As a baseball coach, one of the most important jobs is building up the confidence of your players, especially when they are struggling at the plate. Hitting slumps can quickly snowball into lost confidence, but there are many effective drills and techniques you can use to get your hitters back on track. With the right approach, you can transform their mindset and help them consistently make solid contact again.
The key is focusing on fundamentals, keeping things simple, and helping hitters regain their rhythm and comfort in the box. Patience, encouragement, and emphasis on positives are vital.
The first step is identifying the core issues. Are they struggling with pitch recognition? Contact? Timing? Once you pinpoint the problems, you can assign targeted drills. Here are the best confidence-building drills to try:
Tee Work
Hitting off a tee allows players to ingrain proper mechanics and rediscover their swing path without the pressure of live pitching. Start with slow, smooth motions focusing on balance, weight transfer, and clean contact. As they find their groove, gradually increase swing speed. This basic drill resets muscle memory.
Soft Toss
Soft toss is ideal for honing hand-eye coordination and tracking pitches into the zone. Start with easy lobs directly to the sweet spot. As batters get comfortable, mix up speed, movement and location to challenge reaction time. Keep plenty of praises for solid hits to reinforce positives.
Front Toss
Front toss takes away some control from the batter, promoting instinctive reactions. Position yourself about 10 feet away, on your knees to deliver low strikes. Fire a barrage of 30-40 balls to various locations forcing batters to adjust and make quick decisions. Reduce speed as needed to allow natural rhythm.
Bottom Hand Drills
Sometimes less is more. Taking the top hand off the bat reduces tension and overthinking. Have players take one-handed swings holding near the knob, using just their dominant bottom hand. This drill promotes free rotation through core and shoulders for more barrel control.
Blast Off Hitting
Starting with an open stance and slight load, have batters plant their front foot and explosively drive through the ball on each pitch as if “blasting off.” Cue hitting up through the top half for hard line drives. The goal is to create torque and quickly get momentum moving towards the pitch.
Backspin Batting
Spraying weak grounders? This drill trains the ideal upward swing plane. On each pitch, cue driving through the bottom third of the ball to create backspin. Place a tee adjustment knob under the ball to force proper angles. Positive feedback on elevated hits boosts confidence.
One-Pitch Batting Practice
Shorten the batting practice pitcher sequence to allow more repititions. Rather than a full round of pitches, give hitters just one pitch at a time with a pause between each swing. This drill allows focus, assessment, and self-correction before the next swing.
Hitting With Two Strikes
Simulate high-pressure at bats by setting a two-strike count. Hitters must battle through tough takes and protect the plate with two strikes. Take away cues like “sit back” and remind players to stick with their approach and handle the situation as normal.
Situational Hitting
Recreate game situations to train responses. Run specific counts, outs, runners on base, bunt plays, hit-and-runs, sac flies, moving runners over, and any scenarios players struggle with. Talk through real at-bat mindsets. The more practice in simulated pressure, the more confidence.
Positive Self Talk
Sometimes the problem is between the ears more than the hands. Have struggling hitters replace negative self talk that says “I always strike out” or “I can’t hit” with empowering mantras like “Stay through it” or “Swing easy.” Verbalize the keys to success.
Hitting Competitions
Inject fun into practice with friendly battles or challenges like most hits to opposite field, hardest line drives off the wall, or speed contests from home to first. Competition motivates extra effort. Recognize all positive achievements.
Breaking Down Top Hitters
Watch film or live footage of MLB stars with excellent hitting mechanics. Compare swing paths side-by-side. Dissect how they smoothly transfer from load to plant to contact. Get players to feel those perfect motions in their own body.
Hitting Without Fear
Some batters tighten up, afraid to commit their hands and get jammed, fooled or hit by a pitch. Have them intentionally swing very hard and make contact out front. Explain any miss is progress towards aggressiveness. Celebrate bold hacks.
Hand Speed Drills
Light swinging bats, dry swings in motion, and exercises with resistance bands all boost quickness and bat control. Have hitters do sets of forearm rotations, wrist curls/extensions, scapular squeezes or band pull aparts before hitting to fire up muscles.
The key is choosing a couple specific drills targeting each hitter’s nemesis, whether timing, pitch recognition, hesitance, etc. and providing maximum focused reps along with consistent encouragement.
With a tailored plan and belief in their abilities, the hits will start falling. Stay positive, keep working, and trust the process. Hitting slumps pass. Before long, their confidence will be soaring and hard contact second nature again. Keep at it!
