Keep your head down/eye on the ball/see the bat hit the ball

[4 girl's dad]

I’m looking for opinions on trying to keep your head on the ball. I know you can not actually see the bat hit the ball but I am curious as to how much of this you teach? I’m seeing about half of our hitters (16U A level team ) pull their head at times and they struggle when they do it. If they keep it down, they are having much better success from what I can see. Early in the season we really struggled but we started focusing on it at practice and it’s been better.

How much are you teaching this? What are you stressing? I’m wanting to help them work on this without just telling them see the bat hit the ball.

 

[MB2.0LHT]

I’m looking for opinions on trying to keep your head on the ball. I know you can not actually see the bat hit the ball but I am curious as to how much of this you teach? I’m seeing about half of our hitters (16U A level team ) pull their head at times and they struggle when they do it. If they keep it down, they are having much better success from what I can see. Early in the season we really struggled but we started focusing on it at practice and it’s been better.

How much are you teaching this? What are you stressing? I’m wanting to help them work on this without just telling them see the bat hit the ball.

Many batters pull-off the ball early and wonder why they are swinging and missing. I believe it’s a by product of over swinging and looking to see where the ball is going too soon.
In most cases they miss the ball completely or catch the end of the bat.
The instruction I give is hands to the ball step to the ball. Keep the front shoulder tucked-in and head on the ball until contact. Follow through and then head comes up and find the ball as your running down to 1st.
HIT the ball 1st and then worry about where it’s going.
It’s amazing how much better the girls hit when their bat stays in the hitting zone instead of being pulled out early

 

[mmeece]

I’m looking for opinions on trying to keep your head on the ball. I know you can not actually see the bat hit the ball but I am curious as to how much of this you teach? I’m seeing about half of our hitters (16U A level team ) pull their head at times and they struggle when they do it. If they keep it down, they are having much better success from what I can see. Early in the season we really struggled but we started focusing on it at practice and it’s been better.

How much are you teaching this? What are you stressing? I’m wanting to help them work on this without just telling them see the bat hit the ball.

From what I see, it's really more about what are the shoulders doing? If the shoulders are mostly just rotating (with the front shoulder pulling towards 3B for a RH batter) then the head will naturally move somewhat that way as well. Someone else can probably give a more technical explanation of shoulder tilt vs rotation.

 

[Rolling Hard]

Mechanics are for practice. Once you get in the box, do one thing. See the ball.

 

[BRsoftballDad]

For my DD, I used a bunch of tennis balls with numbers on them. I would pitch them from a distance of about 10 feet with varying speeds. It seems simplistic but I think it worked.

 

[cnardone]

Mechanics are for practice. Once you get in the box, do one thing. See the ball.

+1000 on this. This is so important. "See the ball" is the total focus. In addition to getting the batters mind away from thinking about mechanics, I believe it also helps with hitters losing focus to the situation.

 

[efastball]

pull their head at times

'Pulling the head' is not fixed by moving the head

 

[4 girl's dad]

'Pulling the head' is not fixed by moving the head

Im not sure Im following you here. Can you clarify?

Mechanics are for practice. Once you get in the box, do one thing. See the ball.

I do agree fully that if they are thinking mechanics at the plate, they are missing out on something else they should be focusing on. Hence my question, what can you work on when practicing that is effectively carried over to the AB?

 

[Cannonball]

A hitter has about .4 of a sec to see the ball and hit it. No one watches a ball all the way in when they are hitting. Those that see the ball into the mitt had decided early in ball flight that they were not swinging. It happens that fast. The reality is that a person sees the ball at release, about half way there and then somewhere around swing launch. The brain fills in the rest of the information.

If you see hitters pulling out on the swing, it is a mechanical problem/timing problem. I'd bet that if you have video, you'd see their hips also rotating early. I'd also guess that you would see the hands beginning to extend early as the hitter disconnects early. Try searching this site or some others for "forward by coil" to get an idea of what should be happening.

 

[Rolling Hard]

A hitter has about .4 of a sec to see the ball and hit it. No one watches a ball all the way in when they are hitting. Those that see the ball into the mitt had decided early in ball flight that they were not swinging. It happens that fast. The reality is that a person sees the ball at release, about half way there and then somewhere around swing launch. The brain fills in the rest of the information.

If you see hitters pulling out on the swing, it is a mechanical problem/timing problem. I'd bet that if you have video, you'd see their hips also rotating early. I'd also guess that you would see the hands beginning to extend early as the hitter disconnects early. Try searching this site or some others for "forward by coil" to get an idea of what should be happening.

Yep! Have hitters practice long tee with the tee a little deeper than they like and all balls hit to RF. Then do same thing with front toss. Hard to pull your head when hitting to RF.