pitching vs hitting

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Nov 12, 2013
417
18
maritimes
wondering if there are a series of hitting drills that will lead a player to good hitting mechanics as there are a series of pitching drills that will lead to good pitching mechanics?

is this possible? the pitching side seems to be pretty well settled.

can hitting be the same?
 
Nov 12, 2013
417
18
maritimes
little slow on the uptake here, i may be duplicating an on-going thread. maybe thoughts are coalescing after reading some of that. mods delete if warranted.
 
Feb 3, 2010
5,752
113
Pac NW
To my knowledge, there is not a series of drills that--when used in a set progression, will lead to good hitting or pitching form. There are drills that--when used at the right time, with the right explanation and possibly intermixed with yet another drill/cue--can be used by coaches to work towards good form. Some drills are never used for a particular kid, while another kid may need several reps of that drill. Some are only used once or twice, or when needed to go back and fix something. I wish it was easier...
 
Last edited:
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
I agree with Ken, and I believe this applies to pitching as well. Honestly, it applies to any teachable skill. First, it is important to have a teacher (instructor, coach, mom, dad, etc.) that understands the skill and is able to explain/demonstrate it in a way that the student/player can understand. Drills can be helpful, but the teacher needs to know when and how to apply these drills. From a teaching standpoint, I do not see this as being any different than a math tutor, gymnastics coach, or piano teacher. While the thought of a "silver bullet" is desirable, I do not believe one exists.
 
Nov 12, 2013
417
18
maritimes
i don't believe in a silver bullet either but as with teaching math there is a process of building on previous knowledge and work that must be done by the student. progression through the ir throwing drills wil give a good foundation for proper pitching mechanics.
 
Sep 17, 2009
1,637
83
Colin, I don't think your question is off-base at all. There are areas where progressions lead to burning in good mechanics. I think the IR drills you mention on the pitching side, from what I can see (I don't have a pitcher as a DD or work with pitchers) do some of that. Austin Wasserman has built his ideas about throwing into a series of 10 drills that burn in a new throwing mechanic. The Howard Kobata fielding tapes could be used as a progression series to burn in the fielding footwork and on-the-move throwing techniques he likes. All of these drill sequences require good instruction and coaching alongside them, no doubt

I don't see the same thing existing on the hitting side that you can pick up "off-the-shelf" and just implement. I'm not sure why (well I have some thoughts on why, but that's another post). I think what ends up happening is that DFPers take drills and ideas here and create their own drill sequences. I know I've done that....I teach proper hand usage/grip and play a lot of pepper to start teaching live hands and burning in barrel turn; I then use drills including Babe Ruth (feet together), flamingo and happy gilmore variations to teach sequence and flow; I use stretch and fire drills (fully open, 45 degree angle, then regular stance) to teach coil, torque, pullback, short to the ball, barrel attached to body, etc. Beyond that I don't use a lot of tee "station" drills you'll sometimes see (like top hand, bottom hand, throwing disks, hit two balls, balance boards, etc. etc., etc. etc). My pet peeve is girls doing tee drills and going through motions and you ask them what they are trying to accomplish and they really don't know. Someone just told them to do it at one point. I get what I want from 4-5 key drills done perfectly (eventually) and with a good understanding by the hitter on what we are isolating, why, how it fits into their live swing and what it does for them in their live swing. What I WILL do do next with tees though is teach bat path and squaring the ball via in-middle-out-high-low ball position tee sequences into an open distance (ie, not in to a bow net). Girls should be able to hit line drives at all locations, no slicing, topping, or pushing allowed....line drives. We then do the same sort of work with relatively slow and controlled front-toss from about 20 feet pitcher behind a screen sitting on a bucket. Good contact and line drives to where ball is pitched. We start to work in change-up mechanics here too, sit and stretch to wait and give yourself something left to swing with. We then use machines to start to test mechanics under speed. Things break down. We refer back to drills and concepts to address specific issues. And ultimately lots of live pitching to again put pressure on mechanics and uncover problem areas.

That's my sequence. I've done it enough that I can start young girls from scratch or on the 18U team I coach move girls into it and through it without fighting against what they already know and hitting coaches/ideas they already work with (though if we see issues we try to fix them).

I picked everything up from DFP, HI, and various other sites, and adopted what I like and how I use it over time. Tewks (tewkshitting) has an ebook that tries to build something like a sequence but in my experience he's much more of a "feel" teacher so it's hard to take his stuff (which is good) and apply it in the way you are looking for. Maybe better for your needs is Justin Stone, whose video below is sometimes referenced by Eric F and others. He has done some work to make a "program" out of a lot of the ideas that once you see them are clear that he picked up at least in part from Internet hitting sites like DFP. He has something he calls his "sequential hitting series" (ha, there's a sequence for you!) that you can find here: Sequential Hitting « Baseball Training Video Program | Hitting Training Videos | Pitching Training Videos :: Elite Baseball – EliteBaseball.tv Stone used to teach (mostly baseball) out of the same academy my DDs played at back in the day, he's a really smart guy and instructor. I've seen a few other guys lately pop up with pretty polished hitting sites (Coach Lisle is one I've seen), but I haven't vetted them so I can't really vouch one way or another about them, others might....

