shaker1
Softball Junkie
What are your go to batting practice drills? The ones you depend on every practice.
Batting Practice
- Thread starter shaker1
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We have a 4 station setup that we do every practice. Around an hour each practice. One tee usually high tee drill. One tee 45 degree drill. One tee regular. 4th station front toss in the cages. Girls are in groups and rotate through each drill twice. We will also swap up the tee work after the first rotation. May go to inside work on one, more outside work on other (but accomplished with 45 degree tee), and either a top hand drill or bottom hand drill. But each girl is different, and different girls need to work on different things. So I will have one of my coaches pitching front toss and I will work with individual girls on specific things I want to see them focusing on at each station.
Very nice practice.
some might not now what " One tee 45 degree drill" is, can you clarify this station a little bit?
I like this rotation. I work a tee station while others do front toss for the same reason. We used to have several gimmick stations but they are worthless unless properly supervised, so I keep all hitting tools at my tee except the speed chain. One thing that is key in my opinion is on-field front toss (and tee) in addition to the tunnel work. This is especially true for opposite field work!
Just the 45 degree drill that is explained here in a few threads. I have no idea what the purpose here is "supposed" to be according to the experts at DFP. I just know what I use it for. many of the girls I have coached have an issue with hitting around the ball instead of through it. They also like to stride out with no load into back hip. I find it is much easier for them to feel the coil into their hip with the drill, and to hit through the ball, where it is pitched, as opposed to around the outside. So I would guess it is a blend of SnF and 45....and yes, I know purists will say that can't be done or shouldn't be done. I just know it has helped tremendously for many girls in fixing those issues. I just have to make sure when they start back with it that they are hitting it 45 degrees to their stance and not trying to pull it with them.
We don't do any live batting on the fields. In my opinion, muscle memory will absolutely take over in every situation. We build muscle memory on tees and in the cage. The girls aren't reaching for the fences or trying to outhit each other. My goal with BP is getting as many swings in as possible at practice. Even the short time taken shagging balls around a field is time better spent with a bat in the hands. I never want more than 3 girls at a station, and in most cases we only have 2. I will bring in an additional tee or two if need be. But then again, I am the kind of coach who hates spending a whole lot of practice time on situations in the field as well, unless it has a heavy fundamental aspect to it (eg. throwing through cuts, correct way to field the bunt as opposed to knowing every situation in where to throw it, etc), so you can take all of this with a grain of salt. Most don't want to spend $300 on tees. Lol.
On our front toss, we usually throw it at around 40 mph at 20 feet or so and mix up lots of pitches with it emphasizing spin. It is extremely rare we ever encounter a pitcher that will throw it by our girls. On occasion, we will run into a slower pitcher that gives us a bit of trouble the first time around, but I'm fine with that. I'm trying to create better ball players, as opposed to a team chasing trophies. The older they get, the better the pitching they will see and the less they will have to worry about that 45 mph outlier pitcher.
Sorry to ramble on about things that weren't asked. Just kinda kept coming out.
Thank you CJ, I feel that You are spot on with your philosophes, over the past few years my live pitching has gone way down, and replaced by front toss, and the same exact drills you are doing.
Last week I snuck in outside tee, on the field, girls hit about 20 balls, then I kept the tee there, and I rotated front toss, and a coach placing a ball on the tee every other pitch.
Then I work inside, which I find does not need a tee.
Situations I have done very little of, but as many types of defensive drills I can come up with, along with pitching machine, a red cone, and fielding fly balls running in all directions.
Last year I did not do ONE live pitching practice, and we rocked it.
I do speed training with the machine, fast fast fast, to work on running start, and starting the swing without knowing location of pitch.
slow pitching should be the least of our troubles.
quite frankly, I think that both of CJ D posts should be used as Model practices. I am going to print both his posts out to remind me what I should do.
Last week I snuck in outside tee, on the field, girls hit about 20 balls, then I kept the tee there, and I rotated front toss, and a coach placing a ball on the tee every other pitch.
Then I work inside, which I find does not need a tee.
Situations I have done very little of, but as many types of defensive drills I can come up with, along with pitching machine, a red cone, and fielding fly balls running in all directions.
Last year I did not do ONE live pitching practice, and we rocked it.
I do speed training with the machine, fast fast fast, to work on running start, and starting the swing without knowing location of pitch.
slow pitching should be the least of our troubles.
quite frankly, I think that both of CJ D posts should be used as Model practices. I am going to print both his posts out to remind me what I should do.
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We have luxury of 2 fields so we break into 3 groups. Field 1 is front toss from coach, field 2 we have side toss into bownet and hitting off live pitching. We get dads to help shag on main field 1 as they get a lot of swings in. To make it fair for catchers we allow some girls that want to try catching to work in during the live BP.
NOOO000oooo00oooo, not that.
How many reasons can we come up with for banning side toss? and alternatives?
- Apr 28, 2015
- 7
- 0
NOOO000oooo00oooo, not that.
First: 1st post...
More importantly (and serious question): What is the problem with side toss? Asking partly out of ignorance and partly out of wanting to educate myself.
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Welcome, and I know that many will chime in.
What does it represent in the terms of reading a pitch? are you tossing it deep, at the back thigh? or up front inside?
When should they swing at it? at its highest point? at its lowest? farther from you/ or closer?
do you not have a tee? Front toss builds the visual library, which is responsible for being able to read a pitch and adjust, Sooner, and sooner, as this library gets reinforced, What does side toss reinforce?
How does side toss help build up your visual library?
What is your Purpose using side toss? why would you?
others?
