Looking for a baseball or softball training aid to assist with emphasizing “staying inside the ball” with your players hands?
Sure, all of us Coaches are since this issue is a very common hitting fundamental that many youth players lack and teaching this concept hasn’t always been the easiest!
I was online buying used baseballs for our upcoming little league season and saw this product in the recommended items promotional box.
It had 4.8/5 stars with 100 or so reviews and was only a year old so I knew it had to be somewhat popular. At that time, I won’t deny that I was a little skeptical about paying ~$60 for what seemed to be a metal rod with a grip.
However, after one full season of using the Insider Bat, I’m proud to review this product and tell you all about how it worked for my young players and how to best implement this product into your batting practices.
Common Hitting Flaws Addressed
It does all of these functions very well.
- Hands inside the ball – The design angle forces this to happen.
- Palm up / palm down – The grip has a finger groove slot on the top which forces the batters hands to this desired position.
- Rear elbow tucker in slot – If a proper strike occurs (flat paddle of head hits ball) this happens automatically.
- Hands in front of bat head – The angle of the bat and grip force the hands out front when the lagging paddle head strikes the ball.
- Proper Lower Body Movement – If you swing without using your core (through the hips) the player will usually chop at the ball and is easily visible by a coach and the player can instantly feel that something is wrong.
If players have bad habits of long swings (casting or sweeping), chopping at the ball, rolling their hands too early or not using their lower half during their swing then The Inside Bat is a great training tool option.
Review of The Insider Bat
The beauty of this tool is it’s ability to force many proper habits with one tool and swing during the same batting practice station and requires minimal adult / coach supervision.
- Youth players simply need to be told that a successful repetition is striking the ball flat on the “Sweet Spot” paddle.
- A successful rep can easily be felt by a youth player who might not exactly understand what went wrong but will most likely correct the issue(s) automatically during the same batting session with a short amount of repetition.
- It’s made of quality material. A steel shaft with nice weld on the paddle head along with a thick solid rubber grip.
- It’s light weight and easy to carry in your equipment bag.
- You can use it in several drill formats including tee work, soft toss or dry cuts.
- Works for Right and Left handed batters.
- Since it’s an awkward design and something different, youth players are excited to use if for the first time.
Cons?
Honestly, I can’t even create a section for this unless I was being ultra picky or coaching teens and up players.
There’s a reason this product won an ABCA Best in Show Award in 2017.
I highly recommend The Insider Bat to any Coach or Parent looking to improve and fine tune several aspects of proper hitting mechanics.
Other Helpful Notes
- Make sure players are gripping the bat properly! Some might avoid using the index finger holder at first but once shown how to hold and they’ve taken a few swings then it’s smooth sailing.
- Proper feet position needs to be slightly adjusted towards the plate/tee no more than a few inches to make up for the difference in length to a normal bat. I usually make sure an assistant coach ha the player slow-mo a swing motion till the flat paddle is parallel to home plate and stop just before the ball is struck. Have them adjust their feet till they can do this (from the tee). If players are too far away then they’ll have to cast their arms to reach the ball
- Try and use wiffle / plastic type balls if possible. Stronger youth players using real baseballs made small bends in the paddle head after I let an older coach use the adult version I had for a few weeks. I think plastic dimple balls would be a safe alternative as well.
- Two sizes (Youth and Adult). The youth version is most likely good for players till their teenage ages and it’s best to buy smaller than you might need. The grip is much larger on the adult version and seems uncomfortable in youth players hands.