12 U hitting

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May 22, 2008
351
0
NW Pennsylvania
I am coaching a 12U travel team (intermediate talent at best). I need some help on hitting- especially harder throwing pitchers. My girls will hit respectably on weak pitching, then either go into freeze-up or stand begging for a walk on decent pitching. Hitting mechanics go to heck as well when faced with a decent pitcher.
Also the girls tend to swing late on every pitcher (regardless of speed) the first swing or 2 at least. Any ttips on that??? Thanks, Lane
 
May 7, 2008
235
0
Lane.

There is some great hitting instruction going on in the Hitting Forum.

Welcome aboard...

Ang
 

FastpitchFan

Softball fan
Feb 28, 2008
465
0
Montreal, Canada
Hi JC,

Fast pitching is hard to hit at any level. It gets worse when the ball starts moving. Check this discussion:
http://ask.metafilter.com/64249/Are-fastpitch-softball-pitchers-indestructable

To hit faster pitching, your athletes need to recognize the pitch faster. What is happening right now (and super common) is that your hitters can't process the information (where it is thrown, what to do with it) fast enough.

That takes time and training. Practices and games are two different things - trust me.

Don't change all their swings (assuming fundamentals are correct) but emphasize short, compact.

Work on reaction hitting drills. Fast pitching machines can help a bit but not that much in my experience. It's just not the same as a pitcher. What I would do though is a lot of "FRONT" toss with whiffle balls from 10-15 feet, or real balls (from behind a net or protective screen) from short distances to teach them how to process the info faster.

Again - hitting forum has a lot of great stuff.

Marc
 
May 12, 2008
2,214
0
I am coaching a 12U travel team (intermediate talent at best). I need some help on hitting- especially harder throwing pitchers. My girls will hit respectably on weak pitching, then either go into freeze-up or stand begging for a walk on decent pitching. Hitting mechanics go to heck as well when faced with a decent pitcher.
Also the girls tend to swing late on every pitcher (regardless of speed) the first swing or 2 at least. Any ttips on that??? Thanks, Lane

Lots of good discussion on here but you don't have time to sort, learn and track down. I suggest Englishbey's materials.
 

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