 
Last edited:
Jan 4, 2012
3,852
38
OH-IO
Colin, I don't think your question is off-base at all. There are areas where progressions lead to burning in good mechanics. I think the IR drills you mention on the pitching side, from what I can see (I don't have a pitcher as a DD or work with pitchers) do some of that. Austin Wasserman has built his ideas about throwing into a series of 10 drills that burn in a new throwing mechanic. The Howard Kobata fielding tapes could be used as a progression series to burn in the fielding footwork and on-the-move throwing techniques he likes. All of these drill sequences require good instruction and coaching alongside them, no doubt

I don't see the same thing existing on the hitting side that you can pick up "off-the-shelf" and just implement. I'm not sure why (well I have some thoughts on why, but that's another post). I think what ends up happening is that DFPers take drills and ideas here and create their own drill sequences. I know I've done that....I teach proper hand usage/grip and play a lot of pepper to start teaching live hands and burning in barrel turn; I then use drills including Babe Ruth (feet together), flamingo and happy gilmore variations to teach sequence and flow; I use stretch and fire drills (fully open, 45 degree angle, then regular stance) to teach coil, torque, pullback, short to the ball, barrel attached to body, etc. Beyond that I don't use a lot of tee "station" drills you'll sometimes see (like top hand, bottom hand, throwing disks, hit two balls, balance boards, etc. etc., etc. etc). My pet peeve is girls doing tee drills and going through motions and you ask them what they are trying to accomplish and they really don't know. Someone just told them to do it at one point. I get what I want from 4-5 key drills done perfectly (eventually) and with a good understanding by the hitter on what we are isolating, why, how it fits into their live swing and what it does for them in their live swing. What I WILL do do next with tees though is teach bat path and squaring the ball via in-middle-out-high-low ball position tee sequences into an open distance (ie, not in to a bow net). Girls should be able to hit line drives at all locations, no slicing, topping, or pushing allowed....line drives. We then do the same sort of work with relatively slow and controlled front-toss from about 20 feet pitcher behind a screen sitting on a bucket. Good contact and line drives to where ball is pitched. We start to work in change-up mechanics here too, sit and stretch to wait and give yourself something left to swing with. We then use machines to start to test mechanics under speed. Things break down. We refer back to drills and concepts to address specific issues. And ultimately lots of live pitching to again put pressure on mechanics and uncover problem areas.

That's my sequence. I've done it enough that I can start young girls from scratch or on the 18U team I coach move girls into it and through it without fighting against what they already know and hitting coaches/ideas they already work with (though if we see issues we try to fix them).

I picked everything up from DFP, HI, and various other sites, and adopted what I like and how I use it over time. Tewks (tewkshitting) has an ebook that tries to build something like a sequence but in my experience he's much more of a "feel" teacher so it's hard to take his stuff (which is good) and apply it in the way you are looking for. Maybe better for your needs is Justin Stone, whose video below is sometimes referenced by Eric F and others. He has done some work to make a "program" out of a lot of the ideas that once you see them are clear that he picked up at least in part from Internet hitting sites like DFP. He has something he calls his "sequential hitting series" (ha, there's a sequence for you!) that you can find here: Sequential Hitting « Baseball Training Video Program | Hitting Training Videos | Pitching Training Videos :: Elite Baseball – EliteBaseball.tv Stone used to teach (mostly baseball) out of the same academy my DDs played at back in the day, he's a really smart guy and instructor. I've seen a few other guys lately pop up with pretty polished hitting sites (Coach Lisle is one I've seen), but I haven't vetted them so I can't really vouch one way or another about them, others might....

Best Answer I ever seen on here...on hitting !!!!!!!!!!! Even has a video!!!!!!!!!

Now to index it with the clips ...

Babe.gif


is this one good enough ? ~BabeRuth Drill~ Noticed he didn't bring the hands down very far... maybe you got a better one?
 
Last edited:
Nov 15, 2016
26
0
Colin, I don't think your question is off-base at all. There are areas where progressions lead to burning in good mechanics. I think the IR drills you mention on the pitching side, from what I can see (I don't have a pitcher as a DD or work with pitchers) do some of that. Austin Wasserman has built his ideas about throwing into a series of 10 drills that burn in a new throwing mechanic. The Howard Kobata fielding tapes could be used as a progression series to burn in the fielding footwork and on-the-move throwing techniques he likes. All of these drill sequences require good instruction and coaching alongside them, no doubt

