What are the hand-eye coordination drills for baseball and softball that you can use to be a better hitter? Here are 3 simple hand-eye coordination hitting drills you can do to help improve your hand-eye coordination and reaction time at the plate.
(Looking for fielding drills for precision? Check out our other post.)
Training Your Vision and Reaction Speed
Scientific studies report that successful baseball players have better eyesight, depth perception, and visual reaction time than the general public, which shows us the importance of training our eyes.
But when it comes to hitting, that's only half the battle. Hand-eye coordination requires training the brain to process what the eye is seeing and then react faster than the speed of conscious thought, with skill and precision.
That's why hitting drills like these hand-eye coordination drills for baseball players are important. Do these hitting drills at home to improve your hand-eye coordination and become a better hitter.
Hand-Eye Coordination Drill #1: Hit Small Baseballs
Using a small baseball is a time-tested technique that works to improve hand-eye coordination. The reason it’s effective is because you're training your eyes and increasing difficulty by forcing yourself to be more precise with your bat to make contact with the smaller target. As the saying goes, "aim small, miss small."
How does the small baseball drill work?
- You'll need some small baseballs. These have the same feel and makeup as a regular baseball, they are just smaller!
- Determine if you're going to use a front toss, side toss, or a batting tee. This depends on your situation, if you have a partner, and if you're doing the drill at home, field, or in a batting cage.
- Hit with your regular bat.
Home Practice Tip: You can safely do this drill at home if you are using a hitting tee or if you have someone to do a side toss and you are hitting into a net.
Hand-Eye Coordination Drill #2 - Hit Small Baseballs with a Weighted Bat
Just like in Drill #1, this drill uses small baseballs, but Drill #2 amplifies the effect by introducing the additional constraint of a weighted training bat such as the CamWood Hand and Speed Trainer or the CamWood One Hand Trainer. (Hitters can also use the new Hitting Knob bat weight that attaches to most metal and wood bats if they prefer to practice with their favorite bat.
This drill does double duty by working hand-eye coordination AND building speed and power with a weighted training bat, and is ideal for more skilled hitters.
Hand-Eye Coordination Drill #3 - Use a Narrow "Bat"
In this drill, the smaller contact area of the narrow bat increases the difficulty, training your eyes and your bat to be more precise.
- Use a bat with a smaller contact surface. This can be a DIY "bat" such as a broomstick or PVC pipe, or a specialty training bat like the Sabre Bat (the Sabre has a smaller contact area and also trains important hitting skills like proper bat path.)
- IMPORTANT: If using a broomstick or other DIY "bat," do not use small or regular baseballs for safety reasons. Instead, use foam or rubber training balls to reduce the risk of breaking the "bat."
- If you've upgraded your hand-eye coordination hitting drills with a Sabre bat, feel free to take live, strong practice swings with regular-size balls.
- Whether using a tee, tossing the ball up in the air yourself or flips, the smaller contact area increases the difficulty and forces the hitter to be more precise.
The effect of this drill is similar to Olympic athletes who train their lungs in high altitude and then feel like they can run forever when they get back to sea-level. After training with the increased difficulty of this drill, you'll notice it suddenly feels much easier to make solid contact with a regular bat.
Home Practice Tip: With a soft rubber, limited flight ball, you won't need a lot of space to make this drill work. You may be able to do it in a driveway, basement, or nearby open space, even if you don't have a practice net.
Home Practice Tip: With a soft rubber, limited flight ball, you won't need a lot of space to make this drill work. You may be able to do it in a driveway, basement, or nearby open space, even if you don't have a practice net.
Mix Things Up and Make Hand-Eye Coordination Drills for Baseball Into a Fun, Friendly Competition
To make it more fun, you can turn all of these drills into a competition.
- Take turns with a friend or parent
- Each turn, count how many times you can make contact in a row without missing.
- Highest record wins.
Don't be discouraged if these drills seem difficult at first. Keep working to make contact and you'll quickly get the hand of it.
With consistent practice with these hand-eye coordination drills, you'll see improvement in your focus. Hitters tell us that when they go back to hitting regular baseballs or softballs after these drills, they seem like they are the size of beach balls!
Ready to add more variety to your training drills?
Check out all the Tanner training balls, baseballs, and softballs, including the Sampler Pack!
