Pitching target(fake batter)

[Mrek]

Set up a hitting net behind the plate, and all you catcher-coaches... Put your mitt on and put Yourself in the box. I do it all the time, it allows my DD to work on squeezing frontdoor curve and screw between the batter and the inside corner, and busting curve and screw in on the hands. Secondly, it allows you as the coach to see the pitches from the batters perspective, which for me, helps with how effective these pitches are (including rise). I generally can catch everything except the outside corner, which for our purposes would be a mistake, so its an efficient exercise (not a lot of fetching balls out of the net). So stop whining and get in the box. (My DD tops out at 61, if she was at 65, I'd probably wear shin guards).

This is far safer than getting an inexperienced batter as a target.

 

[PEPPERS]

I agree there is no substitute for pitching in game situations, but I tell my daughter the harder we can make it in practice the easier it can be in a game. We heard a lecture by Lisa Fernandez in Chattanooga, TN and she mentioned that she looked for the worst mound conditions and the slickest ball she could find when she practiced.

We had a team that we played when my daughter was 11 and they all stood as close to the plate as they could get, they were her friends and she did not want ot hit her friends. The team couldn’t hit so they were trying for a walk or get hit to get to get on base. I had her practice with the punching bags standing next to the plate to get comfortable to throwing inside with someone standing there and it seemed to work.

Another thing I do is fix ropes with squares; I use electric fence post to hold the rope and have pitchers throw to the squares to simulate pitch locations. I have six squares, 3 low, 3 in the middle and 3 high.