Hitting off of live pitching at practices??

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Dec 2, 2013
3,409
113
Texas
I believe it is beneficial for those teams that have the time. We used to have 3-4 batters ready to go in the dugout and the defense in their positions. Start with a 1-1 count and batters get 3 at bats. The pitcher job and defense is to get the batter/runner out. The batter's job is to get a hit. Coach is calling pitches and it is a considered game simulation rather than "batting practice." Pitchers need live work, batters need live and fielders need live work.
 
Oct 4, 2018
4,611
113
For a couple of reasons.

1. Your pitchers should never be throwing batting practice. Pitchers should pitch to get batters out.

2. If your pitchers are trying to get the batters out, it is going to take FOREVER to get through all of the batters. Even at 5 minutes a batter that's close to an hour....it just doesn't make any sense. You have so many other things you need to be working on at the TEAM practice.

3. Your batters can each got to a hitting coach (or Mom/Dad/Sister/Brother) outside of practice for an hour a week and you just saved 10 hours. It's just not efficient to do it any other way.

4. If you positively have to have live pitching done at practice you need to have coach(es) pitching from shorter distance to simulate the exact same timing. Cages are helpful here but not required. Don't have 10 other players in the field while one hits. You are simply wasting everyone's time.

Be fast and be efficient with your practices....you have so little time with everyone together. Don't work on things that individuals can do on their own.

Your Return On Investment by doing TEAM hitting at practice is so small. Work on baserunning instead. I have coached 12u where we never even picked up the bats at practice.

Yup. I don't like using the team's pitchers to pitch BP. Not for our 10U team at least. Reasons above are great.

I've worked hard at my pitching. With full arm motion/circle, and speed appropriate for a 10U team. I work to groove them down the middle and let girls get batting reps that way.
 
Mar 28, 2014
1,081
113
Its ok if you think live pitching isnt something thats beneficial.
My experience has shown me its very beneficial!
As a player and coach.


Good time to get a workout for the pitchers in throwing to a few batters each. 10 to 15 pitches each.
In your experience as a pitcher I presume? Lol.... Nope. Beneficial to batters, yes, pitchers, no.


You genuinely think throwing to a few batters is that big of a deal to an experienced pitcher? I don't agree. Keep in mind they should face 2 batters max if throwing 15 pitches to each batter. Then you need a new pitcher because they don't need to be throwing more than 30 pitches without rest to keep it similar to a game. After 2 batters and 30 pitches, pitcher goes out and rests 10 minutes. That is a simulated game, but most of the so called coaches never do it that way. They don''t count pitches, they count batters. As if a pitcher is a machine. They wear the pitcher out making them pitch 15 pitches to 8 batters in a row and then wonder why they get overuse injuries and have to scramble around for month getting pick ups while their pitcher heals up.

Duh.
 
Sep 29, 2014
2,421
113
For a couple of reasons.

1. Your pitchers should never be throwing batting practice. Pitchers should pitch to get batters out.

2. If your pitchers are trying to get the batters out, it is going to take FOREVER to get through all of the batters. Even at 5 minutes a batter that's close to an hour....it just doesn't make any sense. You have so many other things you need to be working on at the TEAM practice.

3. Your batters can each got to a hitting coach (or Mom/Dad/Sister/Brother) outside of practice for an hour a week and you just saved 10 hours. It's just not efficient to do it any other way.

4. If you positively have to have live pitching done at practice you need to have coach(es) pitching from shorter distance to simulate the exact same timing. Cages are helpful here but not required. Don't have 10 other players in the field while one hits. You are simply wasting everyone's time.

Be fast and be efficient with your practices....you have so little time with everyone together. Don't work on things that individuals can do on their own.

