Practice hitting curves drops and screw balls

[fosterspoint]

This is our first year in 14U. In the fall tournaments it became clear that the 14U pitchers throw more and much better curves, drops and screw balls than in 12U.

So how can we practice hitting these movement pitches?

We do a little live hitting off from our pitchers, but not a lot. Our coaches can't throw a curve, drop, or screw ball with a real softball underhand pitch.

I was thinking about trying out a wiffle ball to see if I can practice enough to make it curve and drop.

What do you do to practice hitting pitches that move? Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Mark H]

A two wheel pitching machine can be set up to show any of those spins for initial familiarization. An older pitcher can be hired to come in and throw bp. Having said that, if their swings aren't quick enough, they are going to struggle against pitchers who move the ball and change speeds no matter. I'm defining quick as five frames on a standard 30 fps video from first move of the bathead into the swing plane till contact.

 

[Not_Enuf_Mustard]

I'm defining quick as five frames on a standard 30 fps video from first move of the bathead into the swing plane till contact.

This is great. I haven't come across this before. I'm guessing when setting up the camera, the best position would be on the opposite side of the plate? Not directly behind or in front.

 

[Mark H]

Across the plate is good for counting frames. From behind the catcher is another informative view in general. The places I first heard about frame counting were from setpro which is apparently not open anymore, from Englishbeyhitting and from a now deceased pro scout.

 

[SBFAMILY]

There are many drills you can still use a T to teach the hitter to change swing paths to adjust. We use pitching machines very little. Less than 10% of the practice. We use two T's , we soft toss and use a T and make the hitter adjust the swing to what we call. Howard has many he uses and we may work with him 6 hours and never use a hitting machine. .

 

[Mark H]

That's all well and good. I rarely use a machine myself...but...for the opportunity to read spin and track break over and over, can't do that with a tee or soft toss and pitchers who can demonstrate same aren't readily available for the reps a hitter needs. Knowing how to put a good swing on a specific location is one thing. Knowing how to predict that location on a nasty breaking pitch is something else. Live hitting against live pitching is golden but not so readily available in fp as opposed to bb.

 

[fosterspoint]

We have the single wheel machines, so no option to adjust the spin on them.

I bought a dozen of the softball sized wiffle balls. The kind with holes on only one side. It is pretty easy to throw a curve or screw ball with the wiffle balls. You just line up the holes the direction you want the pitch to move, throw it underhand, and it moves pretty well. You can add some drop by angling the holes 45 degrees toward the ground.

I will try it out over the next few practices to see if it works. I think the hardest part will be for me to practice enough to throw the balls with good location. I am all over the place throwing straight balls, the curving makes it even more challenging. I guess if we ask our 12 year olds to do it, I should be able to learn.

Let me know if anyone else has good ideas for how to practice hitting movement pitches.

Thank you.