Where should you hit the ball?
- Thread starter julray
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Most of the time front toss and game pitching. On occasion off the tee if they continue clobbering the tee.
I have no issue with the intent. My focus would be an ideal barrel path and squaring up the ball. If I use solid mechanics the rest will take care of itself.
That's the part of your focus I am referring to.
I don't understand how solid mechanics results in everything else working out, you have to see the ball. I might be misunderstanding you?
Julray, you actually are NOT saying 'see the ball, hit the ball' you are saying 'see a spot on the ball, hit a spot on the ball' -- again, I think the algorithm responsible for superior hand-eye coordination is much more complicated than that.
TDS, you tell a kid that is swinging under a pitched ball to....do what exactly? Try to see and hit the top of the ball? And by doing that they'll move their contact point up and hit the center of the ball? When they are having trouble hitting the ball at all in the first place? Not sure this is how hand-eye coordination works or should be trained for.
TDS, you tell a kid that is swinging under a pitched ball to....do what exactly? Try to see and hit the top of the ball? And by doing that they'll move their contact point up and hit the center of the ball? When they are having trouble hitting the ball at all in the first place? Not sure this is how hand-eye coordination works or should be trained for.
I would guess that the required time it takes to continually track, refocus, and reprocess the trajectory of the ball, by trying to focus on a small center point during a live game would detract from a hitter's ability to be successful over a large sample size of at-bats. That's the idea of "open focus", I believe. The golf analogy doesn't hold a lot of water for me, because the golf ball is stationary and the brain isn't being required to track the possible trajectory of an object that is decelerating AND spinning.
Even though their slogan is "On path, bottom half", I think in all reality even the Back-Spin Tee is really just helping train a better bat path (I personally think just the visual aid of having the top of the ball "unavailable" helps people naturally work on a better path and is what a lot of their success is owed to). The idea that anyone above of coach pitch can hit well while focusing on the bottom half of the ball (or the dead center) seems hard to believe, which leads us back to the idea that a good/correct bat path will be what generates a better launch angle and better spin more often than a bad/incorrect bat path. That leads us, then, back to the idea that maybe it's a lot better to just worry about training bat path than it is to worry about spending a lot of time thinking about hitting the bottom half of the ball (or a tiny spot dead center, etc).
Even though their slogan is "On path, bottom half", I think in all reality even the Back-Spin Tee is really just helping train a better bat path (I personally think just the visual aid of having the top of the ball "unavailable" helps people naturally work on a better path and is what a lot of their success is owed to). The idea that anyone above of coach pitch can hit well while focusing on the bottom half of the ball (or the dead center) seems hard to believe, which leads us back to the idea that a good/correct bat path will be what generates a better launch angle and better spin more often than a bad/incorrect bat path. That leads us, then, back to the idea that maybe it's a lot better to just worry about training bat path than it is to worry about spending a lot of time thinking about hitting the bottom half of the ball (or a tiny spot dead center, etc).
- Jun 8, 2016
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This is one of those things that falls into the "overteaching the crap out of something" category.
I kinda agree. This can be over taught. Try using genetic cues. ‘On top’ ‘bottom inside half’ like Braun states. Or plainly ask for line drives off a tee. If they are popping up, let them know they are losing the barrel. If they are beating it into the ground put the tee up higher.
Or plainly ask for ‘line drives up the middle into the gaps’. Kids will figure it out. Some faster than others.
As for pro speak. They all tend to say they focus on smaller parts of the ball to narrow the focus more.
Hitting to a portion of the ball has been around forever. You won’t physically get to that spot on the ball. But those are the cues needed to ‘square’ up different balls in different locations. Reason being is the swing is being launched from the same general area everytime.
- Jun 8, 2016
- 16,118
- 113
Ok I now change my position on this..j/k
I don't tell them or have them change there swing mechanics (ie chop down top of the ball). I have them attempt to pick a spot on the ball using the same swing mechanics.. I don't know anyone whose hand eye is 100% correct 100% of the time. No different then hammering a nail. The swing might be fine but you struggle squaring up the nail. .
As to hand eye.. Have you ever had a kid swing with good mechanics swinging under or just ticking the ball straight back? Do you tell them anything ? Do they know why they ticked it ? or what adjustments need to be made ?
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