High Quality Baseball Hitting 411 to Fix a Broken Bottom Half
The best part is, kids will relate to the way it's presented, so that means better retention and quicker results! If you haven't read Part 1 or 2 yet, then please return to the Smart Hitting Tips tab, on the nav bar and click Part 1/2 under #3, and do so. Let's start this lower half baseball hitting piece with... An all around drill that I got introduced to late in little league, around age 11, fortunately you may be getting it sooner. Bat Behind Back Drill You eliminate the upper half by
The player should now be addressing the plate to practice where they need to be in the box and how wide their stance should be (from Part 1).
In the stance, they go through the 3-Step Rotation Process explained below, tell them to start off in slow motion at first, so the coach can correct them, and they can feel their body in motion. Some kids will take longer and get frustrated with this, so the coaches/instructors need to exercise extreme patience and start slow. First Step - Load the Backside From the stance, the hitter puts about 70% of their weight on the back leg...this is done when the pitcher shows you their back pocket.
With our weight loaded on the backside, we reach with our front foot about 2-3 inches, while keeping 70% of our weight still on the back leg. A bigger stride will move the eyes forward, up, or down making the ball jump or seem faster than it is, so no stride bigger than this. We don't want to lunge. The stride should happen about when the pitcher releases the ball. Good hitting fundamentals teaching point: tell the kid to imagine they're stepping on UN-broken rotten egg shells, if they step too hard they'll break them and stink up the place.;-) Third Step - Squish the Bug (Rotating the back foot) Squish the bug is still a good concept, especially for kids, because they can understand it. The trick is to get them to rotate that back foot while keeping their weight between 60-70% on the back leg, and their front leg straight. Another great lower half baseball hitting point to focus on, once they've squished the bug and are in the final bottom half hitting position, their back toe should be pointing forward towards the pitcher and their front foot should be closed. As long as they keep their weight on the inside of their feet throughout the swing, this shouldn't be hard.
When the back foot over-rotates or doesn't rotate at all, the hitter will lose their balance. Most of the time, if the player can't hold their swing finish, then it's because they're over/under rotating the back foot. Coaches, this takes time for kids to master the first time because they have to build the muscle memory required for correct execution, so this is where your feedback is crucial, unless you have them swing in front of a mirror*. *Please Note: Using the mirror as a feedback tools for kids is a good idea but not something to depend on. It actually takes away from building good muscle memory because the player is more dependent on sight for feedback than their own body. Take it from me, I made that mistake from 8th grade to my sophomore year in high school. 
The next crucial lower half baseball hitting drill is the... Balance & Reach Hitting Exercise This drill is really good in building muscle memory, particularly in the bottom half of the swing. After about 30-50 repetitions they'll know what it feels like to load up the backside properly. You have the hitter:
Then, you have them balance on their back leg by picking their front leg off the ground for a few seconds. After 5 seconds or so, have them reach out (as far as they can) with their front foot and tap the ground in front of them...remember to remind them about the UN-broken rotten eggs they're stepping on. Then they return their foot to the platform, and start over. This baseball hitting exercise is to be done slowly, quality here NOT quantity. The key is for them to feel what it's like to load up the back leg, AND learn to stride lightly with the front foot. There's a separation that occurs with the bottom half between the front stride foot and the majority weight of the body, one goes forward while the other stays back. 
You can also tell the kid to imagine if someone were to issue a karate sweep kick to the back of the front leg during the reach part of the Balance & Reach Hitting Exercise, would the child fall over because they put too much weight on the front leg, or not? With the Bat Behind the Back Drill and the Balance & Reach Hitting Exercise you can conquer the broken bottom half in record time. These are the best lower half baseball hitting drills for increasing power output and swing efficiency...baseball geek speak for hitting the ball smarter NOT harder.=-) Return from Part 2 of Baseball Hitting Lower Half back to all Hitting Tips
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