Baseball Hitting Drills
Author: Baseball Bob
Baseball Hitting Drills: Picking up pitcher release. Improving your game
As a coach committed to continuous improvement, I share my baseball drills, tips, and techniques here so that you will, in turn, inspire and motivate young players to improve their game.
So let’s get started.
Coaches frequently ask how do we improve a player’s ability to pick up the ball immediately at release point. To better understand how to do this, we first need to understand release zones. There are three pitching release zones:
- Three-quarter release (most common): right hander-10 o’clock, lefthander-2 o’clock.
- Overhand release: right hander–11 o’clock, left hander-1 o’clock.
- Side arm release: right-hander–9 o’clock, left hander–3 o’clock.
After release, the ball enters trajectory, which is diagonally down. It is at this time that the hitter is completing his stride and deciding the projected location of the pitch in contact. When he is striding, he is deciding. Therefore, we need to separate the time of release from the time of trajectory, in order to give this the batter’s full concentration.
Try these proven drills (we call “skull sessions”) to improve a hitter’s ability to pick up the ball at release point:
Needed: pitcher, batter, and netting.
- Pitcher stands three feet in front of a net (could be the net of a batting cage).
- Batter is on the other side of the net facing the pitcher, as if in his stance at home plate.
- He will not take a swing.
- Several batters can observe at the same time.
Drill:
- Pitcher winds up and pitches the ball.
- Ball will hit the net immediately.
- Batter, protected by the net, concentrating solely on release, draws an imaginary circle around the release zone, and expects the ball to come out of that zone each time (zone is different for each type of pitcher).
Pitcher throws the following:
- 10 fast balls.
- Batter observes release zone.
- Ball will dive down after release.
- 10 breaking balls.
- Batter observes release zone.
- Balls will have a little hump after release.
- 10 mix of both fastballs and breaking balls.
- Batter identifies each from release.
After the pitcher throws from three feet, he can vary the distance up to six feet.
Hitters will be amazed at how much better they will see release with just one session. Do this drill frequently to continue to emphasize this process, and with a variety of different pitchers.
About the Author
Learn more about the Coach Brockoff’s baseball hitting tips and techniques, including his proven methods for improving batting speed by visiting the Super 8 Hitting System—a bestselling baseball training web site and instructional video package, which includes many free youth baseball drills and tips.
Coach Joe Brockoff, a Division I Head Baseball Coach for Tulane University for more than 19 years, and former minor league player for the New York Yankees, has sent 45 baseball players to the pros and coached thousands of college level and youth players using his proven Super 8 Baseball Hitting System. Coach Brockoff’s unique drills, tips, and techniques have increased many players’ batting average by more than 200 points.
Stabilization Drills – Baseball Hitting Instruction