365 Days to Better Baseball - How to Maximize Batting Practice Time

Tuesday Tips to Tattoo the Ball 3 (or more) at Once Team Hitting

Maximizing your time as a baseball coach is always a great idea, as long as quality practice is the result. The key to maximizing time is keeping as many players active at the same time as possible. Instead of having one batter and the rest of the team standing around, the following batting practice drill is another way to maximize time and space, especially before games, when space and time is short.

Maximizing Batting Practice

This hitting drill only works with softer baseballs, as whiffle balls or rag balls, because it is not safe with regulation hard baseballs. Coaches set up three home plates (using players' gloves as home plates works fine) and angle them in a little arc facing the batting practice pitcher. Three batters hit, three players are a safe ways behind the hitter as catchers and the remaining players shag batted balls. Coach throws three pitches to each batter and then goes to the next in line with no wasted time, continuing with this three pitch sequence for as long as they want, before rotating players from hitting to shagging to catching.

Many swings come in a short amount of time, while the remaining players are busy rounding up balls. Players must be ready to swing as no time is wasted moving from one hitter to the next. Of course, with whiffle balls any number of players can be set up in the arc facing the pitcher. I will sometimes line all players up with a bat around the circle and have a little contest, where the pitcher continues to pitch to a hitter as long as they hit a line drive; otherwise, coach moves to next hitter. (Whiffle balls only for this, as it is safe and balls will not go far, when hit.