Hitting Drills: Multivitamins vs Prescriptions

When it comes to baseball drills, it’s important to know the difference between multi-vitamins and prescription medications. Multi-vitamins are for general maintenance and prescription medications are for specific ailments. Baseball drills work the same way.

Hitting drills like tee work, soft-toss, and short toss fall into the category of hitting multi-vitamins. They are for general maintenance and are a good fit for any hitter no matter what the age or ability level.

Other hitting drills like curveball / slider drills, the “get off the back foot drill,” and the one-handed drills are more like prescription hitting drills. These are better suited for hitters with specific problems during their swing. (Note: For a funny video on one-hand drills, click HERE.)

When coaches go to clinics or search online for hitting drills, they typically look for fresh new drills to add spice to batting practices. This is especially true if they utilize hitting stations a lot. The problem with this tactic is that many hitting gurus at clinics and online present prescription drills in order to be different and/or get your attention. There is certainly nothing wrong with this. However, if you are using these prescription drills like they are multivitamins, you may only be helping those hitters who have the specific problem the drill addresses. For the others, the drill may be focusing on a problem they don’t have. Those hitters are better off doing a prescription drill for their own problem or do a multi-vitamin drill for general maintenance.

Knowing the difference between the two types of drills can better help a coach address the individual needs of each hitter in a more efficient manner.

Note: A while back I created an eBook of 50 hitting drills (plus 10 additional bonus drills). For each drill I explained how to do the drill and listed what areas each drill targets. Here is the table of contents.

For more information about this eBook, click HERE. Other similar eBooks with drills in other areas of the game can be found by clicking the “eBooks” button on the upper-right of the page.

Enjoy your week !