HITTING DRILLS
DRILL: Barrel Awareness Soft Toss
Baseball, Fastpitch and Slowpitch Hitters
DRILL DETAILS:
Barrel Awareness Soft Toss: To work on barrel awareness with you 1.5" skinny barrel Hand-Eye Trainer, start with soft toss. Every other pitch, the coach doing the soft toss calls out "middle (of the ball)", "bottom", or "top".
The Why: This tells the hitter where they want to direct the contact of their 1.5" skinny barrel trainer to the ball. Hit the middle of the ball. Hit the bottom of the ball. Hit the top of the ball. This will help the hitter establish feeling for their barrel as well as how to make it happen.
ADVANCED: add levels of difficulty
1. Hitter Calls: Instead of the coach, have the hitter call out "middle", "bottom" or "top" as the coach releases the ball. This puts additional responsibility on the hitter to accelerate their path, feel and awareness skills. Make it fun! Celebrate when they get it right.
2. Use Both Bats: Switch between the 33"/30oz Pro Hand-Eye Trainer and the 30"/20oz Youth Hand-Eye Trainer bats. Think of these two bats as cross trainers. The pro 33" is like a long/heavy trainer to a youth player and the youth 30"/20oz is like a short underload trainer for pro level players. Mixing swings between these two different bats will be the ultimate way to train bat-to-ball skills and bat path.
Older Players: Adding the additional 30" Youth bat give you a short / underload Trainer
Younger Players: Adding the additional 33" Pro bat will give you a long / heavy Trainer
3. Increase Underhand Speed: Using our Axe Bomb Balls, increase the speed of the underhand flips from soft-toss to fast-toss. By increasing underhand speed to high velocity get near game effort swings and a chance to challenge themselves.(Axe Bomb Balls enable you to practice hitting at high-speed, game-like velocities without the risk of hand sting or bat damage.)
DRILL: High Tee
Baseball, Fastpitch and Slowpitch Hitters
DRILL DETAILS:
High Tee: To work on bat path and perfect contact with the Hand-Eye Trainer next move to the tee. Set the tee up in front of home plate and to a height above your belly button, but below the top of your chest. If your tee does not reach that height, set it on your ball bucket to achieve the correct height. The hitter must focus on line drives up the middle over the infielders' heads.
The Why: This drill helps the hitter feel bat path with a specific pitch location. By focusing on hard line drives, it forces the hitter to focus on perfect contact with the added challenge of their skinny 1.5" barrel trainer. Additional benefits include training posture and upper body connection.
ADVANCED: add levels of difficulty
1. Low Tee: Take 1.5" skinny trainer bat-ball-skills one step further by training the other key location, the low pitch. Set the tee up in front of home plate as low as the tee can go. Have the hitter focus again on hard line drives to the outfield. This drill will help a hitter develop a bat path that can elevate a low pitch.
2. Hitter Calls: Instead of only focusing on line drives to the outfield, let your hitter learn how to feel bat path results in different outcomes. Every other swing, the hitter gets to call either, "home run", "groundball", "line drive" before they swing. The skinny 1.5" barrel is the best way for the hitter to start feeling bat path and outcomes.
3. Front Toss Low & High: Take the same approach as our first drill, 'Barrel Awareness Front Toss,' but now, focus on delivering tosses at varying heights, incorporating both high and low pitches. The addition of the moving pitch, combined with the 1.5" skinny barrel, makes hitting line drives to the outfield more challenging. This exercise is designed to help hitters refine their timing, bat path, and, most importantly, make better swing decisions. Remind your hitters that they have the option to take bad pitches if they believe the location won't allow their bat path to achieve the goal of hitting a line drive to the outfield.
4. Use Both Bats: Switch between the 33"/30oz Pro Hand-Eye Trainer and the 30"/20oz Youth Hand-Eye Trainer bats. Think of these two bats as cross trainers. The pro 33" is like a long/heavy trainer to a youth player and the youth 30"/20oz is like a short underload trainer for pro level players. Mixing swings between these two different bats will be the ultimate way to train bat-to-ball skills and bat path.
5. Increase Underhand Speed: Using our Axe Bomb Balls, increase the speed of the underhand flips from soft-toss to fast-toss. By increasing underhand speed to high velocity get near game effort swings and a chance to challenge themselves.(Axe Bomb Balls enable you to practice hitting at high-speed, game-like velocities without the risk of hand sting or bat damage.)