Is hitting off a pitching machine necessary?

[Bullseye]

More reps and more reps with speed the better.

 

[HunterMO]

DD’s new team uses one and she hates it. She struggles with timing. The HC simulates an arm circle which helps. But she still doesn’t like it.

Get her in front toss or live pitching and she’s a different hitter.

 

[Towny9]

DD’s new team uses one and she hates it. She struggles with timing. The HC simulates an arm circle which helps. But she still doesn’t like it.

Get her in front toss or live pitching and she’s a different hitter.

The trick to the machine is getting the foot down early and the hands back and not trying to time the ball being fed. Approach it like it is a 2-strike swing. The good thing is the machine has so much live spin and velo that you don’t have to put a lot behind the swing to really drive it, just gotta barrel it up.

The one wheel machines are even tougher because they throw pure backspin. Essentially a riseball. Most kids are underneath and because of this you really have to attack the top of the ball.

I do not advocate actually hitting like what I have described above is a normal approach to hitting, but I found success off the machine approaching it this way.

 

[HunterMO]

The trick to the machine is getting the foot down early and the hands back and not trying to time the ball being fed. Approach it like it is a 2-strike swing. The good thing is the machine has so much live spin and velo that you don’t have to put a lot behind the swing to really drive it, just gotta barrel it up.

The one wheel machines are even tougher because they throw pure backspin. Essentially a riseball. Most kids are underneath and because of this you really have to attack the top of the ball.

I do not advocate actually hitting like what I have described above is a normal approach to hitting, but I found success off the machine approaching it this way.

I appreciate this. They use a one wheel machine. As you described she’s always just underneath it. She’ll adjust but is never comfortable. I’ll suggest what you’ve mentioned.

 

[Towny9]

I appreciate this. They use a one wheel machine. As you described she’s always just underneath it. She’ll adjust but is never comfortable. I’ll suggest what you’ve mentioned.

I grew up with my dads BP and got really spoiled. He threw great BP. My college coach loved the machine. Once I started approaching it with the mindset that it was a challenge and I was going to “figure it out” I had much more success off it. I don’t think it necessarily translated to games due to the different timing, but hitting it well in practice helped keep me in the lineup for games.

IMO, there is no substitute for good BP, full windmill, from distance, with velocity. Bonus points if the coach can spin it a little. @Hillhouse has mentioned throwing BP like this to girls/teams. That is invaluable.

 

[Northball]

I agree there is nothing better than live BP at full motion, full distance, and full speed. But since that is a pipe dream for most practices, having some variety in the delivery helps. If all you do is single-wheel machine at the same velocity, batters only get used to that style, and that won't translate well to live pitching in a game. Front toss, mid-speed/mid-distance, and full pitching help the batters learn to track pitches and make adjustments to the changing velocities. Bonus if you can make the ball move consistently so they can learn to track a movement pitch.

 

[radness]

Do think hitting machines are peculiar for timing.
I did prefer the type of machines where you could see the ball drop down the feeder path as it was entering the wheel better than when coaches were putting the ball in the machine themselves. That seemed to be peculiar.

The machine itself may not be the issue as much as it is who's feeding it.

Lots of people go to the cages to do hitting I would rather spend that money paying some pitcher to throw pitches.

 

[CoachJD]

I also use pitching machine for pop flies when they are in 12u.

Works well for our high school kids, too, especially early in the year when we can't get on a field but we can go into the school parking lot. Is it exactly as good as hitting them a ball? Nah, probably not. But it's still effective.

As for hitting off a machine? We don't do it because we aren't set up to do it indoors (no cage/netting). I have used it to work on bunting and to work with (newer) catchers when I don't have a pitcher available.

 

[Cornbread]

Keep in mind that getting closer simulates the reaction time from release to contact of faster pitching, but a front toss pitch is in the hitting zone for longer and is affected by gravity more than true velocity. That said, it's still very valuable work when true velocity is not available, and it's often the best we can do with what we have.

This is correct. Front toss can train girls to miss under on live pitching due to gravity. Fly balls in front toss would be a swing and miss under in a live game. Focus on front toss needs to be low line drives.

 

[Cornbread]

The trick to the machine is getting the foot down early and the hands back and not trying to time the ball being fed. Approach it like it is a 2-strike swing. The good thing is the machine has so much live spin and velo that you don’t have to put a lot behind the swing to really drive it, just gotta barrel it up.

The one wheel machines are even tougher because they throw pure backspin. Essentially a riseball. Most kids are underneath and because of this you really have to attack the top of the ball.

I do not advocate actually hitting like what I have described above is a normal approach to hitting, but I found success off the machine approaching it this way.

I think it is easier to focus on getting the front foot “up” on time instead of down on time. If it gets up on time it most likely will get down on time