Your Return On Investment by doing TEAM hitting at practice is so small. Work on baserunning instead. I have coached 12u where we never even picked up the bats at practice.
^^^ This exactly....it is a big reason I learned to pitch and it was at 12U (rec all star level), this way I could control what was going on for the most part..lol since I wasn't that great. I could pitch an a bat basically then if they didn't hit I could say OK two more pitches and give them a chance to put the ball in play. It just made so much more sense for all the above reasons, also it was end of practice with teams (6-7 per team) basically just tried to get through the line up twice in 30-45 minutes.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
In your experience as a pitcher I presume? Lol.... Nope. Beneficial to batters, yes, pitchers, no.


You genuinely think throwing to a few batters is that big of a deal to an experienced pitcher? I don't agree. Keep in mind they should face 2 batters max if throwing 15 pitches to each batter. Then you need a new pitcher because they don't need to be throwing more than 30 pitches without rest to keep it similar to a game. After 2 batters and 30 pitches, pitcher goes out and rests 10 minutes. That is a simulated game, but most of the so called coaches never do it that way. They don''t count pitches, they count batters. As if a pitcher is a machine. They wear the pitcher out making them pitch 15 pitches to 8 batters in a row and then wonder why they get overuse injuries and have to scramble around for month getting pick ups while their pitcher heals up.

Duh.
My responsibility as a catcher is to work with, communicate with, understand, and develop my skills with pitchers. To help them succeed and grow. To help our team defeat opponents.
Every pitcher I have played with.or played on our team understands the importance of throwing batting practice, and has received the appreciation of their teams.
* They know they are helping prepare their team to go out and WIN !
Have also spent years apon years of catching for pitchers at their pitching lessons.
Very familiar with the time, training, and limits!!!

"Throw pitches with movement"
(not meat ball practice)
As i previously wrote.
Read the pitch -Timing
__________________________
You started talking about injury. That is not because a pitcher throws to 3 or 4 batters at practice.

Can read how you are frustrated with coaches who have 'over done it' with what sounds like a bad plan. That frustration should not be misplaced on coaches with well facilitated structure.
_____________________________

:) Will continue coaching with proven success!
 
Last edited:
Feb 10, 2018
496
93
NoVA
I wonder if part of the disagreement in this thread is rooted in the terminology? I think of pitchers throwing live BP more as simulated game play than actual BP. There is a full defense that is trying to make plays, there are base runners, the pitcher is throwing to spots and trying to strike the batter out, etc. You can do it three outs or six outs and then switch or have each hitter (maybe 3-4 of them) gets 2 ABs and then switch, etc. I am definitely not talking about a pitcher just going out there and throwing 5 meatballs at a time to every position player on the team. I agree that that would be stupid. Because, again, that does nothing to actually simulate a game, which is the only place where all these skills actually matter.

We just did this in a practice this week (14U). My DD probably got the equivalent of 5 innings of pitching in (it was basically get 3 outs and then she got to hit). She was definitely tired at the end. But we are trying to get her back into game shape after this long layoff. There was a full defense. Head coach was calling balls/strikes from behind the pitcher. I was calling pitches and trying to strike the batters out. To me, this is beneficial for everyone, including the defense and base runners. You see some pretty interesting things in this “batting practice.” I don’t get this argument that it only benefits individuals rather than the team. The whole game rides on pitching, catching, hitting, and fielding. All of that is being worked in this approach.

We don’t do the above at every practice and front toss is still a staple in “traditional” batting practice with our hitters. However, I’ve seen many girls who cannot hit in games hitting balls in the gap or over the fence off a 10 mph pitch hung at her belt by coach. In a game at this or higher levels, no coach is intentionally calling a belt high change up over the middle of the plate.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
I wonder if part of the disagreement in this thread is rooted in the terminology? I think of pitchers throwing live BP more as simulated game play than actual BP. There is a full defense that is trying to make plays, there are base runners, the pitcher is throwing to spots and trying to strike the batter out, etc. You can do it three outs or six outs and then switch or have each hitter (maybe 3-4 of them) gets 2 ABs and then switch, etc. I am definitely not talking about a pitcher just going out there and throwing 5 meatballs at a time to every position player on the team. I agree that that would be stupid. Because, again, that does nothing to actually simulate a game, which is the only place where all these skills actually matter.

