Pittsburgh Pirates

Who doesn’t love youth baseball, kids out on the diamond, big smiles on thier faces, way too much eye black on, parents in the stands swearing they will never let the kids put on their own eye black.  All that good stuff is just part of the youth baseball experience.  It is even more memorable if your youth has success, whether it be your son or the team that you coach.  You realize that it is supposed to be fun first and foremost but you still want your kids to have success.  To have success at the youth level, it is many people’s belief that your team has to be able to hit.  I agree and that is why there are three terrific drills to help improve your kids skills at the plate. 

1. The first difficult transition in a baseball player’s life is making the jump from tee ball to coach pitch (or machine pitch) whatever the case may be. A drill that makes this transition easier is to get a big, nerf soccer ball and have them hit that for a while just to get the feel of hitting a moving ball.

2. Baseball Ready Position Drill- this drill is great to teach kids the value of being in “ready position” when the ball is delivered to the plate. Have the infielder’s line up at shortstop for ground ball practice just like normal, but BEFORE you hit them a ground ball make sure they get in a good athletic position so they can get a good jump on the ball.

3. Double Leg Kick Drill- This drill is for when the youngster’s start pitching. Have the child stand in the outfield and pitch from the stretch the same as he would off the mound. But when he gets to his leg kick and his leg reaches it’s highest point have him pause briefly, and then put his leg back down and leg kick again. This makes sure the pitcher is keeping his weight back and using his momentum toward the plate.