I've brought this up before....
From my observation of many softball games, there is clearly a chronic problem of swinging under the ball and also chipping the ball. For me, chipping is contact being made as the bat barrel is still traveling downward, only to bottom out after the point of contact. I think a lot of the problem is this cue "take your hands to the ball." I can see this cue maybe being useful if you're talking about taking your hands toward the ball when the ball is well out in front of you, even only half way to the plate, but it seem that most are trying to take their hands to the ball when the pitch at or nearly at the plate, resulting in the hands traveling too far down resulting in the barrel going under the pitch. For me, the hands need to stay ABOVE THE BALL as the pitch gets close to the plate. The barrel is PLENTY LONG. You don't need to reach down with the hands.
I've seen so many pop-ups the last few games and hardly any toppers that it's driving me mad. My DD tells me she's never heard her coaches refer to the path of the pitch when describing the swing, but they are always saying "hands to the ball." At least with a topper you eliminate the caught pop-up out as a defensive option--you make the defense at least field the ball and make the throw. For all these girls popping up, I think it would be beneficial to focus on the top half of the ball for a while. Given their chronic swing-under-the-pitch problem, aiming for the top half would likely result in more solid hits.
The hands need to stay higher for most girls! That's my opinion.
From my observation of many softball games, there is clearly a chronic problem of swinging under the ball and also chipping the ball. For me, chipping is contact being made as the bat barrel is still traveling downward, only to bottom out after the point of contact. I think a lot of the problem is this cue "take your hands to the ball." I can see this cue maybe being useful if you're talking about taking your hands toward the ball when the ball is well out in front of you, even only half way to the plate, but it seem that most are trying to take their hands to the ball when the pitch at or nearly at the plate, resulting in the hands traveling too far down resulting in the barrel going under the pitch. For me, the hands need to stay ABOVE THE BALL as the pitch gets close to the plate. The barrel is PLENTY LONG. You don't need to reach down with the hands.
I've seen so many pop-ups the last few games and hardly any toppers that it's driving me mad. My DD tells me she's never heard her coaches refer to the path of the pitch when describing the swing, but they are always saying "hands to the ball." At least with a topper you eliminate the caught pop-up out as a defensive option--you make the defense at least field the ball and make the throw. For all these girls popping up, I think it would be beneficial to focus on the top half of the ball for a while. Given their chronic swing-under-the-pitch problem, aiming for the top half would likely result in more solid hits.
The hands need to stay higher for most girls! That's my opinion.