Bat speed radar

[Mr T]

I think for MLB it was roughly 90mph pitch connected well with 90mph swing, exit speed of 105 or 110 or something like that and ball hit at good angle travels 400'.

 

[MsDinosaur]

The drills are pretty simple. 40 dry swings then 60 swings to a ball off a T twice a week with a bat -7 to -8 oz lighter then her primary game bat. The trick is finding a bat relatively close in length but still weighs less. There are some specialty products for this that run about $40, but we were able to find something at play it again sports that works. The important thing here is that the kids actually do their homework, it isn't enough to just to do it at hitting lessons.

Here's a link to a Candrea skill list for under loading if you want to mix it up a bit. My DD's hitting coach experiemented with a lot of this and found that just doing the swings above several times a week achieved the same speed increases as these drills, but some people like to be complex for the sake of complexity, so here's the link: Developing Bat Speed by Underloading By Mike Candrea and Jerry Stitt

-W

I'm definitely going to have DD try these drills. The new swing speed radar gizmo arrived this week. IMO it's going to be great. The kid likes having something measureable to shoot for. We didn't have much time or daylight, but grabbed two bats and went outside. She swung her father's heavy wooden bat 12 mph slower than last year's composite and had a blast trying to make the numbers go up. I need to get her out there with her game bat to establish a baseline before we begin underloading in earnest.

 

[starsnuffer]

Awesome MsDinosaur, let us know how it goes!

DD's hitting coach had her doing drills on a basebalance board last night with the light underloaded bat. Their primary goal was to work on some extension issues, but it seems that using the light bat made DD think about her balance a bit more, relying on her own COG rather then bat inertia to transfer her weight, then then repeated with her game bat. Not really related to the thread but I thought I'd throw it out there, as I enjoy tools that have multiple uses.

-W

 

[MsDinosaur]

Wow!

We went outside Monday evening and DD took about 100 swings (dry and then hitting ATEC foam baseballs off a tee) with her 12 oz bat. Now I can't say it was all due to that one evening, because she was hitting pretty well in the tourney this weekend.

But...she was on fire at practice last night. Hard line drives and grounders everywhere. A screaming grounder just inside the 3rd base line followed by a line drive to right field, followed by hits up the middle. Her last shot took a nasty bounce and hurt our SS when she tried to field it. Luckily, it didn't actually injure her; she got back on her feet after a minute or two, but it was scary for a few moments. After practice, Coach came over to our car to give DD an atta-girl as we were preparing to drive away.

 

[baller]

Very good info in here

 

[iMlearning]

Agree with Tim. Plus a good hitting coach should use one. It will tell you if what you are teaching is working. It was used to prove the grip change of a device like the bat jack works. Otherwise it is just someone's opinion.

Speaking of the Bat Jack...got ours on and my dd used it for about 1 1/2 hours. Did your girls say anything about it when using it? My DD used it all night and never said a word about it good or bad and I forgot to ask. I guess it must have been comfortable and a non issue with the grip. She certainly was hitting well at any rate. I took it off for her team practice, and I'll put it back on and see if she says anything.

 

[redhotcoach]

Dd used it all winter. Never said anything. I think she likes it thou, on several occasions I have seen her setting up other girls with it. She thinks she is a jr batting coach, that p's off girls until they see her hit.