Can't hit off the machine

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

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

Sep 11, 2014
229
0
Pa
My oldest DD has always been a reliable, contact hitter in game. Lays beautiful bunts (but is slow running, so sac bunts) and is consistent when hitting away. Good contact, but hits mostly singles partially due to slow running again. Anyway, she is HORRIBLE in the cage with a machine. I mean, all over the place. I think at this point is a lot mental, because she will tell me that is horrible at hitting off machines and doesn't like it. She says the fact of not having a pitcher to watch the motion messes her up with timing.

Any ideas? I know for a fact that the school team HC said they use the pitching machine a lot during practice and I don't want it held against her for being a weak batter on the machine. I am sure after a few games, he would see the difference.
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
She says the fact of not having a pitcher to watch the motion messes her up with timing.

She is right and she is wrong, she is probably starting her swing after the ball in launched.

There are different type of machines, she needs to find something she can time her swing off of.
 
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
On the good side, I'd rather have a player than can hit pitching and not a machine than the other way around. Her complaint is spot-on with the problem of machines - lack of a good timing indicator. Part of this may be due to the machine, or how it's being used. Our team (12U TB) does a fair amount of with with machines, but the machine feeder (usually me), provides a timing mechanism by lifting the ball up before bringing it down into the feed shoot. If your DD is hitting off an auto-feed machine, finding a timing indicator may be very difficult.

One thing that may help is approaching machine work with a "Command Drill" approach. Basically, get the body all the way to the point of launch, and hold there until it's actually time to launch the swing - no resetting, no additional loading, just launch. Focus on quickness. (Search the hitting sections for more info on the "Command Drill")

How old is your DD?
 
May 17, 2012
2,804
113
I don't see a correlation between hitting off of a machine and live pitching. It's just a tool in the toolbox (pitching machine).

Some hitters are better at it than others. I suspect it's just practice (specifically getting down he timing as others suggested).
 
Sep 11, 2014
229
0
Pa
DD is 16 tomorrow....here come the gray hairs from teaching her to drive. Then more when I start to teach her to drive stick.

When I feed, I hold a ball in the feeder and do an arm circle, dropping the ball when a pitcher would release it. She does good with this. The other coaches just show the ball as they lower into the feeder and drop it in. No real way to get a timing indicator. I have tried to get them (other coaches) to do the arm circle as I feel it helps, but they won't.

I will try the command drill approach, but I know that her HC will be telling her to take a full swing. She takes a stride, so I would imagine that if we removed the stride in the cage he would notice and have something to say about it. If I am correct, the command drill would remove her stride and separation where she would start from toe tap? Then again, with the amount of cage time they have had so far (2 hour indoor practice of just BP once a week) I wouldn't want her to practice this way so much that she would convert to this swing in game.

Practice right now, as mentioned above is 2 hours of these 4-5 drills: Bottom hand only swing off tee (we do not do top hand, not sure why?), 2 hand swing off tee, soft toss with tennis balls, in the cage. Rotate through those drills for 2 hours. That's it. We rarely get the gym, but when we do, we are able to do fielding, etc but hitting is always the same. Sometimes the bottom hand only drill is removed for a front shoulder drill where player (RH batter) stands with her left arm straight out, and has to swing using only her right arm. Nothing else can move, front shoulder is supposed to stay closed and hand/arm cant move up and down.
 
May 24, 2013
12,461
113
So Cal
You're doing it right by simulating a pitching motion. Any player that has a slow-and-early pre-swing pattern will struggle off a machine if not given a timing mechanism to work with. If the coaches aren't willing to adapt their feeling technique to help their hitters, then then the hitters will either struggle, or have to make adjustments to their approach in the cage.
 
Sep 17, 2009
1,637
83
I don't want to sound mean but the answer is: figure it out. It's the same with any drill or skill a player isn't good at. Figure it out. Don't do it less. Do it more until you get good at it.

I don't require feeders to do a fake windmill motion, because it's just that...fake. IMO, it has no more relation to how the ball actually comes out of the machine then a feeder showing the ball then slowly dropping it into the shoot. Hitter just has to find some trigger to time against. It's not like feeders (I wouldn't think) are deliberately trying to deceive a hitter or throw off their timing. If they show and drop, time off the first move downward. Just figure it out.

More than anything, do NOT let her train herself to believe she can't hit off a machine. Don't let her tell herself she can only hit a machine if the feeder does a fake windmill. Don't let her fall back on "machines are hard to time."

Why? Because someday, someplace, somewhere out of your control -- a high school tryout, an exposure camp, a college team -- someone is going to put her up against a machine and she'll have to succeed against it or lose something that truly matters to her. Better to fail now, figure it out, and then be ready to succeed when it really counts.

We had kids who hated the machine, so we started working on a drill where we'd have them keep moving closer to the machine each time they hit. Then they REALLY had to figure it out.

My one piece of advice based on experience is that 99% of machine misses will be because she's late -- others will say she's over or under but usually she's just late....
 

shaker1

Softball Junkie
Dec 4, 2014
894
18
On a bucket
Early or late. Especially if you take a stride. I made a longer version of the chute for our machine. Something that would let the girls see the ball longer before it hit the wheels. Before, we did the same as others, command drill, no slack.
 
Oct 10, 2011
3,117
0
What we did was use the "stretch and fire drill" or "command drill" to start so it's much easier to get the barrel on the ball. Then we moved to a regular swing once she was more used to the timing of that particular machine or ball feeder.
 
Feb 20, 2015
643
0
illinois
My DD struggled a lot hitting off of a pitching machine at the beginning of last year. For one thing, she had been off for a year due to a spinal fusion. Then, just like your dd, she got in her head that she "can't hit off of a machine." It really was a lot mental. With front toss, side toss, etc she could hit the ball. Back into the cage for swinging away, she would make contact with maybe 4/5 out of 10 pitches, and then those were really weak hits. After struggling with this for a couple of weeks, someone that was a hitting instructor observed that DD had a bad problem with her front shoulder opening up way too soon. Caused week hitting, and REALLY was exposed with the faster machine pitching. DD worked on some drills (one handed swings with both hands, flamingo drill, happy gilmore drill) all the while focusing on keeping that front shoulder in and not opening it up too soon. Hitting instructor reminded her a lot during the drills to keep shoulder in longer. After getting this flaw fixed, she was much, much better in the cage, and hitting line drives.

Obviously without video, not sure if your DD may have the same issue. Just a suggestion to look for. Good luck.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,481
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top