Pitching machines

Acatchersmom said:

My dd has a strong ... Throw live or front toss and she is all over it.

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Rooster's Dad said:

Most batters that have trouble with pitching machines are under the ball.

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CoogansBluff said:

If she has a strong bat and has no trouble w/ live pitching, why is she hitting off a machine?


We were at a camp today and did great till they wheeled out that Machine! It was her first time at this school and seemed to impress them probably till then


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Acatchersmom said:

Thank you both. Do you think you it's something we should work into her training schedule (ie hitting off them more). I hear mixed things about using machines. They don't even have one where she takes hitting lessons

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Acatchersmom said:

CoogansBluff said:

If she has a strong bat and has no trouble w/ live pitching, why is she hitting off a machine?


We were at a camp today and did great till they wheeled out that Machine! It was her first time at this school and seemed to impress them probably till then


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It's not uncommon at all for kids to struggle off a machine if they've not been practicing on it. Means very little, IMO. Now, if they continue to struggle and don't improve while others do, then that would make me curious. As I noted above, DD just started hitting off a machine. The first day she tried it, she could not square the ball up to save her life. Took her time to figure it out. And me time to get the settings realistic.

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CoogansBluff said:

I splurged and bought a Hack Attack Jr. over Christmas, and DD has hit off it a few times since. Would've done it more except for bad weather. I chose to go this route because her swing is solid off tee and front toss. Felt like we were getting diminishing returns there. My preference would be to get live pitching, but it's hard to set up. Figured the Hack Attack was worth a try because it can throw curves and drops in addition to fastballs.

Jury is still out on the benefits for her. Just felt like she needed to see balls coming at her at game speed more often. One good thing I'll say is that it does bring out the worst in her, that is, the same bad habits/patterns that show up live and not off front toss/tee - too many grounders, sliced fouls up the RF line, getting arms extended too soon, dropping barrel prematurely. So we've replicated the problem. Now maybe we can fix it.

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CoogansBluff said:

Acatchersmom said:

It's not uncommon at all for kids to struggle off a machine if they've not been practicing on it. Means very little, IMO. Now, if they continue to struggle and don't improve while others do, then that would make me curious. As I noted above, DD just started hitting off a machine. The first day she tried it, she could not square the ball up to save her life. Took her time to figure it out. And me time to get the settings realistic.

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They only put them in the cage once and maybe 15 swings. I should have taken her to a machine before we went to the camp but just didn't think of it. I remember the last time I did take her I'd say it took about 10 minutes of frustration for her to start pounding them lol

We live in the north east so she hasn't seen live pitching since the fall. Her HS team has only done pitchers/catchers no hitting (they will do live and Machine in about two weeks) Her tb team does a lot of drills/front toss and she works with a hitting coach weekly

Maybe before the next hitting camp I'll bring her


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