timing techniques for slow pitchers

[khrycyna]

I really like employing the "right now" drill. During practice I use it as a tracking drill but it's really helpful in timing pitchers. When the ball leaves the pitchers hand the hitter says RIGHT and when the ball is where we want to hit it we say NOW. In practice you say the words out loud but in games you can say it in your head. I've had great success with kids from 8U to top 20 ranked 18U.

 

[coachbob]

Although it seems to be the minority view, I don't like the idea of moving up in the box. It distorts the strike zone. Against a slow pitcher, a ball that just above the knees to a batter at the front of the box is a ball. A ball that come across at shoulder height might drop in for a strike.

Further, I like the idea of timing the ball, not the pitcher. Moving up is a tactic that would make it easier for those who time the pitcher and her release. I'd rather be at the same place every time and respond to the ball.

As for strategy, maybe your hitters can understand this-- Slow pitchers are effective because they coax you into getting your front foot down too early and committing. See how late you can get your front foot down and still knock the crap out of the ball.

As someone who uses a slow pitcher against top level teams, I will agree that moving up in the box is usually not going to cut it. Also, very few good hits are to right field against her. We can play a hard shift left with 2b on the grass, and do quite well. Against the smaller girls, we can pitch for fly balls.

Assume you will pull two strikes into the left parking lot, and sit on the outside pitch after that. I would reach across for the waste pitch on 0-2 if I were them. Maybe keep a 25 oz. bat in the bag too.

 

[lhowser]

Make your players aware that it is more than a timing issue. Because the ball is slow gravity effects the ball and it falls or drops off. As a result kids reach for the ball with their hands/arms or tend to swing down and around the ball. The suggestion of hitting inside of ball or to right field helps because it helps adjust bat angle for the falling ball. In my opinion this is an important understanding...know that the ball is dropping because of a lack of speed.

 

[Easton33]

This problems affects our girls too and it is difficult to switch from mid to high 50's to slow 49 and 50. The game is almost over when they finally adjust. What I do to get immediate results, I bat them up. I am slowing the hands down a little and I have had decent results. Generally I make them go from a -10 to a -8. This is just a band aid though and we work on doing right in practice but as far as an "in game" adjustment I use the box and the bat.

 

[Rocketech1]

Start the "dance with the pitcher" later and keep everything else the same. The opposite is true for faster pitching, start your load ("dance") sooner. Yesterday in our 3rd 14U game, we faced a very slow pitcher (mid 40's) and the first time through the line-up we were over swinging and many balls hit down left field line foul, second time through, our batters adjusted better by waiting longer for the pitch to get to them. The 4th game, we faced a fast lefty from the Corona Angels (Tyson) who was throwing high 50's and we were swinging late and under every pitch. It was quite the contrast. The few hits we did get were opposite field as we were late on almost every pitch or weak pop-ups.

With that said, I would not radically change much in the way of approach to hitting. Most pitchers will be throwing in a consistent range of speeds (with few outliers) that most batters should be able to deal with the speed. Movement is a separate discussion....

 

[canyonjoe]

Our last team had a great HC and he had the kids square up and pull back which slows time and give a hitter a nice view. You see a lot of college players do it. I don't know why it's such a problem I don't remember it being a huge issue in baseball. Certainly when I pitched they had little trouble hitting slow pitching

A good drill that we used to do was to bounce tennis balls and force them to hit opposite field. It really helps them stay back. To me this issue is a lot easier to fix than not being able to catch up to fast pitchers.