Hitting Practice Plan - Types of Stations and Tips

Hitting Practice Plan – Types of Stations and Tips

Baseball Hitting Practice Plan

Softball Hitting Practice Plan

The Practice Plan Series

This Hitting Practice Plan – Types of Stations and Tips article has been excerpted from The Ultimate Hitting Training Guide (click to learn more about our new hitting drills book!).

In The Practice Plan Series, we guide the coach through developing a plan for the season. Using a top-down approach, the coach formulates their player skill development plan step-by-step. Upon finishing Step 5 of this series, the end product is practice plans customized and synchronized with the team’s priorities.

Prepare a Hitting Practice Plan

A bat speed radar is useful and affordable tool to measure improvement and establish intention to swing hard.

Table of Contents

Objective 1: Compile Customized Hitting Goals for Each Player

For each player, the coach and player meet to review and discuss:

The hitter’s current assessment metrics compared to their previous assessment (click the link for our free article Establish a Hitters Assessment Process).

Progress towards current goals.

Use a spreadsheet to track each hitter’s accomplishments and priorities (click the link for our free download Matrix of Hitting Fundamentals). Limit goal setting to two to three goals customized for the specific hitter. Include how the attainment of each goal will be objectively measured.

Formation of new goals.

Appropriate drills for practice and homework.

Objective 2: Prepare the Hitting Practice Plan

The coach prepares a practice plan for the next practice leveraging the planning completed in steps 1 through 4 of the Hitting Practice Plan Series (click here for a list of all six articles).

Here is a checklist of recommendations and ideas:

Warmups

The Ultimate Hitting Training Guide includes a group of valuable drills in Tool I: Global Coordination drills for excellent exercises to do before practices and games.

Types of Stations.

The ideal team hitting practice would be similar to a private hitting lesson – every drill customized to the hitter’s unique needs. But, time and resources are in short supply, so compromises are required.

When preparing station plans, think about when to use these different types of hitting stations:

Universal (Absolute) Station.

Every hitter performs the drill in the same way with the same fundamentals. Exercises appropriate for Universal stations are grouped into Universal Tools.

Experimental

Every hitter tries out options to identify productive changes to the specific hitter’s baseline. Drills appropriate for an Experimental station are grouped into Experimental Tools.

Assessment

A retest station should be a staple at every team hitting practice (click our free article Establish a Hitters Assessment Process).

Customized to Fit the Player

This “personal” station should train the hitter’s primary objectives as discussed and agreed upon in the retest process. Athletes like routines but also want things to be new and individualized. Solve this issue by having a station that is for “personal drills.”

Progressively Build Automaticity.

When the hitter is 90% proficient off a tee and 75% proficient during front toss, switch to machine or live BP.

Quality, Not Quantity.

Too often, players lack the focus or discipline to slow down and develop the proper technique and thought process. Consistently preach and ingrain that every swing should be deliberate and purposeful (The Ultimate Hitting Training Guide includes further information in the Stone VI: Deliberate, Deep, and Purposeful Practice). The coach sets the tone, beginning with a “deliberate” training plan.

Stick to the Prioritized Plan.

If the hitting priority percentage determined in Prioritize Skills to Practice (click the link for Step 4 in the Hitting Practice Planning Series) were 50%, then one-half of all available practice time would have at least one station devoted to hitting. Thus, for a high school team practicing 10 hours per week, dedicate at least 5 hours of practice at least partially to hitting. Constructing practices in this way requires careful planning. Create skeleton plans for a month to get an overview of what it will take to accomplish goals.

Debrief.

At the end of the workout, evaluate and debrief – were station objectives achieved? If not, why not? Adjust subsequent training accordingly.

Homework.

Homework is usually tee work, or it can be using a pitching machine with a buddy. The coach can always tell when one of their players has been logging significant “alone” practice time.

Off-Season Practice.

Teams sometimes place too much emphasis on offseason physical conditioning at the expense of improving the swing. Hitters who devote time to strength training that is most beneficial for hitting success (for exercises to build bat speed and power specific to hitters, click the link Strength and Conditioning Blog), but make working on their hitting mechanics the priority during the winter, will be the ones playing full-time during the spring and summer.

Single Coach.

If the coach finds themselves with no full-time assistants and inconsistent, unknowledgeable helpers, here are a few ideas to make the best of a challenging situation:

Utilize External Result focus drills (click The Magic of Mental Focus for Hitters for our free article describing how to increase practice efficiency and performance by adjusting mental focus), emphasizing targeting, which is self-teaching.
The coach should never be tied down to one station.
Ask players to observe and evaluate themselves and report to the coach on how they are progressing.
Make drills into team competitions.

Objective 3: Hitting Practice Formats (Baseball Practice Plan and Softball Practice Plan)

Divide the team into groups of four players, with one group practicing each hour. Three to four-hour commitment for coaches, depending on the size of the team. Only a one-hour commitment for players, but they hit non-stop. Four stations, one coach/helper, and one player per station. Rotate every 15 minutes.

Divide the team into four groups, with each group practicing and competing at each station for 30 minutes. Then, each group rotates through all four stations—a two-hour commitment for coaches and players.

One or two hitting stations. Players rotate through defensive stations as well.

Objective 4: Skill-Building Hitting Competitions

Hitters of all ages have more fun and are more focused when practices include elements of competition. Besides, applying performance pressure makes training more game-like, better preparing hitters to do “battle” with the pitcher in games.

Here are a few “gamifying” recommendations:

Competition with the thrower during wiffle front toss. The hitter tries to hit the wiffle hard over a specific target, and the thrower attempts to strike out the batter.

Beat your record at the station. Count successes in a row or the number of successes out of a total number of swings.

Anything can be measure and tracked. Consistently allow hitters the opportunity to “go beyond” what they have done before.

When improvements are accurately measured and made public, this can be very motivating.

Each hitter competes to be in the top three on the team for success at a particular station.

Compete against one or two team members at each station.

Divide into two or three teams and compete.

The Practice Plan Series

Using a top-down approach, the coach formulates their training plan step-by-step. The outcome is individual hitting practice plans which fit the team’s priorities. Click each of the links below to build your practice plans for the upcoming year systematically.

Hitting Training Methods (Step 1)

Ten Reasons to Prepare a Practice Plan (Step 2)

Make a 10,000 Foot Plan for the Season (Step 3)

Prioritize Skills to Practice (Step 4)

Hitting Practice Plan – Types of Stations and Tips (Step 5)

Building Rome Series Books: Building the High-Level Swing Series

Click Building the High-Level Swing Series for a detailed and comprehensive description of 100 hitting fundamentals and 140 step-by-step drills that efficiently construct the batting swing from the ground up.

In the Building Rome Series of books, the construction of skills are in functional order, providing a “roadmap” to becoming a great hitter.

All baseball and fastpitch softball players can “climb the Roman Coliseum steps” to become a powerful and productive hitter.

Enjoy the quest!