How do you hit spots?

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Apr 17, 2019
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Question about spots with internal rotation, how do you hit them? My daughter has always been taught to step out for outside pitches in for inside pitches. Her new coach is teaching her to use her arm to change position along with the step, which my daughter does not have a HE release it is more of a IR release, with bullet spin. So how do IR pitchers hit the spots?
 
Jul 22, 2015
851
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The more you try to "do" to hit spots the harder it is. I tell kids to "think" it to the spot. Has worked surprisingly well. In fact, I wouldn't emphasize anything except to hit the glove wherever it is. The adjustment is so small that trying to make any real physical adjustment to move from inside to outside normally results in flawed mechanics or far too large of a change in location.
 

Cannonball

Ex "Expert"
Feb 25, 2009
4,854
113
You have to make it fun. When my dd practiced, we went through the various zone work but then we took softballs and put them on cones and she did her best to knock them off of the cones. We had the smaller cones but then we also had the bigger "construction" cones. I would give her x amount of attempts to hit x amount of balls and we kept track. There were days when she would come in want to hit cones from the start. That was fine and she had fun. When we filmed her recruitment video, she never did a retake. Every throw filmed in that video was exactly what her coach called.
 
Apr 17, 2019
194
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That's a good idea thanks for the tip., but I was more or less asking about the mechanics of it, is it a step towards the spot or is in the hand/snap?
 
May 20, 2016
433
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In my opinion it is the placement of the front foot. Controlling with the arm makes too many variables.
 
Jul 1, 2019
172
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The more you try to "do" to hit spots the harder it is. I tell kids to "think" it to the spot. Has worked surprisingly well. In fact, I wouldn't emphasize anything except to hit the glove wherever it is. The adjustment is so small that trying to make any real physical adjustment to move from inside to outside normally results in flawed mechanics or far too large of a change in location.
This is very similar to what I've got DD doing. If you want to move the pitch, "think" about moving it but mechanically do everything the same. It's surprising, but her results have been really good. Actually trying to change something in order to move location has always resulted in too big of a change. In all reality, moving a pitch by 4" means changing the direction of the pitch by approx .5 degrees from 43ft.
 
Jun 23, 2018
222
63
Texas
The more you try to "do" to hit spots the harder it is. I tell kids to "think" it to the spot. Has worked surprisingly well. In fact, I wouldn't emphasize anything except to hit the glove wherever it is. The adjustment is so small that trying to make any real physical adjustment to move from inside to outside normally results in flawed mechanics or far too large of a change in location.
This is how I work with my DD to hit spots as well. I tell her not to change anything. Just hit the glove wherever it is. The adjustments from inside to outside over 40ft is tiny. Don't try to do anything different than hit the glove. Think the ball to the location.
 
Nov 8, 2018
774
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Yeah I concur. My dd doesn’t step left or right etc. we talk about throwing in a tunnel. Or hit a spot a foot in front of her. Aiming, stepping , targeting all are forced movements. Just throw it there like when playing catch.


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Nov 18, 2015
1,585
113
The adjustment is so small that trying to make any real physical adjustment to move from inside to outside normally results in flawed mechanics or far too large of a change in location.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ This. I know you said you wanted mechanics - but think about the scale of what you're trying to do.

A ball off the plate can "miss" a spot by what - 3-6 inches? Try this - if you're sitting at your desk, take a pen and point it at the letter "N" - that's for a pitch right down the middle. Now point it 3-6 inches to the left, which is about the "Z" or "Shift" key. That's a difference of about 35-45 degrees. IF my target is only 6" away, then I would definitely need to change the angle of my delivery, release, etc.

Now do the same thing, but continue through the "N" and "Z" keys until you hit a spot 40' away. I guess if we're using 45 degs, that would mean that over 40', we're missing 40' to the left. You can even try it with the "B" key, and by my estimates, you're still missing by at least a foot. To hit (or miss) a "spot", you're talking about changing the mechanics so minutely, that at ball release, it's probably closer to changing the release point or angle by the width of the actual "N" that's printed on the key.

That's why you hear so much about external vs internal cues - the body often does an amazing job of figuring out on its own what's needed to meet a goal. Sometimes as coaches we just need to get out of the way and let that happen.
 
Mar 20, 2015
174
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DD had a lesson with Aleshia Ocasio. She said she visualizes aligning the normal angle of her hips at release to the the intended target.. So instead of thinking foot she was thinking hips. DD said this helped her.
 

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