Need BP advice

[BradB41]

I just bought a Jugz softball pitching machine and they sent me 24 of the no-sting dimpled balls. I've been told you should not use composite bats with training balls. Should we use a regular aluminum bat with the practice balls, or should I use real softballs exclusively so she can use her regular bat or should we do a lot of both?

Also, I have two dds that will be using the machine. One just turned 12 and the other will turn 10 in August. I'll also be taking to summer league practices. What is a fair amount of swings we should be doing per session? Any other training tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

[SBFAMILY]

We use composite bats with pitching machines all the time and never have had an issue. The older dimple balls use to be harder. We actually use a baseball pitching machine with baseball dimple balls and have for years with no issues. Plus how would anyone know if you sent the bat back that you were using it hitting dimple balls. All you would have to do is wipe off the residue and they would never know what you were hitting.

 

[Coach JV]

I agree with SBF- there are products 'Tuff Sleeve' etc.
that you can purchase to protect the bat for machine balls

 

[CoachKevin]

Why don't you use softballs? If we use a machine, which isn't very much, I always use regulation softballs to feed into the machine.

 

[BradB41]

We will use regular softballs. As a bonus they sent me 24 dimpled balls with the machine. I just didn't know if I should use them or not.

 

[ArmWhip]

Machines are very useful just make sure that they don't get into the habit of swinging at every pitch. Once they get the timing down I like to more the plate around so the pitches are inside or outside and make the girls understand the differences in point of contact/timing. One other thing I have noticed about girls who have machines and nets in the backyard, they tend to focus on or get used to hitting the ball back up the middle because that is the long area of the net. Pulling the ball or hitting it the other way means hitting it immediately into the net and that has some negative connotations to it.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Why don't you use softballs? If we use a machine, which isn't very much, I always use regulation softballs to feed into the machine.

My experience is that the pitching machines degrade the softballs quickly and they come out of the machine in a much larger random nature than is desirable. The result is chewed up softballs and a non-ideal BP experience.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

I just bought a Jugz softball pitching machine and they sent me 24 of the no-sting dimpled balls. I've been told you should not use composite bats with training balls. Should we use a regular aluminum bat with the practice balls, or should I use real softballs exclusively so she can use her regular bat or should we do a lot of both?

Also, I have two dds that will be using the machine. One just turned 12 and the other will turn 10 in August. I'll also be taking to summer league practices. What is a fair amount of swings we should be doing per session? Any other training tips would be greatly appreciated.

I use Jugs pitching machines with the dimple pitching machine balls.

Most hitters I work with tend to use their composite bats when hitting machine balls. Over the years I’ve only seen one composite bat experience a problem … and that was a bat known to have issues. Have destroyed several Anderson Rocketech bats hitting dimple balls off of pitching machines … dents and cracked barrels.

Haven’t had much success using real softballs in the pitching machines. Tends to destroy the softball and the balls fire out of the machine in too random a nature to be of much value for a BP practice.

A session I used for two girls yesterday consisted of 70 warm-up tee swings (series of tee drills), followed by approximately 50 long-tee swings into an open field, followed by 200+ swings off of a machine into an open field. Generally include head-on soft-toss after long-tee. These were HS aged ladies.

As for training tips … always have a main point of emphasis for each hitting session. Hit with a purpose to enhance your swing.