This drill teaches batters to track the ball without flinching so they can stay balanced and make contact.
Equipment: bucket of tennis balls
Many players have a fear of the ball when you first start pitching to them. They might not show it when hitting off a machine or a parent, but if another player pitches, they flinch. The rear foot twitches or even takes a step right as the ball is coming. There is no way to hit a ball once you lose balance and this flinch is the death knell of getting a hit.
Alas books don’t teach much on this. One coach I asked at a clinic said “tell em to play soccer”. So be tough and don’t be afraid and spare us.
This is not teaching. This is just ignoring a reality that many kids are afraid of the ball.
As they get older they tend to get over it, but it works best to deal with it at a young age.
1. Start with a tennis ball. First they have to see the ball to track it and know it won’t hit them. Get down on one knee, toss a tennis ball, and have the batter not swing — just say ball or strike. Have them follow the ball with their eyes all the way to when the catcher catches it. Ideally you can do this with a catcher. If they aren’t showing any fear then have a player toss and watch the fear come back. Keep working until they show NO fear — no flinch, no nothing, just watching the ball.
2. Move back to about 20-30 feet from the batter and toss again to see if they flinch.
3. Stand up and throw at game speed — for kids this is sort of 20-30 miles per hour. You may not have a radar gun, but this doesn’t mean to throw super hard or to lob the ball. A good straight throw.
4. Switch to a baseball and start slow, then throw harder. Use an L screen so you aren’t killed — horror stories of coaches who toss a baseball to a kid with a metal bat who has never hit the ball and they are lobbing from 5 feet and lo and behold the light switch comes on, the kid smashes the ball, and the coach has a serious injury. Please do not toss real baseballs from a close distance without an L screen. Please.
5. Move back and throw a baseball closer to game speed.
6. Stand up and act like you are going to really throw super hard and don’t throw at the last minute. See if they flinch. If they do, intermix the fake throw with the real throw.
7. Have them bunt hard fast throws over and over. Bunting requires robust tracking of pitches. Have them bunt ten in a row before they swing. Make sure they don’t flinch on any bunt. Have them turn and bunt before the pitch. This forces them to track the ball.
If this drill helped your player stop flinching and start tracking, sign up for the newsletter and grab the free Quick Start Guide — there’s a lot more where this came from.
