"but my swing works on lower level pitching"

[radness]

Someone hitting .400+ off lower level pitching will not have as much success against better throwers.
We see it all the time. The players who get to the highest levels of D1 softball often can't break .300. You know they were closer to .500 as HS players or they wouldn't have been recruited by the likes of Oklahoma, Florida St, or UCLA. In fact, I watched a girl in a tournament a few days ago who is headed to one of those schools. She is something special, but she was having her issues with some of the top-level pitchers she was facing.

Talking about a swing that was working then not working to the point of struggling.

What would you do?

You used to hit .450 .350 .300
You move up an age bracket
Or from h.s. to college
Now your struggling.
( to define struggling under .200? .150?)
Do you keep your same swing that used to work or change something?

This same question may have to be addressed throughout a players career!


However if you're only going to address the same question applied to D1. even at the CWS level
I completely understand that experience.
Absolutely~ There are athletes who were crushing the ball in 18u. Playing in the top tier went on to D1 and had to make adjustments in their swing.
Continuing to grow!

That alone tells me that there are people who understand when you are struggling you may need to make an adjustment.

 

[Rolling Hard]

I don't know if anyone is going to answer that question with "but my swing works on lower level pitching".. Usually when a hitter is getting smoked, its a result of not enough reps against hi caliber pitching and most importantly, the confidence change when a batter is feeling outclassed.

My DD has a non-DFP approved swing.. I've tried to incorporate things that I know (or believe) to be better, but she resorts back to her natural tendencies. What she has is a ferocious offensive mindset between the ears. Her confidence and methodology of an at bat gets the most out of her flawed swing. We will still work on her swing but there are still so many years to go, she's 1st yr 14. There is no rush to have a perfect swing right now.

There are good hitters and bad hitters. There are good hitters with "bad" swings and there are bad hitters with "good" swings.To answer the main question, yes you can hit all pitching with the same flawed swing.

Oh my, that is serious. LOL

 

[Cornbread]

Timing...which to me means hand-eye coordination. I know a couple of kids with mechanically solid swings. They can hit soft or front toss like the ball is fired out of a cannon. Throw them a ball at speed from a pitching machine or a live pitcher...right over the plate...and they miss...often. Head right on the ball, and it's as if they can't see it.

Right behind timing would be plane. Most hitters misalign under the ball. If you swing and miss you were either early, late, over the ball or under the ball. Mechanics absolutely matter on the time it takes to deliver the barrel on time and on plane. If a hitter has a sound swing simple verbal ques can help the hitter get on plane. Tell those hitters to swing over the ball. If they are truly on time, they are most likely swing under the ball due to some mechanics flaw. Work on fixing why they are swinging under while giving them the verbal que of swing over the ball. Timing and plane.

 

[Rolling Hard]

Talking about a swing that was working then not working to the point of struggling.

What would you do?

You used to hit .450 .350 .300
You move up an age bracket
Or from h.s. to college
Now your struggling.
( to define struggling under .200? .150?)
Do you keep your same swing that used to work or change something?

This same question may have to be addressed throughout a players career!


However if you're only going to address the same question applied to D1. even at the CWS level
I completely understand that experience.
Absolutely~ There are athletes who were crushing the ball in 18u. Playing in the top tier went on to D1 and had to make adjustments in their swing.
Continuing to grow!

That alone tells me that there are people who understand when you are struggling you may need to make an adjustment.

So if you crushed it HS and 18u but struggle mightily at D-1, was the scouting poor?

 

[radness]

So if you crushed it HS and 18u but struggle mightily at D-1, was the scouting poor?

It has happened!

It has also been the case where outstanding powerhouse hitters get the
"Hitting Makeover" on arrival as freshman at their college practice.


As for recruiting for D1 from h.s. stats in calif..... mehhhh

 

[Strike2]

Right behind timing would be plane. Most hitters misalign under the ball. If you swing and miss you were either early, late, over the ball or under the ball. Mechanics absolutely matter on the time it takes to deliver the barrel on time and on plane. If a hitter has a sound swing simple verbal ques can help the hitter get on plane. Tell those hitters to swing over the ball. If they are truly on time, they are most likely swing under the ball due to some mechanics flaw. Work on fixing why they are swinging under while giving them the verbal que of swing over the ball. Timing and plane.

