Samantha Ricketts Two Tee Drill

[knightsb]

“The purpose of this is to swing down and miss the back ball while hitting the front ball straight through to the target in front of you. When you’re making contact with the front ball, the purpose of this to really work your angle down, is hitting the ball and creating that back spin to give you the lift to get the ball over the fence. When you do this drill correctly, you will hit the ball straight out into the net in front of you and not straight into the ground.”

“get the backspin to get the ball out of the park”


[video=youtube_share;QB4oJZd0JYg]http://youtu.be/QB4oJZd0JYg[/video]


Bio:
Samantha Ricketts is entering her third season as the hitting coach at Wichita State after spending the previous six seasons at the University of Oklahoma. She played for the Sooners from 2006-09 and then spent two years working with the softball staff. In the offseason, Ricketts played professional softball for the Akron Racers in 2009 and again in 2010 after being selected as the 12th overall pick in the 2009 National Pro Fastpitch Senior Draft.
In 2013, the Shockers improved their hitting numbers across the board under Ricketts guidance improving their batting average from .231-to-.243, clubbing 17 more doubles, and an additional seven home runs. Ricketts pupil Erin Carney earned a spot on the All-MVC first team.
In her first season as a full time assistant coach, Ricketts coached two players, sophomore Rachel Milnark and freshman Sydney Stuever, to second team All-MVC honors.

After finishing her career in a Sooner uniform in 2009, she led the program in career home runs (48) and runs batted in (239). She ranked third in extra-base hits (97), total bases (444), slugging percentage (.645), and on-base percentage (.461). She started 192 consecutive games as a Sooner, dating back to April 26, 2006 and ended her career as the Big 12 career leader in runs batted in.

“Samantha Ricketts is one of the best hitters to play softball at Oklahoma University,” Bredbenner said. “She was fortunate enough to spend the last two years working with the OU softball staff under Coach Patty Gasso and will bring a strong work ethic and understanding of the game to our hitters and infielders.”

Ricketts was an athletic and academic standout at the University of Oklahoma. She was a four-time All-Big 12 first-team selection and a two-time academic All-Big 12 first-team selection. In 2009, she was named to the NFCA All-America second team, NFCA All-Central Region first team, and was a top ten finalist for the Lowe’s Senior Class Award.

In 2008, she was named to the Preseason USA Softball National Player of the Year Watch List and ESPN.com’s Preseason All-America second team. Ricketts ended her junior season with All-Big 12 Tournament honors.

As a sophomore, she was second team All-American and first team All-Midwest Region. Ricketts was also considered as a top three finalist for the USA Softball Player of the Year award. She was the lone freshman in 2006 to earn All-Big 12 first team honors and was also selected as a member of the All-Midwest Region team.

Ricketts, a San Jose, Calif. Native, graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Oklahoma in 2009. She graduated in December, 2011 from Oklahoma with a Master’s in Education in the adult and higher education program with an emphasis in intercollegiate athletic administration.

Ricketts has three younger siblings that all played collegiate athletics. Her sister Stephanie graduated in 2012 after an All-American pitching career at the University of Hawai’i and her sister Keilani graduated from the University of Oklahoma and is currently playing for the USSSA Pride and Shokki Softball. Keilani was named the 2012 and 2013 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year. Her younger brother Richard played football at the Air Force Academy.

 

[knightsb]

 

[knightsb]

Ol' Spiker hits the back tee on his first two attempts

 

[Axe]

I've heard of this drill but I thought the purpose was to teach young players to take the bat to the ball rather than dropping the barrel behind them and raking through.

 

[abbygale]

Best way to do this drill is to put one on home plate and put the other in RC or LC and try to hit it with line drives.

 

[obbay]

I'm no physicist but I believe the backspin myth is an old wives tale.
round bat (a)is hitting round ball (b)
and i'm supposed to believe that applying the force in a downward direction is not only going to drive the ball (b) up, but it is going to drive the ball farther than if it was hit with the center of the masses aligned in the intended direction? What I remember of High School Physics tells me that in an inelastic collision, the hit object goes farther when the two objects are aligned in the direction of travel.

...then add the complexity of a 55 mph pitch where the bat is in contact with the ball for 1/2000 of a second over a distance of 3/4" and if someone is getting that kind of drive on the ball by swinging down on it, they are at a higher skill level than 99.9% of ball-hitting populace.

if this approach actually works, i don't believe it would work across the board. Then you also have the difference between what hitters think they are doing vs what they are actually doing.

 

[softballphreak]

I'm no physicist but I believe the backspin myth is an old wives tale.
round bat (a)is hitting round ball (b)
and i'm supposed to believe that applying the force in a downward direction is not only going to drive the ball (b) up, but it is going to drive the ball farther than if it was hit with the center of the masses aligned in the intended direction? What I remember of High School Physics tells me that in an inelastic collision, the hit object goes farther when the two objects are aligned in the direction of travel.

...then add the complexity of a 55 mph pitch where the bat is in contact with the ball for 1/2000 of a second over a distance of 3/4" and if someone is getting that kind of drive on the ball by swinging down on it, they are at a higher skill level than 99.9% of ball-hitting populace.

if this approach actually works, i don't believe it would work across the board. Then you also have the difference between what hitters think they are doing vs what they are actually doing.

While I disagree completely with Ricketts' Two Tee drill, you can actually cause the ball to significantly backspin by swinging down and "skinning" the back of the ball. I wouldn't want players trying it in games though.

Do some self toss and swing down like I described. I do it pretty often during infield practice. You can make the ball rise up over the infield and you can make ground balls skim the ground to get it under the gloves of players not getting their gloves all the way down.

The players don't believe you when you tell them you can swing sharply downward all the way to the ground and hit a slightly rising line drive.

But too much accuracy is required to be consistent in a game.

 

[CoogansBluff]

In performing the drill, she proceeds to hit the ball into the bottom of the net. Excellent.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

An application of the Hanson Principle would have most people rejecting this drill.

 

[FiveFrameSwing]

Ted Williams would fail the two-tee drill .....