Grounders vs ball in the air

[FiveFrameSwing]

Ground Balls: A Hitter’s Best Friend?

 

[ian]

+1 for line drives.


Teach your players to drive the ball.

Nothing is more depressing than watching a player chop down at the ball, shaking their head and taking the jog of shame to first. Dont wager your success on someone else making an error.

If you have 2.8 or lower times to first and cant drive the ball then slap away.

 

[strawman]

True, although even 10U players who lift balls over the heads of outfielders or into the gap, or even just high into the air against 10U girls who lack range and haven't mastered catching flies on the run, can wreak havoc. Power hitters are valuable at any level.

That said, I suppose the value of a grounder vs. a fly changes may vary depending on the skill/age level. For one thing, the value of an extra-base hit declines at lower/younger levels because it's much easier to get extra bases in other ways (ie, WP, PB, SB). So often a single is as good as a triple. It's more of a get-on-base game.

But practically speaking, how does that effect the way we coach? I've never encouraged a player to hit more ground balls. I prefer that they get the ball into the air. I think that will pay off in the long run, IMHO.

Many coaches do their younger players a disservice by teaching them to hit on the ground for just this very reason. Teach them to hit correctly from a young age so they don't have to change their swings when they move up and those errors are now just routine outs. As with every other skill in this game, regardless of age, you should be teaching your players to swing like players excelling at the highest levels are swinging.

 

[slingnit]

I know there are arguments either way for field size, styles of hitting/slapping and so on. But using major league stats on ground balls is not comparable at all to softball. How often do you see a softball player trot to first on a grounder as opposed to baseball, infield singles in baseball are nonexistent. That being said I would not encourage a kid to swing down and purposely try to hit grounders. Tripp at OU teaches the swing down to create backspin method, I'm not sure when slowing down swings that is what actually happens but lots of bombs fly out of Norman. With that logic you would THINK there would me more ground balls. Who knows.

I'm gonna get banned from this sight for saying this. Hitting is the most overcoached aspect of any sport. I like Pete Rose's philosophy, See the ball, Hit the ball.

 

[FP26]

I'm gonna get banned from this sight for saying this. Hitting is the most overcoached aspect of any sport. I like Pete Rose's philosophy, See the ball, Hit the ball.

I guess it depends on your definition of "overcoached". Anyone can pitch, but it takes skill and practice to be really good at it. Throwing the ball over the plate isn't the same thing as throwing strikes, in my opinion. The same goes with hitting. It takes skills and practice to be really good at it. In either case it is helpful to have an instructor that understands the process and is able to communicate it in a way that the student can understand. It is also necessary that the student is willing and able to utilize that instruction. Now, if you are talking about the minutia, then I would agree with you. While I find those things interesting, personally, much of it is not necessary as part of the instruction.

 

[slingnit]

I understand that there are aspects of a swing that make a person more likely to hit the ball or hit the ball better. My point is that if your swing is not mechanically sound but is consistent you can be a good hitter. When a coach starts telling a 10 yr old to open the hips 37.5 degrees before starting the hands through the swing, yada yada yada it can get ridiculous. And the arguments that go on over swing up, swing level, swing down. You get 10 coaches and you will get 10 styles and philosophies, not entirely right or wrong for the most part. But a kid will be on a team and have a particular way of hitting that is successful. Same kid goes to a new team and the coach sees his swing and stops practice, "no, no, no! That swing is horrible, let me show you how it should look". Or they start coaching while the kid(and I mean college players as well) is at bat, "your hands are at your cheek, they need to be at your ear". It just gets laughable at times.

 

[FP26]

No arguments here. I find it in travel ball and high school ball all the time. From my personal experience I find it less with pitching. I think many parents realize that they don't know all that much about pitching and leave the instruction to the coaches/instructors (there are exceptions of course). But when it comes to hitting, anyone that has ever held a bat seems to be an expert.

 

[Little Angels Softball]

I absolutely do not want my girls swinging down on the ball. I don't even want my slappers chopping. I want all of them to square everything up.

I want contact to be made while the bat head is on an upward plane. Of course, since the hands and bat head are placed high in the stance, the first part of the swing must be downward to bring all the goods into the proper path. But I want the bat head to bottom out before contact and be arcing back upward. Essentially, you should be able to draw an arc that closely resembles a "c" that the bat head follows, starting high at the rear and ending high in the front. The "C" rotates around a leaned-back axis of approximately 10-15 degrees that roughly follows the angle of the front leg at contact.

In order to square a ball up at this upward angle, contact would be made vs. a ball with a relatively flat plane of approach slightly under the center line (as it relates to ball's flight path).

I do not want them "hitting the top half" of the ball. Ground balls are outs. Sometimes, they are double plays. There is no defense against a ball that is hit over the fence.

I realize this is contrary to what a lot of folks on this board teach. However, it works and it works at the highest levels of our sport. I teach this swing to our youngest girls. Of course, they don't have the power to hit the ball over the fence but one day, when they are 12 or 13 or 14, they square one up and it flies. Better to teach 'em right from the start and let their bodies catch up than take shortcuts designed to have them be successful against 10U competition and then have to work out the bad habits later.

 

[strawman]

I know there are arguments either way for field size, styles of hitting/slapping and so on. But using major league stats on ground balls is not comparable at all to softball. How often do you see a softball player trot to first on a grounder as opposed to baseball, infield singles in baseball are nonexistent. That being said I would not encourage a kid to swing down and purposely try to hit grounders. Tripp at OU teaches the swing down to create backspin method, I'm not sure when slowing down swings that is what actually happens but lots of bombs fly out of Norman. With that logic you would THINK there would me more ground balls. Who knows.

I'm gonna get banned from this sight for saying this. Hitting is the most overcoached aspect of any sport. I like Pete Rose's philosophy, See the ball, Hit the ball.

Pete Rose could get away with that as his philosophy because he happened to have excellent mechanics to go along with it.

 

[FP26]

I absolutely do no want my girls swinging down on the ball. I don't even want my slappers chopping. I want all of them to square everything up.

I want contact to be made while the bat head is on an upward plane. Of course, since the hands and bat head are placed high in the stance, the first part of the swing must be downward to bring all the goods into the proper path. But I want the bat head to bottom out before contact and be arcing back upward. Essentially, you should be able to draw an arc that closely resembles a "c" that the bat head follows, starting high at the rear and ending high in the front. The "C" rotates around a leaned-back axis of approximately 10-15 degrees that roughly follows the angle of the front leg at contact.

In order to square a ball up at this upward angle, contact would be made vs. a ball with a relatively flat plane of approach slightly under the center line (as it relates to ball's flight path).

I do not want them "hitting the top half" of the ball. Ground balls are outs. Sometimes, they are double plays. There is no defense against a ball that is hit over the fence.

I realize this is contrary to what a lot of folks on this board teach. However, it works and it works at the highest levels of our sport. I teach this swing to our youngest girls. Of course, they don't have the power to hit the ball over the fence but one day, when they are 12 or 13 or 14, they square one up and it flies. Better to teach 'em right from the start and let their bodies catch up than take shortcuts designed to have them be successful against 10U competition and then have to work out the bad habits later.

I'm curious which part is contrary? Personally I like your description.