Five blocks, about 1 h 45. Everything below is built to train one thing: a level swing. Tap any block for how it runs, the cues, and a timer.
Timings are a guide. Blocks 4 and 5 are the priority. Trim block 3 if the session runs long.
Level, or slightly down at the ball. No uppercut. Say this out loud at the start, and say it again in every block.
Swing level
Level or slightly down at the ball. No uppercut. This is the key objective of the session, and every block is built to train it.
Keep it low
Every ball off the bat is a ground ball or a line drive. Pop-ups are the enemy. A line drive is anything not elevated above six feet.
Hit where you look
Hit to both sides of the infield on demand, not by accident.
Add power last
Carry contact quality from controlled reps into live hitting.
Every drill in this session is a level-swing drill wearing a different coat. Coach it that way.
Short lines that work pitch-side. Say them the same way every time so they land.
- Level, or slightly down. Never up. The bat travels along the zone, not through it.
- Hit down through the ball, not under it. A pop-up is a swing that got beneath the strike.
- A swing that ends high is a swing that started low. Look at where the bat began, not only where it finished.
- Look where you want the ball to go before the pitch, not during the swing.
- A strike is a good ball. Take the swing.
- A bad ball is not. Leave it.
- Low and hard beats far and high, every time.
Do not coach the swing mid-session. Give a lower target and let the swing find it. A player thinking about their swing stops hitting.
Pepper is fast and close. Say the safety lines before block 3, not after someone gets hit.
- Keep good separation between throwing pairs in the warm-up.
- In pepper, fielders stay alert. The batter is close and the balls come fast and low.
- No swinging a bat where anyone is standing inside its arc.
- Balls, at least four per pepper station.
- Bats, gloves, bases.
- Cones or markers to set the seven-metre and thirteen-metre pepper distances.