HItting Drill of the Year Video 3 - Rhythm & Load Bracket

Rhythm and Load Hitting Drills

This week's video finds four rhythm and load drills competing for the best hitting drill of the year. Preparing to swing in a smooth, rhythmic manner is another key to good hitting. Inadequate or mistimed preparation of the bat or stride is all it takes throw off a hitters timing, no matter how good their swing is.

A couple of outstanding rhythm and load drills did not make the sweet sixteen. The first, beginning the bat out of good hitting position before loading it to correct hitting position, proved too risky for young hitters to pull off and is only for advanced hitters. The second drill left out is the knee tuck drill, which is a great way to prepare to hit and used by many major league hitters. However, it did not make the field of sixteen because of the difficulty of maintaining good timing in this manner.

It's on to the four finalists in the rhythm and load bracket!

Hitting Drills to Develop Rhythm and Load

The number four drill the hop forward, hop back, stride drill, which forces hitters to get a weight shift is sent home by the Happy Gilmore drill, which develops a preparation, but also an aggressiveness for hitting. Notice how hitters begin deep in the batter's box and take their bat off their shoulder after walking forward with their rear leg going behind their front one. As players, begin to get a feel for the timing of taking the bat back as their stride foot moves forward, they begin this move with an aggressive hop forward in the same manner. In a minor upset, the three see, the roll back, hop back drill beats out the fake bunt drill. Both of these great drills have hitters shifting their weight and hands back to hitting position in preparation before swinging.

The finals was the usual tough battle, especially because kids love doing the Happy Gilmore drill, but ultimately the roll back, hop back drill wins out because it has hitters set the bat into outstanding hitting position before shifting their weight to their rear leg. Setting the bat into 100 correct hitting position is a mandatory key to hitting success and this drill allows players to be sure of this before swinging.

Next week, the last entrant into the final four field will be chosen out of the compact swing development bracket. This should be tight as there are some great hitting drills entered into this category.