Hitting Heat

[CoachCalvin]

Coaches,

What is the best way to practice for pitchers who throw heat? My girls are not used to hard throwers and we have been striking out almost non-stop.

I appreciate any ideas or drills.

Thanks,
Coach C

 

[Sweet Lou]

Pitch to them from shorter distance behind a screen. 20', 30' whatever is appropriate to speed up their reaction time.

 

[sb03dad]

Small ball my friend. Bunts and aggressive base running. Their brains will eventually speed up and catch up to the flamethrowers. Watched it happen this year.

 

[marriard]

Pitch to them from shorter distance behind a screen. 20', 30' whatever is appropriate to speed up their reaction time.

^^^^^^^^^^
This

And also borrow a girl from the next age group up to pitch batting practice to them.

 

[SoCalASABlue]

How late are their swings? How well are they seeing the ball - meaning are they fouling any pitches off? What age are we talking about?

 

[Rocketech1]

turn up the speed on the pitching machines
practice bunting often, play small ball and put pressure on the defense
move a little bit back in the box
lots of up close, front toss
look to hit that first pitch strike and try not to get behind in the count

Quick story, recently in a state tournament where one pitcher was a flamethrower and was real dominant but only relied upon her speed to get outs. Once through the line-up, the better opposing teams started catching up to her fastball and started putting the ball in play, a few hits, a couple of bunts, slaps, aggressive base running and the "best" pitching team lost in the semis. The "fatal error" this pitcher had was she didn't have an off-speed pitch and relied too much on pure speed to get outs. Why she hasn't developed a good change-up (or use the one she had more often) is unexplainable.

 

[fastpitchdad8]

my brain's locked up at the moment.. I can't remember her name but there's a video online of her discussing hitting, used to coach UCLA. every pitch is YES YES YES, until you see it's out of the zone, then you slam on the brakes. someone here will link it for you.

i'd guess your batters are waiting until it's halfway home..determining that it's a pitch they want to hit but by then it's too late.

 

[coach james]

^^^ Sue Enquist

 

[coach james]

Front toss with a screen at 20' works best for us... and as said above, mix in a variety of bunts.

 

[fastpitchdad8]

^^^ Sue Enquist

thank you sir