very aggressive mentality in your hitters while promoting a good eye and dramatically reduces your called third strikes throughout the year.

Technorati Tags: softball coach, softball, fun softball drills, softball drill

So many young hitters who are seeing live pitching for the first time don’t understand the concept up seeing the softball. They initially think the you “pick the ball up” after it’s released from the pitcher’s hand.  Obviously if the pitcher is showing you the ball way back behind her ear that’s when you want to focus on seeing the ball.

I get on the mound and walk through where my hitters need to be focusing on picking the ball up.  I use terms like “see the ball early”, “read the writing on the ball”, “focus on the ball” and it helps remind them of the instruction I’ve given them concerning seeing the softball as early as the pitcher will show it.

We noticed our kids have great eye-hand coordination.  We think it is contributed to having our players bat the opposite way for a session of softball practice. This makes the player really see the ball because its not a natural swing. This should be done with slow pitching at first gradually increasing speed.  This also helps with softball players who have a tendency to step out with their front foot.

Technorati Tags: softball hitting drills, softball, softball practice

The batter holds the ball with two hands and makes a good swing throwing the medicine ball to his partner. The kids added a penalty for dropping the heavy ball or for a bad toss, ten push-ups.  The key is to make sure they are swinging their arms and ball in a good swing plane and using their hips and legs to put the extra push into the swing.

The kids really enjoy it.  Another variation is to see how far they can throw the medicine ball.  Again, the focus is on the power from the legs.  All of these abilities will improve their softball skills.

I coach a 12u girls fastpitch. To warm the girls up before a softball game I use a Mound Monster pitching machine. It shoots baseball size whiffle balls and foam balls at about 40 mph. This gets the girls accustomed to the speed of the pitch and it’s great hitting practice.

Technorati Tags: indoor softball batting drills, softball, softball game