We have a very good defensive team and pitching is also very good, but we can't seem to hit the ball. Our girls hardly ever strike out but not many balls being driven to the outfield. We practice twice a week doing tee work, side toss, heavy balls, and some front toss. I am of the opinion that we don't hit enough off our pitchers live. Our coach doesn't like to do it and I don't really know why. I am an assistant and have stated several times that we should do more live, but he always comes up with something else to do. Our girls do a lot of tee work on their own at home Do your teams do a lot of live hitting?
Live hitting in practice
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I am for and against doing live hitting during practice, just depends on the situation. I personally find live hitting to be a very inefficient use of practice time when a team is practicing outside on a field, especially if your practice only lasts 1-1/2 hours or 2 hours. If your team has 3 hour practices I could see using the last 1/2 hour for live hitting if you get everything else done that you intended on covering during practice. There are way too many other things to be covering such as situational defense, ground ball work, outfield work, relay plays, etc when practicing outside. Now if you happen to have a outdoor batting cage close to the field I could certainly see doing live hitting in the cage, I just don't like doing live hitting when you use the entire field to do live hitting.
When practicing indoors I like live hitting as long as it is done in a cage where you don't use up a lot of room. At my daughter indoor facility it is pretty common to do live hitting in 1 cage and front toss in the other cage. While that is going on they use the turf for infield practice.
When practicing indoors I like live hitting as long as it is done in a cage where you don't use up a lot of room. At my daughter indoor facility it is pretty common to do live hitting in 1 cage and front toss in the other cage. While that is going on they use the turf for infield practice.
We run pretty efficient practices. When we do hitting we will have a tee station, a bunt station, and a front toss station and 1 girl at a time doing live hitting on the field. We don't hit every practice, we work a lot on situational defenses, that is why we are good at it. We have to something different.
So we do live hitting A LOT and we are efficient at... but you need a lot of bownets and screens and you want a lot of balls (we have 6 buckets of balls). We basically set up three tunnels on the field using bownets to separate the batter and also to protect the pitchers. It takes about 7-8 screens in total (two for separating hitters, at least 5 set up to protect the live pitchers We have two 'tunnels' with live pitching and one with a tee. We have two additional bownets set up with tees. We have occasionally added a fourth tunnel or an extra soft toss/t-station. The screens allow both pitchers to be pitching at the same time as well as the tunnel t-station to swing when ready.
Everyone rotates after 4 live pitches to tunnel '1'. We have 4 pitchers so they rotate in from their hitting rotations every 4-5 batters so they get their swings in as well.
So that gives you:
2 pitchers
2 live batters
1 'tee' batter hitting into the field
2 tee stations (one player feeding, one swinging)
Extra players getting a drink/resting
That is nine players active and lots of swings and all on the field so rotations happen quickly and the ball pickup can be done by the whole team.
We always try to do live hitting at every practice if space is available, almost always is. Some nice parent will chase balls over fence when they are hitting on right of left field line.
Not every player bats every practice but they are 1st next time.
I think doing all short drills players can lose track of acuatly hitting the ball opposed to putting it in play. They do need to be let loose and swing. Striking out is not the worst thing in the world if they take a crack at it which they can not see hitting into a net.
Not every player bats every practice but they are 1st next time.
I think doing all short drills players can lose track of acuatly hitting the ball opposed to putting it in play. They do need to be let loose and swing. Striking out is not the worst thing in the world if they take a crack at it which they can not see hitting into a net.
Photo please
This isn't my photo.. but the idea is the same. This is something from Matt Lisle from when he was with Menlo College.
Note the screen between batters to protect the batters from bad hits. We add additional screens near pitchers when they are back at pitching distance to let the move back and forward.
It take a little work to get the screens all in the right places to keep everyone safe, but it takes very little time to set it up once you have it down. Bownet also has barriers and double nets and all sorts of other stuff, but it cheaper to do it with lots of standard bow nets.
This is a versatile way to do this - you can add in a catcher if you want. You don't HAVE to have backstop nets if you don't mind the balls going through (but the pitchers will need some sort of target).
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It may have already been discussed in previous threads but there used to be an app called coach's eye I believe. I don't know if it's still around but if not, there is probably something similar. You can capture each batter in game at bats or use it at practice for your tee work, front toss, or if you talk your HC into live pitching to correct improper swings. Some hitters look great at practice but change something against live pitching in games. This will give you the chance to identify that. I had rather see a girl take 10 good swings and get the corrections needed than to run them through batting practice like cattle trying to make sure everybody just swings the bat. I'm a firm believer in "Practice does not make perfect... Perfect practice makes perfect". If you have a private hitting instructor, you can show him/her the video too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJn9kem69G4
To answer your question, I have always believed in some form of live pitching at some practices.
I hope this has been helpful and good luck.
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Thanks for the tip.
Yes Coaches Eye is still around and I use it. I think it is more about timing and keeping a good eye.
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