While batting practice is great, it does only allow 1 hitter at a time to get work – or does it?!
Find out how you can double-up the benefits of your bp.
Using live batting practice is crucial to helping your hitters see live pitching, get their timing down and build up their pitch repetitions. But it has it’s downsides; one is it does take someone who can actually pitch it, and two is it only helps one hitter at-a-time.
But, thanks to the University of North Carolina head softball coach, Donna Papa, who shared this at a NFCA Coaching College Practice Course, here’s a simple way to add a second hitter to your batting practice:
- Set up your standard batting practice, using a pitcher, coach or front tosser in front of the batter – and a protective screen protecting them from the hit balls.
- Place a 2nd screen behind the plate and the hitter.
- Behind this screen, place a hitting sock net – which is usually a smaller net but has loose netting that allows balls to go into it without bouncing back out.
- Behind the sock net, and facing the pitcher, place a batting T , a bucket of balls, and a second hitter.
The purpose of this second hitter, the sock net, T and bucket of balls is to allow that hitter to face the pitcher, and as she pitches the ball to the player actually taking batting practice – the T hitter hits the ball off the T. This is a very simple, and yet extremely effective timing drill that allows the on-deck hitter to practice her timing and take some swings off the batting T before stepping in to hit BP.
Keep in mind if you don’t have anyone who can actually pitch batting practice, you can do this exact same setup using front toss.
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