Situational hitting teaches kids that the pitch doesn’t determine the swing. The situation does. This drill runs through three scenarios back-to-back so they practice adjusting.
Equipment needed: 30 baseballs, soft toss equipment or a coach with a bucket, a net, one bat.
Setup: You stand 30 feet away with the bucket ready to soft toss. The hitter is at home plate with a net behind them.
How to run it:
- First situation: no outs, runner on second. Call “Just contact. No strikeout.” They get 10 tosses at waist height. Goal is a ball in play.
- Rest 30 seconds.
- Second situation: one out, runner on first. Call “Hit and run. You’re swinging on the next pitch no matter what.” They get 10 tosses. They’re forced to swing.
- Rest 30 seconds.
- Third situation: two outs, runner on third. Call “Fly ball or contact.” They get 10 tosses and decide mid-at-bat whether to swing up (fly ball) or level (groundball).
What to look for: Decision-making and approach adjustment. Do they swing differently in each situation? If they’re the same hitter every rep, they’re not thinking.
Variation: Add actual location difficulty to each scenario. For “just contact,” toss low and inside so they have to fight the pitch off. For “fly ball,” toss up in the zone so they can get under it.
If they’re struggling: Cut to two scenarios (just contact, fly ball) and give 6 tosses each. Tell them the swing they want before each toss.
If they’ve got it: Have them call out the situation themselves before the toss. If they can name the right swing without your prompt, they’ve internalized it.