Hitting pitches with movement

[softballninja]

As I get older I'm starting to think about learning how to hit curves, drops, etc. I know that moving up in the box will help, but other than that I've had no instruction on how to do so. As a catcher I will see the ball move, but I have never noticed any significant movement when I was at bat (I've noticed the ball spinning a different way but not actual movement).

Any tips?

Thanks!

 

[PEPPERS]

I think one of the best ways is to pick up the spin of the ball and pick it up early; my daughter’s pitching coach and her pitch together he will throw a breaking ball to her to show her the spin, this gives her an advantage to recognize the spin and how a certain spin can affect a pitch.
Another way another way is to stand in the batters box when a pitcher is doing pitching practice and work on picking up the ball at release and the spins, don’t swing but go to heel plant like you are taking a pitch. This can help you as a hitter and gives her a game like situation with a batter in the box.

Make sure you have a good 2 eyed look at the pitcher, you are visually track the ball.

 

[GOINGDEEP]

Agreeing with Peppers.......my DD is a pitcher and I was lucky enough to pitch D1. That being said a pitcher usually has a formidable advantage when it comes to 'reading' and 'tracking' pitches. Especially as they get older, they have not only seen 1000's of pitches but thrown 1000's of pitches. A pitcher knows what to look for. It's very hard to explain but the mind and eyes pick up on the slightest difference in the wrist release, elbow angle, stride, follow through, and spin of the ball.

The hard part is to understand a breaking ball will not break the same % every time, from the same pitcher. Her screw may break 10 inches once and 6 inches the next. Her drop may slide down 5 inches and the next time it may fall like a ton of bricks.

I taught my DD to hit the ball early in the break, she likes the front of the box so that part was always easy. A disadvantage in this is she became a dead pull hitter. No lie 90% of her hits are LF hits, 9% CF, and 1% RF. So much that in HS this year the opposing teams ran the outfield shift when she came up. ( if you don't know that's shifting the outfield to cover LF and CF only) But that's another post.