Posted by: Torque (roscoethewestie.com) on Tue Mar 3 02:08:47 2009

> I am a baseball coach, have a great young hiter. I need some drills to keep him hitting the ball in front of the plate instead of over the plate. I am a high school coach, this kid could be a great hiter, he is strong and competetive and can hit a ball harder and farther than anybody i have ever been around.I played 3a ball for st louis and try to help all kids to be the best they can be. thank you for your help.

Based on your description, it sounds like he is hitting well. I've always been taught to hit the inside pitch out front of the plate, hit the middle pitch at the front of the plate, and outer 1/3rd of the plate pitch about 1 to 5 inches on the plate. A high level of consistency is what I like to see out of hitters with great vision, batspeed, and swing mechanics. One problem I personally have when I hit and when I observe hitters that are always out front is that they are often inconsistent when compared to hitters that hit the outside and middle pitch deeper. They seem to be less consistent hitters because their timing is more easily disrupted and they are easier to play defensively because you can get a better jump when reading the same bat angle and they almost always hit to their pull side.

If he is really letting the ball get too deep you might get a tee and put it out front on inside pitch and move the tee deeper as the pitch goes outside. This would make it easier to make your point mentally. I've been working this way with my son for 2 or 3 weeks because he was inside outing every pitch and hitting the ball well but not as well as he should to the pull side. From my own failures, I've learned effective verbal and body communication is my best tool where the hitter is gifted with batspeed and great vision.

I've also seen kids who spend too much time in the cages hitting at short distances develop reaction problems where they don't really start tracking the ball and reacting to the ball until it gets too close to the plate. They seem to get visually and reaction conditioned to the shorter distance. Maybe longer distance batting practices closer to game distance.

I also like to hit the baseball at very fast speeds before the season for 2 reasons. The hitters reaction times improve sooner, they burn the rust off their swings and reflexes,and they realize they have to work at hitting in order to be successful. It kind of jumpstarts their attitude because they realize they aren't hitting that consistently and they work harder. Also emphasizes the need early in the season to get the bat head around soon enough.

Good luck. It sounds like you really care about your hitters performance. There isn't too much more fun to watch than a skilled batsmen that crushes the ball consistently.