Practical hitting question.

LH non-slapper is a line drive hitter. Routinely hits up the middle or at least middle 1/3 of field gap to gap. She also has an uncanny ability to hit for base hits or doubles at will to the left 1/3 of the outfield (oppo). VERY high BA and can literally put any pitch in the strike zone to left field, some hit very hard and others sliced or dropped into no mans land. If she decides it is going to be picked up by the left fielder, it doesn't matter if you pitch her inside or out, the ball is going to touch grass on the left. Of course, the inside out swings don't have the same pop as an outside pitch, but still looks ok on the stat line.

Pulling the ball to the right is her weakness and results in more outs than using middle-away. Specifically speaking the inside pitch here and when she has the mindset to hit it where it is dealt.

Question is: Should we even work on the pull to right or just go with what works?

Hi Otto,

Yes, and yes...as your already describing your daughter as a very good hitter. To be a great hitter, with higher power numbers, she has to learn to identify location quicker in order to drive those middle-to-inside pitches out in front to where those balls should be hit, center & right fields.

Without video, it would be impossible to pin-point her mechanical issues. However, it's pretty easy to tell by your explanation that her muscle memory has be developed to inside-out everything. That's a flaw in her mechanics which will negatively affect her power numbers.

As a starter, I'd suggest getting the tee out & working two of the three contact locations (the imaginary diagonal line). Middle strike, middle height & contact within the front portion of home plate. Inside corner strike, lower height, contact out in front of home plate. Focus on releasing the barrel & get it out in front on those. There's no need to hold back the hands whatsoever. That mechanical habit will need to be broken.

Baby step from there into some location soft-toss, side postition & out front. There's all kinds of drills. Anything to train visual recognition of the pitch location & contact points.

Chris

I would ask......Is your DD hitting the ball 'where it's pitched'?

Otto, in 1998, I was the HC/AC for a very good HS Baseball Team. In fact, they were the #1 HS Team in America that year and went 40-0. We had a big, strong young man that seemed to always hit with power opposite. Still, I worked with him trying to work on driving the ball and pulling it. At one point, the HC came over and suggest that I stop working with him pulling the ball and accept that he would always go oppo. This guy, who was my mentor, allowed me to keep doing what I was doing and it paid dividends. This young man pulled a 2 run home run and then a grand slam in the state tournament over the left field fence. When he touched home plate on the grand slam, as his teammate were celebrating it, he stopped and took his hat off and tipped it to me. (I also coached 1st base.) Yes, you keep working on your hitter being able to pull the ball but you don't force anything.

rdbass said:

I would ask......Is your DD hitting the ball 'where it's pitched'?

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RD, that is one approach and I'd like to actually expose all three approaches that she uses routinely and then expand on those.

1. Hit the pitch hard where to the field that it was pitched.
2. Hit the pitch back up the middle.
3. Hit the ball to left field



Beginning with #1 above, RDB I like that mindset but find it less successful as described in the first post. Honestly, when the approach is to 'hit it where it is pitched, she has admitted that the well hit pulled balls are usually a result of expecting that inside pitch. In other words, when she guessed correctly it wasn't a problem. Now, we all know that guessing is not hitting it 'where it is pitched.' I'm just trying to be candid here and expose the truth to get some advice. So, the truth: she doesn't get around well on inside pitches when attempting to hit pitches 'where they are dealt.' I believe that this leads to the guessing and diminishes the overall chances of success since not every guess is correct.

Now, on to approach #2, that is the mindset of expecting the middle pitch and hitting the ball back up the middle. This approach has been wildly successful for this hitter over the years. Of key importance is knowing that pitches don't actually come down the middle, but by thinking this way and expecting middle, the margin of error results in a very high percentage of line drives to the middle 1/3 pie slice of the field. In fact, I notice that this approach actually does have an end result of 'hitting it where it was pitched' even though the approach sounds markedly different. The difference is that she hits everything from gap to gap, not foul line to foul line. She is not prone to chasing pitches that are horizontally out of the zone at all.

As for approach #3. It is the easy way on base for her, like shooting fish in a barrel. She will use this approach to get something going against great pitching. It is sort of like the bunter/slapper that takes what the defense gives. She knows this hit is always there, regardless of the pitching, and settles for it more often than I'd like. There is a place for this approach and it has been the difference in many tight games and is also a stat booster.


To Chris and CB, I get what you are saying. I'm not really comfortable giving up average chasing power, and that's why I'm here asking about this for other perspectives. The combination of #2&3 approaches has yielded incredible numbers, including extra base hits but alas not many HRs. I'll keep working with her. Hopefully this 'more info' post helps the thread continue for a while as I do appreciate the responses. Thank you very much.

Otto

I should add that being a LH hitter figures in significantly to this thread IMO. She knows very well from experience that she will see a far higher percentage of away pitches than the general population. This has proven to be true time and again and doesn't seem to make much difference when teams know that she doesn't slap. I believe that this has contributed both to the problem at hand and also her success.

I think this thread has the potential of helping other leftys too as there is a certain amount of apples to oranges when it comes to batting left vs right in fastpitch sb.

http://aarongleeman.com/2015/06/12/what-happened-to-joe-mauer/

The age and concussion variables notwithstanding, this article does allude to some of my concerns with pulling more balls.

Just curious...How old is she? What level is she playing?

Your welcome Otto. Your follow-up was well-detailed & presented.

The old saying, "you have to do what you have to do," probably applies with you & your daughter. You make a very legit point, don't fix what isn't broken. If you were to ask me, I'd agree with you, but only up to a point. You're daughter has success & you both wish to continue that success, without breaking it. If she hits gap-to-gap & can punch any ball she wants to left field with a consistantly high average, that tells me she tracks the ball well & deep into the zone with confidence. So, go with it.

You haven't specified an age, years of play & level of current play. So, I'll assume she's 12, plays B travel.

Here's to my point. As the competition gets better, so usually does the talent & quite often the coaching. You would want your daughter to keep what works, & then work on her holes. I can gaurantee that as she advances in age & competition level, that the pitchers get better & coaches will help them to see & exploit any hitter weaknesses. While pitching different to left-handed hitters may be accurate at certain levels, that will change as the competition gets better. If she's a predictable pitch selector, she may see alot of inside location, and especially if she inside-outs everything. Defenses are faster & will shift more often to tendancies, and so on.

Continue to enjoy those successes in the strength of her game. But, caution to conservatism, because your goal is to make her a complete hitter. If she's already as advanced as you mention, it may just be as easy as turning on the light bulb.

She has a natural advantage as a left-handed hitter, to do many things well.

Best of luck,
Chris

Eric F said:

Just curious...How old is she? What level is she playing?

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Eric/Chris: Her HS workouts are under way and she is a senior. She has played TB since the early days. School conferences are based on enrollment numbers and we are grouped with the big schools. It is a strong region for travel ball and those kids make up the HS rosters in our conference. At the varsity level, we consistently face college committed pitching, not SEC bound or anything but pretty good day in and day out. DD's BA was third highest in the conference overall last year. Interestingly, the top two were LH as well, but both of those were slappers. Behind these were some commits to Big 10 and other D1s.

DD is looking forward to the HS season, but she is also looking forward to NOT playing in college. She has this final season before hanging it up. Some better power would be great this year if it didn't sacrifice average very much. DD is not a big heavy kid and her bat speed isn't ridiculous. The team does have some big HR hitters as well but DD has always been a line driver. I surely love working with her and will miss it very much when this is over.

Do you have any video you can share of her swing? It's a LOT easier to diagnose issues with video than it is with just words.