By Cal & Bill Ripken
It happens time and again with young baseball players. They hit nothing but line drives during batting practice, but can’t seem to even make weak contact during games. Your club looks great during pregame infield/outfield and then falls apart as soon as it faces another team. It’s a strange phenomena and one that has baffled coaches for years, but how do you correct it? While there’s no surefire answer, we definitely feel that the best way to get your players back on track is to make your practices more like games.

Baseball is a game of repetition in which you work on the fundamentals over and over to the point that they become second nature. Once routine plays become “easy” and you feel like you can hit a fastball with your eyes closed, you have developed the muscle memory necessary to react to unusual circumstances – to field a bad hop, make a diving catch or hit a hanging curveball out of the ballpark.

When the actually game starts, however, not only do you have to be able to make the routine plays and hopefully adapt to the non-routine, but you also must be able to process specific game situations on the fly as they develop and either make a play or do your job in such a manner that it allows the team’s defense to function together successfully as a unit. In other words, under game conditions, more things are taking place at a faster rate of speed than what you might have experienced during practice.

This can lead to what we call sensory overload, which may cause you to perform all of the tasks required of you at less than your maximum capacity. You can equate it to a business professional that is working on multiple projects and dealing at the same time with phone calls, emails and meetings. Either something doesn’t get done or everything gets done, but not at the desired level of quality. In both cases the business is compromised.

On the baseball field, if you are not trained to react to certain routine situations instinctively, once there are runners on base and a ball is hit hard and there are multiple options to consider defensively, you might experience that same feeling of sensory overload. A similar feeling might arise when you are hitting if coaches and parents are shouting a bunch of instructions about how to stand, how to swing, what pitch to watch for, and so on. It’s really hard to react fast enough to hit a pitched ball if you are worried about too many things. In either case, the team’s success is going to be compromised.

If someone on defense, like the business professional, can’t complete a task it might lead to a physical error or a mental mistake that costs the team a run. Or, because it takes too much time to process everything that is going on, a throw might arrive too late to get a runner out. A hitter who is thinking too much might experience paralysis at the plate.

None of these scenarios is good for a baseball team, offensively or defensively, and because there are so many variables in baseball, there is never going to be a way to prepare your team for everything that might happen on a baseball field. Still, there are several methods of simulating game situations in practice that can allow you to work on multiple aspects of team and individual fundamentals at the same time in a more realistic environment.

Put a full defense on the field and have your extra players serve as base runners. Control the situation by putting runners on different bases and hitting balls strategically to different spots in the outfield. Have your runners work on proper base running fundamentals and reacting to the situations appropriately and at game speed. You can also have a pitcher simulate holding runners on and delivering pitches to home plate before you actually hit the ball. The fielders will react as if they are playing the game, setting up in the proper cutoff and relay positions, making strong and accurate throws to their teammates, communicating clearly and audibly and so on. Create a competition among the base running groups to see which one can take the most extra bases; this will put added pressure on the defense and cause the runners to focus on being aggressive and taking what the other team gives them on the basepaths.  

Put a pitcher on the mound, runners at first and/or second, a batter in the box (wearing a helmet), players at each infield position and a catcher in full gear behind the plate. Again, base running groups will compete to see which one can steal the most bases, creating a game-like and competitive atmosphere. Pitchers work on holding runners and delivering the ball quickly to home plate. First basemen work on holding runners and receiving pickoff throws. Base runners practice reading the pitchers, steal breaks, sliding techniques and the crossover step. Catchers work on their stance with runners on, receiving properly and trying to throw runners out. Infielders work on communicating the steal coverage, getting to the bag quickly, setting up properly to receive throws, making the tag properly and backing up throws.

Put a pitcher on the mound, a catcher behind the plate dressed in full gear, a runner on first and/or second, players at each infield position and a batter in the box (wearing a helmet). Pitchers work at holding runners and getting off the mound quickly to field bunts, catchers practice receiving and fielding bunts, the infield rotates appropriately to charge the bunt and cover bases according to the situation, base runners work on seeing the bunt on the ground before breaking and hitters focus on bunting in game situations. Making this a competition between the offense and defense can be fun and create a realistic environment. Give the offensive team a point for moving the runner over and the defense a point for getting the out at first. The defense can get an additional point if it can throw out the lead runner.

Using a pitcher and catcher and a full infield against base runners placed at first and third allows you to practice both your offensive and defensive strategies for these situations. Consider making this a contest by pitting offense vs. defense to increase the realism and intensity. The defensive team attempts to communicate and execute its various defensive strategies while the offense practices the plays designed to get the runner home from third. Defensive players and base runners will be able to work on multiple individual fundamental skills in this type of scenario.

Whether you have a coach or a player pitching, turn batting practice into a series of game situations for the hitter in the cage or on the field. If you are on the field, you can place fielders behind the pitcher and ask them to play every batted ball as if it is a game situation – even though the hitter will not be running. The batter starts with a new count and will complete a series of complete at-bats. Meanwhile, the coach or pitcher will approach the drill as if it’s a game situation by throwing at maximum velocity, changing speeds and mixing in different pitches as appropriate. Let the hitter stay in for several at-bats before rotating. Have each batter rotate through multiple times. Calculate which hitter in a given group gets the most hits. Encourage the hitters to swing only at pitches that they really like when ahead in the count and to become more defensive with two strikes.

This is a rapid-fire drill that can be done on the field or in a cage. Every hitter in the group is ready to step in immediately with a bat and helmet. The pitcher or coach on the mound is trying to make the best two-strike pitch possible – fastball, off-speed or breaking balls are allowed. The batter approaches the at-bat as if there already are two strikes. As long as the hitter gets a piece of the pitch or takes a ball, he or she stays in. If the batter swings or misses or takes a strike, the next player steps in. Let each player hit multiple times and see who can stay alive the longest.

Similar to the two-strike drill, the hitting group should be prepared to jump in and out. This time the hitter stays alive as long as he or she gets a “hit” as determined by one of the coaches. The pitcher or coach can throw any pitch at any time and should be throwing at realistic game velocity. You can fill the defensive positions and ask those players to do everything in their power to prevent giving up a hit. Find out which player can get the most hits in a row. Let everyone hit multiple times.