Hands to the ball? Um.... Not like that!

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.

The hands do travel directionally in response to the location of the pitch, but it must come with the understanding of the proper barrel path. One of the problems with the "hands to the ball" is that is usually gets taught and/or interpreted as taking the barrel on the same path as the hands.

I think the pitchers speed needs to factor into what you are stating. It is hard not to drop the hands when the ball is coming in at 30 MPH. If they are throwing 45 or 50 it is easier.

I'm sticking to what I said. Saw it again today. FAR TOO MANY POP-UPS AND CHIPS. The chip is due to the barrel continuing to travel down through the path of the pitch like hitting a ball with a pitching wedge in golf. Or, the girl is simply taking her hands TOO LOW resulting in the barrel getting under the ball resulting in a pop-up or missing the ball entirely under it. I'm standing my ground on this. The hands need to stay higher than I'm seeing and the girls need to get the barrel bottomed out behind the point of contact not after it.

Doug Romrell said:

I'm sticking to what I said. Saw it again today. FAR TOO MANY POP-UPS AND CHIPS. The chip is due to the barrel continuing to travel down through the path of the pitch like hitting a ball with a pitching wedge in golf. Or, the girl is simply taking her hands TOO LOW resulting in the barrel getting under the ball resulting in a pop-up or missing the ball entirely under it. I'm standing my ground on this. The hands need to stay higher than I'm seeing and the girls need to get the barrel bottomed out behind the point of contact not after it.

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I think you are right on with this observation. Two cues I give the players I coach (age 13) are:

1) Remember you hit the ball with the barrel...not your hands
2) turn your barrel on the plane/path of the ball asap

This clip of Cabrera has got to be my favorite clip for what I think the perfect softball swing is.

Notice the turning of the barrel. Notice how the barrel gets on the path of the pitch behind the ball as it approaches the point of contact.

Notice how fluid/smooth it looks.

I hardly ever see a softball girl (HS and TB) swing this way. As I said, the vast majority that I see don't get the barrel turned enough prior to contact, resulting in, what I call, "chipping" (i.e., barrel still going down as contact is made. Thus all the pop-ups and such.

couldnt agree more ! I like that term " Chipping " -- I have two HS kids doing that now . One badly and one not near as bad . The bad one finishes her swing nice and high but at contact she is definetly " chipping" downward . The first question I ask her is " does your hitting instructor ( yes she has one ----) teach HAND TO THE BALL ? shes kinda flighty and couldnt even follow what i was getting at .
The worst possible thing that can happen has happened to both these two -- they Chip one just right and the ball has backspin and actually rises and climbs and gets knocked out of the park and they think " I'm Bustos " my swing is awesome --- then they face good pitching and wonder " why cant I hit ?"

Doug Romrell said:

I'm sticking to what I said. Saw it again today. FAR TOO MANY POP-UPS AND CHIPS. The chip is due to the barrel continuing to travel down through the path of the pitch like hitting a ball with a pitching wedge in golf. Or, the girl is simply taking her hands TOO LOW resulting in the barrel getting under the ball resulting in a pop-up or missing the ball entirely under it. I'm standing my ground on this. The hands need to stay higher than I'm seeing and the girls need to get the barrel bottomed out behind the point of contact not after it.

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that chip swing is sooo common. Teacherman's feedback on the weight shift really helped my daughter. I cannot stress enough how important keeping the weight back at launch is and how tremendously improved my DDs swing and ball flight is.

She literally went from 80% grounders with a lot of them choppy and the occasional back spinning liner/fly. To mostly liners and powerful fly balls/grounders. That down swinging chip shot is literally gone. This was the single best piece of advice with the most immediate impact I have ever seen. Now that I look at hitters her age that weight shift forward is so prevalent and so obvious it blows my mind.

Does anyone have a clip of a hitter "chipping"?

When I say "chipping," I mean the barrel is still travelling down as it contacts the ball, thus leading to the barrel bottoming out after contact.

A cue of mine that I like to use is called the flashlight.
Its a similar concept of hands to the ball without the misconception of taking the hands way out in front.
**During the rotational phase and the arms are connected to the torso, we'll use the knob of the bat like its a flashlight. The idea is, that if your flashlights beam of light is on the ball, the barrel will find it without casting the hands too far out in front. (This will also help to get a feel of a good barrel lag)
I usually have to remind them a few times that the light will only see the ball for a nano second and to stay fluid. Otherwise their rotation and firm front leg becomes too slow and soft.