I find a lot of the young [tag]softball[/tag] hitters have trouble keeping the back foot from moving during their swing. I came up with a simple solution and use it for my [tag]softball hitting drills[/tag] especially at the beginning of the season.
I tried to “pretend” to hammer a nail into the foot or tell the player that there foot was “glued down” but they could still move the foot since it was “pretend”.
In order to actually create something that would be real, I made a rectangle shaped wooden box out of 2 x 4’s that the player steps into. When the player moves their foot during the swing, the box trips them up to remind them to keep the back foot from moving.
This inexpensive box was a very successful coaching prop. The box makes it so hard to make a bad swing or move the back foot, it really helped my players both physically and mentally remember to keep the back foot from moving front to back or side to side. Once that “habit” was broken the box was removed and teaching them to “squish the bug” was easy.
This second [tag]softball drill[/tag] is simple–take two whiffle balls 1 softball or baseball size, the 2nd is yellow and the size of a golf ball. I have the girls stand at home plate and I soft toss both balls at the same time to the girls yelling out as I toss them , “hit the white ball ” ” hit the yellow ball”.
This works on hand eye coordination while also a very fun softball drill for the players.