Advice for FBC when using a pitching machine?

[corlay]

Start her with her maybe 4" apart

feet?

and start her hands low and more forward (lead elbow on the pitchers side of her belly button). When the ball is about to be put in machine tell her to start lifting her front foot to stride and as that happens try and keep the hands in place (not come forward) so that her lead elbow ends up on the catchers side of her belly button.
(...)
Starting in a narrow stance and striding right before ball comes out will give your daughter a chance to either speed up or slow down the sequence to be able to adjust if she is early (ball doesn't come out as expected) or if she starts a little late - as long as her hands work/stay back during the stride.

thanks! we will try this.

My hitters work this way frequently and don't have issues hitting off machine and it reinforces a good sequence.

This is it - what prompted my question.
I just couldn't see a way how using the machine doesn't send her into regression with regard to mechanics/sequence.

And I totally agree it is a skill to be developed as machines are used quite frequently at showcases and camps.

;-)

 

[Buttermaker]

Sorry - yes feet.

 

[CoogansBluff]

Machines can be the devil. Last week, my DD was hitting off one in HS practice and had a nightmare series of about 12 straight where she failed to put a ball in play, missing entirely on many. She called it traumatic, and her best friend on the team promised to bring her cookies the next day at school to make her feel better. Then the next day, machine must've been set a little differently, and DD was hitting fine. But, her best friend, who happens to be the team's best hitter, had suddenly lost it and couldn't put the ball in play. She went storming off to the cage to do some tee work to figure it out.

Machines are good tools, but they can deliver some unnatural events related to timing and flight path that can befuddle the heck out of hitters from time to time.

 

[rdbass]

Machines can be the devil. Last week, my DD was hitting off one in HS practice and had a nightmare series of about 12 straight where she failed to put a ball in play, missing entirely on many. She called it traumatic, and her best friend on the team promised to bring her cookies the next day at school to make her feel better. Then the next day, machine must've been set a little differently, and DD was hitting fine. But, her best friend, who happens to be the team's best hitter, had suddenly lost it and couldn't put the ball in play. She went storming off to the cage to do some tee work to figure it out.

Machines are good tools, but they can deliver some unnatural events related to timing and flight path that can befuddle the heck out of hitters from time to time.

Was the 'feeder' different from one day to the next. I have seen some 'feeders' really mess up a hitters timing. I know a hitter during live pitching needs to time the ball but, the sequence needs to be able to start with timing the pitcher. The start of the timing sequence off of the machine/pitcher is where the problem rises. The hitter has a hard time figuring out when to start their sequence then winds up being rushed through their sequence.

 

[CoogansBluff]

Was the 'feeder' different from one day to the next.

Yes, different feeders.

 

[Stimer]

What we do with our girls that have this same issue is we cut a tennis ball in half and place it under the outside of the back foot so most of the weight is on the inside of the back foot. The ball gives a little so and helps the girls moving laterally without changing their stance. The first thing to go is lateral movement on a machine since they can't pick up the timing sometimes. It becomes more of a rotational and arm swing. If they don't swing with good weight transfer it tends to collapse the back leg a little and it provides instant feedback. They usually will tell us, "I didn't get off my back foot" before we even tell them. I am not crazy about changing the stance when doing machine work vs. live pitching. I really want to keep them starting in the same position so the loading phase doesn't change. For some reason the slap hitters really like this because they said it helps them get started since it's harder to pick the ball.

Heck, worst case if it doesn't work, you only spent $3 and you still have two good tennis balls!

 

[Shawn]

Hold one ball in the chute with one hand, have a ball in the other hand making a motion down (backswing only). This allow for some timing. Since you are holding one ball in the chute you can cut back on the ball not going into the chute cleanly. This also helps with timing.