Baseball Hitting Drills that are Proven & Perfect

Baseball hitting drills are the quickest way to develop the repetition needed to become a good hitter - there are no shortcuts.

I have been teaching hitting for a long time and realize that one of the few things tougher than hitting a baseball consistently well is teaching someone to hit a baseball well. So many factors go into developing the perfect swing, which is why hitting a baseball is considered the hardest thing to do in sports. Hitting a round ball with a round bat squarely is not easy. And, even a perfect swing does not guarantee great results because other factors come into play including eyesight, timing, and hand-eye coordination.

Nothing in sport requires the amount of repetition that hitting a baseball does, with no guarantee of ever getting it completely right.

Hitting and the perfect swing is a continual work in progress, even for the greatest hitters in the game. As a coach, I give players many baseball hitting drills to develop the perfect swing. This tedious process of developing a great swing often sees hitters improve, stay even, and sometimes regress because of the mentioned difficult nature of performing the correct hitting fundamentals, as well as the amount of repetition necessary to make changes.

Having used hundreds of hitting drills over the years, I realizeno perfect baseballs hitting drills exist, but the following two are as good as it gets. Theydevelop as close to the perfect swing quicker than any other hitting drills. As you will notice the first one is a very simple drill. When done correctly, it guarantees the correct squaring of the hands and opening of the hips, necessary for a great swing.

Knee high tee drill through middle

Knee High Tee Drill Set a batting teeat the knee-high level and right down the middle of the plate. Hitters must stand just 6 inches behind this ball and the same distance away from the base of the tee as they do from home plate, as in a game. The goal of the drill is to hit line drives directly back through the middle of the diamond. To do this, batters will have the correct hip turn and hand andbat position at contact, which is crucial for a good baseball swing. When players can hit consistent line drives that rise into centerfield at least 8 out of 10 times they have a good chance of repeating this swing with a pitched ball.

Part two - up and away tee - After hitters gain consistency on this pitch location, the batting tee should be set up on the outside corner of the plate and at the letters. Players should practice until they hit line shots to the opposite field consistently.

After players can hit drives on the low and high tee location, they should do so by alternating the locations with the same result. At that point, players will have close to the perfect swing, at least on the batting tee.

Of course, it is one thing to be able to perfect the swing on a batting teeand another thing to be able to do it with the pitched ball. The following drill is done with a pitched baseball and incorporates many of the necessary hitting fundamentals.

Net behind batter hitting drill

Net Drill with flips

* The hitter stands very close (about 10 inches) from a net while facing the pitcher. The net is immediately behind the hitter where the catcher stands.

* The coach sets up behind a protective screen in front of the hitter, beginning at a short distance.

* The coach flips balls to the hitter on the outer half of the plate.

valuable baseball hitting drills

Hitters stride as normal and swing, attempting to hit the ball to the opposite field, while missing the net on their forward swing and by hitting or grazing the net on their follow through.

The goal of the drill is forcing the important fundamentals of hitting staying back, compact swing, palm-up/palm-down contact position of the hands, hips opening and swing extension. If hitters do not stay back and extend their arms after contact, they will not hit thenet on their follow through. If their swing is not compact, they will hit the net on the way to the ball. If their hands and hips are not in the correct hitting position at contact they will not hit the ball to the opposite field, as desired. Finally, if hitters take their eyes off the ball, good contact will be elusive.

Continual use of these two baseball hitting drills will develop a fundamentally sound swing in the quickest manner possible.