Ok, so being new to coaching softball at the high school level (I was previously a high school baseball coach) I have learned, adapted, and reinvented my approach to hitting for this season. I was a hitting instructor for baseball and fastpitch softball, and have been around the game of fast pitch softball enough to (I hope) have a good grasp on what I am supposed to be teaching the girls.
Recently however, when my team went and faced several pitchers with a little more zip, they are having a hard time catching up to the pitch and barreling it up.
So, I have a few questions. Several of my key approaches that I really try to make the ladies focus on in the cage, off the tee, during soft or front toss are as follows:
1) Keep your hands at about head (chin) level and in tight to your chest, to avoid casting your hands into your strike zone
2) Use your hands to throw the knob of the bat at the ball, to help quicken your hands and force the barrel around
3) Keep the hands and bat head as level as possible (a lot of the girls I inherited tend to 'chop wood' and we have gotten a lot of ground balls about 10-15 feet away). This means watching whether the bat head dances or is sticking straight up.
4) Cutting down on the stride to the plate, and focusing more on just a small step (a lot of my girls have long strides which affects their eye level, and is one of the reasons why I think we are constantly underneath)
Those are just a few off the top of my head. Do you agree or disagree? I am always looking for advice and I know everyone here is more knowledgeable than I am. Any tips or extra advice would be fantastic.
Also, any other drills that we can incorporate to help quicken our bat speed? We have another big game this Saturday against another all conference pitcher.
Thanks everybody!
Recently however, when my team went and faced several pitchers with a little more zip, they are having a hard time catching up to the pitch and barreling it up.
So, I have a few questions. Several of my key approaches that I really try to make the ladies focus on in the cage, off the tee, during soft or front toss are as follows:
1) Keep your hands at about head (chin) level and in tight to your chest, to avoid casting your hands into your strike zone
2) Use your hands to throw the knob of the bat at the ball, to help quicken your hands and force the barrel around
3) Keep the hands and bat head as level as possible (a lot of the girls I inherited tend to 'chop wood' and we have gotten a lot of ground balls about 10-15 feet away). This means watching whether the bat head dances or is sticking straight up.
4) Cutting down on the stride to the plate, and focusing more on just a small step (a lot of my girls have long strides which affects their eye level, and is one of the reasons why I think we are constantly underneath)
Those are just a few off the top of my head. Do you agree or disagree? I am always looking for advice and I know everyone here is more knowledgeable than I am. Any tips or extra advice would be fantastic.
Also, any other drills that we can incorporate to help quicken our bat speed? We have another big game this Saturday against another all conference pitcher.
Thanks everybody!