Soft Tap

Enlist the help of your father, mother, brother or a friend. You will need a whiffle ball or other soft ball. Have your training partner get in a safe position at about a 45 degree angle from you. The partner should toss the ball up softly in front of you.

From a good, fundamentally sound batting stance, try to hit the ball with the knob of your bat. Take the knob of the bat directly at the ball and just tap it. Be sure to incorporate your lower body action into the drill. Repeat until you are proficient and are using smooth, rhythmic motions to the ball. This drill ingrains the very important skill of "hands inside the ball" like you see Jose Reyes doing here.

This position from Reyes is a result of his driving his hands and the knob of the bat to the ball. The bat barrel lags behind the hands and once he attacks the ball with the barrel, the result is .. his hands are inside the ball and the barrel has more of the ball to hit!

If you would like to take the drill to an even more focused approach, try this; Use a small enough bat to try this drill with one hand. Alternate your top hand and bottom hand, striking the softly tossed ball with the knob of the bat. Be sure to incorporate the action of your lower body into the drill.

This is an excellent training method and will develop tremendously active hands through the hitting zone as well as improve your hand-eye coordination. The result will be pure striking of the ball at the optimum point of impact. Something every hitter strives for!