Adjusting to inside, middle, and outside pitches?

DD was recently working with her hitting coach and she did an interesting demonstration. She placed three softballs down on the ground near home plate. One ball was on the inside black about 6 - 8 inches in front of home plate, the second ball was placed in the center and very front of home plate, and the last ball was placed on the outside black about 6 - 8 inches behind the front of home plate. Essentially creating a diagonal line across the front of home plate. With these three balls representing an inside pitch, down the middle pitch, and an outside pitch.

She explained that for the outside pitch you want to hit the ball deeper in the strike zone and "go with the pitch" to right field. The middle pitch you want to hit the ball slightly forward of your stance for "up the middle" line-drives; and the inside pitch you want to make contact out in front the most of the three pitches so as not to get jammed by letting the ball get too deep on the batter.

Just wanted to get your thoughts on that demonstration and whether you agree with the concept that inside pitches should be hit earlier in the strike zone and outside pitches should be hit deeper in the strike zone?

My DD's hitting instructor also showed her the diagonal. She also further broke it down into low, middle and high balls inside, middle and outside. So there were 9 balls sitting there. She had DD set the balls into position to show she understood. Hmm, wonder if I should ask her to show them to me and see if she still remembers?

Yes this is true but 6-8 is a lot, I hope that was only to make a point. Dinosaur I'm not sure about hi vs low, did she place those differently and if so did she say why?

Take a look at this: YouTube - Chicago White Sox Academy Hitting Drills - Working through extension with a "Tee Extended Drill"

The important thing here is on the inside pitch the player is not prematurely extending the arms. Batter will pull the ball and/or impart hook spin.

-W

SoCalSoftballdad said:

Just wanted to get your thoughts on that demonstration and whether you agree with the concept that inside pitches should be hit earlier in the strike zone and outside pitches should be hit deeper in the strike zone?

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That is how my DD's hitting coach teaches to handle the different pitches as well.

I thought this was a given? Am I missing another way to hit balls based on location?

I can't vouch for the measurements, but the basic concept of hitting the inside pitch out front and letting the outside pitch get deep is correct.

I think she wanted the high pitches contacted slightly farther in front and the low pitches contacted slightly deeper than she should contact a middle pitch in each of the three zones. So a high inside pitch is the earliest contact point and a low outside is the deepest.

MsDinosaur said:

I think she wanted the high pitches contacted slightly farther in front and the low pitches contacted slightly deeper than she should contact a middle pitch in each of the three zones. So a high inside pitch is the earliest contact point and a low outside is the deepest.

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The pitch inside at the letters is the pitch closest to a batter's hands. That pitch requires the most quickness. The outside pitch at the knees is the pitch furthest away from the hands and is the pitch batters have the most time on. The greatest variance in timing for a batter is between the letter high inside pitch and the outside pitch at the knees. The biggest adjustment in timing for batters is hard stuff up and in, followed by off speed stuff low and away. Or vice versa.

Do we still use "letters high" refrences in Softball? Those are all balls these days.

-W