Coaching Youth Baseball - Do You Have a "Cheat Sheet" for Your Hitters?

By Chip Lemin

Hello Coaches,
I have posted three drills and a small cheat sheet for hitting. I find it very helpful to catalog all my drills on my computer,print them off and save them.When I want to spice up practice, I get them out and make a new practice planner.

Know the Count drill

Station a coach seated behind an L-screen approximately 30 feet away from the hitter (coach should wear helmet and stay well behind the screen.) The coach can pinpoint the corners and move the ball up and down throwing a high percentage of strikes from this distance. The hitter is forced to react quickly
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To further the effectiveness of the drill we have the coach shout a count just before delivering the ball (i.e. 3-0, or 1-2, etc.). This forces the hitter to think about the type of hitting situation that they are confronted with before offering. For example, in a 3 ball situation the hitter may decide to take a questionable pitch for ball 4 whereas in a 2 strike situation they must guard the dish. Also we will vary the situational hitting by having the coach shout out where runners are as well as out count. This further reinforces the concept of productive at bats while giving a mental focus to what can otherwise become a repetitive drill.

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