Practice Swing To Game Swing

What's the average time frame for swing changes that are working in practice to become the normal in game situations. Its one thing to perfect a swing in a cage but another to take that same swing to the field and perform with pressure on. I've heard the number 3000 swings before but was sure it that applied to this situation.

Were patient and don't want to rush but what are reasonable expectations?

It depends on what you are changing and when.

It is hard to change a player in season, off season you will have better results.

Like you mentioned there is a lot of pressure on the Player in season as a coach you can beat your head against a wall and not get anywhere because they want to do it the way they have done it before and been successful.

James Smith said:

It depends on what you are changing and when.

It is hard to change a player in season, off season you will have better results.

Like you mentioned there is a lot of pressure on the Player in season as a coach you can beat your head against a wall and not get anywhere because they want to do it the way they have done it before and been successful.

Click to expand...

Also it depends on the kid as well, both my DD's take to changes pretty well, also what I've noticed is a lot of kids are afraid to fail meaning that when they're taking their practice swing to the game they will revert back to the way their comfortable swinging because it has worked before. I always tell my kids when taking a swing to the game to it will get worse before it gets better(not mechanically though) just from the swing being different.

Making sure the swing stays intact through different training phases.

1. Tee
2. side toss (to start adjusting for timing)
3. Front toss
4. slower machine pitch (say 5 mph lower than average game speed) at slightly closer distance (with arm circle duplicating wind up)
5.live pitch and regular speed machine pitch (with arm circle duplicating wind up)
6.Blazing Machine Pitch mixed with average machine pitch (with arm circle duplicating wind up)

At each stage video and review in slo-mo

lhowser said:

Making sure the swing stays intact through different training phases.

1. Tee
2. side toss (to start adjusting for timing)
3. Front toss
4. slower machine pitch (say 5 mph lower than average game speed) at slightly closer distance (with arm circle duplicating wind up)
5.live pitch and regular speed machine pitch (with arm circle duplicating wind up)
6.Blazing Machine Pitch mixed with average machine pitch (with arm circle duplicating wind up)

At each stage video and review in slo-mo

Click to expand...

Good Stuff Thanks!

IMO a must for obsessed hitting moms and dads is learn how to pitch. Sitting on a bucket or chair and pitching over hand is pretty good too. Try to get close to their normal pitching distance. Up close toss is ok, but IMO trouble starts when the distance gets farther and speed/location varies greatly.

redhotcoach said:

IMO a must for obsessed hitting moms and dads is learn how to pitch. Sitting on a bucket or chair and pitching over hand is pretty good too. Try to get close to their normal pitching distance. Up close toss is ok, but IMO trouble starts when the distance gets farther and speed/location varies greatly.

Click to expand...

As an obsessed hitting parent, I resent that I can't just buy this valuable hitting tool. I actually have to work to get it? I'm terrible at front toss, although I do the best I can, lobbing my semi-slow pitch slop to her. I really envy those who can throw good batting practice. What I throw is a circle change. It's the only way I can throw strikes.

lhowser said:

Making sure the swing stays intact through different training phases.

1. Tee
2. side toss (to start adjusting for timing)
3. Front toss
4. slower machine pitch (say 5 mph lower than average game speed) at slightly closer distance (with arm circle duplicating wind up)
5.live pitch and regular speed machine pitch (with arm circle duplicating wind up)
6.Blazing Machine Pitch mixed with average machine pitch (with arm circle duplicating wind up)

Click to expand...

I like this progression, although I don't like ''blazing'' speeds if they are unrealistic. Not sure what you consider 'blazing'. I worry that it encourages hitters to take short cuts (ie, not having time to load/coil/stride properly). What do you see when you turn up the dial on the machine pitch?

As an obsessed hitting parent, I resent that I can't just buy this valuable hitting tool. I actually have to work to get it? I'm terrible at front toss, although I do the best I can, lobbing my semi-slow pitch slop to her. I really envy those who can throw good batting practice. What I throw is a circle change. It's the only way I can throw strikes.

Click to expand...

I pitched as a young man in baseball and practiced pitching submarine style. When I first started pitching to DD and other kids I threw a submarine pitch, then through time and effort I was able to pitch pretty good windmill.

I like this progression, although I don't like ''blazing'' speeds if they are unrealistic. Not sure what you consider 'blazing'. I worry that it encourages hitters to take short cuts (ie, not having time to load/coil/stride properly). What do you see when you turn up the dial on the machine pitch?

Click to expand...

I started putting daughter in front of a 70 MPH Irion Mike baseball pitching machine with the ideal of vision training. I had her come to toe touch and work on tracking the ball and vision. Then we progressed to bunting, then we moved closer to the machine and finally she wanted to swing at a few in the beginning she was able to tip a few at first, but missed most and then she became where she could hit pretty consistent of the machine.

My original intent for her was seeing a faster pitch with a smaller ball would help her track and visualize the larger ball at slower speeds in games.

Then I read where Hitter/Howard talked about the Bond’s Drill and found it to be very helpful to DD and others as they faced better pitching.

This week I got the DW involved to help with front toss...she's actually pretty good. This allowed me to watch DD's swing and tape what was going on without having to wait until later to look at the video. I had her stop between each swing so she could focus on what we were working on, and we talked about how it felt etc... It seemed to be really helpful but definitely took longer. However, at one point they started talking about hair styles, so I had to threaten to make them do burpees

redhotcoach said:

IMO a must for obsessed hitting moms and dads is learn how to pitch. Sitting on a bucket or chair and pitching over hand is pretty good too. Try to get close to their normal pitching distance. Up close toss is ok, but IMO trouble starts when the distance gets farther and speed/location varies greatly.

Click to expand...

Got out in the cage tonight with video and me pitching overhand BP to DD. The difference in her swing is huge. She doesn't load her hands or turn the barrel when i pitch live to her. She does when I duplicate windmill with the machine. I guess I will be pitching overhand live BP until she is comfortable with the changes.

Thanks for all the tips once again.