Recommended Baseball Hitting Drills that can be performed with a handheld hitting stick trainer.

These drills are best performed with a handheld hit trainer such as the Derek Jeter Target Batting Trainer by SKLZ.

Drill # 1 Top-Hand Drill

The top hand on the grip is the hand that takes the bat to the ball. It is improtant to develope strength and skill with this hand. To do this we do a one-handed isolation drill. The batter uses just the top hand. Gripping the bat at the top of the grip and using the bat like a tomahawk, the batter tries to get over the top of the ball and hit it into the ground. The batter has a coach or player soft toss the ball above the waist. The batter hits the ball from the top and drives its straight into the ground.
Suggested - 25 Swings - 3 Times a week.

Drill # 2 Power Hand Drill

A hitters power comes from the bottom or pull hand. This drill develops bottom hand strength. Have batter, using only one arm at a time, take stance, inward turn, stride and full cut at balls off of a tee. Emphasize "staying back" on the ball. Batter will need to choke up a lot, and initially need to place the unused hand under the armpit of the swinging arm for additional support. Take about 20 cuts at a time with each arm, making sure to keep the barrel higher than the hands, and follow through. At first, most players will find their top arm to be stronger; therefore, requiring more reps with the bottom arm. The objective is to reduce the gap between the ability of each arm, ideally becoming equally adept with both. (Many players suffer from a weak lead hand!) You can soft toss to older players.

Drill # 3 Multiple Location Contact Drill

The hitter is given three pitch locations to practice hitting; inside, away and middle. On the inside location, the batter must learn to involve the hips and turn on the pitch, pulling it. On the middle pitch the batter hits the ball dead up the middle. On the away pitch, the batter makes sure to take the ball to the opposite field. The coach may want to put spots on the ground showing where the batter attacks each pitch location. The inside pitch is attacked on a spot located in front of the plate. The middle pitch is attacked on a spot located just behind the instep of the hitters front foot. The away strike is attacked on a spot located just inside of the hitters back foot.
Suggested - 20 At Each Location - 3 Times Weekly.

These drills are best performed with a handheld hit trainer such as the Derek Jeter Target Batting Trainer by SKLZ.