Hitting Mechanics vs. Hitting

[RichK]

Hi all,
I'm new here, found it searching for rotational hitting info via Google, ton of good stuff and conversation on this site!

I was reading a thread in the pitching section, rise vs. screw (http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-pitching/1380-rise-vs-screw.html) and Bill Hillhouse said this:

Personally, I think so many of these kids are taught "swing mechanics" that they have no idea how to put those mechanics into actual use when a ball is moving. In essence, it seems they are taught how to swing but not how to hit a ball or what to look for.​

I have an older 16U daughter with a decent (coach-taught) swing but am now coaching my younger first year 12U daughter's team and while I have a decent understanding of swing basics I am now trying to take it to the next level and understand rotational fundamentals, which are new to me....learning a lot.

But I'm curious about what Bill said. Even after working with the girls just a few weeks this fall off tees, etc., it's easy to fix the obvious flaws (or at least start down the path) and I know that will help them, but what can you do to teach a young girl to "hit" and not just have improved mechanics.

And do you believe in that distinction?

Tks.

 

[Mark H]

Sure. You learn how to swing, assuming you aren't one of the lucky savants who is born with it. There's working on the understanding, the pieces, slow motion and then there's trial and error hard work with objective feedback as immediate as you can get it to learn the feel. Then with your four to five frame swing you deal with approach, the mental side, reps against the best pitching you can find etc. Not to say you can't be working on both at the same time. Most instructors are swing instructors. Some work with you on the mental side too.

 

[ifubuildit]

Rick

What I think your alluding to is how do I teach my daughter how to adjust to the different pitches they will see as they get older and the pitchers start moving the ball. At least I think that is what Bill is talking about in his post.

Is that correct?

Dana.

 

[Darrick Brown]

I think alot of coaches focus on just the mechanics. The problem with this is kids struggle with location and movement. A good hitting coach will discuss contact points with hitters. They will also discuss movement and what to look for to recognize what pitch is coming. I think its important to see live pitching as much as possible. As a coach, if you can't pitch yourself, find somebody who does and help your hitters out!

 

[Mark H]

Sure, that's all well, good and necessary. Show me a kid can consistently smoke a middle middle straight pitch with a four to five frame swing and we'll start worrying about all the rest of that. I see too many kids who want to run before they know how to walk. I watch them show a seven frame bat drag swing that works against mediocre pitching and they want to know how to hit the drop or the change or the outside corner or some such. I completely agree with you but I'm offering my caveat.

 

[Darrick Brown]

Im not saying to teach an infant how to hit location and movement, I am just saying that if you spend all of your time hitting a down the middle pitch then you won't be too successful at the collegiate level. It's just like pitching. There are pitching coaches who want kids to locate a fastball perfectly for like 20 pitches before they move on to a new pitch. Most D1 kids aren't that perfect. Until you learn to move the ball, you are not a complete pitcher. A fastball doesn't exist with most college pitchers. The same with hitters. Until you learn to hit location and movement, you aren't a complete hitter. Sure teach the basics when they are young but move on when the kid is ready!

 

[FJRGerry]

I think we'd all agree hitting in a structured situation (tee, soft toss) is MUCH different than facing an opponent when the game's on the line with two outs and you're at the plate! In other words all the stress that gets added in a game situation compounds what's been practiced for thousands of repetitions. The girls who can handle (and relish) the stress will succeed and those that can't won't. So the question to be answered is how to assist with the mental approach to the plate. I know Marc D. has done some videos on this topic.

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[Mark H]

Im not saying to teach an infant how to hit location and movement, I am just saying that if you spend all of your time hitting a down the middle pitch then you won't be too successful at the collegiate level. It's just like pitching. There are pitching coaches who want kids to locate a fastball perfectly for like 20 pitches before they move on to a new pitch. Most D1 kids aren't that perfect. Until you learn to move the ball, you are not a complete pitcher. A fastball doesn't exist with most college pitchers. The same with hitters. Until you learn to hit location and movement, you aren't a complete hitter. Sure teach the basics when they are young but move on when the kid is ready!

I assumed that's what you meant. I usually post thinking of the parents who are reading without posting. But it's not just the young. I see plenty of kids at gold who swing poorly.

 

[SnocatzDad]

Looking at the original post your looking for tips on learning how to "hit" vs. learning how to "swing" for some 10 and 11 year olds. If your dealing with a relatively fresh crop of players (average less than 1 year experience, and or had no real coaching prior) this is what I would add to improve their ability to "hit" while working on their "swing" mechanics

#1, BUNT!!!
The most basic hand eye coordination necessary is the ability to hold the bat where the ball is coming without swinging and make the minor adjustments up and down to make contact. I see plenty of poor hitters that are also poor bunters, but IMO good bunters are usually good hitters. If a kid can't make contact with 90-100% of the balls coming in from a pitching machine when attempting to bunt, then they won't be successful swinging away. They need to learn to track the ball with their eyes as far as possible to the bat and learn how to relay that information to their hands to make contact. I would also add front toss bunting to every pre-game warm up as a way to warm up their ability to track. This should be possible even in extremely limited space and takes little skill to front toss from 10-15 ft away so you should be able to get a parent volunteer to handle this station while you work on something else.

#2 Front toss, In general, IMO, it's better to do as much hitting practice as possible as front toss vs side toss because it forces them to track properly and time properly.

I would define "hitting" to be the skill of tracking the ball and using hand eye coordination to make contact

I would define "swinging" to be the skill of properly transfering momentum from your body into your swing along an efficient path

The problem is that you can (as Mark pointed out) have success hitting with a bad swing and reinforce poor mechanics which will eventually be exposed at a higher skill level and you can overemphasize swinging to the point where the kid beleives the ball owes it to them to hit the bat because they are doing everything right (you'll see that kid crushing the ball against a machine then striking out all weekend)

There are other tracking drills involving colored dots on balls and tracking balls coming in without swinging and/or with swinging. But at your age level I'd stick with lots of bunt practice and lots of front toss.

 

[Mark H]

I would define "hitting" to be the skill of tracking the ball and using hand eye coordination to make contact

.

I would add approach, anticipation etc to that but yeah I agree.