Thread: Correction for swinging over the ball

Thank you to everyone for your suggestions...i'll let you know if anything changes.

I have found a lot of times the girls are not turning their head to see the ball at contact & are looking straight ahead & swinging where they see the ball 10 or 15 feet in front of the plate. as the ball drops they swing over- they have to have it explained that " watch the ball" means at the contact point.

If it's going reasonable speed the eye can't track it to contact. That's why movement pitches work.

Originally Posted by Mark H

If it's going reasonable speed the eye can't track it to contact. That's why movement pitches work.

you know i've always heard it taught to watch the bat make contact with the ball but i can honestly say when i get in the cage and hit the fastballs i do not see it make contact. i always figured that's why i'm a forty something fat guy that coaches fastpitch instead of being a former major leaguer

bg-

Some seeing the ball science if you are interested:

http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/systeng/bahil...seballPath.pdf

http://gd.tuwien.ac.at/systeng/bahil...ngFastball.pdf

From a pitching perspective, picking the batter, I look at the batter's grip. Too many younger players get get the bat in a death hold too deep in the palm of the hands.

Originally Posted by straightleg

341

allot of times kids will drop there hands when the ball is on the way to the plate, swing under the ball.

You could also try setting the tee on a 5 gallon bucket were the ball is at the top of the chest and hit a bucket of balls. Try to keep your hands alittle above the barrel of the bat on the swing.


In simple terms:
Keep hands in same location across chest as you lower the tee. That means the barrel will drop as the tee is lowered. You can achieve this by tilting (bending) at the waist more, the lower the tee the more you tilt at the waist while keeping the hands going across the chest.



Then go back to the machine.







Straightleg

I'd stay away from the machines. They typically don't throw the ball with the same spin as a real pitcher---therefore the pitch from a machine has a different path than that of a real pitcher. Secondly, there is very little value in the timing used from a machine vs. the timing of hitting live pitching. Ever notice how many kids can knock the crude out of the ball off a machine but can't hit live pitching.

I think Straightleg's protocol is very very good. I've used it many times after being introduced to it by Howard Hashida. As to the machine yeah I've got some of the same concerns but during this phase the machine should be set slow enough that timing is not a big factor. Having said that, my steps would be slow dry swings, tee work, soft toss, front toss, etc. mixing in the high tee where needed...briefly.

I should add the tee lowering phase should eventually go all the way down to the knees and a little lower. Check Siggy's analysis page frequently during this.

Can't hit a line drive on a shoulder high ball if you drop your hands as you start to swing. You can have some fun with this if you practice it first to make sure you can do it after they can't.