Help WithMechanics of Hitting the Inside & Outside Pitch

[dbias]

My dd has always stepped in same spot, straight back at pitcher. If she goes for a pitch a good bit outside I've noticed that she will alter the drag path of her rear floor a tiny bit, almost dragging it back away from the plate as if setting herself up with her back hip delaying the turn just a split second. It's hard to explain but may be function of letting the ball get deeper and in doing so delaying the firing of the right hip just a split second.
I see pitchers who drag their toe shoe laces down when pitching like they should and some who drag their back foot kinda on the inside almost with the side of their big toe dragging the ground. This is how she drags her back foot when hitting opo. Don't know if it is right or not but its what she does and she hits to right field quite well. Have a few pics of it I will see if I can upload one.
This pic if I can get it uploaded is not the best one I can find but you can see the back foot, the heel specifically moving toward the ground. The very next clip, which I cannot locate right now, has the ball right on the bat front leg locked out straight and right heel almost on ground. Result was HR to right center.

 

[dbias]

View attachment 4347
Yeah the photo loaded! But it is sideways oh well baby steps. At this point the right heal is moving down toward ground instead of rotating over as it usually would.

 

[Madsofball]

Ok folks... So, I decided to e-mail DD hitting instructor to ask about the OP. Here is her response...

I would really like to hear your thoughts.
Hi there! Sorry it took so long to respond, I was at the Cubs/Cards game!

For me, I like to teach the hands first to the ball approach. If your hands go to the ball, your body follows. When talking about the step to the ball, I advocate this because it gets your body moving with your hands. For example, if the pitch is inside and your foot is stepping toward the outside corner, you are handicapping your ability to clear your hips and use your lower body. The step is basically just a cheat step to give you the most power.

The pros to this method is it allows the hitter to maximize their power and hit the ball where it is pitched instead of pulling the ball all the time. The con to this approach is that it takes a lot of work and it requires the hitter to be able to read and react to the pitch very quickly. It's a bit more of an advanced approach but can work wonders if the hitter is able to do it.

Does this make sense? I think Madyson has very good potential and if she can master this technique she will be one heck of a hitter. Please feel free to let me know if you have more questions! I love talking hitting.

 

[softballphreak]

Ok folks... So, I decided to e-mail DD hitting instructor to ask about the OP. Here is her response...

I would really like to hear your thoughts.
Hi there! Sorry it took so long to respond, I was at the Cubs/Cards game!

For me, I like to teach the hands first to the ball approach. If your hands go to the ball, your body follows. When talking about the step to the ball, I advocate this because it gets your body moving with your hands. For example, if the pitch is inside and your foot is stepping toward the outside corner, you are handicapping your ability to clear your hips and use your lower body. The step is basically just a cheat step to give you the most power.

The pros to this method is it allows the hitter to maximize their power and hit the ball where it is pitched instead of pulling the ball all the time. The con to this approach is that it takes a lot of work and it requires the hitter to be able to read and react to the pitch very quickly. It's a bit more of an advanced approach but can work wonders if the hitter is able to do it.

Does this make sense? I think Madyson has very good potential and if she can master this technique she will be one heck of a hitter. Please feel free to let me know if you have more questions! I love talking hitting.

Sounds like she would be a good one to recruit for this forum. It would do her good and your DD would benefit of course.

It should be the hips first, not the hands. The hands are the last to move.

Stepping neutral would be the correct way, IMO.

Invite the coach here.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Ok folks... So, I decided to e-mail DD hitting instructor to ask about the OP. Here is her response...

I would really like to hear your thoughts.
Hi there! Sorry it took so long to respond, I was at the Cubs/Cards game!

For me, I like to teach the hands first to the ball approach. If your hands go to the ball, your body follows. When talking about the step to the ball, I advocate this because it gets your body moving with your hands. For example, if the pitch is inside and your foot is stepping toward the outside corner, you are handicapping your ability to clear your hips and use your lower body. The step is basically just a cheat step to give you the most power.

The pros to this method is it allows the hitter to maximize their power and hit the ball where it is pitched instead of pulling the ball all the time. The con to this approach is that it takes a lot of work and it requires the hitter to be able to read and react to the pitch very quickly. It's a bit more of an advanced approach but can work wonders if the hitter is able to do it.

Does this make sense? I think Madyson has very good potential and if she can master this technique she will be one heck of a hitter. Please feel free to let me know if you have more questions! I love talking hitting.

Like I said earlier ... your instructor isn't spending any time in the box to verify this type of nonsense. He doesn't have a handle on the timing requirements ... because if he did, he'd drop this foolishness.

 

[MountieSB]

Ok folks... So, I decided to e-mail DD hitting instructor to ask about the OP. Here is her response...

I would really like to hear your thoughts.
Hi there! Sorry it took so long to respond, I was at the Cubs/Cards game!

For me, I like to teach the hands first to the ball approach. If your hands go to the ball, your body follows. When talking about the step to the ball, I advocate this because it gets your body moving with your hands. For example, if the pitch is inside and your foot is stepping toward the outside corner, you are handicapping your ability to clear your hips and use your lower body. The step is basically just a cheat step to give you the most power.

The pros to this method is it allows the hitter to maximize their power and hit the ball where it is pitched instead of pulling the ball all the time. The con to this approach is that it takes a lot of work and it requires the hitter to be able to read and react to the pitch very quickly. It's a bit more of an advanced approach but can work wonders if the hitter is able to do it.

