A Drill to Give Your Hitters More Power
By: Cindy Bristow

Do your hitters stand there during games trying to hit the ball hard, but the hardest part is their trying and not actually their hitting? Most of our hitters could use a lot more power but they are a little hesitant to swing harder and just miss faster. Discover a great drill to help your players understand how to start using their power and start hitting shots.

Hitting the ball hard involves using your body in the same way a player uses it to throw a ball far or a pitcher uses it to pitch the ball fast. All players transfer their weight forward as they explode their hands forward through the release or contact point. We can make hitting complicated and confuse our hitters, or we can simplify it and make our players good. Learn a great drill to help simplify the concept of power so your players can start hitting the ball HARD!

It's one thing for us as coaches to understand the minuscule details of hitting and talk it around other coaches, but it's entirely another when we start spewing that same amount of detail into the heads of our players. First off, players being players really aren't impressed with much we say as adults - that's how kids are. And secondly, they can't listen that long, absorb that much detail, and frankly don't care in the same way coaches do.

So then, how are we supposed to teach them such a seemingly complicated skill as hitting? Let's simplify. I'm not suggesting that we understate the importance of hitting by simplifying it, but I am saying that players WILL hit harder, more consistently and more often fair if we make the concepts of hitting simple. I see it everyday working with hitters of all ages from 8 to 24, hitters really can grasp the 3 core concepts of hitting which are:

Power - to hit the ball hard
Direction - to control the direction you hit the ball
Timing - to make sure bat meets ball

I'll get into the details of each of these in subsequent newsletters, but for now I want to talk about a great way to help your players improve their Direction and Power in one drill. I'm listing both of these concepts together because it's one thing to hit the ball hard but if it goes foul all the time that's not really helping anyone. A player wants to hit the ball HARD in FAIR territory. That requires not only Power but Direction as well.

Most hitters spin or twist too much sending their swing direction sideways, and usually keeping their body weight back too much. Just like the player throwing the ball and the pitcher pitching the ball, hitting requires our body shifting forward as our hands come forward. So to help batter's practice this I use the Happy Gilmore Drill off of easy and close front toss:

The batter starts back about 3 feet beyond home plate but in her side of the batter's box.
A coach or player is about 10 feet in front of the batter, with a protective screen front tossing tennis balls or some version of softy softballs. Note that the front toss is simply bringing the arm back and forward and NOT the complete windmill. That comes much later.
As the pitcher's arm goes back the batter starts forward by taking her back foot and moving it forward behind her front foot.
As her back foot hits the ground she then moves her front foot forward and swings and hits the ball.
It takes a few tries to get the timing down but once your hitters master the timing you will be amazed at how well they start hitting the ball, and how much power they suddenly feel they have.
The trick then becomes to transfer that same power from the big toes of the feet into their regular hitting motion. It takes time and patience but the reward is a much more powerful hitter!