Soft toss/Tee with soccer balls

[rbgrubbs]

I have a couple players that I coach who swing to the ball, not thgrough the ball. I have been advised by another coach to have them hit soft tossed (or tee) soccer balls. THey must swing through them to get them to fly.

I am thinking of trying this, but DO NOT want to form any bad habits.

Do any of you have experience with this? any feed back?

[TexAg]

I see this all the time in pre-game, but haven't employed it for my teams and can't answer the validity of it. However, growing up, it wasn't a soccer ball, but an old tire.

[bbrages]

What if you went the other way, and used wiffle balls? Maybe the batter is holding back on the swing because he's protecting his hands from sting...

[songtitle]

If these balls are full of air, get ready for an ER visit and stitches.

[pthawaii]

There has been an explosion of TCBs (heavy yellow balls) in my area. Seems to be helping a lot of young hitters. But yes, you still have to be mindful of mechanics/form.

I'd avoid tires for kids.

I tried soccer balls with my kid, I didn't really care for it.

[pcarnette]

If these balls are full of air, get ready for an ER visit and stitches.

Concur. Typically, where I've seen this drill professed they recommend using slightly deflated soccer balls.

[BamaYankee]

I stuffed a duffel bag full of laundry and hung it up. Had my son swing hard into the bag and hold the position. Wanted him to get a feel for making contact at certain location. Also have tried the ball off the tee drill with a rubber plunger handle first down into my old tee. Slightly deflated baskeball worked for us.

[CircleChange11]

There has been an explosion of TCBs (heavy yellow balls) in my area. Seems to be helping a lot of young hitters. But yes, you still have to be mindful of mechanics/form.

I'd avoid tires for kids.

I tried soccer balls with my kid, I didn't really care for it.

This.

We've used those. I love them. Next year I'll order a bunch for our travel team. HS team uses them.

Saw a travel team last year using huge (16-inch?) softballs.

The soccer balls have to be deflated some to be effective.

The idea is that you have to hit the snot out of the ball for it to go. Just making contact isn't enough. With the big deflated balls, on occasion the ball might actually knock the bat out of their hands.

[JohnMcD348]

I tired that with my son a couple of years ago as he was moving up from Tball into Machine pitch. I still see it with kids in the machine pitch that cannot seems to place the bat farther than initial contact with the ball. I used to think it was the speed of the ball stopping an underpowered hitter, but after working with my son using an UNDER INFLATED basketball on the tee, he started hitting well into the outfield. It taught him to not just stop swinging once he makes initial contact.

[Ursa Major]

Agree that deflated basketballs can be good, especially as a counter to wiffle balls, which allow kids to snap at the balls with their hands, as there's no weight behind the wiffle ball to knock the bat back into their hands.

BamaYankee's "duffel bag full of laundry" drill is straight out of Mankin and is helpful for a different primary purpose - to keep kids from pushing their hands forward. You put the near side of the duffel even with the front foot and see where the kids hands are as the bat is frozen at the point of contact; if the hands are pushed forward the bat will not be squared up. Hopefully the kid will by this drill learn to let the ball run deep and keep his hands in. But, by trying to get the kid to move the duffel a little bit, you have the additional and similar benefit as that coming from the deflated soccer/basketball - he can only achieve this if his hands are back and the back elbow is in the power L at contact.