How to stop a hiiter from lunging at the ball?

[iMlearning]

The hips must lead the swing, not the hands. That sometimes causes a lunge. But what I have found to be the main culprit for not being able to let the ball get deep is hitting off of a tee that is set too far out towards the pitcher. This affects their point of contact when facing live pitching. They start reaching for the ball instead of letting it come in. Solution: set the tee almost midline of the body. Not as much fun for the batter because the batter won't have the same bat speed on the ball at point of contact. There's more to that issue but the main idea is to not create reaching for the ball.

As far as being aware of the lunge, the batters can be told, they can be shown, they can even feel it for themselves, but until they have many, many repetitions of waiting for the ball to get deep they will fall back to it during games. And it only takes one hard hit while lunging to wipe out all the practices. Or a really fast, down the middle pitcher, who is a lunger's best friend. Most lungers can't hit slower pitching.

The best drill for curing lunging is also the best drill for working on hitting outside pitches. Set a screen up about 20 feet in front of the batter, but about 5 feet off center of the path to the pitching plate, In other words, move the screen more towards 3rd.

Pitch the ball across the outside of the plate. They must hit the ball to right field, no exceptions, even on a pitch that doesn't get too far outside. In order to do this, they will have to wait for the ball to get deep. If they start stepping in towards the plate, throw the ball inside until they stride neutral.

Most will hate this drill. There will be lots of sliced hits, pop ups galore, ground balls to 2nd, until they make barrel adjustments. Then they'll be hitting hard right center gappers. But the best thing will be that they will develop a deeper point of contact.

This will take buckets of balls per player, per practice, but it works.

Another good idea is one-armed (top arm, right arm for a righty), short-bat practice hitting outside pitches. Either front tossed or regular pitch. Side toss isn't much good for anything other than warming up.

You forgot to tell them they have to do a burpee for each one not hit to right field. That's when they really start hitting it more consistently

 

[CoachScott]

Coogan come up to Amish country in PA and we'll work this together . . .

You also hit it on the head, they are having success with the lung in games. The good point i found out is that i have her for another year. So gives me more time.

I've done the bat on the hips, they get it or she gets it. I believe it's just going to take more time, which I found that I do have, yeah! I can get her to do it off the tee in practice but game time, back to lunging.

I like the burpees for each missed hit in practice. Will give that a try, (hehe) She won't like me then.

Softballphreak I'll give that drill a go, never tried that. May help, thanks.

 

[fpitch57]

The hitter in the video has a bad swing - Lower half is practically non-existent, extension is waaaay too early, major bug squishing, no angle of the back knee etc etc. -- about all he does decently is demonstrate lunging. Lunging first needs to be noticed by the player-- video is great for this. Video will show the leaning forward as well as hitting the ball too far out in front. The player needs to make the adjustment in his (or her) mind first, and work relentlessly on the tee or in the cage. It will feel different (staying back) and the player needs to be aware that the correct way will "feel" very new and foreign.-- the same way correctly staying behind a golf ball will feel different to a player who slides toward the target instead of rotating. "Rotation" involves no forward movement in the baseball or softball swing. Rotation starts when movement towards the pitcher (a stride that is often called a "linear" movement) ends. One way to help players stop lunging is to have them practice striding with the front leg over and over again (no swing) while keeping the torso back. Just "get that front leg out there" Francesca Enea was great at this. Look at any MLB player at contact -- the more acute the angle at the hip between the torso and the front leg, the better hitter they are. Check out Bryce Harper at contact. It is very hard to lunge over a front leg that is extended (has strided well). Just "get the front leg out there" !!!