Is hitting off a pitching machine necessary?

[uncdrew]

DD had a coach in KC (Pepper’s Coach in case you know him) that played men’s fastpitch and was a pitcher. He was the absolute best thing that ever happened to help DD’s hitting. He would throw BP and definitely didn’t hold back with her (14u). I give him so much credit for why she can mash the ball. Can she hit off a machine? Yeah if the person running it is consistent but she hates it. Probably because she was spoiled by her men’s fastpitch playing coach.

Yeah, I've worked pretty hard at throwing BP. Because duh, it will help both my DDs become better hitters. I have lots of spare time, just needed to figure it out.

So I went to windmill from day 1, to best emulate what they see in games.

My poor kids got plunked a lot as I learned. But now I can hit corners, have a change-up and fastball, and am an asset to my girls and their team mates. And it's pretty good exercise.

 

[hatter1998]

DD is on a new team this spring (1st year 12u). I offered to let the team use my pitching machine. Coach declined and said he doesn't like pitching machines. I didn't ask why, but it got me thinking about timing. Are pitching machines a necessary part of batting practice or can it all be done with coaches doing under hand front toss? Do you just move up close to simulate the reaction times needed for hitting off a fast pitcher?

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Just a matter of coach's preference. I prefer it, because at some point the girls have to learn to hit fast moving objects... you can "tee" a swing to death. There's a lot of worry about timing issues and messing up a swing, that's nonsense. You don't have to mash off a machine for the exercise to be useful. Just seeing something fast and challenging coming at you forces the brain to focus and make adjustments (sort of like standing in a batter's box right?). You can't replicate that useful stress with tees or front toss.

I tell my kids if they want to play in college, learn to love the machine, because you will surely see it every practice at the next level.

 

[Texminoh]

DD is on a new team this spring (1st year 12u). I offered to let the team use my pitching machine. Coach declined and said he doesn't like pitching machines. I didn't ask why, but it got me thinking about timing. Are pitching machines a necessary part of batting practice or can it all be done with coaches doing under hand front toss? Do you just move up close to simulate the reaction times needed for hitting off a fast pitcher?

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Prediction... if 10 coaches reply to this post, you will get at least 11 different opinions! ;-) I generally agree with hatter1998. Front toss from behind a screen and up close is great for reps to groove good habits... and letting them see some machine pitches to understand what high-end pace (age appropriate) looks like is also beneficial. Any hitting instructor I've seen (and paid for!) majors on grooving good habits using front toss.

 

[Dn5lang]

i think you need both front toss from coach and Machine. If your machine can consistently pitch at a good speed to roughly the same area the girls learn to fully release through the ball. With front toss you can hit inside out side but a little tougher to get some girls to release through the hit.

 

[radness]

DD is on a new team this spring (1st year 12u). I offered to let the team use my pitching machine. Coach declined and said he doesn't like pitching machines. I didn't ask why, but it got me thinking about timing. Are pitching machines a necessary part of batting practice or can it all be done with coaches doing under hand front toss? Do you just move up close to simulate the reaction times needed for hitting off a fast pitcher?

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Good post, This is a very interesting question.

1. No. Don't have to hit off a machine to be able to be a good hitter in fastpitch.
(However still need reps somehow)

2. Yes. Hitting off a machine can deliver a variety of pitches near straight and or with movement and speed may not otherwise be able to achieve with a person.

3. Yes. Would say it is necessary in that probably a majority of teams use hitting machines as part of their development and also coaches assessment. Some coaches will look at Hitting off of a machine and judge batters because of that rather than look at their live game performance.

The more interesting part to me is why the coach did not want to use a hitting machine and have an extra tool piece of equipment on the field?
Pitching machine can be used for more than just hitting.

 

[Hillhouse]

DD had a coach in KC (Pepper’s Coach in case you know him) that played men’s fastpitch and was a pitcher. He was the absolute best thing that ever happened to help DD’s hitting. He would throw BP and definitely didn’t hold back with her (14u). I give him so much credit for why she can mash the ball. Can she hit off a machine? Yeah if the person running it is consistent but she hates it. Probably because she was spoiled by her men’s fastpitch playing coach.

you'd have to tell me his name. I don't know who "Pepper's coach" is.

 

[Northball]

When we show up to a try-out and they have a pitching machine, we just turn around and get back in the car and go home.

But at hockey try-outs, we would stay...

 

[nikkilugi]

you'd have to tell me his name. I don't know who "Pepper's coach" is.

Ryan McCall. He has a brother who plays as well. Not sure of what team though. I know Ryan knows Coach Mike White pretty well also and I remember you talking about Coach White also.

 

[knuckleballer]

I've seen hitters develop bad habits from taking pitches off of machines that were cranked up but I've also seen hitters learn to hit faster speeds because they spent time with a machine that was cranked up. But machines don't always need to be cranked up.

Most of our 16U players loved seeing pitches between 57 and 61 mph but they had fits dealing with pitches slower than 55mph. We heard that a local D1 coach used his machines for "slow pitch" BP so we gave it a try. Our players thought we were trying to torture them by putting the machine on 50mph but many of them learned to wait on pitches because we used our machine in this way.

 

[Cannonball]

During tryouts today, we are hitting off of machines as a part of the evaluation process. Machines will allow me to see how hitters react to speed and, to be honest, if you have a good machine, you can have a pretty consistent "pitch" for hitters to hit. In the past we have not used machines much. However, I am getting older and can not throw for the length of time I once could. I do anticipate using more machines this year. I have posted video of my child hitting off of machines on this site numerous times and from the age of 10 on. I believe it was of great benefit to her and especially when we could move that machine up to 35 feet and let her hit those pitches.