What are your go-to methods for learning to hit spots?
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- May 27, 2013
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Dd has used a 9-hole and also a stand-up batter with a string hanging down from the elbow which was in the river. Object was to hit the string on inside and outside FB, and curve and screw. If we didn’t use those I’d set up my body and glove to where the pitch should wind up. She also uses a softball set up on a tee in various spots and tries to knock it off.
I have had a different experience when it comes to hitting spots. I'm a 35 year fastpitch coach & instructor. My thoughts are derived from my experience with multiple dozens of pitchers over that time. It doesn't mean I know everything but I believe my thoughts on the topic are at least worth thinking about.
Please be patient with what I'm about to say. I know it's long but please read it all. Thanks
1 Stop aiming. It's not overhand. It's not darts. Try shooting a rifle holding it down near your knee. It's about mechanics, the landing, resistance at landing and staying open or sideways until the release. So body alignment and where the foot lands is the actual aiming system. kick out towards the target.
2 What is a spot? The glove? Most pitchers, especially during the early years, can't exactly hit the glove every pitch. Probably not hit the glove at all if you don't move the glove. What I've seen is that an accomplished pitcher, when pitching well, will be able to stay mostly inside a 16" circle centered at the original glove position. Less accomplished pitchers, a larger circle.
3 Rather, learn to pitch to zones. Inside, outside, low & high. Work on staying inside those zones. Most importantly, inside and outside. Example: an outside zone would be from the outside corner of the plate & farther out. We want low outside pitches. However, staying in the zone is more important than forcing the Pitcher to throw too a specific spot. The other important factor is to position the catcher appropriately for the zone. When throwing to the outside zone, the catcher should be positioned in the middle of the particular pitchers effective zone. If a pitcher can stay mostly inside a 16" zone, I would want the catchers glove (target) 4 to 6 inches off the plate. This way you don't feed meatballs over the plate. If you prefer, you can always throw mostly over the plate but I wouldn't recommend that.
If pitches are going high or low or left or right and that's not the goal. You must first understand the cause and not try to fix the symptoms. If it's a mechanics issue and instead of fixing the mechanics, you ask the pitcher to just aim better, you've likely made the issue worse.
One more thought on having the fastpitch softball pitcher trying to throw to a spot that's too small is the pitcher will then violate good mechanics and slow down the arm, often bend over at the waist trying to guide the ball to the spot. Usually not a good result.
Please be patient with what I'm about to say. I know it's long but please read it all. Thanks
1 Stop aiming. It's not overhand. It's not darts. Try shooting a rifle holding it down near your knee. It's about mechanics, the landing, resistance at landing and staying open or sideways until the release. So body alignment and where the foot lands is the actual aiming system. kick out towards the target.
2 What is a spot? The glove? Most pitchers, especially during the early years, can't exactly hit the glove every pitch. Probably not hit the glove at all if you don't move the glove. What I've seen is that an accomplished pitcher, when pitching well, will be able to stay mostly inside a 16" circle centered at the original glove position. Less accomplished pitchers, a larger circle.
3 Rather, learn to pitch to zones. Inside, outside, low & high. Work on staying inside those zones. Most importantly, inside and outside. Example: an outside zone would be from the outside corner of the plate & farther out. We want low outside pitches. However, staying in the zone is more important than forcing the Pitcher to throw too a specific spot. The other important factor is to position the catcher appropriately for the zone. When throwing to the outside zone, the catcher should be positioned in the middle of the particular pitchers effective zone. If a pitcher can stay mostly inside a 16" zone, I would want the catchers glove (target) 4 to 6 inches off the plate. This way you don't feed meatballs over the plate. If you prefer, you can always throw mostly over the plate but I wouldn't recommend that.
If pitches are going high or low or left or right and that's not the goal. You must first understand the cause and not try to fix the symptoms. If it's a mechanics issue and instead of fixing the mechanics, you ask the pitcher to just aim better, you've likely made the issue worse.
