Hitting Drills: Tennis Ball Drill

Focus To put hitters in as many different situations as possible to improve their recognition and adjustments.

Setup Ideally, you’ll have two equal-sized teams with no more than four players per side, but you can use more or fewer as suits your situation. You’ll need these materials: as many tennis balls as you can find, a plastic garbage can, a backstop, and bases. Set up home plate at a 45-degree angle about 180 feet from the left-field foul pole. Put bases 60 feet apart and the mound 45 feet from home plate. The outfield wall and foul territory fence serve as the home run fence. While this is one recommended setup, any location with an outfield will work fine.

Procedure Do the drill with two teams of equal size. The rules of the game go this way:

1. Two outs per inning.

2. A ball over the fence is a home run, a ball in the air off the fence is a triple, one hop off the fence is a double, any ground ball that reaches the fence is a single, and anything else is an out.

3. There’s no base running by the players, only ghost runners who advance the same number of bases as the batter.

4. The garbage can serves as the umpire; any ball not swung at that hits the can is a strike.

5. Normal counts apply.

Coaching Points This drill gives hitters several at-bats in a short time. Because of the high degree of difficulty of the drill, they get instant feedback on the quality of their swing. Tennis balls are used for several reasons. They’re smaller than a baseball so improve hand-eye coordination. They are easier on the arm for the pitchers, which leads to many more reps. They can be used anywhere with no risk of injury or damage. The pitcher should throw his best array of fastballs, curveballs, change-ups, and other pitches. From this distance, the equivalent of 90 mile-per-hour fastballs can be thrown. This reaction time teaches the hitter to be short and gives him instant feedback when there is lunging, upper cutting, or other flaws in technique.

Related posts:

1. Bunting Drills: Sacrifice And Break From The Box Drill Focus To bunt the ball into fair territory, 3 to...
2. Bunting Drills: Drag, Dash And Beat The Clock Drill Focus To determine the running time from home to first...
3. Bunting Drills: Drag One Hit And Run Drill Focus To drag bunt down one foul line, push bunt...
4. Bunting Drills: Sacrifice And Slash Hit Drill Focus To bunt good bunts or pepper-like ground balls through...
5. Bunting Drills: Drag On The Chalk Drill Focus To bunt the ball about 20 to 25 feet,...