- Oct 10, 2011
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This is the first thing I thought when I read the post. If the back foot is close to the line, the outside pitch should be no problem. It will probably just take some time to get used too.
College coach 2 strike hittting instructions.
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This is the first thing I thought when I read the post. If the back foot is close to the line, the outside pitch should be no problem. It will probably just take some time to get used too.
Sounds like its an attempt to measure a shorter path to contact. Maybe by removing the stretch/stride this coach is simply looking for a contact swing, that simply produces a "plunk" over the infield.??????
I'm more of a fan of maintaining the same fundamentals with 2 strikes and we use on the first couple strikes, with 2 minor differences. First we need to expand our zone a bit to protect, and secondly I ask my batters to self check and measure their swing path by just turning her upper body towards the pitcher with the bat head at the front foot, as the pitcher starts her motion, we draw hands and upper body back to neutral and stretch as usual. This is a reverse chain design to specifically keep a short hand path.
I'm more of a fan of maintaining the same fundamentals with 2 strikes and we use on the first couple strikes, with 2 minor differences. First we need to expand our zone a bit to protect, and secondly I ask my batters to self check and measure their swing path by just turning her upper body towards the pitcher with the bat head at the front foot, as the pitcher starts her motion, we draw hands and upper body back to neutral and stretch as usual. This is a reverse chain design to specifically keep a short hand path.
FiveFrameSwing
Banned
Ted Williams:
First time up, bases loaded, a little left-hander pitching, and the count went to 3 and 2. As I usually did in those cases, I choked up and said to myself, “I’m not going to strike out now, I’m going to get some wood on that ball,” and he threw me a good pitch, low and away but just over the plate. I gave this bat a little flip, and I could hardly believe it—a home run to center field. Not the longest poke in the world, only 410 feet, but long enough.
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The level swing—or, when you’re really having trouble, the “push” swing—is the shortest possible stroke; you have less chance of hitching, or overswinging. It helps you get back on top of the ball and, more important, gives you more time to wait, to keep from getting fooled. It is also the ideal two-strike swing, and here is where so many of today’s hitters are failing, aren’t hitting as many singles and doubles, aren’t hitting .300, but are striking out so much. They don’t protect themselves on a two-strike pitch. Two strikes and they’re still swinging 100 per cent, trying to pull, trying to hit the ball into the seats.
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All right. What do you do about being the complete hitter? Up to two strikes, you have been selective. With two strikes, the advantage turns; you now have to concede to the pitcher. You have to make adjustments. You have to think in terms of making everything quicker.
How do you do that? You choke up a little bit. You quit trying to pull. You think more about that push swing, that 90-degree impact from the direction of the pitch. You think about hitting the ball back through the box. Harry Walker was a great student of hitting and he was good at this. Joe DiMaggio, Joe Cronin, George Kell, Lou Boudreau, Harvey Kuenn—they could do it. Clemente, Yastrzemski, Frank Robinson, Pete Rose and Aaron are probably the most flexible hitters around today.
When you’ve shortened up and quickened up, you can wait longer, you get fooled less, you become more consistent getting good wood on the ball. Psychologically, becoming a good two-strike hitter inspires confidence. A batter knows he can still hit with authority. He learns, as I did, that he can cut strike outs to less than 50 a year. He can bat 20 or 30 points higher. In 1957, when I hit .388, I got a lot of my big hits on two-strike pitches. In fact, most of my career I was an effective twostrike hitter—not so great a percentage of home runs, but a high average of hits on two-strike pitches. Harry Heilmann told me years ago that when he learned the inside-out swing and knew he could hit the inside pitch to right field, he quit worrying about two-strike pitches. Heilmann was one of the greatest right-hand hitters of them all. As a young player with the Red Sox I made it a point to talk hitting with Heilmann whenever we went into Detroit.
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If you’re playing in a perpetual bad light—some parks are not lit as well as others, or don’t have as good a background—then you might think in terms of conceding to the pitcher, the same as when you have two strikes. Or maybe you’re hurt a little, not enough to put you out of the game but an eye that is bothering you or a sprained thumb—again, think in terms of conceding to the pitcher. Choke up. Try hitting through the middle. I remember Al Rosen of the Indians in an All-Star game one year, playing with a real bad wrist. He couldn’t swing as easily, taped up as much as he was, but he choked up more than he ever had, and he hit two home runs that day.
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It ought to be pretty nearly automatic what you do to straighten yourself out. Breaking a slump is very much the same as protecting yourself on a two-strike pitch. You start thinking in terms of going through the box. You make up your mind you’re going to handle the bat better and you’re not going to go after bad pitches or try to pull the ball. You’re going to shorten up and be a little quicker.
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If you find yourself at 2 strikes, I have to think that it makes more sense to change ones mindset rather than your mechanics. When I read FFS post above it seems Williams approach seems to follow suit.
Above is an email from DD, who seems stressed reference the 2 strikes stance the coach is advocating. Seems rather strange and IMO seems rather awkward how my mind sees it JMO.
My advise was to never get into a 2 strike count.
Sounds like your dd has never been introduced to SNF 45. Some of my players would love to always hit from SNF, maybe if they would practice it a bit more before applying it, the uncomfortableness would go away. I do not use it with two strikes, but well allow some girls to hit all game in SNF, with a pitcher that is really outclassing us with velocity.
yes i dislike two strikes also. Last night a very young child was talking about not swing on the first pitch, repeating her dad. wrong gender dad.
In the Fastpitch game where a runner at 3rd is only 60' from home it makes sense to have a 2 strike strategy to reliably put a ball on the ground in certain situations. The coaching described in the initial post of this thread seems too extreme. If you take a first strike, you are down to one swing. This takes away a lot of offensive opportunities.
Teaching ideas to improve chances of contact with 2 strikes is one thing. Mandating an extreme two strike system down the line up card in all situations is quite another.
Teaching ideas to improve chances of contact with 2 strikes is one thing. Mandating an extreme two strike system down the line up card in all situations is quite another.
Yes. Part of, SNF 45
JJsqueeze
Dad, Husband....legend
Could you please share which nationally recognized club teams do this?
FiveFrameSwing
Banned
I 'could', but I will not. Their hitting philosophies were shared with me in confidence.
