Babe Ruth Hitting Drill for Softball with Carie-Dever Boaz

Hi. I'm Carie Dever-Boaz with JustBats.com. I coached for 16 years at the collegiate level. I'm coaching at the high school and travel ball level. And I even coached in the Pro Leagues. So I've seen athletes of all types. One of the most common problems that I'm seeing now is for girls or women to understand the separation of the hand with that front foot to get into an attacking mode. We want them to attack. It's called offense for a reason. So with my young kids and even some of my older kids, I get them to understand. One of the best hitters ever to play this game, and some don't even know –if you ever watched "Sandlot",... Read More of this video transcript they called him Baby Ruth. It's actually Babe Ruth. And if you go back and watch his film footage, which is amazing that we have it, you actually saw him with his rear end almost facing that pitcher completely. But as he unrolled or unraveled going forward, traveling forward, he got such great extension between the hands and that front foot. So it's something we want to teach our girls. Before we dive right into that, I want to make sure that you're getting your kids to set up at that tee correctly. I like the railroad tracks back to give them a purer pathway to that ball or a target area that I'm looking for. Make sure where they set up on this drill is important. You don't want them to get here and get too close that when they're swinging, they're back here, and they don't get that separation. I like to get my kids back to where there's good clearage. You don't want that foot to go in front of that tee so that when we're working on hitting, that they get jammed. So all we're gonna do is I get 'em to get themselves set up, looking at that pitcher like they're getting to hit. Take that front foot. I actually have 'em cross over in the back. Okay? My hands are rested right in here. I'm not extended yet. I'm gonna work on that extension as I unroll to that ball. So here I come here. I'm gonna extend, and I'm gonna come straight through to hit that ball. Once again, I roll, extend. Get that separation. One of the things I talk to about young kids is if I have –stand right in front of 'em and tell them to slap me as hard as they can, first of all, they're not comfortable. I say slap me. You watch them, and they will wind up. That's a natural position for us to be in, in hitting. And I get 'em to stand right there. And I talk about how they're attacking. They're in firm on that front leg. Their hands have separated or walked away from their front foot, ready to attack. As soon as we put the bat in their hands, it like gets in their way. So I get out of the way of your brain, and let that extension happen. So once again, let me show you again. It's called the Babe Ruth. Railroad tracks back. Good setup. I'm looking out towards my pitcher. I'm gonna wrap my foot around. I'm looking out. I'm going to extend and come straight through. Thank you.