I don't see the same thing existing on the hitting side that you can pick up "off-the-shelf" and just implement. I'm not sure why (well I have some thoughts on why, but that's another post). I think what ends up happening is that DFPers take drills and ideas here and create their own drill sequences. I know I've done that....I teach proper hand usage/grip and play a lot of pepper to start teaching live hands and burning in barrel turn; I then use drills including Babe Ruth (feet together), flamingo and happy gilmore variations to teach sequence and flow; I use stretch and fire drills (fully open, 45 degree angle, then regular stance) to teach coil, torque, pullback, short to the ball, barrel attached to body, etc. Beyond that I don't use a lot of tee "station" drills you'll sometimes see (like top hand, bottom hand, throwing disks, hit two balls, balance boards, etc. etc., etc. etc). My pet peeve is girls doing tee drills and going through motions and you ask them what they are trying to accomplish and they really don't know. Someone just told them to do it at one point. I get what I want from 4-5 key drills done perfectly (eventually) and with a good understanding by the hitter on what we are isolating, why, how it fits into their live swing and what it does for them in their live swing. What I WILL do do next with tees though is teach bat path and squaring the ball via in-middle-out-high-low ball position tee sequences into an open distance (ie, not in to a bow net). Girls should be able to hit line drives at all locations, no slicing, topping, or pushing allowed....line drives. We then do the same sort of work with relatively slow and controlled front-toss from about 20 feet pitcher behind a screen sitting on a bucket. Good contact and line drives to where ball is pitched. We start to work in change-up mechanics here too, sit and stretch to wait and give yourself something left to swing with. We then use machines to start to test mechanics under speed. Things break down. We refer back to drills and concepts to address specific issues. And ultimately lots of live pitching to again put pressure on mechanics and uncover problem areas.

That's my sequence. I've done it enough that I can start young girls from scratch or on the 18U team I coach move girls into it and through it without fighting against what they already know and hitting coaches/ideas they already work with (though if we see issues we try to fix them).

I picked everything up from DFP, HI, and various other sites, and adopted what I like and how I use it over time. Tewks (tewkshitting) has an ebook that tries to build something like a sequence but in my experience he's much more of a "feel" teacher so it's hard to take his stuff (which is good) and apply it in the way you are looking for. Maybe better for your needs is Justin Stone, whose video below is sometimes referenced by Eric F and others. He has done some work to make a "program" out of a lot of the ideas that once you see them are clear that he picked up at least in part from Internet hitting sites like DFP. He has something he calls his "sequential hitting series" (ha, there's a sequence for you!) that you can find here: Sequential Hitting « Baseball Training Video Program | Hitting Training Videos | Pitching Training Videos :: Elite Baseball – EliteBaseball.tv Stone used to teach (mostly baseball) out of the same academy my DDs played at back in the day, he's a really smart guy and instructor. I've seen a few other guys lately pop up with pretty polished hitting sites (Coach Lisle is one I've seen), but I haven't vetted them so I can't really vouch one way or another about them, others might....



Guys I don't agree with teaching the back foot to anchor...If the hip roation in delayed then this is exactly bug squishing...You have to have the hip going sooner
 

rdbass

It wasn't me.
Jun 5, 2010
9,131
83
Not here.
Guys I don't agree with teaching the back foot to anchor...If the hip roation in delayed then this is exactly bug squishing...You have to have the hip going sooner

The rear leg turns the hip. The hips RESISTS rotation.
Thome2012.gif

Show me the 'bug squish' in this swing.
The movement of the hips is the follow through that happens after the power release/swing. Hip movement is not the cause but, the effect.
Try this:
Take some cuts with the idea of NEVER LETTING YOUR REAR HEEL LEAVE THE GROUND....and watch your suddenness and power increase. It will move despite your effort to not let it move....but that effort to not let it move is where the power comes from.

I would search/read/learn/try/demo/practice....
SNF

Guys I don't agree with teaching the back foot
to anchor
Nor I but, I also wouldn't teach the back foot. Again not the cause but, the effect (rear foot look).
 
Last edited:
Jul 16, 2013
4,659
113
Pennsylvania
My pet peeve is girls doing tee drills and going through motions and you ask them what they are trying to accomplish and they really don't know. Someone just told them to do it at one point. I get what I want from 4-5 key drills done perfectly (eventually) and with a good understanding by the hitter on what we are isolating, why, how it fits into their live swing and what it does for them in their live swing.

I also think this is an excellent post. And I have been around here long enough to appreciate what RichK has to offer. He has a ton of great posts on DFP. However, this excerpt above is my concern. RichK can get the most out of this progression because he understands what he is trying to teach and is able to convey that to the students. I feel the same way about pitching. I agree with colin that the i/r thread is a classic and can be a great starting point for a new pitcher. However, any drill (even an i/r drill) can be done incorrectly. And if the person learning the drill doesn't learn it correctly, it can cause more harm than good, IMO. Our team practices at a facility with 6 inside cages. We typically use three of the cages with our team and there is usually someone else in the other cages. I see some very good hitters that are focused completely on their process. But I see plenty of others that are simply going through the motions or doing drills completely wrong without their coach or parent helping them along. These may be the best drills in the world, but if they are not applied correctly, I seriously doubt these hitters will improve very much.
 

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