One more thought on having the fastpitch softball pitcher trying to throw to a spot that's too small is the pitcher will then violate good mechanics and slow down the arm, often bend over at the waist trying to guide the ball to the spot. Usually not a good result.
- May 27, 2013
- 2,387
- 113
My reference points were for my kid when she was age 16 and older (she does some of these exercises in college, as well) and still fine-tuning hitting spots with different pitches. Always learning new ways to hit spots.
If we are talking about new pitchers learning spots with a FB, then we strictly did inside/outside trying to get 7/10 on each side. Same with up and down. Then moved onto learning the square. If young and new I agree, not aiming at specific spots but more to regions.
- Jun 18, 2023
- 359
- 43
This makes a lot of sense. You're adjusting mechanics to create a different path/arc of the ball. It's the consistency of your mechanics that help you hit the same spots.
Does it make sense to think of each type of pitch/location combo as it's own independent delivery? "These are the mechanics for this type of pitch up and in to righties" "These are the mechanics for the same type of pitch if i want to throw it up and in to lefties" etc?
Yes. I like what you said. My points were definitely more for beginner/ intermediate pitchers who haven't quite got the mechanics down. Of course you can work on buying tighter and tighter spots once you've mastered the mechanics. Again, without very consistent mechanics you can't hit a spot anyhow. Thanks for your thoughtful reply. Take care
Yes. Each type of pitch and location should be thought about in relation to righty or lefty batter. Example: I use the up & in screwball against righty's instead of a down screwball. Just my preference. Hard to ever hit a ball waist high in on the hands. I hope that helps your thinking. Thanks for your thoughtful reply. Take care
Thank you for the detailed reply. I'm with you on most of that. DD is almost 16 but started pitching at 12, and I ended her lessons 18 months ago so I could help her un-do some bad mechanics. It's taken quite a bit of time (plus breaks for school seasons, etc) but we're just about to the point where we're ready to go beyond hitting the basic zone. But we are very much of the inside/outside/high/low mindset right now. "Spots" was probably a poorly chosen word. Location is more like it.
As for aiming, I don't really agree. I do agree that we never want her to try to force to a target. No reaching out or making large scale movements to get to a certain place. But if you approach it like archery (which she has experience in), you can aim with sights or with instinct. Find a small target and keep your eyes on it, and let the eye and hand/wrist figure it out through repetition.
I've seen people teach body position for aiming. If I recall correctly from Rick Pauly's program, 1 degree of position change will equate to over 7 inches of movement by the time the ball crosses the plate. One degree of body position change would be nearly impossible to repeat over and over, and likely indistinguishable to the eye when assessing a pitcher's movement. What I believe is happening in a "body position" aiming scenario (again, using the 1 degree is 7 inches stat), is the pitcher is changing body/landing position but the hand/wrist is compensating for it just as it would when it's finding the target in a normal pitch where the same landing is used. Essentially, the hand/wrist are actually locating the ball regardless of what the body is doing.
OK. Yes. I get what your saying about aiming. However in Renard to body and landing positioning, I don't harp on one degree or measurements at all. That will also screw things up. I'm only saying that your mechanics need to be very consistent and from that point you can go ahead & aim. Since I've experienced the issues of many pitchers. I'd say 80% of the time for beginner/ intermediate pitchers mechanics completely fall apart when they're asked to aim. 20% are just plain more natural and intuitive so don't have that issue. I hope that sorts things a little better. Thanks for your thoughtful reply. Take care
Gotcha. And that's basically the position we're in (or almost in). She's finally getting a consistent platform. She can do it pretty well without a ball, but up until the past few sessions she would revert completely to weak FSR and forward lean if the ball was in her hand. I was struggling to find the right patterns or cues to get her sorted, then got a few pointers from another instructor that finally got things to click for her. Now we're much closer to consistent FSR and correct posture. I think with a few more sessions she'll be there and we can start aiming again. She hasn't thrown a full pitch to me in months.
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