Swinging at the high pitches

Chris Delorit said:

Coach,

It's very important that you train the eyes to identify the softball within it's path from release to contact. If you have a young, anxious (freshman) hitter who hasn't yet been trained to be able to track the 11 or 12" object, and eventually identify the spin on that object, you will never coach her out of a guessing game. Without that, it's a fly-swatting contest. Suggestion is to micro-focus within those drills, and then you can slowly work outwards into a macro-focus (soft-focus) mode. Really develop that mental engrainment, which should eventually lead to better anxiety control (because she'll now better understand ball trajectory) and more relaxed body language (as she's more confident in her actual ability to hit the ball).

Eventually, her goal is to become very relaxed in the box, both mentally & physically. Remember, she's a freshman. The game should eventually slow down with proper training, experiences & successes. In the process, soft-focus within a general range of vision of the ball path is an extremely important aspect to mental relaxation. What absolutely must occur at a point shortly after the pitcher's release...is an hyper-level of focal sharpness. Soft-focus and focal sharpness can, and will eventually co-exist together as she becomes more experienced as a growing player with developing skills.

Chris

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Coach Ky-Ky said:

Well,.... That got dark in a hurry.
Okay, I understand what you mean.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk

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cvsoftball said:

constantly talk to your players, nothing high, nothing low ( as in out of the strike zone) and I mean constantly. when I'm coaching third and a girl swings at a high pitch, I make her take one foot out of the box and look at me and then I simply ask her, "can you hit that?" and she will answer "no", and I will keep asking her that every time she swings at a high pitch. it works.

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Chris Delorit said:

Coach,

You have some differing opinions, it's all good. Hopefully, you can disect the thread a bit and find something useful to help with your original post.

Will add one last piece of info relative to my prior post...to get to trajectory, you first need spin. The exception is a "fastball" and gravity's effect on it.

Best of luck!


Chris



Best of luck!

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Chris Delorit said:

Folks,

Think of trajectory as a path through space, which can be altered by many different conditions. For those of you who who've ever experienced a Calculus class, it's really about determining slope relative to say a right angle. It's what engineers use to make those perfect freeway ramps.

For pitchers, several conditions can & often will alter trajectory. Examples are release angle, pitch speed, seam revolutions (spin), wind direction (cross breeze, head wind & tail wind), humidity, air density (elevation) and so on. There's also pitching rubber to home plate distance & gravity.

If you wish to try and develop really good hitters, it's a very important to recognize the need to train them to recognize the conditions which will affect trajectory.

In terms of the rise ball, drop ball, curve or change...a hitter can, and should be taught to identify it via seam rotation. The good ones do. Successes and/or failures will depend on that skill. There's an old saying...if you really want to hit .500, you've got to have a .500 mindset.

Chris

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Chris Delorit said:

Folks,

Think of trajectory as a path through space, which can be altered by many different conditions. For those of you who who've ever experienced a Calculus class, it's really about determining slope relative to say a right angle. It's what engineers use to make those perfect freeway ramps.

For pitchers, several conditions can & often will alter trajectory. Examples are release angle, pitch speed, seam revolutions (spin), wind direction (cross breeze, head wind & tail wind), humidity, air density (elevation) and so on. There's also pitching rubber to home plate distance & gravity.

If you wish to try and develop really good hitters, it's a very important to recognize the need to train them to recognize the conditions which will affect trajectory.

In terms of the rise ball, drop ball, curve or change...a hitter can, and should be taught to identify it via seam rotation. The good ones do. Successes and/or failures will depend on that skill. There's an old saying...if you really want to hit .500, you've got to have a .500 mindset.

Chris

Click to expand...