Timing drills

[James Smith]

I am OK with pitching machines but since you mentioned it this might be throwing her off, maybe no more pitching machine if you can do it. The timing is a lot different off a machine then a live pitcher.

 

[JJsqueeze]

I was actually thinking the machine might be part of the answer, maybe setting it up at a certain speed, letting her watch it and then have one at bat. Change speed, do it again. Trying to get her used to focusing on ball speed and timing without the distraction of different deliveries. I'm not a big pitching machine fan for overall hitting but for speed timing I think it could be a good tool.

 

[FP26]

Sorry about that. I wanted to edit something but got busy at work

We have two girls on our team with similar issues. Here is what we did to help them.

1) Girl one had a stride that was very long. She started with her feet very close together and then would stride. We convinced her to spread her feet farther apart at setup so that the stride would be shorter. This seemed to help her adjust to the pitch better.

2) Girl two would load too much, IMO. Instead of just coiling at the rear hip, she would coil her entire upper body. We convinced her to keep her shoulders more square to the plate, instead of turning her upper body clockwise as part of her load. This seemed to help her adjust. (Still having trouble explaining this one. But it was more of an upper body coil instead of just a rear hip coil. I hope that makes sense

Sorry for deleting this initially. For some reason I seem to have an easier time explaining this stuff to 13 and 14 year old girls. When I type it out, I tend to second guess my wording...

 

[James Smith]

The sky is blue?

 

[fballchgup]

I am OK with pitching machines but since you mentioned it this might be throwing her off, maybe no more pitching machine if you can do it. The timing is a lot different off a machine then a live pitcher.

The timing shouldn't be alot different if the person feeding the machine is doing it correctly imo.

 

[FP26]

If she can battle for a while the timing gets better but it just takes too many pitches to get there. I watched really closely yesterday and she took forever to adjust the timing sooner, she did it (sometimes)but it was like she had to go through the same period of adjustment each at bat.

This part of your post made me think a little more. The queue I like to use with our hitters is to "dance with the pitcher". In my other post I mentioned changing the stride length or watching the amount of load used. Basically both are timing mechanisms (with other functions of course). The more movement utilized in either of these actions, the longer it will take for the bat to get into the hitting zone and the more difficult it is to get the timing just right. It may be as simple as shortening part of that (as my original post stated).

A drill I use to get the players to "dance" is as follows. Start with a basic tee setup. Have your DD start in a relaxed position but with the bat up (not on her shoulder). Have her load, return to relaxed, load, and then swing. Basically she will be performing a swaying motion similar to a pendulum. During a swing I do not like to see the hitter "stop". I prefer to see her always in motion. Immediately go from load to swing with no pause. This drill seems to help them understand that swaying motion.

 

[softballphreak]

Timing the pitcher is done from the dugout and then in the on deck circle. It is done with the lead toe/foot. The lead foot can be a little early but it can not be late.

Do some drills where she hits while already at toe touch and back it back to where she strides to that position. Live pitch or front toss. Machine is ok if the right simulated throwing motion is used.