I recently posted the details on the basics of hitting (posture, load, bat speed generation, swing, tracking) and the feedback was pretty consistent. “Great description, but where are the drills to perfect your swing?” Truth be told, the exercises we do can be found all over the web. The secret sauce is not in a new special exercise, but in organizing hit practice to maximize the fundamentally correct changes to develop adequate muscle memory.

Before putting the 60 minutes of exercises together, let me reiterate that perfect practice makes perfect game. If players aren’t balanced on the right fundamentals, all they are doing is reinforcing poor muscle memory. Poor muscle memory means there will be “holes” in the swing, which translates to offensive outs and player frustration. Perfect practice builds good muscle memory, which means more balls from hard hitting.

What we do is set up six different batting stations around the field and divide the team into six groups (try to keep only two players per group). To obtain 400 swings in 60 minutes using six stations for one hour, 10 minutes are allocated per station. The launch machine station can only provide around 40 changes in the allotted time. This leaves us with 360 swings for 5 stations; therefore, you must average 72 perfect swings per station per player.

Here are some example stations:

1. Practice swings with overload / underload: 5 sets of 10 overload and 10 underload = 100 swings focused on the speed of the bat. Playing off-the-ball swings develops a good fundamental swing with good balance.

2. Pitch rental tee job: 2 sets of 10 inside, 10 in the middle and 10 outside = 60 swings focused on hitting the location and driving the ball to all fields. Working from a tee adds the element of hitting the ball without movement of the ball so that the batter can focus on another element, in this case driving the ball to all fields. By eliminating the movement of the ball, a hitter can develop good balance and the location of the contact point to be able to hit in all fields.

3. Semi-circle soft release: the coach throws 10 balls from the front, 10 from the side, 10 from the back, 10 from the side and 10 from the front = 50 swings focused on hitting the center of the ball. The coach’s soft pitch adds the element of a slow-moving ball with the batter focusing on hitting the center of the ball at the point of contact for line hits to the outfield.

Four. One handed tee work: 3 sets of 10 front hands only and 10 back hands only = 60 swings focused on the movement of the hand through the hitting zone. The front hand guides the bat through the hitting zone, while the back hand provides the power for the swing. This exercise isolates the movement of the hand through the striking zone.

5. Wiffle short ball throw: 3 sets of 10 inside, 10 in the middle and 10 outside = 90 swings focused on putting the whole swing together but with the ball moving at a slower speed than during the game. At a short distance, the coach can locate the pitch at different positions within the strike zone to provide additional batting practice for hitting on all fields.

6. Batting practice from a machine: 40 swings focused on timing the swing. When mixing machine balls from different manufacturers, the motion and speed of the ball are slightly varied to simulate the motion of the ball from a different pitcher. It is very difficult to teach hitting mechanics from a machine, but it can be very effective with the batter’s time.

There is nothing special about this set of stations, other than that you can get a lot of changes very quickly and isolate the mechanics of individual hit. We will use different station drills throughout the season to provide variety and work on specific skills.

What I want to encourage is that you, as a coach, think about how to maximize the number of swings per practice by subdividing the players into smaller groups and using multiple hitting stations. What drills are you aware of that fall into these broad categories? Okay, change them for a change.