Live BP, drilling, and developing young hitters

[Coach-n-Dad]

Most of our work is Tee, soft toss with real balls and whiffle balls and machine. About once per month we will do BP with our pitchers. We have 3 pitchers and each batter gets one out (or hit) with each of the pitchers, anything other than that takes too long and the girls get bored.

I think it is extremely important for the girls to see a live pitcher.

 

[SBFAMILY]

If you work the Barry Bonds drill in the cage like Bustos does, then you will get a better work out than you did with live pitching. Problem with most coaches they do not understand how to get a good work out in the cage. I would say most just stand in one spot and hit balls, that doesn't work.

 

[vdubya]

""She hits 155 hits a day off a T. Untill you can hit a ball where you want to when you want to then live pitching is not the answer.""

Umm, as the title implies, we are talking about young hitters, none of whom are Bustos. Seeing live pitching is very important as is tee work and soft toss. If live pitching were not important, you could send me your best tee ballers and coach-pitched kids, those with the best swing mechanics, and expect them to hit off of my 10 yo pitchers throwing heat. This is as laughable as the sentence above is false. Most of those kids would pee their pants or jump out of the box. The rest would whiff. Maybe 1% would get lucky and foul one off. Plenty of 8u 'stud' teams move to 10u and can't hit at all for a few tournaments and wonder why. Tees and Machines and coach pitches do not simulate real live pitching. Live pitching does. Once they see enough of it they begin to come around.


""We teach kids to hit a ball where they want, not where a pitching wants them to hit it.""

Hmmm, at 10u, we are teaching kids to hit the ball hard where it is dealt. If the pitcher 'wants' to give them an outer edge pitch they can hit hard to the RC gap, don't try to pull it. Smash it where it's dealt. Up and in? Crush it over the left fielders head. Down the middle goes up the middle, etc. When they are Bustos, they may no longer need live pitching. There is a skill gap between our 10yo's and Bustos for sure, but we are closing it day by day. Many coaches fail to realize that what is appropriate for Bustos, Finch, etc is not necessarily age appropriate for little girls. Youngsters have different needs.

Good luck.
VW

 

[SBFAMILY]

She has her own teams in Calf and they follow these same drills. These are not set up for Bustos type players. . They are for 10U players and up. Untill coaches understand this we will continue to be second fiddle to the west coast teams. If you want to be successful in life who do we model ? I will take the best female hitter who now coaches travel ball teams as my model. Her hitting coach teaches these same drills in the clinics we instruct at . I have lost count of the number of players that now play college softball by following these drills at an early age.
Just to make a comment. When I say hitting off a T, we have many different drills and tools we use to hit off a T. Whiphit, PVC pipe, face the fire, Strobe lights, Mirrors, I could list many. The point is each works on some part of the swing. None can be fixed with live pitching. I hear parents and coaches yell she is dropping her shoulder. I then ask how do you fix it? Players don't drop the shoulder, they have the back elbow get ahead of the hand in the slot position. We work on one hand drills on the T to fix this. We also have many soft toss drills that work on timing.

 

[vdubya]

OK, my west coast model for the girls is Benyi, someone of realistic size with a better swing. However, I believe it is pointless to compare gurus. I wish Bustos' 10u team the best.

Drills and teaching mechanics should be the cornerstone, agreed, but they are not exhaustive. A perfect swing does not necessarily make a hitter. Can that kid hit live pitching? Why wait until actual games to find out they need to see more actual pitches? Or some more of any drill mentioned? Understood we just disagree here and that's ok.
VW

 

[fastpitch91]

After the players have had hundreds of good swings on the T, soft toss and front toss live pitching is great...........provided you have a staff of live pitchers. think about your typical team, 2 top pitchers and 10 other players; so 12 players need to hit some live pitches lets say that each wants to see 10 each of fast, rise curve, change, screw and drop. or 60 per batter or 720 for the team. 720 is lets say 5 - 8, 7 inning games.

Soooo now you for one "round" worth of batting takes a good 2-3 days of pitchers practice time. By the time your batters are trained you will ahve no live pitchers only broken ones....

(father of collegiate bound pitcher, so accept the bias)

 

[vdubya]

""lets say that each wants to see 10 each of fast, rise curve, change, screw and drop. or 60 per batter or 720 for the team. 720 is lets say 5 - 8, 7 inning games.""


Heh, that was funny...Show me a 10 yr old that has mastered those six pitches and I'll show you a team that doesn't really need bp for run support.