Lunging

[dytakeda]

How can I get a player to stop lunging at the pitch before she swings? When we work on the tee or soft toss, she's fine. Once she sees that pitch come towards her, she lunges at it, gets her weight forward, moves her head, and just plain misses.

She's got a super aggressive personality (played football with the boys) and is very competitive. She sees other players on our team making good hard contact, and she really wants to too.

Any suggestion of a drill or exercise would be appreciated.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

One word ...... 'coil'.

 

[Texarkana]

Our #1 pitcher has the same problem (10YO), but puts the ball in play a LOT. actually through 7 games last tournament had 1.000 BIP. She has good speed as well, but just can't get anything on the ball, of course. I jokingly call it "a right handed slap without the crossover". It has to be pure hand eye coordination, because it looks painful. She has pitching on the night we go to our hitting coach, so it's going to be up to us to work with her. Someone suggested some knee work on the tee, but I am totally clueless on where to start. I will be watching to see what y'all suggest.

 

[LAdad]

Rather counterintuitive, but lunging is often the effect of keeping the weight back. Following the coil, when she takes the step, her weight should be balanced equally between both legs. If instead she tries to keep her weight on her back leg throughout the swing, the result is often a lunge (not sure why actually). Of course, when she lunges everyone tells her to keep her weight back, making matters worse. Some girls start keeping their weight back in the mistaken belief that that will give them more power.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

http://www.discussfastpitch.com/softball-hitting-technical/5961-thoughts-daughters-swing-4.html#post61637

The cure for lunging is learning to coil & uncoil, not in avoiding a transfer of the center of pressure to the front foot.

I didn't follow the recommendation to avoid transferring weight forward onto the front foot. The concern on my end with that advice is the potential issue of keeping the weight back and/or spinning. The transfer of the center of pressure from the rear foot to the front foot is often greater than 80%. Someone that has learned coiling & uncoiling of the rear leg, and uncoils into front foot strike, will be able to avoid lunging despite the shift in their center of pressure to the front foot. The issue with teaching a momentum based linear stride is that it can easily bypass the coil/uncoil action, and lead to lunging. Instead, allow the coil/uncoil process to dictate the stride, learn to uncoil into front foot strike, and you'll obtain a transfer in the center of pressure to the front foot without lunging.

Basically it's like Donny stated. The cure to a lunging issue is to 'coil'.

 

[Wellphyt]

How can I get a player to stop lunging at the pitch before she swings? When we work on the tee or soft toss, she's fine. Once she sees that pitch come towards her, she lunges at it, gets her weight forward, moves her head, and just plain misses.

She's got a super aggressive personality (played football with the boys) and is very competitive. She sees other players on our team making good hard contact, and she really wants to too.

Any suggestion of a drill or exercise would be appreciated.

Here is one drill you can try. Cal Ripkin Jr recommends a similar drill.

An important point to remember with this drill is to maintain clockwise (RH batter) pressure against the ground when the hips reverse and turn forward. The outside pressure at the back foot keeps the back leg firm while the hips reverse, giving the hips a platform to launch from.