Fast Pitching Hitting Drills

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Dec 18, 2016
163
28
I'm an AC for a 2nd year 12U B team and we are a pretty good hitting team most of the time but this past weekend we laid a big goose egg against a very solid A team. We couldn't catch up on her speed at all. I'm not sure what she was throwing but obviously faster than anything we've seen so far. With the short game format and batting 12 we only had one hitter see her twice.

What are some of the better methods that you experienced coaches have used to get girls to be able to adjust to speed?

Thanks
Dave
 
May 14, 2015
493
43
Bismarck ND
Our HS team brings in local college girls to pitch that throw hard and that really seems to help, so maybe find a local 14u or 16u pitcher to come throw live hitting.
 
Oct 11, 2010
8,337
113
Chicago, IL
We have faced some anomaly good pitchers that we've decided not to practice for, we just try to survive and work on not giving up runs.
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
It's tough sometimes but the girls simply are not practicing against fast enough pitching. If you are a really good hitting team the odds of you struggling at 12U against a slow pitcher should bother you more the fast pitcher.

This is one of the reasons I learned to pitch so I could ensure BP speed was fast enough without wearing out my pitchers, I also used a machine fairly regularly set at just faster than what they were seeing most of the time.

Although given the time constraint I will admit it is much harder not being able to go through the line up twice...many coaches with really slow or fast pitcher would never let their pitcher go through the line up more than twice some only once.
 

2br02b

Trabant swing
Jul 25, 2017
303
43
Recently we played a team with a pitcher who was all speed - if she got it over the plate it was just blowing by our batters. We didn't get a single hit off her in the first game... We knew we had to face her again a couple of weeks later, so we set up two machines at practice - a LiteFlite set at full speed with two plates - one at 30 feet and one at 20 feet. The girls started at 30 feet and moved up to 20 feet once they could hit it.

Once the girls were hitting at 20 feet, we put them on the 2nd machine set at 65MPH at 43 feet. The 2nd machine seemed slow to most of them and they were cranking the ball.

This is a 13U team.

We ended up playing 2 one run games in a row against that pitcher after that.
 
Apr 5, 2013
2,130
83
Back on the dirt...
Similar to 2br02b, we use 3 plates. Start them out in the middle plate at 30 feet speed on jugs at 50. We have them hit 5, then move up to front plate at 25' hit 5, then to back plate at 35' hit 5 then back to middle. Its not perfect but usually they can figure out how to get around to hit at the 25' mark.
 
May 22, 2015
410
28
Illinois
I do pretty hard front toss behind a screen from about 15' away with DD occasionally. Since I can't pitch that accurate or hard it works as a pretty good simulation. When the team has hitting practice they crank the Juggs machine up and hit from different distances, just like some of the others posted. When we started doing that last fall most of the girls struggled to hit 65 mph at 43 ft. from the machine, but after a few weeks they were doing it from about 35' with some consistency. Even in 14U 60+ mph pitching seems pretty rare.
 
Jun 8, 2016
16,118
113
If they are good hitters they will learn how to hit faster pitching once they face it more. If they aren't good hitters work on making them good hitters :p That said fast windmill front toss from 15 to 20 feet from a coach should be pretty effective
in letting them see the ball coming on them quickly.
 
Apr 5, 2013
2,130
83
Back on the dirt...
If they are good hitters they will learn how to hit faster pitching once they face it more. If they aren't good hitters work on making them good hitters :p That said fast windmill front toss from 15 to 20 feet from a coach should be pretty effective
in letting them see the ball coming on them quickly
.

I have done this quite a bit as well but we dont face many fast pitchers so I dont know how effective it may be..
 

marriard

Not lost - just no idea where I am
Oct 2, 2011
4,312
113
Florida
Our HS team brings in local college girls to pitch that throw hard and that really seems to help, so maybe find a local 14u or 16u pitcher to come throw live hitting.

This is the best way. Get a girl in an older division, the local HS pitcher, an ex-college player, etc, etc... If you don't know anyone, ask the local pitching coaches. They are bound to know someone who can help.

A lot of High School girls will do it for service hours if your org can give those out.
 

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