Softball Hitting Drills - 5 Ways to Up Your Game

Softball Hitting Drills - Elite Softball Drills

Softball Hitting Drills – SBBL Fastpitch Softball – 16U – Lady Saints v. Diamondbacks – Photo by Steven Pisano

Many people think that the best way to practice softball hitting drills is to simply to do it over and over again. While going through the motions can certainly help, there are specific drills to target different aspects of hitting. These can include strengthening and focus drills, contact drills, upper body form and strength drills and ball placement drills. Use the following five drills in practice to help batters be more prepared for any pitcher they may come up against.

1: Bat Zones – Softball Hitting Drills

This Softball Hitting Drill specifically targets the focus of a batter, encouraging them to keep their eye on the ball through contact. For this drill, you will need a bat and three colors of electrical tape. Tape the bat into three zones. The end, the sweet spot and the lower half. As the ball is pitched the player must watch the ball connect with the bat and call out the color of the tape the bat hit.

2: Hit & Run – Softball Hitting Drills

This drill will focus on stamina and focus of the batter. Often when a player comes up to bat they are not in prime condition. Therefore, having batting practice when players are in top condition is not always effective. This drill is done in a soft toss situation with a net.

There should be 3 players in each group. With no time in between pitches other than to reset, the coach will feed the player 20 pitches. As soon as the twentieth pitch is hit, the batter will take off for two laps around the field. The coach will begin pitching to the next batter while the first player is running. The goal is for the batter to finish their laps and have a short time to rest before it is their turn to hit another 20 pitches. Batters should run between six and eight laps before the coach switches to the next group of 3.

3: Knee Hitting – Softball Hitting Drills

While every player knows that good hitting is a combination of skills and motions, this specific drill targets upper body strength and follow through. Set up a net, as though for a tee drill, but, use an orange cone instead of a tee. The batter should kneel on their back knee with their front foot extended straight out in front of them towards the net. The batter will hit off the cone into the net focusing on the proper arm and wrist movement. There should be another player to reset the ball so the coach can provide feedback to the batter.

4: Target Practice – Softball Hitting Drills

It’s not always enough to just get a hit, sometimes, we need to put the ball in specific areas, whether it is to advance other baserunners or to take advantage of a weakness in the other team’s fielding. The batter will hit off the tee, it can be set up in an area of the strike zone where the batter needs work. Cones should be used to mark areas of the field where the batter should aim to place the ball. This can be combined with the two tee target drill as accuracy improves.

5: Two Tee Target – Softball Hitting Drills

In this drill, you will focus on contact point and ball placement. This drill requires two tees. Set up one tee directly on home plate. Set up the second tee at the same height about two feet in front of the plate. Begin with the tees directly in line. When the command is given, the batter should hit the ball off the first tee and attempt to hit the ball into the ball off of the second tee. The tees can be adjusted to work on different pitches and as accuracy improves.

Try out some new drills and rotate them into batting practice. Remember, sometimes thinking outside the box or taking it back to basics can yield impressive results!

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to email us at coach@elitesoftballdrills.com. Check out our other articles on softball pitching drills and softball fielding drills!

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