Differing coaching philosophies on hitting

Dabears17 · Sep 11, 2018

Last week on my JH team I asked a girl a couple questions about why she had the stance she had. She's crouching down a hair too much, which is setting her up for inside pitches and limiting her explosiveness. I asked her if she felt comfortable. She said she did. I told her to think about crouching a little less and to talk to her Dad abut it. I talked to her Dad a little bit and he agreed she was crouching a little more than he wanted her to.

What is satisfying is some of the girls who only play softball once a year for 6-8 weeks and only starting playing as 6th graders two years ago are actually turning into decent throwers and fielders. Hitting needs more work.

Working on bringing the hitting instructors my DD and several players on her team worked with this past summer in for an hour hitting clinic with the JH team.

julray · Sep 14, 2018

4 girl's dad said:
Our teams head coach and I have differing hitting philosophies. (I am also an AC, 1st year 14u) He’s a swing flat, don’t lift the ball to pop out, push the barrel coach. I’m more of a turn the barrel to the ball, get square behind the ball, typical of what is posted here kind of coach.

I am really struggling with it. Today, he had the girls swinging and not letting the bat get behind them. He had a pool noodle on a cone trying to keep the barrel from getting behind them, which is totally against what I understand a good swing to be. He also told them to not let the barrel travel up because that creates pop fly outs.

Does anyone have any tips on getting him to understand how he is limiting the players? LOL
This is somewhat more of a rant than anything but if you have some ideas, please share. I am telling them one thing in one cage and I hear him telling them almost OPPOSITE in the next cage over.

Sounds like you have a much better handle on what swing is more effective. However what role do you play on the team? Are you a parent or assistant coach? If a parent, maybe you shouldn't be instructing the girls. Just saying that's probably not the best way to go about this. Is your DD one of the better hitters on the team? If so, talking to coach about your DD's approach might be easier and if he's not stubborn, he might listen to you and also let you work with the girls more as part of the staff

julray · Sep 14, 2018

4 girl's dad said:
I have considered trying to explain to him what I am teaching my DD and the others. The problem is that in his mind, the upward part of the swing is what is causing pop ups. I can show him all the HR swings I have saved on my iPad but then he’d be like yeah but what if it doesn’t leave the yard? Then its a fly out.

I get it to some extent but the push swing, put the ball in play on the ground is not a game winning strategy IMO. Hit the ball hard and things will happen.

Really appreciate the conversation. My DD knows to smile and nod. Been doing that a long time. Ive tried to get him to read here. I dont think he ever has. I’m not sure what he is reading. Kinda like every pitching coach in the area teaches HE.... They dont know what they dont know.

PS one of the things he said yesterday that got this started was about keeping the bat in the zone longer by pushing the barrel out in to the front of the zone Vs starting deeper in the zone. (Facepalm).
His DD is a slapper and He wants everything to swing down. I tell her that a slap is just a moving swing that you are controlling. She does well when she hits with me but if he there telling her how to swing, its usually a lot of mis-hits.

Don't just show him home runs. Show him hard hit ground balls, line drives, gappers etc with the swing you are prescribing

NBECoach · Sep 20, 2018

As long as the player is having success (hitting the ball hard - line drives to the green) we try not to change their hitting method. But if they are start struggling we will evaluate and offer suggestions as noted in previous posts. We do suggest hitting the ball just below the middle to get some elevation allowing the ball to make the green on a fly. We put a black circle around the center of the ball and place it on the tee with the circle parallel to the ground. The batter then targets the part directly under the black circle. Power + slight elevation = line drive to green.

Hitting the ball on the ground is not exactly what we want when swinging away (non-slapper), as next to a strike out we consider a ground ball outcome a success for our pitchers.

Differing coaching philosophies on hitting

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Dabears17

julray

julray

NBECoach

Learning everyday

Similar threads

Latest posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Share this page

Online statistics

Forum statistics