Where to stand in the batters box?

We teach the cross over step bunt that most college coaches now teach. I like this with younger girls, since they have a problem with stepping on the plate or fouling balls off the plate. This cannot happen with the cross over bunt step.

It really depends on the level of batters you have and the pitching you are facing. At the more competitive 12u levels of play where most can hit a plain fastball we teach our girls to stand up in the box for most pitchers who only have curves and screws in addition to the fastball... unless they have a rise ball. Then we need to be back in the box.

At lower levels of play where the pitchers only throw fastballs and some hitters cant catch up to it I would let those hitters stay deeper in the box. It may give them that split second to help them get around on it.

"Stand in the back of the box .... " they never finish that sentence so I will finish it for them "... so that you can take the same old slow swing that you've always taken becasue this pitcher is to fast for you." I don't like the concept of telling girls to try and hide from the big bad pitcher in the back of the box because they are to slow. I want them to have confidence and not be afraid before the at bat even starts. I'd much rather the girls actually learn how to have a fast swing that is intimidated by speed. If they have to stand in the back of the box for a pitcher throwing 52 and are behind, where do they go hide for a pitcher throwing 55? Let me guess ... next words out of the coaches mouth are "swing sooner sweetie." That usually doesn't work out well with pitchers that don't throw the ball down the middle of the plate so that it would hit their already swinging bat.

I personally encourage my players to be up in the box to take away as much movement of the pitcher as they possibly can. [Not all of the movement but it's better to adjust 2 inches than 1 foot] Even my 10U batters hit 60 MPH in the cage at 32 feet so speed is never an issue. It's always the movement. If older girls fall for the RISE ball I do encourage them to move back to have longer to recognize the pitch if they need it, but only against predominately rise ball pitchers. [Chris - I would also love to hear why you don't feel that they can take away movement by standing in the front. Just did a coaching clinic with Michele Smith and even she said her pitches moved just in front of the plate. But I always love to read about other findings.]

Position in relation to the plate - In my opinion this is even more important, and to me each girl is unique and their position in relation to the plate will vary greatly from girl to girl. Some LOVE inside pitches. Their eyes just light up when they see one. So I encourage them to crowd the plate and 'encourage' the pitcher to try and throw inside. Not only do they get thrown inside, but other pitches on the plate are closer then and appear to be more inside. Others just naturally KILL outside pitches so I encourage them to back off the plate a bit. Again, more pitches look like their favorite and it encourages pitchers to throw them outside. [As an aside I just laugh when a player comes to me and tells me her favorite is right down the middle of the plate. Haven't figured out where to have her stand yet to get that pitch thrown to her. Any advice?]

druer said:

Just did a coaching clinic with Michele Smith and even she said her pitches moved just in front of the plate.

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Michelle is a very accomplished pitcher ... and while she loves to quote a lot of good information, she still hasn't shaken such concepts. For example, she still believes her rise ball can magically get close to plate and then suddenly jump skyward ... which doesn't happen.

Here's Michelle throwing her famous "rise-ball" ... and like all good rise-balls, it flattens out.

I have been reading this thread and advised my dd to step to the front of the box (usually hangs out in the middle) and just see what happens. She did it tonight and drilled the ball at every bat....not just dribbles, solid strokes. She just smiled and said, "I guess that site you linger on has good information after all!" It was great to see her hit like that - has been a while since she really drove it out. Thanks for all the advice on this subject!

Michelle is a very accomplished pitcher ... and while she loves to quote a lot of good information, she still hasn't shaken such concepts.

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Every year while watching the WCWS I hear her parroting stale advice that no longer is true-but sounds good. This year during one of the breaks, she did a demonstration on, I think it was, how to hit the inside pitch. It didn't hold water for me and at like the next commercial break they ran one of those Home Depot 60 Second Clinics with Jessica Mendoza demonstrating the same thing EXCEPT what she said made sense. It seemed like they realized that first demo left people scratching their heads so they needed to issue a correction right away.

Last night doing a little BP with my 10yo and she wanted to work on inside pitches. She was doing remarkably well and when I told her so she gave the credit to Jessica Mendoza and the Home Depot moment. She then repeated Jessica's instruction almost verbatim and executed it perfectly (for a 10 yo). ( we have games recorded and she has gone back and watched them more than once.) So those things really work! I know I always tell girls about the Jessica Mendoza bunting demo where she explains that if you don't keep the barrel up/knob down you will probably pop up. Then they cut back to the game and 2 pitches later the batter demonstrated exactly what Jessica was warning about when she popped up a bunt for a quick out.

Actually, Mendoza's demonstration was incorrect as well. She started out showing an example of a hitter with a very nice "tight HPP", referred to it has "hands inside the ball", and then demonstrated "hands to the ball" ... which was not at all what the hitter in the clip did. Mendoza then returned to the clip and said there ... "hands inside the ball". It was sort of a funny demonstration for those that understand the difference between "barrel to the ball" and "hands to the ball".

While it is true that a "tight HPP" has the hands inside the ball, what Mendoza demonstrated was "hands to the ball", whereas the batter demonstrated "barrel to the ball".

Mendoza also has a lot of good information ... but like anyone's information, it needs to be screened ... as the information you are referring to was actually a demonstration of "hands to the ball" where Mendoza drove her hands out to the ball and THEN pivoted the barrel between her hands.

See Tewks video for a demonstration of the difference between "hands to the ball" and "barrel to the ball". Mendoza may not understand the difference ... but to me it is something worth understanding.

My DD plays 12A, most our tourneys this year were 14U. She stands with her front foot touching the inside front corner of the box; she has been warned by the ump several times this year, and opposing coaches have a fit. She missed 4 tournaments, and still leads the team in HBP by quite a bit, and is pretty proud of it. Most teams try to jam her, which is exactly what she's looking for, she pounds on the left field line. She says she feels most comfortable there because any pitch that looks at all outside is definitely a ball; she knows her weakness as a dead pull hitter is the outside pitch. When she absolutely needs to go up the middle, she'll look for the pitch farther over the plate she can drive to center; she had a double this weekend to right-center that went to the fence.

She's probably most vulnerable to the inside changeup.

I'm not expert but I definitely don't like the advise to stand in the back of the box for anything but slap hitting. I think it is a good idea to cheat towards the front of the box if you plan to sacrifice bunt.

You can tell those that have not faced a good rise ball pitcher. As hitter likes to say, why would you let the pitcher pitch to you 3 feet closer?