Batting

Introduction

Please take a few minutes to read through the BATTING OVERVIEW before jumping into the Training content. That info is helpful in understanding the format and teaching/learning approach.   

Our approach is to train segments of the swing, piece by piece, to develop Muscle Memory. 

Through repetition, the Muscle Memory of the swing segments begin to blend together into the full swing.  

Often kids do drills, but with no context of how the drill fits into the learning and development of the swing. In each of these drills the players are practicing the actual movements made in a technically sound swing.

The key ingredients for developing the swing:

  • ‘No Bat’ Drills

  • Tee Work.

(Live Batting Practice is for developing TIMING of the swing with a moving ball. Live Batting is not where the swing is ‘Practiced’.)

Parents/Kids

This section of the website presents the entire swing, along with drills.  A training ‘workout’ plan is available under the Practice Plans tab. 

…Beginning with Practice #2, go to the ‘Batting’ section, located below the Practice Plan. There you will find a brief instruction piece, followed by ‘No Bat’ Drills; concluding with focus points for taking swings off a Tee.

(The Tee Work* in the Plans assume a batter only has a few minutes to work. A batter doing the workout on their own wants to take 15-20 swings following each of the two daily focus points.)

*If you do not own a Tee, simply doing the ‘No Bat’ drills goes a long way to training the muscles the actions of the swing.

(see the COACHES section below for a bit more insight on the approach to training.

Coaches

The information in this section supports the content under the Practice Plans tab. Each plan includes a brief series of ‘No Bat’ drills and focus points for Tee Work (Tee Work is part of the Batting Practice rotation). The specific training points in each Practice Plan refer to the Drills in this section (with descriptions of the drills) that develop those points.

The kids learn through the ‘No Bat’ Drills and Tee Work.  (Live Batting is for developing TIMING the swing with a moving ball.)

We approach teaching the swing with an understanding that, while we can make great strides in a short time, there is no magical, instantaneous ‘secret’ to a young player learning to hit.

Following the training sequence presented in the Practice Plans will help each player improve significantly. However, there will be bumps along the way. It takes us 5 practices to present the fundamental pieces of the swing (Practices 2-6). It is important to understand that prior to Practice #6, the kids are swinging with incomplete instruction.

Following Practice #6, the players need an additional couple of weeks for Muscle Memory to set in. Patience is required. We are looking at a month-long process to get our kids swings in good shape.

The ideal is motivating the kids to do the ‘No Bat’ Drills at home on their days off (it only requires a couple of minutes a day).  Building solid Muscle Memory takes daily (or near daily) repetition of the body movements. Direct your parents and players to the Baseball Positive website and encourage them to do a bit of extra work at home, while away from Team Practices.

Questions? - email me at mark@bsaseballpositive.com

This section is pretty much complete. A few modifications yet to be made to make the info a bit more clear and to flow better.

All the best, Mark Linden (2/25/25)