We just did this in a practice this week (14U). My DD probably got the equivalent of 5 innings of pitching in (it was basically get 3 outs and then she got to hit). She was definitely tired at the end. But we are trying to get her back into game shape after this long layoff. There was a full defense. Head coach was calling balls/strikes from behind the pitcher. I was calling pitches and trying to strike the batters out. To me, this is beneficial for everyone, including the defense and base runners. You see some pretty interesting things in this “batting practice.” I don’t get this argument that it only benefits individuals rather than the team. The whole game rides on pitching, catching, hitting, and fielding. All of that is being worked in this approach.

We don’t do the above at every practice and front toss is still a staple in “traditional” batting practice with our hitters. However, I’ve seen many girls who cannot hit in games hitting balls in the gap or over the fence off a 10 mph pitch hung at her belt by coach. In a game at this or higher levels, no coach is intentionally calling a belt high change up over the middle of the plate.
Nice read Traps71 !
ADD
Even without a field or defense,
Say indoors or at outdoor hitting area.
Live 'pitches' with movement
is wonderful training for hitters!
Plus for pitchers to dial in pitches and locations.
Can do situational and with different counts on batters too!
 
Mar 28, 2014
1,081
113
I wonder if part of the disagreement in this thread is rooted in the terminology? I think of pitchers throwing live BP more as simulated game play than actual BP. There is a full defense that is trying to make plays, there are base runners, the pitcher is throwing to spots and trying to strike the batter out, etc. You can do it three outs or six outs and then switch or have each hitter (maybe 3-4 of them) gets 2 ABs and then switch, etc. I am definitely not talking about a pitcher just going out there and throwing 5 meatballs at a time to every position player on the team. I agree that that would be stupid. Because, again, that does nothing to actually simulate a game, which is the only place where all these skills actually matter.

We just did this in a practice this week (14U). My DD probably got the equivalent of 5 innings of pitching in (it was basically get 3 outs and then she got to hit). She was definitely tired at the end. But we are trying to get her back into game shape after this long layoff. There was a full defense. Head coach was calling balls/strikes from behind the pitcher. I was calling pitches and trying to strike the batters out. To me, this is beneficial for everyone, including the defense and base runners. You see some pretty interesting things in this “batting practice.” I don’t get this argument that it only benefits individuals rather than the team. The whole game rides on pitching, catching, hitting, and fielding. All of that is being worked in this approach.

We don’t do the above at every practice and front toss is still a staple in “traditional” batting practice with our hitters. However, I’ve seen many girls who cannot hit in games hitting balls in the gap or over the fence off a 10 mph pitch hung at her belt by coach. In a game at this or higher levels, no coach is intentionally calling a belt high change up over the middle of the plate.
Not a difference in terminology as much as it is a difference in philosophy. Nothing new about this. Coaches disagree on methods all of the time and have since the beginning of time. Why should we expect differently here? All of our evidence is anecdotal as there is no science involved here so of course there will be differing opinions based on personal experience.
 
Apr 28, 2014
2,316
113
We've been doing this since we got back to practice. 3 or 4 times we did full live with pitchers throwing their full array of pitches. Last week we just had them throw fastballs to get timing down.
I don't understand how you can put a team on the field that has seen little to no live pitching and expect them to hit.
The first 2-3 practices our girls struggled to square up anything. Our pitchers moved the ball up and down in the zone, changed speeds etc. By 4th practice our hitters were back. Pitchers are always ahead of hitters when the season starts.
 

radness

Possibilities & Opportunities!
Dec 13, 2019
7,270
113
Not a difference in terminology as much as it is a difference in philosophy. Nothing new about this. Coaches disagree on methods all of the time and have since the beginning of time. Why should we expect differently here? All of our evidence is anecdotal as there is no science involved here so of course there will be differing opinions based on personal experience.
Agree different experience and experiences!
Yet.... sometimes there are henpecking
word wars.... ;)

Descriptive Opinions
= Diversity in action!
 

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