How Do I Know Which Drills to Use?

Hey everyone, I hope you had a great new year and are looking forward to kicking off this year's baseball season!

Whenever I talk to parents and kids who have taken lessons at other facilities and then come to me, I get asked quite often about which drills I use. My answer to that question is I use the simplest drill to accomplish the goal we've set for the student.

At this point the majority of my clientele are under the age of 14 and so I have to adjust my drills and teaching to fit the maturity of the kid. For example, in hitting when we work on how the back arm is supposed to move through the baseball, I get the student on video, we break down the mechanics on my computer, and then get back in the cage and go to work on making those changes.

Now if I have a 17 year-old who's struggling to stay short to the ball and create elevation, I'll grab a mini-bat and we'll work through some single-arm swings so that he can retrain his muscles to find the correct arm path. However if I have an 11 year-old in the cage, that kid is going to lack the functional strength to use that single-arm bat. If I try to use the same drill with him as I would the 17 year-old, he'd be getting frustrated and change the rest of his mechanics to make up for the lack of strength. Ultimately, due to the lack of functional strength, this is going to negatively effect his swing and potentially open the door to injury.

I am a strong believer in the concept of "windows of trainability", which for those that are unfamiliar with the term, is the idea that as instructors, we need to gauge the physical and mental maturity of our clients with reference to the graph below.

While some of this may seem obvious, other conclusions we can draw from this graph are a little more nuanced. For example, when a 12 year-old comes in and says he needs to increase his velocity, what I hear is, "I need to work on my physical skills and speed." If we can clean up the mechanics and decrease the time it takes for him to release the baseball, we're going to see the velocity jump up as well as improving the accuracy.

I don't want to disparage the use of action-specific drills, however there is a time and a place (and age) for them. Through my research and hands-on experience, I'm confident in my ability to tailor each lesson experience to the individual client, ensuring they improve, have fun, and stay healthy while doing so.

Thanks and stay tuned as we'll dive into throwing curveballs next week!