Baseball Hitting Drills

June 21, 2022August 19, 2022 | Blog Article, Hitting, Youth Baseball

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Much of hitting is focused on hitting mechanics and finding the ‘right’ baseball hitting drills for those mechanics. There is much more to hitting than just finding the right drills. At Driveline, we oriented our training around the ‘Big 3’: Bat speed, Bat-to-ball skills, and swing decisions or approach.

We focus on making movement changes with athletes for two reasons:

First, swing the bat harder.

Second, to make more contact.

We don’t want to make changes just because of looks. We want to make sure they result in better performance.

There are three types of hitting drills that we’ll talk about today. Our first group of drills is programmed based on an athlete’s assessment. Our next set of drills revolves around ball flight intent, trying to hit the ball to a specific part of the field. Lastly, we’ll cover some more effective ways to use tee work instead of just setting the Tee up in the middle of the plate.

Offset Open

What are the purposes of Offset Open?

Improve swing depth and direction
Teaches athletes how to hit the ball the other way productively
Coiling into the back hip and maintaining posture

Offset Open is an excellent drill for hitters who struggle with:

Downward swing path, losing the barrel, and poor barrel direction
Rolling over and weak opposite-field contact
Have trouble maintaining posture

Offset Closed

What are the purposes of Offset Closed?

Learning how to pull the ball effectively
Getting to the inside pitch
Torso rotation and upper body connection

Offset Closed is an excellent drill for hitters who struggle with:

Pulling the ball in the air
Getting jammed
Under-rotated torso and contact or a push sequence, where hands rotate before the torso

Offset Rotation

What are the purposes of Offset Rotation?

Blends together Offset Open and Offset Closed with the game swing to work on adjustability
Training pure ball flight to all fields
Emphasizes proper sequencing of body segments

Offset Rotation is a great drill for hitters who struggle with:

Hitting the ball effectively to all fields
Getting to pitches in different areas of the strike zone
Maintaining bat path to all fields

Hook ‘Em

What are the purposes of the Hook ‘Em drill?

Getting an even coil of the pelvis and torso in the load phase
Controlling the stride with a forward move
Hip-to-shoulder separation timing

Hook ‘Em’s are a great drill for hitters who struggle with

Loading their upper and lower half
Generating an aggressive, controlled forward movement with the stride
Maintaining their load and early extending as they move forward

Kershaw Drill

What are the purposes of the Kershaw drill?

Proper loading technique into the back hip
loading into the posterior chain
train balance and stability during the stride

Kershaws are an excellent drill for hitters who struggle with:

being overly quad-dominant when they load
lacking stability and balance when they stride
controlling the forward move

Step Back Drill

What are the purposes of step backs?

loading into the back hip and glute
coiling the pelvis and torso during the load
staying back during the stride and not overstriding/extending the back hip

Step backs are a great drill for hitters who struggle with:

loading into their back hip
lunging at the ball or controlling the stride
Weight distribution in the swing

Walk Through Drill

What are the purposes of the Walk Through drill?

Creating rhythm in the swing
Adding linear momentum
Increasing intent to swing fast

The Walk Through drill is great for hitters who struggle with:

Being rigid movers who tend to get stagnant
Have trouble moving fast
Hanging back when they swing

Keep it Fair Drill

What are the purposes of the Keep it Fair drill?

Rotating and clearing space
Hitting the inside pitch with pure ball flight
Increase rotational velocities of pelvis and torso

Keep it Fair is an excellent drill for hitters who struggle with:

Hitting the inside pitch
Pulling the ball in the air
Poor rotational sequences
Hitting the inside pitch
Pulling the ball in the air
Poor rotational sequences

Intent-Focused Baseball Hitting Drills

The following two baseball-hitting drills focus on the intent of ball flight. We’re trying to train hitters to focus on hitting the ball to specific areas of the field.

High, Middle, Low Drill

What are the purposes of the High, Middle, Low drill?

Accomplishing pure ball flight at different pitch heights
Using posture to adjust to different pitch heights
Developing swing adjustability

High, Middle, Low is a great drill for hitters who struggle with:

Hitting pitches at different heights in the zone
Manipulating the barrel with their hands
Have a swing that only works to one area of the strike zone

Launch Angle Ladder

What are the purposes of the Launch Angle Ladder?

Hitting the ball pure at different launch angles
Develop barrel awareness and adjustability
Get a feel for what different launch angles look like in the cage

Launch Angle Ladder is an excellent drill for hitters who struggle with:

Elevating the ball or hitting too many pop-ups
Have poor barrel awareness
Inconsistent point of contact