My point is that there's the "monkey skill" mechanics of swinging the bat, and then there's ability to see the ball and then judge both the timing and where to put the barrel (high, low, inside or outside). Even when being on plane, if a hitter can't judge the timing, which is really intuitive hand-eye coordination separate from the mechanics of the swing, even a proper swing can be early or late.

Conversely, someone with mechanical flaws, but excellent hand-eye coordination, can often make solid contact. I see it all the time.

 

[radness]

My point is that there's the "monkey skill" mechanics of swinging the bat, and then there's ability to see the ball and then judge both the timing and where to put the barrel (high, low, inside or outside). Even when being on plane, if a hitter can't judge the timing, which is really intuitive hand-eye coordination separate from the mechanics of the swing, even a proper swing can be early or late.

Conversely, someone with mechanical flaws, but excellent hand-eye coordination, can often make solid contact. I see it all the time.

Agree odd swing can still be good hitter.

Also think some swing mechanics have more timing neccessities built in than other mechanics.
And some have less room for adjusments because they immediately force a commitment in approach angle which can work against the pitch location/speed.

 

[julray]

My point is that there's the "monkey skill" mechanics of swinging the bat, and then there's ability to see the ball and then judge both the timing and where to put the barrel (high, low, inside or outside). Even when being on plane, if a hitter can't judge the timing, which is really intuitive hand-eye coordination separate from the mechanics of the swing, even a proper swing can be early or late.

Conversely, someone with mechanical flaws, but excellent hand-eye coordination, can often make solid contact. I see it all the time.

If the hitter is not on plane the likelihood of making contact drops dramatically. You don’t want to be intersecting the path of a pitch, you want to get behind it and through it.

Not down playing timing.. just saying it’s timing and barrel path

 

[mmeece]

Agree odd swing can still be good hitter.

Also think some swing mechanics have more timing neccessities built in than other mechanics.
And some have less room for adjusments because they immediately force a commitment in approach angle which can work against the pitch location/speed.

I think you hit the nail on the head. You can have an unusual or "flawed" swing that is still successful against lower-level pitching because they give you less speed and fewer variables due to movement and change of speed. However, when the velocity and movement increase and you introduce more change of speed the flaws can be exposed. Some hitters have such uncanny timing and hand-eye coordination that they can even overcome these things at high levels, but good fundamentals certainly allow a little more room for being slightly off timing or plane and still making contact. Poor mechanics often require perfect plane and timing, and some hitters can achieve that, but not many.

One of the hardest things to do is convincing yourself to make changes when you are having success, but the best hitters (and athletes in general) do that constantly. There was video circulating recently of J.D. Martinez working with his hitting coach on changing his hand position and the timing of his front foot. He's had so much success, yet is working on changing fairly significant aspects of his swing.

 

[fanboi22]

Right behind timing would be plane. Most hitters misalign under the ball. If you swing and miss you were either early, late, over the ball or under the ball. Mechanics absolutely matter on the time it takes to deliver the barrel on time and on plane. If a hitter has a sound swing simple verbal ques can help the hitter get on plane. Tell those hitters to swing over the ball. If they are truly on time, they are most likely swing under the ball due to some mechanics flaw. Work on fixing why they are swinging under while giving them the verbal que of swing over the ball. Timing and plane.

I agree with this now more than ever. DD has been .600 hitter against lower level hitting. This year at A ball she struggled to be .380. Historically .980 contact percent. This year sub .800. 2 k’s per year vs 20. I try to video every swing and the flawed mechanics show exactly as CB says. A lot of under the ball. She has great hand eye coordination but that only gets you so far. She has flawed mechanics and is always under the ball trying to find the ball. With good plane mechanics a girl who is late or early will continue to foul the ball off but rarely strike out. Then once they match the timing, boom.

Can a girl be successful? Sure? But not elite. When DD made contact she put up some of the best slugging numbers on the team but just wasn’t reliable enough to be counted on in the lineup. If you don’t have solid mechanics you better have enough raw talent to be successful a lot otherwise I don’t see it lasting.