Struggling to hit slow pitching ????

The slower pitch is what we are dealing with now. Similar situation. DD impresses alot of parents in the cage hitting 45-55 mph pitches. Against a live pitcher this year she is struggling--tells me the pitch is too slow.

I too need to figure out a way to help her to recognize the pitch for what it is. Slower pitches from our machine sounds like a good start. I'll keep checking in for more good ideas.

A suggestion: since letting the ball get deeper should be one of the objectives of hitting slow pitching, you can kill two birds with one stone. Work on hitting outside pitches.

Set a screen up about 20 feet in front of home plate, angle it so you can front toss outside pitches. Have her hit the pitches to right field. Insist on line drive hits--no slicing.

Be warned, this is a very frustrating drill for most hitters until they find out that they can hit it hard to right field. The side effect is they will get more comfortable letting the ball get deeper in the hitting zone. And this will help them deal with slow pitches. And the power increase will be visible!

Mark hit this on the head. A CU is not at all the same as a slow pitcher. A lot of programs struggle on a slow pitcher. Cage work could be your problem in it's own right. I have a lot of girls who can litterally hit a 70 mph fastball in the cage, it is just a timing issue and adjustment. But you get them out in front of a live pitcher and they can't hit a 50 mph pitcher. Again it is a timing issue but IMHO they need to see live pitching. They need to see the arm circle to get timing down and a machine will never offer that.
SBF- I really like what you are saying here!! Let it get deep teach them to let it get deep. Teach them to go with and drive the outside pitch. This will help them with slow pitchers. They will still pull them but they will get some in play. Tee set up is critical and yes it is done wrong a lot. I have done it wrong for years!! We are now focusing on hitting the ball deep in the zone all of the time off of the tee. It works. I tried to tell my girls to let the ball get in deeper and they just smile and nod. You have to show them what you mean. I told them to keep their hands back. Same smile and nod with no better result until I stop them and hold the bat back as the hips fire and the torso begins to feel the pull of the hips. They then look at you and smile and go "OH I GET IT". Howard told me a long time ago that you need to show these girls. He is right, take the time to show them what you are asking them to do and they will do it.

justwannaplay said:

Hello All:

My daughter hits the ball hard and far in travel ball but in middle school can’t seem to be able to understand the concept of hitting slow pitching?

I could tell her to think about going to right field with it? She walks a few times and then gets frustrated and swings at pitches she shouldn’t.

Can anyone share an approach to this type of pitching etc...? I know we need to hit the fast stuff and the slow stuff but how to teach that to aggressive hitting kids????

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated....


JWP

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Getting closer to the plate is one way of speeding up the pitcher. When a hitter crowds the plate they create the effect of more inside pitches. In order to hit the inside pitch you need to hit it out front, meaning you have to be quicker.

While a band-aid repair, what we have the girls do for slower pitchers is too move all the way up to the front of the batters box, so their back foot may be level with the front of home plate. They then can take the same swing they use against quicker pitching.

Boy is it fun when the opposing coach changes pitchers and they foregt to more back in the box when a quicker pitcher comes in!!

Over the years I have met many girls that complain about slow pitching, "I can't hit her she is sooooo slow". I have also noticed that many of the girls who complain also have poor pre-at bat preliminaries. My suggestion is to video tape the player from the moment she steps out of the dugout and then play the video back to her from that point through the entire at bat. What is she doing in the batter's circle. Is she focused on the pitcher and timing her practice swings to the pitch? I can't say how many times I have seen the girl in the batter's circle chatting away, day dreaming, spacing out, doing anything but getting ready for being in the batter's box. When the player sees the entire at bat they can often see that there timing problems started before they entered they batters box. They were just not focused.

Let’s think a little about the mental approach, hitters have been hitting a pitching machine at 36 feet at 60 MPH and know they face a pitcher who is 10-12 MPH slower in a game and it blows their mind. They go to the plate thinking don’t swing early or something like that and the brain can’t process a negative thought and guess what they swing too early. A better thought would be maybe stay back and let it come to me.

Sometimes they think, they need to swing harder to hit the slower pitch to get it to the green, and this results in tight muscles and a slower swing. Deep breaths, rhythm and movement and relax muscles and don’t try to do too much stay within yourself.

A MS coach in our area would set the pitching machine at 35 feet turn it wide open and this was how they hit. The coach bragged that her kids could hit 60 MPH pitchers and guess what MS pitchers were more like 48-55 or so their BA was less that 225 and many of them were bunts.

We hit, 40, 50 60 and 70 MPH and the kids are ready for all speeds. Hitting is about confidence and confidence comes from practice and experience.

Our turn at bag begins the fourth batter back, helmet on, setting on the bench, studding the pitcher, positive thoughts; see yourself being successful against this pitcher. In the hole continue studding the pitcher and thinking positive. On deck time the pitcher, the hitter and on deck hitter should mirror each other on the timing of the swing. We thing turn it on and turn it off as we focus from the fourth hitter to the batter. We don’t think who is in the stands, how hot it is or is our sox on straight, we think focus.

Timing is a big part of hitting and if I’m any pitcher at all I’m doing what I can to throw off the timing of the batter whether I'm throwing 70 or 40 MPH.

Most of my team fare well against the ave HS we face - 54 - 56 range. They do struggle some with anything slower - which seems to translate to less accurate also. I have one very talented player that was really struggling on the slower pitchers. Once they get over 57, she is fine. Belowe that, she was slowing her swing down to make contact. Mechanics stayed true. Result was weaker hits that the defense handled. The last game we talked about it between innings and moved back in the box some to make her wait a bit more, and then wait and swing normal (fast). Great results but she is able to make those adjustments. I am varying the distance and speed I front toss in practice now to try to force the team to adjust timing. I like the idea of the arc, I do see them swinging at air on the really slow ones. Hopefully this will help.

I'm not a big fan of pitching machines, but I'll use it on occasion for the Barry Bonds drill. This is an excellent drill, IMO, for teaching hitters how to time their swings. I'll have the hitters move up a couple steps and take a few cuts, then move back and take a couple more. I have them move around; inside, outside, closer to the machine, farther back. Seems to really help with timing the ball.

First thing I would do is quit using the pitching machine for anything but bunting.

We used the pitching machine last year extensively. I was warned that it would do more harm than good, but I didn't listen to anyone.

My daughter still hit but she struck out on average about 7 to 10% more than previous years.

We started team practices with her new team last fall and they rarely EVER use machines for live swings. Most of the batting practice is short toss by the coaches and nearly every practice all the pitchers pitch to all the girls.

My daughters timing and power is much much improved since the fall. All I can attribute this to is her winter workouts with her new travel coaches, a vastly reduced role of the pitching machine during practice and a healthy dose of RVP during the offseason. She struck out several times during fall play last year. This year she hasn't struck out yet and is hitting the crap out of the ball to all fields off all manner of pitchers.

So, I can't really tell you what to do or anything like that, but if you are using a machine for a good majority of batting practice, I would seriously consider taking it the nearest dumpster and getting rid of it. If you must use it for anything keep it for bunting and for defense drills.