Batter's Box positioning strategy 12 u rec

[miker]

where do you position your batters in the box against a lobber pitcher...most of my hitters are out on their front foot and cueing the balls off the ends of their bats...would love some ideas, thanks in advance....12u rec.

 

[smallball]

If they're swinging early, have them start their swing later.

 

[TNTCoach]

Most would say to put them in the front of the box to reduce the flight time to the batter. Still...it is difficult for the kids to stay back if they are used to facing more speed. The last few years I had several players who played on both my Little League team that also played on my travel team. After five or six games against high end pitching during the weekend my travel players would struggle the first few times through the lineup against the slow pitching. They would shift their weight and lean forward chasing the pitch and ended up hitting weak grounders.

It's an adjustment. When you are facing slow pitchers it would likely help to hit the cages before the game and slow toss the batters the ball until they adjusted to the speed.

 

[miker]

Move them up in the box unless the pitches have arcs to them.

Timing for weak pitching just ruins the kids for the competitive games. Of course, if you know who you're playing against, you can set a pitching machine to match the speed in the practice before.

This was my thinking as well, a few parents disagreed. As it were we didn't face anymore lobbers the rest of the tournament.