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Zone Hunting

Choose one part of the zone and swing only at pitches there.

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

Set up

Pick a zone, such as middle-in.

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

Ages
11 and up
Time
12 min
Players
You and a partner
Space
Gym or court
Bring
Bat, balls, partner, protective screen, net
Level · skill
Developing · Hitting

The steps

How it works

  1. Pick a zone, such as middle-in.
  2. Your partner front-tosses to all parts of the zone.
  3. Swing only at your zone and take the rest.
  4. Do 20 tosses and count good decisions.

Coaching point

Hunt your pitch, take the rest.

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

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