Help tracking the pitch

Coach Al · Jun 5, 2012

My granddaughter has a good swing and can recognize a pitch as a strike early but she does follow the ball well near the plate. We had her eyes checked and her vision is fine. She just doesn't follow the ball all the way to contact. Any suggestions on drills the could help?

softballphreak · Jun 5, 2012

I read about a drill the other day that might help. From Coach Becky Wittenburg <becky@softball-practice-plans.com>

Here's a link to the video:

Softball Coaching - Vision Hitting Drill

It's a baseball video but the principle is the same.

FiveFrameSwing · Jun 5, 2012

Coach Al said:
My granddaughter has a good swing and can recognize a pitch as a strike early but she does follow the ball well near the plate. We had her eyes checked and her vision is fine. She just doesn't follow the ball all the way to contact. Any suggestions on drills the could help?

Bold above ... that's pretty typical. Most everyone swings to their "prediction" of where the ball will be at contact.

JAD · Jun 6, 2012

A simple drill is to have her stand in the box, with a bat on her shoulder calling pitches. She does not swing, but calls balls and strikes as soon as she recognizes the pitch and she has to follow the ball with her eyes all the way to the catchers mitt.

left turn · Jun 6, 2012

Front soft toss with numbered tennis balls. Use yellow tennis balls and write the number in black marker. Batter calls out the number on the ball as they hit it.

rdbass · Jun 6, 2012

Coach Al,
You say GDD recongnizes a strike.Do you mean she knows a good pitch to swing at(strike),but is not making contact?

Coach Al · Jun 6, 2012

rdbass said:
Coach Al,
You say GDD recongnizes a strike.Do you mean she knows a good pitch to swing at(strike),but is not making contact?

That's right, she doesn't follow the ball to contact.

IACoach · Jun 6, 2012

We have a dozen white softballs with numbers in three different colors. At first they were for fielding - watching the ball into the glove - but I also started using them for batting with a front soft toss. I spin them well and have the girls tell me what number and/or color after contact is made. some are perfect and others are not even close. We also use two or four seem pitches with yellow balls. They seem to pick that up easier than the numbers and colors - or they are just better guessers with only two choices. I started to have my 5th/6th grade rec team tell the first base coach after each hit what it was - always the same but they have not caught on yet.

redhotcoach · Jun 6, 2012

Try to get some video. I have a girl on tb team that kills front toss. Looks to most people like she has a great swing, but she drops her hands enough that she swings just under every pitch. Unfortunately she dosent put in enough extra work and probably see the end of her tb "career"

Help tracking the pitch

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Coach Al

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FiveFrameSwing

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JAD

left turn

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rdbass

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Coach Al

IACoach

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