Getting out of the batters box quickly

[moe]

Work with my twins on speed out of the batters box. Does anyone have any slow mo videos of the "perfect bat drop" as the hitter releases the bat and strides to first?

Do you prefer a quick shuffle step or more of a strong pushoff and longer stride?

Thanks for any input!

Moe

 

[SCDad]

Much has to do with how big the follow through is. To get power, many focus on an extended follow through, and it hurts their speed to first base. The 1st base times can be deceiving for this reason. It is not baseball, and the length of the hitters follow through is one difference.

My DD has a 3/4 follow through, and gets down to first base plenty fast. As fast as other players who have a full follow through and are timed quicker in drills. Mine is a power hitter, and goes deep when struck cleanly. Smaller players lose time to first because of their extended follow through to get more power, and this only is noticed by the most seasoned observers.

 

[Eric F]

Things to avoid when leaving the batter's box...

- Launching the bat to the backstop (Blue didn't like that one so much)
- Launching the bat to Blue's mask (he liked that one even less)

One of my DD's teammates had this issue. We were ready to velcro the damn thing to her hand an make her carry it to first base with her. Thankfully, her dad drilled it out of her pretty quickly.

 

[moe]

That kind of leads me to believe that as a power hitter, not a lot of options...hitting instructors and coaches are going to push for a full follow through, then coaches complain about speed to first. Is power a trade off for those low times to first? What would be a reasonable first base time for a 12U power hitter, 5'7" 150lbs? I see on here kids with 3.3 sec times...or lower!

 

[cmustangsfp]

I start teaching in my 8U teams the idea of a bat "coffin". It is an imaginary rectangle shaped box to the right of the foul line on the 1B side. I teach my girls to put the bat in the coffin as they run to 1B. This accomplishes several things: 1) It avoids the dreaded slinging bat syndrome, 2) It avoids the courteous toss of the bat back towards the dugout (when on 3B side) when walked (this becomes more important later when they get walked and they need to run to 1B instead of "walking", 3) it gets them leaning forward towards 1B as they take off for 1B and 4) it also helps with bat interference calls and provides for a "cleaner" field of play (ball hitting bat in play, girls stepping on bats left on field, girls tripping on bats, opposing catcher slinging $300 XENO into fence to get it out of her way, runner that scored from 3B trying to retrieve bat so runner coming home doesn't hit it, etc).
It also helps later when teaching dropped 3rd strike, instead of yelling for the girl to run, I can say put it in the coffin and she will know what that means while the other team won't.

Because we work on this in practice it gets the righties in the habit of turning back to the 1B side and leaning forward to run instead of just dropping the bat and starting to run with their weight back. For lefties it helps get them turned towards 1B and get their weight forward.

Just an idea....