What to use for timing?

What are some tools to teach hitters to catch up to faster pitching. Most of the team sees a slower pitcher and tee off on her. They want to hit...you all know the feeling I am describing, but once Sundays roll around and they are seeing the "#1" on the mound, you would think they had never swung a bat before.

I've been thinking of purchasing a pitching machine and have just spent close to two hours reading through every thread on this site about the pro's and cons of them and while I agree with some posts and not others, I am out of ideas on how to solve this problem other than flinging balls to them at 60+ mph.

I also don't want to spend a ton of money on it either not knowing how much use it will actually get. My thoughts are to buy one the machines from First Pitch (like Jugs) because of the price point. I am not sure the model I want will throw real softballs but not sure what the difference is between the cheaper model and the more expensive model.

My second thought is to purchase a Jugs Lite Flite and move it closer as the top speed is different. It also throws curves and such which will be beneficial as well, just not sure what the effect of that would be if I set the machine at say 35' instead of 43'.

Any ideas? What do you all do?

Just to try and answer 1 of these questions, moving up the pitching distance might be better than throwing it harder. I am also OK with pitching machines.

Someone here has mentioned a drill where the batter starts at their normal position if she hits it she moves up X feet. If she cannot hit it she moves back x feet. I haven’t tried it yet so I have not sorted out the details that would work for our Team but I like the thought of the drill.

My daughter's hitting coach tells me to teach them timing against faster pitchers you pitch from a closer distance. I did this with DD's team all winter and I don't know if it makes a difference or not. They all hit me just fine. Many of them still don't make contact against faster pitchers though. I pitch from maybe 15 feet? I haven't measured it, just eyeball it.

I think it is because they aren't starting their swings soon enough. Her head coach believes it is because they're not using their hips with their swing and only swinging with their arms. I don't know what the deal is.

I think it is time to video them in games to see what is going on.

James Smith said:

Just to try and answer 1 of these questions, moving up the pitching distance might be better than throwing it harder. I am also OK with pitching machines.

Someone here has mentioned a drill where the batter starts at their normal position if she hits it she moves up X feet. If she cannot hit it she moves back x feet. I haven’t tried it yet so I have not sorted out the details that would work for our Team but I like the thought of the drill.

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I have used this drill on occasion and it's a version of the "Barry Bond's Drill". Start out at normal distance and move up 1 yard for each "hit". If you swing and miss, move back 1 yard. You foul it off, stay where you are. We do this using the pitching machine and have to adjust the wheel down a little as they move forward to keep the ball in the strike zone. You need to make sure the mechanics don't break down as they move forward and the pitch reaches them sooner.

I also agree with front toss, closer to the batter. Make sure the ball is pitched to all locations (inside and outside the strike zone).

You can also have one of your pitchers pitch from a closer pitching plate. For example, if 40 feet is normal distance, have her live pitch to the batters at 35 feet (behind a screen). The reaction time will be similar to a faster pitcher at 40 feet.

One other thing, you are only talking about speed but good pitchers have movement and off-speed too. Make sure to throw in some off-speed and change-ups into any hitting routine.

To win tournaments a team needs to be able to hit the best pitching they will face, always work on hitting the best pitchers your team will see.

Some things I’ve done to help with timing and I hope you can find something useful, most of the suggestions came from Hitter’s post on the form and some I picked up from different college clinics DD attended.

Dance with the pitcher when the pitcher begins her motion the hitter begins their motion; hands make a small circle, wiggle the rear and body no extremes. Some refer to it as rhythm and movement it is to get the muscles moving as active muscles are quick to react where still muscles are slow to react, that split fraction of a second can be the difference be between being on time and being late.

Work on tracking the ball when hitting off a tee, look at the area a pitcher would be you want to see a pitcher in your mind go through a motion and track the ball to the tee. I sometimes have a kid set up a tee in front of a net I’m on the other side of the net go through a pitching motion and she watches, my release and times the ball to hit it from the tee.

I will have a kid set up to hit and I will go through a pitching motion without a ball and I will have the hitter track the ball in her mind and swing as if she hitting a pitcher, you can do multiple hitters at one time.
EEEEE,R drill with soft toss soft toss to a hitter and she says EEEEE when loading and R just before impact with the ball they hear by impact sound when the timing was correct. Begin by saying out loud and then to the hitters self. Then you can switch over to front toss and then machine pitch and then live pitching. It really helps when trying to adjust from faster to slower pitchers and change ups.

Drop ball drill hold a ball no higher than shoulder level and I flex the wrist down and the hitter will say E and release the ball moving the hand upwards out of the way and the hitter say’s R.

It takes time for them to adjust as they get better lower the hand a little and the hitter will need to adjust.

I like the Barry Bonds drill also using a pitching machine. First you want to do a pitching motion to give the hitter some timing, feed the ball to the machine at release point of the pitching motion, it takes some talent to get it correct, but once you do it can help the hitter with her timing. The hitter starts in back of the plate as she makes contact she takes a step forward getting no closer than 15 feet to the machine and when she can do that she is getting pretty good. Then you can crank up the machine a few MPH to make the drill harder. Start at a reasonable speed and increase speed as the hitter improves.

I can pitch so I have done the drill pitching behind a screen, and have the hitter step forward when she makes contact.