1. Drills
  2. Baseball
  3. Hitting

Take Until a Strike

Train patience: take pitches until you get a strike, then make a decision.

By Coach Evan Waechtler Youth coach (U11, Cache Valley, Utah) and founder of SSTracker Updated October 30, 2026

Set up

A coach throws from behind an L-screen and keeps the count.

Core: Soft toss. Beat your own best of solid contact out of 10.

Ages
14 and up
Time
15 min
Space
Gym or court
Bring
Bat, balls, coach, L-screen, helmet, catcher or net
Level · skill
Advanced · Hitting

The steps

How it works

  1. A coach throws from behind an L-screen and keeps the count.
  2. Take every pitch until there is a strike.
  3. After that, swing only at pitches you can drive.
  4. Do 8 at-bats and count pitches you judged right.

Coaching point

Patient eyes, ready hands.

Safety: Wear a helmet. The person tossing or pitching stays fully behind a protective screen.

Make it fun

Play it, don't drill it

Game version

Target-zone hitting: two teams of two take turns hitting off the tee toward zones in the field. Each team adds up only its own solid hits.

Challenge

Pick a setup: Less (tee), Core (soft toss), More (soft toss to a zone). Beat your own best of solid contact out of 10.

Story

You are a slugger in the big game, and every swing is your turn at bat.

My best

Beat your own count

Beat your own best of solid contact out of 10. Only your own number counts: today against last time.

Practice makes progress

Print it now, or save it free

Free for families and teams

Save this drill to your child or team, free

Sign up and the free baseball week for this age opens in your child's planner, kept to healthy limits. A coach can send this drill to the whole team as homework, and parents see every session logged.

14 days free for a family, no card · Running a team is always free

Does your child's coach know about this?

An email from you to the coach, with the words ready. Nothing is tracked and nobody is rewarded.