"If you can't hit your own self tossed ball with same swing as in game, then...

[PA SB Dad]

We play a game in practice where the girls hit fungos to each other just for fun, and it surprises me how difficult it seems to be for most of them. I've noticed boys "learn" to hit fungos as they grow up just going out to play ball with each other. This is not an activity I have seen any of the girls doing that I've coached.

This is not a comment on whether or not hitting fungos has anything to do with hitting live pitching, just an observation that boys and girls tend to grow up differently even though they gravitate to a similar sport.

 

[Sliced Bread]

Usually we work on this with side toss first, inside and outside then move to front toss doing both.

Edit to Add: I'm still trying to understand how this translates. The "feel" of hitting the ball, whether inside or outside is the same or more effective IMO in side toss or front toss as it is trying to hit the ball with a self toss. As Gunner said, I know many great hitters that can't do this drill. Not only that, but please explain to me the justification in an adult coach belittling a player that can't do this drill.

Ya, belittling a player is a head scratcher for me.

We also do in and out with front toss as well. My girls struggled with understanding how to intentionally hit to an opposite field, instead of by accident. I was discussing this with a mentor coach a few years back, and he suggested this drill. I didn't really do much with it until last year. I found that the girls understood that if you threw the ball up inside to yourself, you couldn't hit opposite field. You had to choose an outside self toss deeper in your stance to hit opposite field.
So we don't use it as an exclusive drill, we use it in conjunction with other drills designed to help them understand what it means and feels like to hit the opposite field. It also shows the different points of contact for all the different fields.
I really didn't think that this would be a useful drill until we tried it. It really works for us.

 

[moe]

Some of the best folks on here recommend it.
Rythm. Timing. Placement. Coordination.

Note: The coach needs his buttocks kicked for belittling the player though.

http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-hitting-technical/16221-starting-scratch-12.html

 

[Cannonball]

All I hear from the "HS Softball is all about building memories" crowd is these are times your DD will cherish in the future. Be sure to let us know how that works out.

And when she gets the hang of it and can do so on demand, she will be very proud of herself. Commenting that one failure is relative to a HS experience is absurd.


As an FYI, this was a hitting station for us. We progress to a drill with a ball sitting on a tee and the team playing a little competition in groups of 3 trying to knock the ball off of the tee. It broke up the monotony of practice at the end of the year as well as gave players a good indication how to "control the middle" and use their hands.

 

[Country Boy]

Let's not forget that this is all based on a young girls perspective also. I know my DD's have not always had a grasp on reality.

There was a game a couple years ago. My DD was in the OF and didn't read a fly ball well. She caught it, but it wasn't textbook. I said one sentence to her when she came in the dugout. "Let's work to get a better jump on the ball". Later she told her Mother that I was riding her all game long about it. That's not how I remember it.

 

[riseball]

The ability to hit "your own self tossed ball" has as much to do with hitting as juggling balls in the dugout has to do with fielding.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

The ability to hit "your own self tossed ball" has as much to do with hitting as juggling balls in the dugout has to do with fielding.

Not so sure I can agree. Tracking a moving object and striking it with another moving object, has to build eye to hand coordination. As a youth dad always had us working on "tracking the ball", when we weren't pitching. As a pre-teen, my dad and older brother were always playing reaction games with me/each other. As a teenager you'd have your hands full facing me in ping pong, Badminton, air hockey, foosball, volleyball, etc. Ok, you still would.

Basketball players are great do to higher peripheral vision. BB/SB players are great by tracking a moving obect's trajectory. That includes fielders, hitters, and catchers. You'd be surprised how learning/watching other objects move, will help you track a ball moving in different elements. Cold, heat, wind, altitude, demples, seams, atmospheric pressure.

A little know secret in higher D1 ball is, the teams use to hitting in warm climates, will turn the temp down in their indoor facility and pitch/hit off similar condition as their next game.

 

[riseball]

And wouldn't juggling balls in the dugout increase dexterity required to field the ball, transition, and throw?

 

[James Smith]

I agree with riseball, it is a trick. And DD can juggle too, it took a lot of work.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

And wouldn't juggling balls in the dugout increase dexterity required to field the ball, transition, and throw?

If it helps you field, why not? If it helps you transition from a catching hand to a throwing hand, why not? If it helps positioning a ball into a preferred throwing axis, why not?