Make Drills Like Games
As we know, repetitive drills can become monotonous for young players. One way to keep them engaged is to turn drills into fun competitions. For tee work, split players into teams and see which team can collectively hit the most line drives in a minute. For soft toss, award points for hits to different zones. During blast off hitting, challenge batters to generate the highest exit velocities.
You can track results round by round on a whiteboard to spark friendly rivalry. I like to reward winners with prizes like candy or extra batting glove sticky grip. Making drills game-like adds real excitement. Players forget about mechanics and swing freely.
I’ll never forget a hitting competition we held last season. We were working on hitting curves and divided into Team Curveball versus Team Fastball. Pitchers mixed in half curves and half heaters. We aimed for most hits and hardest contact. After several intense rounds, Team Curveball barely won with a late rally. My struggling hitter Calvin shouted with joy as he crushed a curve for the win. That thrill stayed with him.
Individualized Drills
With a mix of experience levels on most youth teams, it’s important to tailor drills to each hitter’s ability. Beginners may need more reps off a tee focusing on simple mechanics before moving to soft toss and live pitching. Veterans can skip basics and do more challenging drills working on pitch recognition and handling speed.
I like to establish skill “stations” around the cage so players can self-select the level fitting their needs. New hitters might be at the tee while stronger bats are doing front toss and two-strike simulations. This system allows for maximum reps while keeping everyone at their edge.
For several weeks, I noticed our cleanup hitter Ray was struggling with inside fastballs. So I created a special front toss sequence targeting handspeed and reaction time for in pitches. In two sessions, his quickness was noticeably better. That targeted training was just what Ray needed to turn it around.
Building Trust in the Box
Hitting is largely a mental game. Struggling players often tense up, fearing they’ll make weak contact or get hit. That anxiety sabotages their form. A key way to restore confidence is literally building physical trust.
Have hitters do dry swings with their eyes closed, relying purely on feel. Then progress to hitting off a tee blindfolded. Finally, do soft toss without peeking. This builds trust that even without vision, their body knows the right motions to make solid contact. Fear melts away.
Another variation is “no cone of vision” hitting. Require players to stare at a fixed point straight ahead as you throw from the side. Peripheral vision picks up balls coming in. This drill forces reliance on instinct rather than over-analysis. Once players learn to trust themselves, fear and tension quickly disappear.
The Power of Laughter
Sometimes the best cure for a slump is laughter. When hitters start stressing, I like to inject humor and make batting practice lighthearted. We do silly things like use candy or plastic baseballs off the tee, take joke swings with giant inflatable bats, or hit wiffle balls at weird homemade targets around the field.
Keeping things playful releases tension. Players stop thinking and have fun hitting again. Then once their slump disappears, we gradually return to normal routines. Smiles and laughter remind athletes that baseball is just a game, which is so important when struggling. Tough times on the field pass.
One day during a team-wide slump, we brought a clown to batting practice. At first the guys thought I was crazy, but once the clown started playfully heckling batters with bad puns and honking his nose, everybody cracked up laughing. It was just the dose of humor we needed. The team ended up having our best offensive game of the season!
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most common causes of hitting slumps?
The most common factors are flawed mechanics, poor pitch recognition, bad habits, lost timing and rhythm, pressure, and a lack of confidence. Struggles often stem from overthinking, tension, and a breakdown of subconscious muscle memory.
How long should you stick with a drill before trying something else?
Give each new drill at least 2 weeks and 100 focused repetitions before assessing effectiveness and deciding whether to switch approaches. Proper mechanics and feel take time to become natural. Stay committed through short-term ups and downs.
What if a hitter becomes too dependent on a drill?
Ideally drills serve as a means to an end, not a new crutch. Make sure to taper off reliance and transition back to a random mix of pitches and scenarios. Use cues to reinforce that the feel of an effective drill remains even after stopping it.
How do you restore confidence when a slump lasts for an extended time?
It’s important to reassure players that slumps are temporary. Have them focus on the task rather than results. Block out negative self-talk. Celebrate very small progress. Remind them of past successes. Shift their mindset from outcome to process.
When should you seek outside help like a hitting coach?
If fundamental swing flaws persist for months of focused practice, it may be wise to bring in an expert hitting instructor for fresh perspective on biomechanics. They can spot issues the naked eye overlooks. Similarly, sports psychologists can provide tactics to rebuild confidence.
How do you simulate game pressure in practice?
The key is creating challenges similar to real at-bats. Call out counts, get catchers to set up as if runners are on base, declare certain hits need to go to right field, use pitch sequencing, and ramp up overall intensity. The more lifelike, the better.
