Hey guys, I'm Coach Madden official trainer, YouGoProBaseball.com and today we got the
top 10 baseball hitting drills to develop the perfect baseball swing.
The first hitting drill I call Catch & Crush and this is a great one,
What you want to do in this drill is you're going to set up a tee, you're going to have
a partner here at the side doing like a side toss.
All you're going to do is you're going to catch this baseball with your front hand and
then swing with your back hand.
It's a one handed hitting drill and all you're going to do is try to keep this front arm
closed when you hit.
This is a great hitting drill for guys who fly open or who get real long in their swing;
this is going to teach them to stay closed and stay short when they're hitting.
So this is how the drill is performed and you just want to catch it; stay closed and
hit a good line drive up the middle.
Put the ball back on the tee, catch it, closed and now I'm getting around that ball a little
bit.
So I want to stay inside more; I'm trying to hit a line drive up the middle or slightly
opposite field while keeping this front arm closed.
If I swing and I see this arm go this way that's no good; I want to keep this arm over
the ball the whole time, finish the swing through like this.
Alright the second drill is the Barry Larkin Drill reason I call it the Barry Larkin Drill
is because I stole it from Barry Larkin.
He came into the facility one day he was working with Rickie Weeks and Dee Gordon a few of
his guys that he was helping train at the time and what they were doing, was they set
up a tee on the outside part of the plate.
They would have a partner up in front tossing the ball on the inside part of the plate,
they would take swings at the pitch on the inside part of the plate without trying to
hit this ball.
Here's a tricky part; every once in a while the partner would go to throw it and not throw
the ball; from there they only got one load.
So when they took their load and their stride if the coach or the partner didn't throw it,
they had to immediately change their eyes to this ball and take this ball opposite field.
They're trying to hit the inside pitches to the pull side and then if the coach or the
partner does not throw the ball they're hitting the ball on the tee to the opposite field
without taking another stride.
So it looks a little something like this.
The next hitting drill is called Walking Happy Gillmores: Everyone knows the Happy Gilmore
drill where you're stepping behind; you're taking a swing from the partner that soft
tosses it, getting your momentum going forward.
The Walking Happy Gillmore you're just going to continue to walk down the cage or walk
down the field with your partner throwing.
Be careful you definitely want to have an experienced coach to help you with this one
because if the partner throwing gets too far out in front and the batter cannot control
where he's hitting the ball this could be a very dangerous drill.
So make sure you have a good hitter doing this drill as well an experienced coach to
perform this drill.
So all you're going to do is the Walking Happy Gillmore's but continue walking as you're
doing the drill like this.
The next hitting drill is called The New Fence Drill and I call this The New Fence Drill
because I invented it, at least I believe so and I put it in a video last year sometime
I believe.
All you're going to do, you guys know the old fence drill where you get up close to
the fence, put your belly on the bat and then you're taking swings without trying to hit
the fence.
Now we're doing the same thing in this drill but now we're going to add a tee and this
is a great drill for guys who cast their hands or get out and around the ball because it's
going to make them stay in.
What we want to focus on however when doing this drill is hitting a line drive straight
down the fence or the batting cage net or wherever you guys are straight down that line.
Maybe even slightly opposite field because what happens sometimes is when guys try this
drill at first is; they really cut off because they don't want to hit that fence and they
start hitting little dinkers to their pull side.
We don't want that, we want to be aware of the fence but we want to be short in the back
and long out in front and hit line drives up the middle slightly opposite field.
So it looks a little something like this.
The next hitting drill I call Espos and I call them that because I stole them from Esposito
training systems.
If you haven't checked them out on Instagram go do so.
This drill all you're doing is you're going to be opened up in your stance a little bit,
you're going to get a nice big load.
We're really working on getting loaded up on the upper body, really far nice and slow
and then we're going to really focus on our bat path or our swing plane.
When we're hitting this baseball, we're really not going to think about transferring our
energy forward on this one more being super rotational and trying to get that good swing
plane as we swing.
Nice open stance, keeping that weight back, loading up that energy nice and slow feel
that torque.
The next hitting drill is called Angled Toss: All you're going to do is angle the L screen
to the opposite field you could also angle the L screen to the pull side of the field.
For now we're going to go opposite field, I’ll show you an example of the pull side
of the field.
What you're doing as the hitter is you're getting set up here in the batter's box but
you want to act like the pitcher is still pitching from the front.
So even though he's throwing from here I'm not going to be striding towards him and trying
to hit it there.
I'm going to act like my pitcher is out in front, I'm looking that way, I kind of gaze
over and see my partner he throws that ball I'm still striding normal but then I want
to take my hands in and extend opposite field.
So I'm trying to hit it right back to where it came from so it looks a little something
like this and this is Angled Tossed to the pull side again you're looking as if your
pitcher was straight ahead.
Next hitting drill is called The Knee Knock Drill or the Ball Between the Legs drill:
This is a great drill for guys who don't get into a good stance and kind of get those knees
stacked over those ankles.
We don't want our knees stacked over our ankles because hitting is a linear and rotational
movement.
If we're stacked over our knees that are great for jumping but we're not trying to jump when
we swing we're trying to move our energy this way and rotate through it.
So what we want to do in a good stance is have our knees inside of our ankles right.
So if we're stocked over them we're not going to be able to create good energy but if we
have our knees inside of our ankles now we've got good side to side energy and we can begin
our rotation when we swing.
So the ball between the leg drills helps players feel how to knock their knees in.
All you're going to do is get set up, put that ball right underneath and then pinch
the knees together so now my knees are inside of my ankles and I'm in a good hitting stance,
then I'm just going to get loaded up stride and take a swing.
It's okay if the ball falls out, that's what you're trying to do, you're actually trying
to gain some ground going forward.
So the ball will fall out but the main thing here is that you're knocking those knees in
and getting into a good stance, so that you can create good energy, good ground force
and get a good swing.
The next hitting drill is Fungo Swing: You don't need a Fungo to do this drill, you can
use your regular bat but the idea behind this is that you're throwing the ball up yourself
swinging and hitting the baseball like a coach would.
That's why they call them Fungo Swings because coaches use Fungo bat.
Now in this drill what I like to do is I set my bottom hand first then I set my top hand,
then I take my bottom hand off and I’m going to throw the ball with my bottom hand and
then I’ve got a perfect place for my bottom hand to go.
What I'm trying to do on this drill is create energy I’m actually going to step behind
with my foot, toss, and swing the bat.
It's great to feel the linear movement and the energy going forward as well as working
on timing with your whole body and feeling everything fluid, smooth, and taking a good
swing.
So it looks a little something like this, you're trying to hit the ball up the middle
or wherever you're trying to hit the ball is what you're trying to accomplish here.
It looks a little something like this.
The last hitting drill is the Two Ball Drill from the front toss, now before we get into
this hitting drill I hope you guys like this video go ahead and hit that subscribe button
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Now let's get into this last drill; two ball drill from the front toss position.
Your coach or your partner is going to throw two baseballs at you and he's going to call
out top or bottom.
And then the hitter is trying to hit that ball, the coach is going to call out top or
bottom as he releases the ball so the player is already going to be striding and starting
a swing and then have to react and swing and hit that top or bottom ball.
This is a great reaction drill, great for working on contact just a really all around
great hitting drill.
So it looks a little something like this, top – bottom, top – bottom.
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