Thread: How Close To The Plate Should A Batter Be??

Against a good pitcher that can paint the outside corner she doesn't stand a chance. She would hit everything off of the end of the bat.

Not if they have had proper hitting instruction. If you are any closer and use proper mechanics, you will hit the inside pitches off of the handle and that is when kids get "shocked" from the vibration.

Here is a rather poor picture, from my lessons. You can't see the plate, but it is drawn on a bath mat (one of Hitter's ideas.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/newtson/6132493937/

Originally Posted by Amy in AZ.

No. That isn't in jest. Several teams around here, tell their players to do it. I didn't originate it and I can't remember where I picked it up. Perhaps, it was at a college coach's conference 15 years ago. The funny thing is, this person (man or woman?) measures it out, but then moves back even further. It does very little good to hit w/o a batters box, though.

Watch a MLB game. No one toes the line. They are mostly in the middle of the box.

I asked the person demonstrating this, if they used that approach to distance themselves from the plate ... and they said no, that they did that in jest after receiving a 'strike call' that they thought was too far outside. I posted it only because it looks to be what you describe.

As for watching MLB games ... that's good advice ... and I plan to do just that.

I teach what Amy described, I learned it from Howard Carrier on this site. I did some math

plate....17"
inside corner of plate to white line...6"
line width...3"
32" bat puts front of left foot (rh batter) 6" from the white line in the batters box
which puts you about 1/3 of the way in the batters box
proper plate coverage....priceless

Obviously thats just the beginning, and if practiced they dont lay there bat across the plate during games they can almost line up within less than an inch +or-.

proper inward lean, tilt, anterior tilt, whatever you call it, gives you good coverage on the outside corner and allows you to hit inside pitches.

Kids still need good timing and the ability to adjust to different pitches, thats where the real work is.

Might be camera angle but looks like in ffs second clip the batter is slightly more open, maybe he was expecting an inside pitch He is a pro and I am dealing with slightly better than A but not quite A players, giving them an absolute to start there approach is a big help.

Chris,

What I prefer is that they do at first is do the slow motion drill and get to the Power L position and make sure that the sweet spot of the bat is pretty much in the middle of the plate,

Is this measuring the plate... Like maybe a 2 strike approach?

Where ever they stand, the bottom line is that their swing needs to cover the zone. Not just the outside portion but also the inside. If the player is extremely close to the plate, of course they can cover the outside edge but the inside edge of the plate is not reachable (to hit the ball hard AND keep it fair).

Sometimes the players don't really have a good feel for where they really are in the box.

One way to give them some perspective is to have them stand in the box where they do in a game, then mark their feet. Have another player stand in where the marks were and have the original player squat behind and see the catcher's perspective. You can also have them see from the pitcher's perspective if need be.

Anyway, this should give the player some perspective as to where they actually stand in the box. This helps when a player needs to make an adjustment with this but may not trust it.

The typical swing has a radius, an "arc". The typical hit you want to meet the ball in front of the body. So to hit the outside pitch, with the normal "arc", if you are in position to cover the outside part of the plate when the bat is held straight out, are you still in position to hit the outside ball that you are trying to hit when its half a foot in front of the plate?

Originally Posted by chinamigarden

The typical swing has a radius, an "arc". The typical hit you want to meet the ball in front of the body. So to hit the outside pitch, with the normal "arc", if you are in position to cover the outside part of the plate when the bat is held straight out, are you still in position to hit the outside ball that you are trying to hit when its half a foot in front of the plate?

Not if you arent 6-8 inches from homeplate.

Well, all day today during tournament play DD stood where she feels comfortable with any pitch thrown to her, roughly 6 or so inches and she batted a .500. Guess we have our answer as to where she should be lol