By: Nick Berzins

Equipment: 1 JUGS Toss Machine, 1 Instant Screen or Instant Backstop, 1 dozen Dimpled Balls

This hitting drill teaches players to start the swing on every pitch and teaches a short explosive swing. This is a fun drill that players can run themselves at a station and you will see the players kidding each other about "eating bad cookies." This drill can be used as a competition to see which player "ate the most good cookies."

Preparation:

Using a green felt pen, make a circle about the size of a quarter at 3 spots, evenly spaced around the dimpled ball. Repeat this for 5 more balls. These 6 "green-marked" balls are "good cookies". Repeat this process for the other 6 balls using a red felt pen. These 6 "red-marked" balls are "bad cookies".

Set-up:

Mix the good cookies and bad cookies on the toss machine-loading tray. Set a bucket, or tote in front of the machine so the hitter cannot see the ball color.

Drill:

The object is to hit the good cookies and to hold up on the bad cookies. The hitter gets set up to hit including the proper grip and stance. The hitter takes the hands back to the launch position and takes the soft stride that initiates the swing. Turn the machine on. The hitter begins unlocking from the bottom up as the ball is delivered and completes the swing for good cookies and holds up on bad cookies. The hitter immediately gets ready for the next toss by taking the hands to the launch position and taking the soft stride.

Variation:

This drill can be done using regular softballs and by manually tossing the balls.

As a warm-up to this drill, I do a Tee drill where the hitter (in the regular stance) places the bat against the neck and initiates the swing keeping the bat against the neck. The bat cannot leave the neck until the stride has been completed and the "bottom has unlocked" until the belly button is pointing at the contact point. Then the bat leaves the neck and goes directly to the ball. This reinforces an inside-out swing and a compact explosive swing.