Baseball instructors teaching fastpitch--

Cannonball said:

A lot of young ladies don't pull the trigger on the inside pitch because that isn't where they are looking. My dd rarely ever sees an inside pitch. I do love it when she does.

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Always should be looking for inside pitch, then you can adjust to outside, cannot do opposite. Always look for high fastball, and can adjust down and slower as well. Cannot do opposite.

Ted said that history was made on the inside half of the plate. Epstein places a lot of emphasis on "correctly" tucking the rear elbow because it facilitates a tight hand path. If a softball player can't handle the inside pitch, they are likely either late, or they are casting/extending into contact.

If a hitter has a tight hand path and is still always late on the inside pitch, then perhaps it's time to spend more time on the mental part of hitting.

starsnuffer said:

Let's see, a boy swinging a 30 oz bat at a 5oz ball coming downhill, vs a girl swinging a 20 oz bat at a 7oz ball coming up hill. Yeah, sure it's the same thing, right?

-W

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IMO, the physics that apply to hitting a softball are the same as hitting a baseball. The benefit of the baseball swing is that it is not a grooved swing and the swing plane can be adjusted to different pitch planes. Every player has to figure out what their ideal general swing plane is for their particular body type and sport. Some hitters are more upright while others lean back a little more.

Here is how Jen Yee puts it:

"A more efficient swing is one that has the most room for error. Error being in misjudgment of timing or location, we are only human with far from perfect hand-eye coordination after all. Therefore, our goals as hitters are 1) to achieve the highest bat speed possible at the point of contact, giving the most power 2) to create a smooth bat path on the same plane in which the ball is traveling for as long as possible, giving a higher percentage of solid contact."

It makes sense to me.

Sluggers, one of the problems might be the hitters don't have a strategy to hit the inside pitch. That, and they may not see enough inside pitches to get used to them.

I used to think like Livingontheroad -- look for an inside pitch and adjust outside. The logic was you have to get to an inside pitch quicker, so you look for that, and then if it's outside you have time to make the adjustment.

After doing some reading (and thinking) I have changed that view. I now train hitters to look outside and then speed up to hit the inside pitch. The main reason is if you're looking inside and adjusting outside, you have to slow down. You're not going to hit very well that way. But if you look outside and adjust inside you'll speed up, which will give you more attack on the ball.

Now, all of this assumes your hitters aren't reaching out to hit the outside pitch, i.e. letting their hands go out toward the ball. If they are, and the pitch is inside, they'll have a tendency to "hit around" the ball rather than hit through it. The hands should stay in, connected to the back shoulder as Chris was saying. If the hitter sees the pitch is on the outside edge she can let the hands out a little. But too many hitters let the hands get too far away too soon, which means they can't adjust to the inside pitch very well. I like my hitter to have full plate coverage with the same basic swing, just adjusting where they make contact with the ball.

Greenmonster, I agree about the corners. We do a progression hitting drill where I throw balls at her hip. If her swing is efficient enough, she can drive that ball. Therefore, when someone comes in, she's practiced that a lot. BTW, I had a young lady come today to hit with my dd. Her dad came along as well. This young lady has been doing this drill with my dd for about 2 weeks. He was amazed at how fast his dd could get the barrel to the ball.

"Progression drill" = First pitch at front hip. Second pitch down the middle. Third pitch outside. Begin cycle again. Sometimes we do this by bouncing the ball as well.