5 Softball Hitting Drills For Beginners

To become a pro softball hitter you need to practice your swings properly and patiently. Its easy to get bored if you choose to practice the same drills over and over every day. Getting a variation in your drills can help you spice up your practice sessions..!! The following guide will help your practice some fun softball hitting drills.

Bat Throw

This drill requires an open space and provides an immediate feedback of your swing. At first get in to your batting stance and swing and release the bat at the point when you make contact with the ball. The bat should fly forward in a straight line with a perfect spiral rotation.
If your swing mechanism goes wrong then you'll get to know immediately what went wrong.  i.e. in this case your bat will fly to your left instead of forward.

Bam Bams

The primary focus of this drill is to teach you a compact swing as in a fast-pitch you can't have a long swing. You will need a ball or a light dumbbell for this exercise.
The steps are as follows:

• At first, get into your batting stance and hold the ball or dumbbell with your lower hand.
• Guiding with your elbow, move your bottom hand across your chest. The ball or dumbbell should follow through a straight line beginning from your back shoulder to the front of your chest and stop when your elbow is extended (as shown in the image above).
• Do at least 5 sets of 10.

The Knob Drill

This drill emphasizes on keeping your hands inside the ball and leading your swing with the knob of the bat. Hold your bat handle in a way that the bat knob is exposed and set up a tee where the ball sits on top of your striking zone.
Leading with your elbow move your hands in a straight line across your chest towards the ball. This way the knob of your bat naturally hits the ball.
The natural rotation of your pivot and hip will all a normal contact with the ball, so don't lean forward and try to knock the ball.

One-Knee Drill

In this exercise you have a different body posture to consider. You need to kneel down on your back knee and extend your front forward to maintain balance, this will help you isolate your upper body before you can take the swing.
Using a tee you will practice 3 different swings:

• For the first round use your bottom hand and follow your Bam Bams drill to lean with your elbow and swing through the ball.
  
• For the second round use your top hand and swing through your ball and focus for a follow through.
  
  
• For the final round use both your hand and practice perfect form as you swing and end with the high follow through.
  

The Three-Step Drill

This drill focuses on drive and power, the batter will setup a tee and stand 3 steps behind it towards the catcher. Once you are in position, leading with your front foot move 3 steps forward towards the ball.

• The first step will be small towards the tee.
• The second step will be with your back foot stepping behind your front foot.
• In the final step use all of your forward momentum to drive through the ball and keep a high follow through.

With this we come to an end to our Softball Hitting Drills lesson. This is not the end to the softball hitting drills, there are many others but this is to get you started with softball drills.

Published: By: Haseeb Kibria - 6:43 AM

6 Softball Pitching Drills To Increase Velocity

Every pitcher on the planet want to increase there pitching speed. But if you ask them how to do it you will get an avalanche of answers.
Thus the question remains how do you pitch faster??
To answer this question lets do a simple experiment.

• Ask a pitcher in your team to make an over head throw and very slow.
• Then ask the same pitcher to make an over head throw as fast as he/she can.

At this point the one question you would ask your pitcher "what's the one thing you did to throw fast??". And the most common answer will be "i moved my hand faster this time", and your pitcher is Exactly Right. Moving your hand fast is an important part of the equation.
It takes time and practice to master these techniques. But not to worry, the following softball pitching drills are designed to guide you in what to and what not to do to increase your speed.

Softball Pitching Drills to Increase Speed and Accuracy:

Wall Throws

The focus of this drill is to check how fast you can throw. To practice this drill the pitcher needs to stand in front of a wall and using a soft ball throw as fast as he/she can towards the wall. The pitchers should use enough power so that the ball bounces back to his/her hand.
After a few pitches, the pitcher should back up a bit from the wall and continue with the drill. The pitcher should move back from the wall after every set until he/she can't put in enough power for the ball to bounce back. Once the pitcher reaches this stage, mover him/her to position where he/she started the drill.
Putting in time and effort in this drill will train the pitcher to put in more power over time.

The Walk-Up Drill

In this drill the pitcher stands a step behind the mound. The pitcher takes a step forward towards the mound to make a pitch. The step should be long and aggressive for the pitcher to extend his/her pitching range.

Circle Speed Drill

This drill is to improve the pitchers arm rotation speed, leading to more powerful throws and fine speed controls. To do this drill, the pitcher takes the stride position with his legs wide apart.
The pitcher will make 3 fast circle with his/her pitching arm, releasing the ball on her third rotation. To help aim the ball to the desired place, the pitcher should have his/her glove hand at shoulder height and facing the catcher.
After the pitcher gets a hang of the drill, reduce the number of rotation to one and practice a few more times.
Note: If pitcher feels any pain during this drill, they must stop immediately. Relax there shoulder before beginning again. Never Push through with pain.

The Dummy Batter Drill

This drill gives pitchers the ability to practice different pitches without injuring the batter when mastering a new pitch type. This drill is best for pitchers who have mastered the concept of pitching and are looking to improve their aim, accuracy, or try out a new pitch type.
This drill involves placing a dummy batter (made out of wood or cardboard) in the batting stance. The batter should have a line in front of him which will indicate the perfect strike line.

This drill will allow pitcher practice multiple new pitching techniques with out the need for a batter and the batters will be free to practice their drills.

Distance Pitching Drill

This is one of the most important drill to develop pitching speed and accuracy. To start, the pitcher marks a line half way from the catcher and starts pitching. After every few sets, the pitcher moves back a few steps and repeats the drill. The pitcher should work his way back until he/she barely can make the throw to the catcher.
At this stage, the pitcher should move forward a few steps closer to the catcher until he is half way from the catcher.
The most important part of this drill is that the pitcher provides the right amount of power, depending on how far they are standing, keeping the body mechanics and pitching techniques same.
Note: Pitching from a long distance with an overweight ball may lead to injury.

The 20-4 Pitching Drill

The main focus of this drill is pitching accuracy and control.
Depending on the pitchers skills, they can start from half way or normal pitching distance from the catcher.
This drill requires pitchers to pitch 20 strikes for every 4 balls they pitch.  If the pitcher gets the forth ball before getting the 20th strike, they start over.
Note: This is a repetitive pitching drill, keep in mind not to over work your pitcher.

With this we have come an end to our Softball Pitching Drills. Remember, no amount of drills or coaching can help you until you roll up your sleeves and start practicing.
Only practice can make a Softball Pitching PRO.
If you enjoyed this drills and want to learn more, go to our Softball Drills Page.

Published: By: Haseeb Kibria - 6:19 AM