Making the transition from T to Gamespeed

[starsnuffer]

I'm curious if you guys and gals can help me out with this.

My daughter has been seeing a hitting coach over the fall and winter and her swing has improved immensely. Her bat speed has nearly tripled and she hits the ball hard. She's able to make adjustments for direction, and while there is certainly room for improvement I'm happy with her progress.

Her problem seems to be transitioning her "new swing" to live situations. Her timing is off, because she's used to her swing being so much slower (I think) that she starts too early and ends up swinging much slower then she does off the T, which results in a lot of weakly hit balls or weak line drives right to the pitcher. I'd rather have her swing early and foul them off then have her adjust her speed to hit to center so she can adjust her timing, but I'm not sure how to accomplish this. I have a few ideas, but I'm really open for suggestions.

-W

 

[SoCalSoftballdad]

Why isn't the hitting instructor doing any drills pitching from the front behind a screen? My DDs hitting instructor will start off doing Tee drills, followed by side toss, front toss from about 30 feet to different locations, and finish with the pitching machine. She spends a lot of time throwing from the front (probably half of the hour long lesson). I don't think you can replicate live situations without actually doing them. I like Howard's statement that "you dance with the pitcher". You cannot do that effectively without someone pitching to you.

 

[starsnuffer]

Her instructor is doing pitching from behind the screen as well as side toss. Session begins with warmup swings off the T, maybe goign over whatever practice drills she was given for the week, then one hand at a time drills focusing on whichever aspect of the swing needs work at he time, then some more t work with slow motion movements so she can understand every part of the swing and not just do it, then target drills to different spots, side toss, and every session finishes with about 10 min of pitched balls from behind the screen, and this is where the swing speed difference is apparent. I know that her instructor is aware of this, and up to now was content to make sure she has the same swing mechanics live and off the T and has been addressing the issues one at a time. They video her in RVP every month and compare her progress and do side by sides with Olympic/pro athletes so she can see where she's at and what she needs to work on.

While I do trust her instructor, I remain skeptical of everything (character flaw on my part) and I'm curious as to the suggestions made here. Sometimes instructors get tunnel vision and focused on "the perfect swing" when, as a coach, I'm motivated by results in the game. Her instructor is very intelligent, understands that each student is different and doesn't do "copycat" sessions for all her students, and open to suggestions so long as they coincide with the goal she's trying to accomplish at the moment. With our team's pre-season workouts beginning and tournaments not too far in the future, I'm curious if there is something I can do outside of her hitting lessons that might help.

-W

 

[softballphreak]

It sounds like the instructor is doing a good job. What you might want to do at this point outside of her lessons is to throw lots of front toss. If possible, have as much game-speed pitching as possible. It sounds like what is needed now is repetition, ad infinitum.

I would throw 80% or more of those pitches outside. That will help her stay back better and get used to the pitches getting deeper. Make sure she's not hitting too far out front. A pitch down the middle, for example, should still get as deep as past the front foot.

 

[softballphreak]

"I'd rather have her swing early and foul them off then have her adjust her speed to hit to center so she can adjust her timing, but I'm not sure how to accomplish this."

She shouldn't adjust her bat speed. She should adjust her timing. If she's swinging too early, she must practice waiting longer. One way I work on this is to place a tee in the left side batter's box at the depth I want her to let the ball get to before she swings. This gives her a visual reference. That also works well for letting the ball get deep on outside pitches.

 

[SBFAMILY]

a good drill for what softballphreak is talking about: In and out drill

If you have a multi position tee set up one tee forward and as low as possible for an inside pitch. Set the tee so it is 5 inches inside and forward of home plate. Set another tee off the outside back corner and 5 inches off the home plate and as high as it will go. If you do not have the multi position tee use two different tees. Place a ball on both tees and the hitter sets up to hit off the back corner of the plate. When the hitter loads a person calls in or out and the hitter must adjust and hit the ball called out. We want the hitter to be thinking in, in, in and adjust away. Look for the hitters head position and what they do with their eyes. In the beginning they will guess or anticipate which ball you will call and you will see their eyes shifting out to in or in to out and back in again.

Look for where they are driving the ball and is their wrist release proper. Are they rotating as needed or over rotating? Where is the belly button pointing on the outside pitch and where is it pointing on the inside pitch?

Then I would have her do the Barry Bonds drill, that has been posted on this site.

 

[softballphreak]

That's a great drill but I was talking about just using the tee as a marker while throwing front toss. It sounds like she has had a lot more tee work already than she has seen moving pitches.

I think what she needs now is many, many pitches coming towards her--front toss and full speed when possible. Mostly, not entirely, outside pitches.

 

[PEPPERS]

Some great suggestions already below is some of the things I do, maybe you can find something that may help.

I work with the hitter by getting out in front going through the pitching motion and doing dry swings, make sure the hitter moves with the pitcher loads when the arm is at the top of the motion and strides at release point.

Hitting from a tee I have the hitter look at point where the pitcher would be, a point on the wall or a net etc, and have her eyes move from that position to the ball on the tee tracking the ball, make sure the head is down on contact.

From a tee I get behind a net and go through the pitching motion and have the hitter track the ball from my release point to the tee, sometimes I will do it using a plastic ball throw into the net as the hitter tracks from release point to tee, sometimes just the motion no ball.

I don’t do a great of side toss, when I do I toss to different parts of the strike zone, high, low, middle, inside outside and etc.

Drop drill stand at the side and slightly in front of hitter and drop the ball into the strike zone, have the hitter time the drop when the wrist flexes.

When doing front toss I do the full pitching motion and when room is available I pitch from regular pitching distance, no substitute for live pitching to work on timing, I can pitch not the best in the world, but good enough for practice.

We have access to a hitting cage where they have pitching speeds from 40 – 50- 60 – 70 MPH baseball we go through ever speed, spend most of the time on the 70 we do the Bond’s drill and spend about an hour with each hitter going to each hitting speed, we have the kids use a practice bat and not their good bats hitting the machine balls.

When doing the bonds drill do not get closer than 15 feet from the machine for safety.

If you do not have access to a cage when using a softball wheel type pitching machine, to give the hitter timing, go through a pitching motion and feed the ball when the arm comes down to the release point, make sure the person feeding the machine is behind a net for safety.

We work a lot on the mental part of hitting, showing confidence to the opposing pitcher and team, work on getting the hitter a routine she is comfortable with all way from the dugout to the batter’s box, no negative thoughts, think see it hit it, track it and whack it or something like that.

 

[starsnuffer]

Thank you all very much for the advice and drills, this should give us plenty to work on.

Peppers, Howard sent me a note with suggestions of the same drills you listed as well as using verbal timing queues, great stuff, thanks!

Cheers,

-W

 

[PEPPERS]

Thank you all very much for the advice and drills, this should give us plenty to work on.

Peppers, Howard sent me a note with suggestions of the same drills you listed as well as using verbal timing queues, great stuff, thanks!

Cheers,

-W

A lot of the things I do either I took from Howard suggestions or modified what we did to make it better from his suggestions. A great guy and very helpful!