Baseball pepper drills. What? You heard me right. Baseball pepper drills. People often think of these as drills from the past when you are just messing around. Well, they are great drills and i will pass them on to you. Let's get started!

Have you ever seen films of the past where old ball players where just resting the bat on their shoulders and someone would toss them the ball while they were all lined up just about twenty feet away or so? The batter would just be using his hands to just put the bat on the ball and hit it easy back to them.Remember? I know you do..

These baseball pepper drills are great and lots of fun. I know what you are saying. That's great Bill, but what can it teach us? Simple. It teaches that very concept. Just put the bat on the ball and follow the ball off the bat. Real easy. It's that simple! Over time, this simple concept carries over to the game. Just follow the ball off the bat and don't over swing.

Ah! That brings up the point of over swinging. One of my favorite subjects!Ha!Ha!Have you ever wondered why some people hit .220 while others are able to hit .350?

Hang on, I will tell you why. The people that hit .220 get a good pitch to hit and they over swing, fouling the ball in the stands much to the oohs and aahs of the crowd. You will often hear, "Wow, did you see that swing? Man, did he take a mighty swing!" Well that mighty swing caused him to miss the ball and foul it off. And good luck in getting another good pitch to hit.
The .350 hitter though, will take that same pitch and take a nice fluid easy swing and won't miss it. Why? Because he is prepared and he knows that good pitches to hit don't come around often and when he gets one, he takes his controlled, well balanced, and well prepared swing and the result is a hard hit ball somewhere. This time, the oohs and aahs are for the hit, not the foul ball. You will hear, "Wow, did you see that hit!?!?"
I hope i have made my point on using the baseball pepper drills and just putting the bat on the ball. The other thing to point out is this: when you over swing it's like accelerating down the highway in your car while you have the brakes on. On the other hand, when you take an easy, non tensed swing, it's like driving down the highway with the pedal to the metal! This is where you have your greatest bat speed.

Now get out there and play a little pepper.