Help With Seeing The Ball Earlier

[softballphreak]

No she doesn't swing at everything, she has a really good eye for the ball. DD tends to walk alot by working the count full and will foul off sometimes 8/9 times with 2 strikes on her before getting the walk or hitting the ball. She does set up for every pitch by pulling her wait back. Any ideas??

If this is the case tell whoever is saying she's seeing the ball late to take a trip.

 

[Jim]

Four seam Two seam drill: In this drill during front toss, I toss either a "four seemed grip" on the ball or a "two seemed grip" on the ball. The hitter should see the difference in the seam rotation on the ball. I have the hitter tell me what it was after they hit it. Once they get pretty good at recognizing the two, I still toss both grips but I have them hit only the "four seemed grip" pitches.

They need to be ready to hit every pitch but with an intense focus on the ball from the release point to contact.

 

[Momof#34]

Jim, I like that idea. I'm definitely giving that a try.
I'm hoping that the move to 12u and that extra 5 feet will be somewhat of an advantage to her hitting. I know the pitching will be more advanced but DD would take a 55mph fastball over a 35mph any day of the week, she loves the challenge lol

 

[Mr T]

I disagree on this part. I've used it many times to bring the player's eye to the ball after missing a few. Works similar to having them bunt in bp to get them on the ball. I also use it to check various parts of the swing but mostly to see their hand position at contact.

Phreak I like your stuff, just nitpicking on this one. Agree bunting is great to get them tracking the ball, it's a good thing to do a few times before a game. Again, I just personally believe it gets them tracking and dont so much believe in actually seeing it hit their bat. Freezing prob tells you a lot, but not sure what it tells you about their watching the ball

 

[softballphreak]

Williams says, "No, I don't see the ball when it hits the bat. You usually lose sight of it a few feet away. Once or twice in my whole career I'd say I saw the ball hit the bat, but that's all."

I have seen the ball hit the bat playing with the family. I may not have tracked it to the bat but I know I saw it when I hit it. Just saying.

Technically, it would probably be more accurate to say you can't track it all the way to the bat.

I guess I should say I want to see how well they are tracking the ball and how well they are calculating the path of the ball. Which, in short, I could just say "see as long as you can."

There are a number of reasons I want them to freeze at contact. I want to see their POC, hand position, hips, arms, head, eyes, etc. Maybe not consciously necessarily but I can gain some knowledge from it. I have also used it to prove how easy it is for them to put the bat in the way of the ball. For example, I can throw it fast, they can come to it almost in slow motion; because all they are doing is stopping the ball.

 

[Jim]

Williams says, "No, I don't see the ball when it hits the bat. You usually lose sight of it a few feet away. Once or twice in my whole career I'd say I saw the ball hit the bat, but that's all."

I have seen the ball hit the bat playing with the family. I may not have tracked it to the bat but I know I saw it when I hit it. Just saying.

Technically, it would probably be more accurate to say you can't track it all the way to the bat.

I guess I should say I want to see how well they are tracking the ball and how well they are calculating the path of the ball. Which, in short, I could just say "see as long as you can."

There are a number of reasons I want them to freeze at contact. I want to see their POC, hand position, hips, arms, head, eyes, etc. Maybe not consciously necessarily but I can gain some knowledge from it. I have also used it to prove how easy it is for them to put the bat in the way of the ball. For example, I can throw it fast, they can come to it almost in slow motion; because all they are doing is stopping the ball.

Whether seeing the ball to contact is possible or not does not matter. The hitter should try to do so every time.

 

[softballphreak]

Whether seeing the ball to contact is possible or not does not matter. The hitter should try to do so every time.

You're exactly right! That was the issue the kid I was talking about had. She thought she couldn't see it move so she just gave up on trying to see it.

 

[bobbyb]

There are a few free sites that you can accomplish the same as this. But with my dd...we had to spend money so it was so dorky (even then she still thought it was pretty dorky). We did this http://sportseyesite.com/ and still do...we had her eyes examined and they were good...it really has helped her...just doing eye exercise.

To the OP ...one thing our team notices...is those that don't seem "see the ball" good enough...are many times...just out of synch or sequence. Like they will step/pause/swing. Or they will be firing upper engine first then lower engine. Just food for thought.

 

[CPSBDad]

I mentioned this thread to my wife and DD and asked DD how she sees the ball. I asked her how does she follow the ball to point of contact. She ( 12 yo ) told me she just hits it! Iasked how do you know not to swing your bat and she said she sees the ball out of the strike zone. I figured enough asking about it for fear she will analyze her swing too much at bat. Latter in the day we worked on hitting using my machine. Jug Jr with digital readout. 45MPH first 40-ish balls. 50MPH next, then 55MPH for the last batch. Hitting just about everything. First, I'm impressed she was still hitting at 55, but I was more impressed with how hard she was hitting. Anyway, I read the link FFS shared. Great read. I still wonder how my DD sees the ball, but won't go into it with her again.

 

[Mr T]

Williams says, "No, I don't see the ball when it hits the bat. You usually lose sight of it a few feet away. Once or twice in my whole career I'd say I saw the ball hit the bat, but that's all."

I have seen the ball hit the bat playing with the family. I may not have tracked it to the bat but I know I saw it when I hit it. Just saying.

Technically, it would probably be more accurate to say you can't track it all the way to the bat.

I guess I should say I want to see how well they are tracking the ball and how well they are calculating the path of the ball. Which, in short, I could just say "see as long as you can."

There are a number of reasons I want them to freeze at contact. I want to see their POC, hand position, hips, arms, head, eyes, etc. Maybe not consciously necessarily but I can gain some knowledge from it. I have also used it to prove how easy it is for them to put the bat in the way of the ball. For example, I can throw it fast, they can come to it almost in slow motion; because all they are doing is stopping the ball.

You might be able to see it hit the bat but only as a spectator. We could probably have a very long discussion of how we guess this actually works. Suffice it say that it can't hurt to track it as long as possible, yet at the same time tracking it longer would probably be near the bottom of my list of importance with regards to making good contact.