"Line Drive" Drill

This drill comes from Donny Buster our September 2002 Drill of the Month Winner.

Equipment:

• Two Batting Tees
• Balls
• Bats

Place tees a safe distance apart. Allow two players to approach and set up to the tees to hit. At the coach's call of "go" the objective is to see who can hit a line drive up the middle first.

Continue rotating the players, allowing the winner to stay in until someone beats him.

The lesson: The closer a batter is to the optimum position to execute good rotational mechanics when the ball is pitched, the more time he has to get his good swing off. Hitting better is making fewer mistakes in the set up. The drill helps batters eliminate wasted motion in the set up and swing and the contest will hold everyones' attention.

Why the line drive up the middle?

Any good player should be able to get his best swing off while using a tee. Since line drives up the middle constitute the best opportunity to help the team, we only count them in this drill.