Baseball Hitting Drills For Kids
Do not underestimate the importance of the stride. It needs to be practiced. The problem many hitters have is that they do not practice their strides away from hitting practice.
In our Hitting System, we practice striding during the following batting drills practice sequence:
• Soft body, no stride, full take
• Load and Stride – Take
• Load – Stride – Pivot
Isolating these three activities by themselves can be performed alone at home without a pitched ball, or during batting practice, like in our Hitting Agenda and Tempo Drills. This builds the stride to the point where it is constant.
Here are the rules for the best stride:
• The stride travels only 6 inches.
• The stride lands on the ball of the foot
• The stride goes directly ahead and in the same place each time.
• The stride begins on pitcher’s release.
• The hands stay home near the back shoulder during the stride and are not released to make the bat contact the ball until after the pivot (rotation of the hips).
Another coaching point on baseball hitting drills for kids: The stride should be initiated in the large muscle mass of the hips. In other words, it is a slight linear push of the hips toward the ball. The front foot merely follows this push, landing on the ball of the foot. When the front heel goes down, this keys the turn of the hips and the weight transfer.
When facing a pitcher with above average velocity, a baseball player must be quick in the hips and rotate accordingly… having the ability to clear his mid section and allow his hands to get out in front makes for better contact with the ball. The stride plays a vital role in developing from linear to rotation for a sinker or four seam fastball for weight thru the ball.
You can learn more from Coach Joe Brockhoff’s Super 8 Hitting System from our five (5) free hitting videos here – Baseball Hitting Videos.
Tags: baseball hitting drills, baseball hitting drills for kids, baseball hitting videos, batting drills, coach joe brockhoff, super 8 hitting system
