OUTSIDE THE BOX DRILLS

Double entendre? Most assuredly.

Sometimes You Have to Love Boring...NOT!

The thought that, "sometimes you have to love boring" has been said by more than a few coaches over the years because it can take some players up to 16 weeks to develop a skill depending where they fall on the Bell Curve. So many coaches adopt overkill drilling to get in the reps needed to get the skill developed before 16 weeks. To accomplish this, drill time lasts a good deal longer than 10 minutes.

You know if it's boring, the drill is probably taking more than 10 minutes to complete. Innervation and boring go hand in hand. Innervation is the brain's way of escaping. My apologies to the Japanese coaches and the infamous 1,000 ball drill, but innervation and fatigue lead to slop. This will happen with any prolonged drill past 10 minutes.

In the Combat Hitting system NO drill is practiced for more than 10 minutes. There is no need to overcome mental fatigue with reps in your training. Hitting is not marathon running. The goal is to remain sharp by keeping our concentation and focus. Remember fatigue is detrimental to quality in hitting. Fatigue has its place in training for some movements for pitchers and position players and in other sports, but not in the fine motor skill of hitting. Plus, you can always come back to the drill and for as many times needed in 10 minutes sessions, barring joint stress and injury from high or excessive reps. Emphasis should be placed on alternating 10 minute drills and muscle groups to be worked.

Additionally, I developed the frisbee T Drill to improve getting the lead hand through the zone faster on inside pitches. Poly balls work great with this drill. A special angled T had to be made to allow for contact off the hips. The was designed to simulate where the lead hand should be on inside pitches. A regular T can be used to simulate outside corner pitches when there a 2 strikes in the count and a need to protect the plate. 20 years ago during my college coaching stint we'd wrap a newspaper with tape or a thick broom handle covered with pipe insulation & then taped over with either athletic tape or duct tape, and threw it with the lead hand at a baseball on a T. Both drills are still viable today.

The speed bag station has caught on with others! I've had the speed bag among my stations for hitters for some time now. It's great for eye-hand coordination and building forearm strength. This station also fits in well with the Combat Hitting philosophy...controlled aggression. 

In an effort to have a variety of stations, I now use the Wii and its Table Tennis game. The one exception is that you have to add wrist weights while you play. To have the endurance to play this 10 minute drill will take some practice to accomplish, but well worth it.