Coaching Baseball – One Man on Base

This coaching baseball drill will help players develop an understanding of a force out.

What you need – You can start off doing this baseball drill with no fielders or runners, but just explaining to your players what it means to be ‘forced’ to run to the next base.

How this drill works – Put a man on first base, and explain what happens when the ball is put into play – the man on first is ‘forced’ to go to second.  If you start a man on second, explain that the man is not forced to go to the next base, and therefore he must be tagged out.

Once the players understand that, then the coach can move them into a basic play recognition drill when they get the ball and are able to make the play to second when there is a force play on.  You can also put in a situation where there are two men on base (1st and 2nd base) and you can make the fielder decide where they have to throw the ball.

Result – With repetition, the players will learn to understand when there is a force out, and when it isn’t.  The instruction should continue to happen while the players are learning.

Little League Baseball Practices – Fun Baserunning Drill

Many coaches struggle with little league baseball practices ideas.  Here is a suggestion from Shari that works well.

This is the best baseball drill that I found so far to get my kids to learn to get a good lead off of 1st base.

I have a pitcher, catcher, 1st and 2nd base person.  All of these kids play their position as they normally would.  This gives the pitcher and catcher a good work out and also gives the 1st and 2nd base also work on their position.

One player starts on first and I put a piece of wrapped candy a few feet away from 1st base and once the pitcher pitches they must grab the candy and be able to get back to 1st base before the catcher can throw them out.  I move the candy out farther so that they can see how far they can actually lead off without getting thrown out.  All the kids take turns and the only way they get to keep the candy is if they can grab the candy and dive back to 1st without getting thrown out.

We work on the 2nd base coming around the back also to try to pick off the players.  We also work on if the catcher misses the ball they have to be able to read that also.  This really works good and it doesn’t seem to matter what age the kids are they love the competition and the candy.

Front Foot Down

As young hitters watch many different hitting styles in the Major Leagues, they will inevitably pick up some ideas for hitting stances, loads, and swings that might work for them. Many fundamentals of hitting are the same across all of these styles, however, and it is not always so easy to see these constants when watching a game on TV. An example of one of these tough-to-spot constants  that any good hitter must always practice is keeping the front foot down on contact.
While this is not thought of as a big problem like “stepping in the bucket” or bailing out during the swing, rest assured that many young hitters lift the front foot off of the ground during contact and immediately afterwards.

To test and see if your young hitter suffers from this issue, just throw them some brief batting practice and look for the front foot to raise up at contact. Sometimes it will just involve the toe raising off of the ground, and other times it will result in the hitter completely moving the front foot to another position right at or just after impact.

Why is this bad? It is impossible to drive your weight into your “frontside” if that frontside is lifting off of the ground.This weight transfer into a firm “frontside” is required for a swing to have maximum speed and power. If the front foot lifts off the ground and lands in another spot during contact, you know that there is no weight whatsoever being transferred into the frontside. If the front toe elevates off of the ground, most young hitters are doing so by shifting weight to the back leg at contact. (Note: some professional hitters lift their front toe at contact, but do so without shifting weight to the back leg. This involves serious strength and most any young hitter cannot replicate this)

So, for any hitter that is suffering from this swing flaw, there are a few things that can be done to address it immediately:

* Have the hitter take a practice load and stride. When the stride lands, stop the hitter and mark where the front foot hits on the ground. Use a piece of tape, a mark in the dirt, or whatever you can to indicate where that landing point is.

* Using the tee or soft toss, have your hitter take some swings with the sole intention of keeping the front foot on top of that mark every single time at contact. Emphasize that the entire foot must be down, including the toe. Forcing the front foot to stay down during swings might cause the hitter to put too much weight ‘over’ his front leg instead of ‘against’ the front leg. For the purposes of this drill and the hitter’s development, this is okay as you would rather have the hitter end up with a little too much weight over the front leg then no weight transfer into the front leg at all.

* Another drill that can be used in conjunction with the above instructions is the Swing & Hold Drill. A hitter can do this while actually hitting or just with dry swings. The main point is this – they cannot hold the finish of the swing if they are moving the front foot or fall away from the front foot. By forcing the hitter to hold the finish, you will see that the hitter naturally keeps the front foot down during the swing.

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Filed under Hitting (11-14 Years Old), Lesson of the Week, baseball

Tags: baseball, Free Baseball Instruction, Hitting Instruction, Youth Hitting Instruction
March 11, 2009
Lesson of the Week: Top Hand Release
Types: Tee, Front Toss, Soft Toss, Live Batting Practice

* Have hitter assume normal stance and position batter’s box.

* Instruct hitter to aim to hit ball on a line directly back through the middle of the field. Err on the side of oppo. side with contact.

* Hitter should approach ball to hit at (game speed – 10%).

* Hitter should strive for contact with two hands on each swing, regardless of live, toss or tee.

* After contact, the top hand should focus on releasing for the finish.

* Hitter should focus on allowing bat to extend through the zone with bottom hand after contact – bottom hand and bat should “release” with no stress or force making the swing stop.

* Bat should finished extended out and behind body at approximately shoulder level. Avoid low or very high finish positions which inhibit smooth, efficient release of the bat head straight through the ball.

Goals:

* Feel the hands release and extend through the zone on each swing – avoid ‘muscling’ or ‘jerking’ the bat.

* Promote fluidity.

* Keep the barrel from leaving the zone too early due to too much “top hand” in the swing.

* Prevent the “rolling over” of the top hand at contact.

* More consistent line drive contact through promotion of these hitting concepts.