Hitting Drills

Fielding Drills

Pitching Drills

Throwing Drills

Base Running Drills

Hitting Fundamentals

Hitting Stance - the most important is thing abount hitting begins with the stance. There are a variety of stances out there but the baseline is feet slightly wider than the shoulders, feet aligned straight or slightly closed or open, a little flex in the knees and the hands held off the shoulder and back. Think of talking on the phones regarding the hand position. Regarding the stance, think overall athletic position. Remember hitting is an athletic skill so might as well start with an athletic position. The head should be turned far enough so that boths eyes are on the pitcher. From this position, minor adjustments can be made to adapt to the individual hitters needs or requirements.

Tee Drills - the are a variety of drills one can use the tee for and some of those will be discussed. The one most important aspect of the tee is that to get the most from utilizing it, the hitter needs to assume their proper stance before each swing. Rapid firing of swings only turns bad mechanics into habit and then they can be hard to break.

Soft Toss Drills - the hitter should assume their stance and place a 70% effort on the swing speed. The object is to make good solid contact with the ball after it is tossed waist high slightly in front of the hitter. Hands should be inside the ball and the hands should be slightly in front of the belly button. When finishing, the belly button should be pointing to the pitcher or think of it as a 90 degree turn from the starting position. The weight should be shifted to the plant foot and the back foot should be pivoted and aligned with the belly button. It ios important to make sure the hitter keeps thier eyes on the ball and head still during the swing. If there a lot of non solid contact or swing and missing, watch the eyes and head and make sure the batter is seeing the ball properly.

Fundamentals of Fielding

Footwork - The most important position for fielding a ball is the ready position before the action starts. The players need to start in a nicely balanced athletic position, feet slightly wider than shoulders width apart, knees slightly bent, hands and glove out front of the body, weight on your toes and eyes looking at the hitter. When the ball is hit, the fielder slides or runs to position and when possoble squares up on the ball, hands out front, eyes on the ball, knees bent with the glove out front. The fielder should play the ball in the middle of thier stance or nose on the ball. At the moment the ball enters the glove, eyes should be firmly affixed to the ball and when the ball hits the glove the coach should be able to see the top of the fielders heads. The ball should be softly caught in the glove with two hands.

Throwing - when starting a throw it is important to start with balance and usually a crow hop is a nice way to balance yourself after feilding a ball. During the crow hop, the push foot should start perpendicular to your target, your shoulders shoulder also be perpendicular. upon starting your throw, the elbow should be bent at a 90 degree angle, ball and hand facing away from the target, elbow shoulder height. Your plant foot should step at the target, belly button turns to target, and the ball is thrown over the top with the follow throughtaking your throwing hand outside the plant foot's knee.