By: Jeff Taylor, Smoky Mountains Crusaders, NC
Here are some ideas: 1) Soft-hands drill- A company (check Anaconda Sports Catalog (on line http://www.anacondasports.com) and they have the "soft hands". This drill will work on hand-eye co-ord. 2) Certainly you can work your pitchers. Check out Jon Toner's League site (on all his posts, he has a link--then go to "pitchers' bible and down load the entire (26-32 pp) document) Great off/pre-season drills. 3) Check to see if you can use full-size wiffle and golf-ball size wiffles. Great drills in Dusty Bakers hitting book. Can use "T", soft toss or swing stick 4) Run down drill. Use tennis ball and no gloves, with players in socks. Cover your assignments (rotations) as you would have them do in game. Let them play 5-man pickle 5) Also w/ pitchers. If no catcher, try to set up large "fish net" or cage net and use red ribbon to thread a smaller-than-actual strike zone. Have your pitchers throw to net and count pitches, ball vs strikes, etc. This is an optimal time to break out the video camera to catch technique flaws. I hope this at least gets you started. I have access to a full-size gym with an indoor cage so I'm at an advantage. Anything you can do will be better than doing NOTHING.
Date: March 28, 1998 at 09:34