Does this make sense? I think Madyson has very good potential and if she can master this technique she will be one heck of a hitter. Please feel free to let me know if you have more questions! I love talking hitting.

I like the idea of inviting the coach here to discuss her approach. If that doesn't work, you really need to think hard about your daughter's long-term development. This person is offering bad hitting advice - no two ways about it. It is far from an "advanced approach" - it is the complete opposite. Have your coach show you the resources she uses to back her claim. Have her show video clips of good hitters (NOT slow-pitch hitters, either!) using his technique.

Anyone who tells you that your power is generated from where your foot drops truly doesn't understand hitting.

 

[Madsofball]

Thanks for the replies. Here is the problem in a nutshell. I KNOW that i personally dont FULLY "understand hitting", consequently I am here trying to learn as much as humanly possible by reading your knowledge. So the problem is that I am not sure I understand enough of the technical aspect yet to intelligently discuss why her approach is wrong. I DO understand hands are the last to go though.

Here is what I need from you guys that are way more educated on the subject than I, if you are willing.

Can you please give me a few detailed talking points so that I can be prepared for the conversation. I fear that she is going to be quite resistant. She had a pretty successful D2 career, and as most athletes she is pretty proud of her accomplishments and I am sure she feels that her results speak for themselves (not that I agree).

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Obviously, the easiest thing to do would just be to change instructors, but I would rather see if there is a possibility that she comes around. There are some local softball politics involved that I would rather avoid if at all possible, but I don't want to stunt DD growth either.

Thanks in advance...

 

[pstein]

For me, I like to teach the hands first to the ball approach. If your hands go to the ball, your body follows. When talking about the step to the ball, I advocate this because it gets your body moving with your hands. For example, if the pitch is inside and your foot is stepping toward the outside corner, you are handicapping your ability to clear your hips and use your lower body. The step is basically just a cheat step to give you the most power.

I can shove my hands at the ball all day without using anything above my chest, just like everyone else here. The idea of teaching a step is demonstrably wrong in the first place, but saying that you step to where the ball is pitched is just plain wrong. Video doesn't bear this out. You don't have to step at all, actually. Cabrera has at bats where he doesn't step, and so does Matt Kemp. What the instructor seems to forget is the fact that you have approximately 0.4 seconds to read the pitch and swing. You cannot read the pitch then stride then swing. You have to read the pitch as you begin the swing, or you're never going to catch up to the ball. The swing takes approximately 0.167 seconds, but that's only the 5 frames to contact. The whole swing takes about 0.250 seconds.

The pros to this method is it allows the hitter to maximize their power and hit the ball where it is pitched instead of pulling the ball all the time. The con to this approach is that it takes a lot of work and it requires the hitter to be able to read and react to the pitch very quickly. It's a bit more of an advanced approach but can work wonders if the hitter is able to do it.

You can't hit the ball where it's pitched with that method. Your speed is way out front; it is the longest swing you can conceivably have. To hit the ball with authority, you have to hit it out front. When you come up to speed way out front, you're susceptible to off speed pitches. The approach that allows power to all fields is totally different.

My responses are in bold. Please invite the instructor here. He/she will benefit greatly from watching video and talking about hitting with the people on this board.

 

[softballphreak]

Thanks for the replies. Here is the problem in a nutshell. I KNOW that i personally dont FULLY "understand hitting", consequently I am here trying to learn as much as humanly possible by reading your knowledge. So the problem is that I am not sure I understand enough of the technical aspect yet to intelligently discuss why her approach is wrong. I DO understand hands are the last to go though.

Here is what I need from you guys that are way more educated on the subject than I, if you are willing.

Can you please give me a few detailed talking points so that I can be prepared for the conversation. I fear that she is going to be quite resistant. She had a pretty successful D2 career, and as most athletes she is pretty proud of her accomplishments and I am sure she feels that her results speak for themselves (not that I agree).

Any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Obviously, the easiest thing to do would just be to change instructors, but I would rather see if there is a possibility that she comes around. There are some local softball politics involved that I would rather avoid if at all possible, but I don't want to stunt DD growth either.

Thanks in advance...

Not many, if any, instructors will change their minds very easily on what they believe. It would be even harder to convince an instructor through opinions read on a hitting forum.

Give her a link to this forum as the reason for your concern and ask her to reassure you.

It takes a lot of time to teach someone to hit. There is no room for doubting your instructor. The student must have complete trust in the instructor. As much as I hate to say it, I believe you have to make a choice to go with her instruction or change instructors.

While I believe the knowledge on this site to be very good, it's not the only way to get the job done. Look around your area and see how other coaches are teaching.

Even better, post some video of your DD and get some opinions from here.

 

[coach james]

This HC will be teaching what she was taught. If you dont like it, then dont play for her. I expect my players to do as their told without reservations or judgements and if they don't, they will never be a starter, or possibly even find themselves cut off the team.
I believe the stride should be consistent and straight. Aside from the obvious hand path, we should also be working on the depth of the ball in relation to the plate. If its inside, we "turn" on it and contact is made in front of the stride foot usually sending the ball to left. If its outside, we "go with it" by allowing the ball deep over the plate and hit the ball to right. These are basics, that will be modified as they get older and better.