5 Indoor Baseball Drills For Hitters

Sometimes, a batting cage or indoor hitting facility is not available. So what indoor baseball drills can you do to work on your swing?

Not everyone has access to a cage, and not everyone needs it. Golf Legend Seve Ballesteros grew up hitting pebbles on a beach with a wooden stick. The young man below obviously doesn’t have access to a tee, or any fancy equipment, but is he still putting the work in to be a better hitter?

You bet he is.

When the weather, or lack of equipment get the best of us, remember  that should not stop you from becoming a better hitter.

Hitting is as much mental as it is physical, mastering the elite swing movements around the house and hitting or swinging when you can is what makes a difference. We will examine five indoor baseball drills you can do to become a better hitter.

1.) Indoor Baseball Drills: The Separation Drill

There are a few staple drills at The Hitting Vault, and this is absolutely one of them. Teaching our hitters separation early and often will only help develop a more powerful swing. The best part about this drill is that it can be done anywhere in the house.

We will start the drill without a bat. Start in your stance with your feet about one-half of your height. Practice loading into your back hip. Coach Peterson has really great sequencing here, as her first movement is a load into her back hip. Her shoulders remain square to the opposing batter’s box, and her lower half is moving.

The key to this drill is being able to separate the lower half from the upper half, as this helps create power. Some of the best hitters in all of baseball are great at creating separation. For some good examples, check out Cody Bellinger, Christian Yelich, and Mookie Betts as they are all great at creating separation in their swing.

Related reading: Understanding your Hitting Drills

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2.) Indoor Baseball Drills: The Stride Drill

Mastering the stride drill is another essential movement that we teach at the Hitting Vault. You can do this drill anywhere, from the on deck circle or even in your bedroom.

To start, hold the bat away from your chest and then row it in, so it is pressed up against your chest and pointing at the pitcher.

This drill is meant to get the feeling of a controlled stride and launch position in place. Launch Position is a very important concept we teach at the Hitting Vault. We define the launch position as he position right before hitters explode through the ball.

For more information on launch position, check out Oregon Softball Legend and Hitting Vault coach Alexa Peterson’s article understanding launch position.

The next phase in the drill is to load into your back hip, a movement we worked on in the Separation Drill. Load into the back hip and pick up your front foot to begin the stride.

Note how our hitter Richard Prigatano has his weight into his back hip, not over his back foot. He’s in an athletic position ready to continue the movement forward.

From this position, stride and land. You’ll notice Rich has his head over the middle of his body, and his front hip is just starting to leak open a little bit.

His front foot is a little open at about 45 degrees, allowing his hips to follow through and open up while his shoulders stay square to the opposite batter’s box.

3.) Indoor Baseball Drills: Full Turns

As we work more movements into the routine, a full turns drill is a perfect fit. Flexibility and the ability to fully finish the swing helps create more power in the swing and hit the ball harder.

Beginning the drill, hold the bat against your chest. Then load, stride, and swing with the bat pulled against your chest. The best hitters finish with their numbers facing the opponents dugouts, and we want you to work on that as well.

This progression is important in hitting, as stopping a swing early stops the power early. Finishing the swing like this can be done without a bat as well and easily done indoors. The hardest workers put in the time behind the scenes when no one is looking.

4.) Indoor Baseball Drills: Hit Pause Drill

Building up the progression from the separation and the stride drills we have the Hit Pause Drill. You can do this with dry swings, off a tee, or soft toss that is timed well. For this example, we will use the tee. If you can’t hit off a tee indoors, then you can do this drill with dry swings.

This drill combines the separation and the stride drills into one. Practice creating separation and having a good stride will create great muscle memory that you can translate into the cages and Game Day.

This is the starting position, and for most hitters, this is going to be what is most comfortable. It is important that no matter what your starting stance is, you always make it to a good launch position. For more information about the best starting stance, check out our article Top 5 Mistakes Hitters Make In Their Stance.

He is creating separation between his hips and his shoulders, just like we worked on in the separation drill. This drill is called the “hit pause drill” because you are taking a normal swing and when you get to this position, you literally “hit pause” on the swing before finishing it and hitting the ball.

After hitting pause and feeling the movement from stance to this point, unleash and hit the ball into the net or finish the dry swing.

5.) Indoor Baseball Drills: The Secret Hitting Tool

You have it already, it is in your house and you use it daily and don’t even know it is your best tool.

A mirror, yes, a mirror. The mirror is the best tool you can use to really get positive and instant feedback on the movements in your baseball swing.

Take all the drills we have been working on through this plan and replicate them in the mirror. You understand and know how your body feels better than anyone, so watch yourself and practice the drills in the mirror.

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